Google Student Blog: May 2011

Google Map Maker visits Chicago

May 27, 2011

(Cross-posted from the Google Lat Long Blog)
The Google Map Maker campus tour recently visited the Windy City to talk to students about how they can use Map Maker to map their campuses and make updates to places they care about on Google Maps. While in town, we also hosted a Map Maker event at the Google Chicago office to share the tool with folks working in the public sector. We had a great time meeting so many enthusiastic mappers from the area, and look forward to seeing how they put Chicago on the map.

Our first stop was the University of Chicago campus, a beautifully historic area with architectural gems galore. Students who attended this event were excited to map not only their campus, but neighborhoods near the university, showing the diversity and development of the population and culture.

Our second stop was Northwestern University, where a packed room of students learned about mapping while sampling some traditional Chicago style deep dish pizza. Delicious! Students were particularly interested in adding details to their campus, naming the buildings, adding locations of the sororities and fraternities, and marking the building outlines or footprints of their favorite restaurants and stores nearby.

Our Google Map Maker team loved partnering with Google Student Ambassadors from these campuses, who creatively and passionately helped plan these events. You guys did an amazing job! The Google Student Ambassadors from Northwestern University had this to say about the Map Maker visit:

“Our event brought together over 120 Northwestern students who were eager and excited to learn about how they could make an impact by adding to Google Maps using Map Maker … Map Maker was a welcome product that put the power to shape the map in our hands. All in all, it was an incredibly fun and engaging experience!”

-Sourya and Minjae, Google Student Ambassadors at Northwestern University

The last event—a meeting with public sector officials at the Google office in Chicago—gave us some great insights about how Map Maker can be used for large metropolitan areas. University educators, Department of Transportation employees, Census Bureau representatives, Chicago Health Department folks, and many more shared how they would like to see Map Maker applied to what they do. We really appreciate all their feedback and suggestions, as well as their enthusiasm for how this tool can help them share their work with each other and the public.

Chicago and the surrounding areas were such enjoyable places to visit, full of vibrant and passionate people. We look forward to visiting other campuses in the fall, but don’t wait until then to leave your mark on your campus!

Posted by Catherine Moats, Program Manager

Our 2011 EMEA Faculty Summit

May 27, 2011

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)
Earlier this month, we held our fourth Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Faculty Summit at our Zurich office, Google’s largest engineering center in the region. This was EMEA’s biggest Faculty Summit to date, with some of EMEA’s foremost computer science academics (103, to be exact) from 73 universities representing 28 countries, plus more than 60 Googlers in attendance. Over the course of three days, participants chose from 48 different sessions, technical streams and tech talks (given by both Googlers and academics) that covered a variety of computer science topics including privacy, software engineering and natural language processing.

The Faculty Summit is a chance for us to meet with computer science academics to discuss operations, regional projects and ways we can collaborate via our our university programs. These programs include our Focused Research Awards, which, to date, are nearing €3.7 million with recent awards in Europe given to researchers exploring privacy, fact discovery, test amplification, optimization and security, among other topics. We also have an academic research initiative to understand market algorithms and auctions, the Google European Doctoral Fellowship and the general research awards program.
This year’s jam-packed agenda included a welcome address by Yossi Matias, senior director and head of Google’s Israel Research and Development Center, covering Google’s engineering activity and recent innovations in EMEA; a presentation by Alfred Spector, vice president of research and special initiatives, on our approach to research and innovation; and a presentation by Nelson Mattos, vice president of EMEA product and engineering, on exciting developments and opportunities in Africa and the Middle East. David Konerding presented Google’s Exacycle for Visiting Faculty, a grant program for high-performance, CPU-intensive computing where we’ll award up to 10 qualified researchers with at least 100 million computing core-hours each, for a total of 1 billion core-hours. Professor Claudia Eckert, a guest visiting from the Technical University of Munich, gave an insightful presentation on security, privacy and the future of the internet.

