Google Student Blog: October 2009

Growing the next generation of computer scientists and business leaders

October 28, 2009

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

We had a busy summer here at Google interacting with students through a wide variety of scholarship, internship and networking opportunities across North America. Here's a look back at a few of our programs (you can bet we'll be hosting them again!) along with news on some upcoming initiatives.

Rising college sophomores participated in two Google programs: Google FUSE, in its inaugural year, and the Google Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI).

For FUSE, we welcomed 50 rising college sophomores to our New York City office for a three-day retreat designed to connect students from groups that are under-represented in the field of computer science. The retreat focused on making connections between students and Googlers, encouraging students to create meaningful academic experiences and allowing them to learn more about possible career paths via hands-on activities, panel discussions and a bit of fun around the New York City area.

Another group of twenty rising sophomores spent two weeks at the Googleplex in Mountain View for the second annual Computer Science Summer Institute. This special program included an interactive and collaborative Computer Science curriculum, as well as a living-learning residential experience for student networking. Students worked in teams to create an interactive web application using Python in Google App Engine. When not in class, they heard technical talks from Google engineers, spoke with professionals from across the technology industry and academia about the many things they can do with a Computer Science degree. They also had some fun joining the Bay Area summer interns on a boat cruise and catching a baseball game after an exciting San Francisco scavenger hunt.

In addition, our engineering internship program hosted more than 450 college (undergraduate and graduate) interns in 15 locations across North America. These interns were an integral part of the engineering team and made significant contributions this summer working on exciting projects including Android, Chrome, Docs and machine translation.

We also had more than 100 students working across multiple functions, including sales and engineering in Mountain View, New York, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Boston as part of the Building Opportunities for Leadership and Development (BOLD) Program. BOLD is a 10-week internship program designed to provide exposure to the technology industry for students from groups that are historically underrepresented in technology. This summer experience includes a unique glimpse into a business or engineeringcareer, professional development and leadership courses, as well as one-on-one mentorship designed to further support professional growth.

Of course, we realize that growing future leaders in engineering and business doesn't just start with college students. For this reason, we partner with the LEAD programs in both businessand engineering to encourage outstanding high school students to pursue careers in these fields. This year, all four LEAD Summer Engineering Institute participants had the opportunity to tour a local Google office to attend technical talks and interact with Google engineers (okay, with some tasty food and video games thrown in as well).

As part of Google's ongoing commitment to recognizing student achievements and promoting leadership, we also offer a number of academic scholarships. We are currently accepting applications for the Google Lime Scholarship for Student with Disabilities in the U.S. and Canada, and the Anita Borg Scholarship in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the United States. In case you're curious, we offer a host of scholarships for many other international regions.

If one or more of these opportunities sounds like something you'd like to participate in, you can find applications for full time opportunities and summer internship opportunities on ourstudent job site. Visit our scholarship page for more information on our scholarship opportunities. And follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates on application deadlines and new program announcements.

Making an early connection playing People Bingo at Google FUSE.

Taking a break from bowling during Google FUSE.

Posted by Kyle Ewing, Talent and Outreach Programs - University Programs and Recruiting

Fast, simple and stylish: Not your typical web browser

October 23, 2009

web browsersearching directlyat the click of the mousecelebrated its first birthdaymost loved featuresintroducedthoughtsinteresting and unusualyoutube.com/googlechromethemesdownload the latest version

Posted by Min Li Chan, Google Chrome Team

U2 on YouTube

October 21, 2009

Want to watch the first ever global concert webcast?

This Sunday, October 25th @ 8:30 p.m. (PDT) tune in to see the world's biggest band performing on the world's largest stage. YouTube and U2 have joined forces to live stream U2's performance this Sunday at The Rose Bowl Stadium.

Available internationally in the following countries: US, UK, France, Canada, Italy, Spain, Japan, Brazil, Australia, NZ, Ireland, Mexico, India, Israel, South Korea, and Netherlands. It's happening "With or Without You" and it's an experience you wont want to miss.

A holiday gift from Virgin America and Google!

