Hi readv, welcome aboard.
I am the curator of the 3D rendering portion of the codebase and I've been slowly working on it over the past three years. I mentored a rendering-related project during GSOC 2016 and during GSOC 2017 I effectively mentored another, even though it was not an official GSOC project. The student of GSOC 2017,
@vampcat, is still around and is my main collaborator on all things rendering.
I'm glad you are interested in our area and in the Shaderland Refactoring project. I look forward reviewing your proposal.
Meanwhile, feel free to ask questions and contribute to the project even in small ways: setting up the project from source and submitting a small PR are excellent first steps and give you an edge on other students who might not bother showing us they can work with us.
You can contact me here on the forum or, if pre-arranged, via our IRC channel.
Again, welcome aboard.