We also held one-on-one break-out sessions where academics and Googlers could meet privately and discuss topics of personal interest, such as how to develop a well-constructed research award proposal, how to apply for a sabbatical at Google or how to gain Google support for a conference in a relevant research area.
The Summit provides a great opportunity to build and strengthen research and academic collaborations. Our hope is to drive technology forward by fostering mutually beneficial relationships with our academic colleagues and their universities.
Stay tuned for more details about the North America Faculty Summit in New York, July 13-15.
Posted by David Harper, Head of University Relations (EMEA)

Diary of a Summer Intern - 2011

May 26, 2011

Introduction: To kick off the second annual Diary of a Summer Intern series, we asked one of last summer's featured interns, Jerrica Jones, to tell us what she's been up to since graduation. Keep an eye out next week for an introduction of the new interns you'll be able to follow this summer!

Hey everyone,
I can't believe summer is here already! It's time for sunny days (hopefully) and the second annual “Diary of a Summer Intern” blog series to begin again. Though I’m no longer an intern, I do have some exciting news to share: I recently graduated in December, and after a few interviews and a bit of anxious waiting, I found out that I would be a full-time Googler. Since then, my life has changed completely so instead of blogging about what it's like to be a Google intern, I thought I would talk about my transition to being a full-time employee and what I’ve been working on so far. Then, I’ll pass on the torch to the new interns who you’ll be hearing from throughout the summer.

After graduating from the University of the Arizona, I moved to Mountain View, Calif. (scary!) where I participated in Google’s allocations process. I had previously filled out a preferences sheet stating which types of projects I was interested in and what skills I could offer. After reviewing my preferences, an allocations specialists called me up and we discussed a few teams that would be a good fit. Based on my interest in UI work and my background in Java, there were four teams that matched what I wanted to do, and in the weeks following I got to speak with the managers of each team and discuss how I might be a good fit. Once I was done speaking with the managers, I was able to give my preferences back to my allocations specialist, she circled back to them, and I had my team.

Before I knew it, my first day was upon me and I found myself shaking in my boots. I shouldn’t have worried—day one ended up being one of the best days of my life. All the “Nooglers” (Google’s term for new employees and interns) spent some time getting to know each other over breakfast at one of Google’s awesome cafes. We were also outfitted with our new laptops and I got to meet with an ergonomic specialist who helped me pick out the most comfortable chair and desk position.

We spent the rest of the day learning about what life is like at Google. I bonded with other Nooglers during a scavenger hunt in which we visited the Google slide, a really fun photo booth, the giant Android, and the seven-person conference bike. At the end of the day, we met our new mentors and teammates. I picked a newer project within the greater Google Ads team. It's called Google Boost and our job is to make it easy for small business owners to advertise online. We do this by enabling their ads to appear in the “Sponsored Links” section of Google.com and Google Maps search result pages without having to go through the extra work of maintaining an AdWords account. It's a really fun team and everyone is passionate about our project. In all, I feel extremely lucky to work with people who love what they do and always strive to give users the best product they can.

My teammates aren’t the only cool people I’ve met since I started at Google. I’ve met an incredibly diverse group of co-workers by attending tech talks, sweating it out in Google’s exercise classes, showing up for @GoogleTalks when celebrities come to visit and from simply bumping into folks in cafe lines. Each new person has something interesting to share, and I’m amazed by how much my world has grown since I came to Google. Every day has been an adventure, and every day it seems like the next day could never be better—yet somehow, it always is. I’ve never had so much fun in my life, and I am really looking forward to what my future at Google holds.

Hope you all are doing well,

Jerrica

Two Fun Google Facts: We recently got a bowling alley in one of our buildings, and teams can reserve lanes for team bonding time. In addition, instead of mowing the grass with regular lawn mowers, Google uses goats to help keep the grounds nice and be more eco-friendly.

Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator

The votes are in for the Google Science Fair Finalists and People’s Choice Award Winner

May 23, 2011

(Cross-posted on the Official Google and Science Fair blogs)
winged keelswater turbinesprosthetic limbsprogramming in pure English15 finalists15 finalistsAge 13 - 14
Age 15 - 16
Age 17 - 18
finalist judges,YouTube channelyour projectPosted by Samantha Peter, Education Team

Future female engineers come together in the Technovation Challenge

May 17, 2011

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]
BASICTechnovation ChallengeApp Inventor for Android

