Google Student Blog: January 2010

Supporting students from under-represented backgrounds in the pursuit of a technical education

January 27, 2010

Cross posted from the Official Google BlogStarting in high school Google Code Universitytools, tips and lesson plansGrowing promising talentFUSECSSIBOLDBOLD PracticumAdvancing technical knowledge through universities Partnerships with the organizations that make it happenhere

The Google Docs for students page

January 21, 2010

docs for students pageMarieChristineChandlerSteveLisaPosted by Joelle Fornengo, Google Docs team

Helping Haiti respond to the earthquake

January 14, 2010

If you haven't yet read the post on the Official Google Blog about how you can contribute to relief efforts in Haiti as they respond to this week's catastrophic earthquake, here's more information about how Google is working to help and how you can get involved.
In order to help the people of Haiti respond to this catastrophe, Google is donating $1 million to organizations on the ground that are rescuing those still trapped and providing clean water, food, medical care, shelter and support to those affected. We'd like to make it easy for anyone moved by the tragedy to respond as well, so we've included a link on our homepage to information, resources and ways you can help, including information on how to donate to organizations including: Direct Relief, Yele Haiti, Partners in Health, Red Cross, World Food Program, Mercy Corps, Save the Children,Lambi Fund, Doctors Without Borders, The International Rescue Committee.
You can also use the below buttons to donate to UNICEF or CARE.

Donate to CARE
Donate to UNICEFIn addition, Map Maker data has been made available to U.N. organizations and the team is working with the Map Your World Community to encourage Map Maker users with on the ground knowledge to help update the map of Haiti with disaster response data. We've received requests from relief organizations and our users to publish recent satellite imagery of the country. One of our imagery partners, GeoEye, has provided us with post-earthquake imagery from Haiti. You can check our Lat Long blog for further updates.

We've also reached out to the YouTube community for help. A Spotlight on the homepage and a ticker across the entire site drives traffic to videosfrom Oxfam and the American Red Cross, where you can make donations to relief efforts. We're also keeping a running playlist of the video footage coming out of Haiti on Citizentube; you can find a broad collection of citizen reports, news wire clips and personal stories of some of the victims.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller and Prem Ramaswami for the Google Crisis Response Team

Computer Science Students & Faculty: Register for Google I/O

January 13, 2010

Google I/Oover half of all sessionsDeveloper SandboxOffice Hours@googleio on TwitterGoogle I/O
May 19-20, 2010
Moscone West, San Franciscocode.google.com/io
Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Developer Team

Upload and store your files in the cloud with Google Docs

January 12, 2010

Cross-posted on the Official Google Docs Blog

We're happy to announce that over the next few weeks we will be rolling out the ability to upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs. With this change, you'll be able to upload and access your files from any computer -- all you need is an Internet connection.

Instead of emailing files to yourself, which is particularly difficult with large files, you can upload to Google Docs any file up to 250 MB. You'll have 1 GB of free storage for files you don't convert into one of the Google Docs formats (i.e. Google documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), and if you need more space, you can buy additional storage for $0.25 per GB per year. This makes it easy to backup more of your key files online, from large graphics and raw photos to unedited home videos taken on your smartphone. You might even be able to replace the USB drive you reserved for those files that are too big to send over email.

Combined with shared folders, you can store, organize, and collaborate on files more easily using Google Docs. For example, if you are in a club or PTA working on large graphic files for posters or a newsletter, you can upload them to a shared folder for collaborators to view, download, and print.

You can also search for document files you've uploaded or that have been shared with you just like you do with your Google documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and PDFs. And you'll be able to view many common document file types with the Google Docs viewer.

To learn how businesses can take advantage of this new functionality, check out the post on the Enterprise Blog.

As always, we’d love your feedback and if you have any questions, please check out our help page. This feature will be enabled for your account over the next couple of weeks — look for the bubble notification when you sign in to Google Docs.

Posted by: Vijay Bangaru, Product Manager, Google Docs

Get your Nexus One!

January 6, 2010

In case you didn't catch the post on the Official Google Blog yesterday, we announced a new Google hosted web store where you can easily purchase selected mobile Android devices and service plans online. As a student, it's especially important to stay connected, both on and off campus, and our hope is to help create devices that allow you to do that seamlessly.

The first phone we'll be selling through this new web store is the Nexus One — a convergence point for mobile technology, apps and the Internet. Nexus One, manufactured by HTC, is an exemplar of what's possible on mobile devices through Android — when cool apps meet a fast, bright and connected computer that fits in your pocket. It's the first in what we expect to be a series of products which we will bring to market with our operator and hardware partners and sell through our online store.

So head to http://www.google.com/phone to check out the store and take a full tour of the new Nexus One.