October 20, 2009

our announcementVirgin Americaprovide free WiFiwww.freeholidaywifi.comPosted by Jeff Aguero, Product Marketing Manager

Get your campus featured in Street View on Google Maps

October 16, 2009

From the comfort of your own dorm room, Street View on Google Maps lets you scope out a restaurant before heading out there for a date (oh look, there's a flower shop next door) or preview your spring break hotel to be sure it meets your strict requirements (oh look, the beach is right across the street). But wouldn't it be nice if you could see more places in Street View? Places like hiking or biking trails, sports stadiums, and maybe even your university campus!

Freshmen could easily study what all the campus buildings look like, and your family could get a better sense of your new home. Think back to when you were applying to schools - wouldn't it have been handy to be able to virtually tour college campuses? Or better yet, picture how nice a Street View walk down memory lane will be after you graduate and start to feels pangs of nostalgia for college life.

Good news: you can now nominate your campus to be photographed for Street View on Google Maps. We've created the Street View trike, a mechanical masterpiece made of 3 bicycle wheels and a mounted Street View camera, to take pictures of places like university campuses that cannot be reached by car. Visit www.google.com/trike to nominate your school for a visit from the Street View trike.

To get an idea of what Street View pictures taken by the trike look like, you can check out San Diego State University, the first university included in Google Maps:

View Larger Map

So far we've taken the trike to a few other campuses, including the University of Pennsylvania and Penn State, but all of you have a chance to nominate your school to be included next. Of course, we'll make sure to work directly with the administration at your school to get the necessary permissions and approvals before coming on campus - and, as with all Street View imagery, we'll blur identifiable faces.

We're also accepting nominations in 5 other categories for where to send the Street View trike next:

Parks & Trails
Pedestrian Malls (e.g., outdoor shopping areas, boardwalks)
Theme Parks & Zoos
Landmarks
Sports Venues (e.g., golf courses, racing tracks, stadium grounds)

Head to www.google.com/trike by October 28 to submit your nomination. After we comb through the submissions and pick out the finalists, you will have the opportunity to vote on a winner from each category for the Street View trike to visit. May the best campus win!

Blog Action Day

October 15, 2009

Blog Action DayOfficial Google BlogPosted by the Google for Students Blog team

Introducing Google Building Maker

October 13, 2009

Google Building MakerGoogle Earth

Google EarthGoogle Earth plug-inwww.google.com/buildingmaker

Driving the Solar System with Google

October 12, 2009

[From time to time we invite guests to blog about initiatives of interest, and are very pleased to have Stephen Savage join us here again. Stephen is Arizona State University's Geo-Archaeological Information Applications Lab IT Manager of the Archaeological Research Institute at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. You might remember his previous posts about Exploring exploplanets using Google Earth's API or his work on the Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land.]

For years, astronauts and rocket scientists at NASA and JPL have had all the fun. Billions of people on Earth have seen pictures of Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt driving their "dune buggy" on the Moon. Billions more have seen pictures of NASA's Mars landers, Spirit and Opportunity. We've all wished we could be the ones to take these incredible toys out for a spin on the Red Planet or the Moon.

Now, thanks to Google, you can do the next best thing -- you can drive a virtual rover model on Google's Mars or Moon (or a skateboard on Earth), and experience the real topography of these places. We at ASU developed a "Drive the Solar System" website where you can explore how the power of Google Mars, Google Moon and Google Earth has been brought to the web. You can put your rover or skateboard down anyplace on Mars, the Moon or Earth and drive it anywhere you want to go. Explore the Apollo landing sites or Olympus Mons, the largest volcanic cone in the solar system. Drive down the Valles Marinaris, the canyon on Mars that dwarfs Arizona's Grand Canyon, or kick-flip your skateboard down the Amazon. And that's not all. You can visit all the other planets and the largest moons in the Solar System too.

But you can do more than drive or look at these strange new worlds -- you can also look at these places in depth with detailed information about each place you can visit included.

So if you've ever wanted to be an astronaut, visit http://gaialab.asu.edu/SolarSystem and see what you've been missing!