A team of girls build their mobile prototype using Android App Inventor
Jeopardy!
This Saturday, May 21, marks the culmination of the program, when the regional winners will convene on our Mountain View campus for the national pitch night. Here, they’ll compete to have their app professionally developed and distributed on the Android Marketplace by demoing their prototypes, presenting their business plans and ultimately convincing industry leaders that their startup is worth investing in.
The Technovation Challenge tackles the computing world’s gender gap head on, giving girls early exposure to tech in a fun, engaging environment that develops their skills and confidence. I’m proud to mentor high school girls interested in engineering and technology, and I hope their experience in this program today will inspire them to become the tech leaders of tomorrow.
Posted by Shubhie Panicker, Software Engineer and Technovation Challenge mentor

Google Map Maker on campus

May 16, 2011

Cross-posted from the Google Lat Long Blog
As part of the recent US Map Maker launch, the Map Maker Community team has begun a series of campus visits across the US.

Our first stop was the University of California at Berkeley, where we gave students and faculty a chance to learn about Google Map Maker and work with Map Maker team members in person to map their campus.

Even though the map of Berkeley and the UC Berkeley Campus on Google Maps were already well mapped, students still identified many opportunities to add their local knowledge to the map. Edits included moving location markers, tracing building boundaries, and adding names of campus dorms. The Google Map Maker community team was on site to guide these new mappers and note their thoughtful feedback.

Participants were excited about making corrections and contributions to the map in their area, particularly the U.C. Berkeley campus, and seeing the edits they made appear on the monitor that had been set up on the big screen at the front of the room to show real-time mapping.

Everyone has local knowledge they can add to the map. Help us make your school look even better! Check out your college campus at mapmaker.google.com and leave your mark on the map by drawing walking paths, adding details to your school's buildings, and more.

For more information on how to get started and to connect with other mappers, check out theGoogle Map Maker community forum. You can also reach out to the Map Maker community team at mapping@google.com.

Happy Mapping!

Posted by Andrew Kornblatt, Map Maker Community Team

Exploring Space with Google

May 16, 2011

In partnership with NASA, and PBS, YouTube and Google Moderator will pose your questions to the crew of STS-134, the final mission of the space Shuttle Endeavour, in a live interview emceed by stellar talent (another space joke!) Miles O'Brien.

To mark the occasion, we put together this video to celebrate our love for space, told with the help of products we pour our hearts into every day. You’ll see everything from historical sky maps featured in Google Earth, to 3D buildings at Kennedy Space Center, and our salute to both the astounding achievement of the Apollo era and the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a new space race of entrepreneurial leadership.

We hope you love the video as much as we do; it's our way of making space exploration open and accessible to everyone. Happy viewing, and keep exploring!

Posted by Tiffany Montague, Intergalactic Federation King Almighty and Commander of the Universe

Better Know an Office: Waterloo

May 13, 2011

Welcome to a new segment called Better Know an Office Inspired by Steven Colbert’s Better Know a District. This recurring series will take us to different Google offices around the globe to learn what makes them tick.

Better Know an Office heads north today to the twin cities of Waterloo and Kitchener in the Southern tip of Ontario, Canada. While Canada may be better known for its national sport, ice hockey, this region actually allows technology to share the spotlight. “Canada’s Technology Triangle” is so wired into the tech industry that people here are likely to know less about checking than they do about coding.

The innovative nature of the local area can be seen in some of the products under development in Waterloo today-including projects in Google Chrome and Google Chrome OS. However, a major focus of the Waterloo team is mobile, one of their key products being Mobile Gmail. “We are constantly pushing to redefine what people expect from their phone”, says Ryan Fioravanti, a Software Engineer on the Mobile Apps team. Just last month, the Waterloo team launched a new version of Google Docs for mobile, which allows people to collaboratively edit the same document from their phone.

Despite having less than ten members, Ryan’s team normally takes on two to three major projects at a time. To ensure everyone’s time is being used effectively, big tasks are split up and team members take turns managing all of the team’s non-programing tasks. However, the team regularly comes together to review each other’s work and collaborate on the overall design of a project. In order to share what they’ve learned, the team has started publishing articles on mobile web development. Regardless of the specific project, these Googlers are focused on building the next generation of mobile applications and web interfaces, ultimately changing the way people can use their phones; and of course, this includes being able to get the latest hockey scores.

