the Computational Science and Enigneering at Vienna UT (including nomacs) has been accepted for Google Summer of Code 2013. So if you are interested in improving nomacs, this is the only chance to earn money at the same time. If you want to apply for the nomacs project @ GSoC2013 you should subscribe to our mailing list (soc2013@iue.tuwien.ac.at).
Do you have any questions concerning the ideas or the puzzle? Please do not hesitate to contact us via this mailing list (or IRC #TU_CSE_SoC @ irc.freenode.net).