Posted by Anna De Paula Hanika, Android Team

Google United Negro College Fund Scholarship

January 5, 2010

Deadline to Apply: April 16, 2010

Google is proud to support the work of the United Negro College Fund and together, we are committed to encouraging the innovators of the future to excel in their studies and become active role models and leaders.
The Google UNCF Scholarship Program provides scholarships and networking retreats for students in computer science. Scholarship recipients will each receive a $10,000 scholarship for the 2010-2011 academic year and be invited to attend the all-expenses-paid Annual Google Scholars’ Retreat at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, in the Spring of 2011. Scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of candidates’ academic background and demonstrated passion for computer science.
Who can apply?
Applicants must satisfy the following eligibility criteria:

Pursuing a Computer Science or Computer Engineering degree, or a degree in a closely related field (such as Software Engineering)

Maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale in their current program

Entering their senior year of undergraduate study or enrolled in a graduate program in the 2010-2011 academic year at a university in the United States

For complete details, please visit us at www.google.com/jobs/scholarships or http://www.uncf.org/forstudents/scholarDetailSGA.asp?id=438
Deadline to apply: April 16, 2010

Using Google Apps to make the most of group work

January 5, 2010

Taylor Bell is a Google Campus Ambassador at Boise State University and a pro at utilizing Google tools to make group projects a breeze. He's here to share some things he's learned along the way.
Ah, the dreaded group project... Luckily, I've found during my tenure at college that this oft-feared mainstay of the college experience can be easily managed with Gmail and the rest of the Google Apps suite. To help you out, I wanted to share my plan of attack for making a group process go smoothly.

First, create a new contact group. Click on "Contacts" on the left sidebar, then click the "New Group" button.

You will be prompted to name your new contact group, so I'd go with the name of the class or project you're going to be working on. Add your teammates by using the "Add Contact" button, and they will be listed under the group you created.

Now that your contact group has been created, you can compose a message, and type the first few letters of your group name to automatically populate the alias in the "To" field.

Now that your contact group is created, the next step is to create a filter for emails from these group members. Copy the list of address from the "To" field to your clipboard, then click the "Create a filter" link near the Gmail search box.

In the "From" field on the new filter creation, paste the addresses of the members of your group between two curly brackets ( { } ):

Click the Next Step button, which will prompt you for the action to perform for the filter you just created. Apply a new label, and name it the same as your contact group.

Now that your filter and labels have been created, you'll be able to quickly find your emails from your group members by clicking the Small Group label on the left side of the screen under the Gmail logo.

If you want to stop now, that's cool, but you can do so much more! The next step I take is to use the Multiple Inboxes feature in Gmail Labs (Click on Settings-->Labs). Other Labs you may want to enable are Google Docs previews in mail, Superstars, Quote Selected Text, Forgotten attachment detector (though you won't need this with Docs!), Send & Archive, Undo send, Search autocomplete, and the Google Docs and Calendar gadgets.

After applying your changes, go back to your Settings and click the newly arrived Multiple Inboxes option. Here is a screenshot of my preferred settings:

Now whenever you receive mail from any member of your group, it will be automatically assigned a label, and Gmail will show (in this case) the last 9 conversations with your group members, directly in line underneath your regular inbox.

With the email addresses of your classmates still on your clipboard, head over to Google Calendar by clicking the link to Calendar above the Gmail logo.

To create a new calendar, click the "Create" link in the "My Calendars" box on the left Nav Bar. The fields to create a calendar are self explanatory – you probably don't need to make your group's calendar public. In the "Share with specific people" heading, paste your contacts into the provided box. After everyone shows up, give them all access to make changes to events, and (if desired) to manage sharing.

Click the Create Calendar button on the bottom of the screen, and your group's events will now show on your Calendar! The first step I take is to copy any important dates from the syllabus to the calendar, and then add any meetings as they are decided on by the group. From here, you can edit the event details to send you a reminder email before the event, or even an SMS message if your phone number is registered with your account. For more info on Google Calendar, see the help page.

Now that your group's Calendar is set up, it's time for the last piece of the puzzle. Click Documents above the Google Calendar logo to head over to Docs. Create a new Folder by clicking the Create New dropbox.

When the new folder page loads, you can rename "New Folder" to "Small Group" by hovering your mouse over the folder name. Click on "Share this folder" and, once again, paste in your group's email addresses, and give them permission to edit.

Once you've sent the invitation, you are free from USB sticks! Everyone will be able to share documents by uploading them into the Small Group folder. If you enabled the Calendar and Docs gadgets in Gmail, you will be able to see your upcoming events and recently changed Docs.

Hopefully this guide will help you to get the most out of group work!

2010 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship for First Years

January 4, 2010

Dr. Anita Borg (1949-2003) devoted her life to revolutionizing the way we think about technology and dismantling the barriers that keep women and minorities from entering the computing and technology fields. In honor of Anita's vision, Google is proud to announce the launch of the 2010 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship for First Years.

Google hopes to encourage aspiring female students to excel in technology and become active role models and leaders in the field by offering scholarship opportunities for students. the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship for First Years will award students entering their first year in university and pursuing their studies in computer science.

Recipients of the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship for First Years will each receive a $10,000 award for the 2010-2011 academic year and be invited to attend the Google FUSE networking retreat in Summer 2011.

Who can apply?

Applicants must be high school seniors and meet the following eligibility criteria:

* Intend to be enrolled in or accepted as a full-time student at a university in the U.S. for the 2010–2011 academic year. International students are eligible to apply as long as they intend to be enrolled at a local university;

* Intend to be enrolled in or accepted for enrollment in a baccalaureate Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering or related program;

* Able to demonstrate a commitment to and passion for computer science and technology

For complete details, please visit us at www.google.com/anitaborg/first-years/

Deadline to apply: February 15, 2010

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