The smaller size of the office helps brings everyone together in a close knit group, which encourages a supportive and friendly environment. “Working here is the best of both worlds because our small office fosters collaboration and an incredibly welcoming environment, yet we also get to manage large pieces of products that are central to Google’s overall mission”, says Cate Huston, a Software Engineer working on mobile products. Waterlooglers are also actively engaged in the community outside of work. Cate, for example, has partnered with other Waterloo Googlers to support and mentor female Computer Science students, as well as the appropriately named Awesome Foundation, a local organization dedicated to supporting local arts and sciences.

Speaking of awesome, last month a rather fearless group of Googlers managed to climb the CN Tower in Toronto for charity. However, if ascending a 147-story structure does not sound like your idea of a fun time, then there’s always curling and celebrating big holidays like St. Patrick’s Day in the office. There is no shortage of excitement outside of the office to take part in as well, as Waterloo Googlers recently participated in the area’s celebrations of geek culture, TEDx Conference and Canada’s largest Oktoberfest.

2011 is already looking like a banner year for the Waterloo team, which recently relocated to a beautifully converted industrial building that they share with several other tech companies. Located in the up-and-coming Tannery District, the new building incorporates environmentally-friendly building materials and lots of natural light and ventilation. The move has allowed the office to add features like a two-story slide, a large second floor patio and a large game room with air hockey and, one of the office’s favorite games, Rock Band®. The move has also created more space for future Googlers, and the office is on the lookout for students that can make an impact on big projects. If you are ready to join this enthusiastic team, apply today! Just don’t wait until this beautiful new building gets full....

Check out some more pictures of the Waterloo office here.

Posted by Ryan Hundley, University Programs Coordinator

Graduating with Google Apps

May 12, 2011

gone GoogleGoogle Guides programimmediate impactlovedSign upgoogle.com/apps/graduateFAQsPosted by Posted by Lauren Kolodny, Google Apps Marketing Manager

60+ young women recognized as Google Anita Borg Memorial scholars

May 11, 2011

Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog
The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship honors the memory of Dr. Anita Borg, who devoted her life to encouraging the presence of women in computing and founded the Institute for Women in Technology in 1997. Anita passed away in 2003, and we created the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship in 2004 to honor her memory. Anita’s legacy lives on today through this scholarship and the organization she created, which has since been re-named the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology.

This year we’d like to recognize and congratulate the 65 Google Anita Borg Memorial scholars and the 82 Google Anita Borg Memorial finalists, all of whom attend universities in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East or Africa. These students will attend the annual Google Scholars Retreat this summer, where they will have the opportunity to attend tech talks on Google products, network with other scholars and participate in social activities. Students from the U.S. and Canada will attend the retreat in Mountain View, Calif., and students from Europe, the Middle East and Africa will attend the retreat in Zurich, Switzerland.

We’d also like to congratulate this year’s recipients of the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship for First Years. This scholarship is granted to young women in their senior year of high school who intend to study computer science, computer engineering, software engineering or a related program at a university in the upcoming academic year.

Here’s a full list (PDF) of this year’s scholars and finalists along with the institutions they attend. In the coming months, we’ll also be announcing the recipients of the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

For more information on all our scholarships, visit the Google Scholarships site.

Posted by Azusa Hanashima, Talent & Outreach Programs

Announcing the 2011 Google Hispanic College Fund recipients

May 9, 2011

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected as this year's Google Hispanic College Fund scholars:
Jorge Schwarzhaupt, University Of California-San DiegoEdna Ramirez, Arizona State University-Main CampusYsais Martinez, Pennsylvania State University-Main CampusLuis Alicea Rodriguez, Universidad Politecnica De Puerto RicoAndre Brown, Millersville University Of PennsylvaniaKeishla Ortiz, University Of Puerto Rico-AreciboVictor Basantes, University Of South FloridaEsteban Malave, Baker College Of Port HuronAdan Phun, University Of GeorgiaJuan Llanes, Georgia Institute Of Technology-Main CampusSantiago Serrato, University Of North TexasJorge Orpinel, New York UniversityLuis Sanchez, St Mary’s UniversityErnesto Perez, University Of California-Berkeley
To qualify for the scholarship, students must be pursuing a degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering and must be entering their junior or senior year or are enrolled in a graduate program. Students must also have a record of strong academic performance. Recipients will receive a $10,000 scholarship and will be invited to attend this summer's Scholars' Retreat in Mountain View, CA.
Learn more about Google's Scholarship Program here.
Posted by Azusa Hanashima, Talent & Outreach Programs

Google and diversity organizations team up: conference series recap and student tips

May 4, 2011

Introduction: Google sponsors and participates in a variety of diversity conferences for engineering students. To learn more about Google’s involvement, we sat down with Hal Marz, a University Programs Specialist. For each of these conferences Hal plays an integral role in overseeing Google's participation and sponsorship. Here, Hal talks about three of these recent conferences and shares his advice for students interested in working at Google.