Posted by Stephen Savage, Geo-Archaeological Information Applications Lab IT Manager, Archaeological Research Institute, School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University

Announcing our 2009 Google AISES Scholars!

October 9, 2009

Google and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society are proud to announce our second class of Google AISES Scholars. Please join us in congratulating our nine 2009 Google AISES Scholars!

Bryan Bailey, University of Maryland
Vanessa Benally, Fort Lewis College
Alexander Brown, University of New Mexico
Corinne Cameron, University of Alaska Anchorage
Russell Harjo, Northeastern State
Kasra Manavi, Texas A&M
Alicia Montoya, University of New Mexico
Bryan Parker II, University of Texas at Dallas
Michael McGahey, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Google AISES scholars will each receive a USD $10,000 academic scholarship for the 2009-2010 academic year and are invited to attend the annual Google Scholars' Retreat at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California in 2010. The retreat is a time for Google to recognize the students’ hard work and achievements, and to provide the scholars with an opportunity to meet computing professionals and network with other scholars. We hope this program will encourage students to continue to achieve great things in their studies and inspire them to become role models and leaders in science and technology.

To learn more about Google's scholarship opportunities, please visit www.google.com/jobs/scholarships.

Posted by Meghan O'Farrell, Talent & Outreach Programs Specialist

Googlers Beta - 2009 Edition!

October 8, 2009

We are relaunching our Googlers Beta Series and bringing you the unique stories and experiences of Google interns. Our first post for the season comes from Asit Mishra, a Google Summer Intern and PhD student from Penn State University, who will share with you his experience as a Software Engineer (SWE) Intern in our Seattle office.

Asit's Story:

Think about the 100+ tools that Google has launched, the billions who query our search engine everyday, and the 10,000+ crazy (in a good way) software engineers working at Google; there is a plethora of jobs that our server platform machines must serve each day. Our machines serve a diverse set of workloads, and managing and making sense of these workloads is a big challenge. But learning the behavior of these workloads can help us, among many other things, to make better scheduling decisions, to better project our machine growth, and to customize our cells to handle the jobs better. During my internship, I worked on a very interesting, and in my opinion, high-impact project where I modeled the workload of Google's machines.

I used a variety of tools, including time-series modeling, clustering and statistical methods to capture the workload signatures. After months of brainstorming with my mentor (Joseph Hellerstein) and the cluster management team, I was at a point where I could categorize the workloads into smaller groups. This gave us an opportunity to investigate the workload behavior at a macro-level and makes the analysis simpler.

Aside from the free food, massages and the rock-band set-up, I found the "Google-culture" to be really amazing. It is not very different from the culture one would see at a university or research lab. The openness and the helping attitude of Googlers, here, helped me a lot in my work. Between the numerous brainstorming sessions with my mentor and the cluster management team and the two trips down to Mountain View to dig-deep into our findings, these experiences have gone a long way in shaping the outcome of my project and enhancing my overall understanding of Computer Science. For me, it's been one of the most productive and enriching experiences within a 3-month span.

I had never seen terabytes worth of data before coming here! Once, my mentor told me that here at Google people don't worry about storing megabytes or gigabytes of data; if it's terabytes it a slight concern and if it's petabytes - that's where you actually start thinking.
A note from Joseph Hellerstein, Asit's host: We had great fun with Asit during the summer, and it was very productive. Asit's work is impacting how Google does cluster scheduling and capacity planning. Also, we submitted a paper to ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review. Oh, and we got some really cool jackets for our work with the Google Cluster Management Team.
Want more information on internships at Google? Visit http://www.google.com/jobs/intern for more information. You can also learn more about the exciting research going on at Google by visiting http://research.google.com/.

YouTube EDU goes international - a global classroom for all

October 7, 2009

YouTube EDUCambridge UniversityThe Open University, INSEAD,Bocconi UniversityOpen University of CataloniaUniversity of GronigenMoscow State University (Russia)HEC in ParisUniversity of MontrealDirectory

Just released: new version of Google SketchUp

October 1, 2009

Google SketchUp Pro 7.1great pricingSketchUp website

process of modeling a local building

SketchUp website for Education

Student Blog