What’s your position at Google, and what are your main responsibilities?

I am a University Programs Specialist with Google based out of Mountain View, CA. While I spend quite a bit of time partnering with universities in Canada to keep them informed of engineering job opportunities that we have in Google offices worldwide, I also manage the relationships with some of our diversity partners and represent Google at several student diversity conferences in the United States.

Tell us about the recent conferences you’ve attended.

Hal (center) and Google volunteers at the NSBE Convention

National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Annual Convention - St. Louis, MO (March 23-27)
This year’s theme was “Engineering the Gateway to Success”, and the purpose of the Annual Convention is to provide attendees with the motivation, skills and opportunity to succeed in engineering. Google engineers and University Programs staff talked to students about job opportunities (both intern and new graduate positions). One of our engineers created a game called “query hunt” that students could play at our booth and win some Google swag. This timed game tested their Web searching skills. We also had one of our New York based software engineers participate in a panel discussion on cloud computing that many students attended. After the convention’s career fair, we invited students to come talk to us about opportunities at Google. Over 200 students stopped by to speak with us! Most had visited our booth earlier in the conference, but many had additional questions for our team. It was a great way for us to continue conversations with the students in a relaxed, fun environment.

The Computer Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) Grad Cohort - Boston, MA (April 1-2)
Google co-hosted an evening reception for 300 women students in their first year of graduate school. We welcomed them into the community of computing researchers and professionals by presenting on topics such as career development and graduate education while introducing them to some leading computer science professionals during their two-day meeting. One of our engineers spoke about opportunities for women in computer science and her experience working at Google. Outside of the workshops and speakers, there were also mixers and fun social events. My favorite part of the conference was being the only guy dancing with 300 women to “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”.

Hal at the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing

Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing - San Francisco, CA (April 3-5)
The 2011 Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing conference was the largest in the conference’s history and is being called the most diverse conference in computing in the nation. In addition to the our sponsorship, Google also planned all of the logistics for the conference, which included over 500 students. This conference was a great opportunity for Google to meet some of the top computer science students in North America. We had a great turnout from Googlers as well—20 volunteered their time during the three-day conference to host technical interview workshops and speak to students at our booth, amongst other things.

What’s the most rewarding part of attending and helping out with these conferences?

I really enjoy meeting the future talent for our engineering community. I especially look forward to meeting younger students who are just starting to get interested in computer science. Their enthusiasm and energy for this industry is quite contagious. At Google, we strive for diversity—and the excitement shared amongst such a distinguished group of students at these conferences reminds me why we value diversity in people and ideas at Google.

What’s the most common question you get from students? What’s your answer?

Besides all the questions I get about the free food, I get asked, “What types of jobs does Google have to offer?” I usually point students to our student job site at www.google.com/students/eng, and I explain that this comprehensive site gives them an accurate look into what we are currently looking for at Google. I try my best to know about as many of the job openings as I can, from what skills the position requires to what sort of responsibilities the role takes on. Even though I am not an engineer, I have learned a lot from the engineers who travel with me to conferences or who give tech talks at the schools I manage. They give me insight into what they do on a day-to-day basis, which is valuable information I can share with the students. Everyday I learn something new and exciting, and my hope is that I can convey that excitement to the future leaders of computer science.

Do you have any words of advice for students hoping to work at Google?

I have two simple things to share:

1) Do your homework! Do some research before you approach the Google booth—or really any company representative. Find out what jobs are currently open, and find a job that particularly suits you. Talk the job up to a recruiter and find similarities in the job description and your skills. Formulate ahead of time a couple of questions that you can ask. It will show the recruiter that you have researched the role and are interested in working for the company. You will get a lot more out of the conversation this way.

2) Be yourself and play to your strengths. Your passion will come through in any of your conversations with a Google representative.

Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator

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