Google Student Blog

Live from #NSBE45 — how to get the most out of career fairs, conventions, and conferences

2019-03-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday in Detroit, Michigan the 45th annual National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) convention kicked off. Today marks the beginning of arguably the biggest event of the week … the annual career fair. Googlers are currently on the ground and ready to meet the 12,000+ attendees.

Embracing this year’s theme, NSBE 45: Explore, Engineer, Elevate., Googlers attending #NSBE45 (many of whom previously attended NSBE conventions as students) offered their advice to students and aspiring technologists tackling the career fair for the first time.

Note: All Googlers interviewed or pictured below will be on the ground over the next few days — so if you're at #NSBE45, be sure to drop by our booth and say hi. We'd love to meet you!

What would you encourage someone to do to make the most of their time at the convention?

"Talk to professionals currently doing what you would love to see yourself do and ask them questions about their career path." - Adekunle Adeyemo, Systems Engineer, Site Reliability Engineering

"Meet new people. You will be surrounded by brilliance so challenge yourself to establish a relationship with someone new each day." - Jana Landon, University Programs Specialist, HBCUs

"Be open to new opportunities! Learn as much as you can about different companies and roles. Don't be afraid of exploring a new job option that you might not have known about before." - Noel Elgamal, University Recruiter

"Research 7-10 companies that you want to work for, memorize their mission, know their founders, and know what roles are open that you want." - April Curley, University Programs Specialist, HBCUs

"Network, be authentic, remember names and FOLLOW UP!" - Jojo Johnson, Information Technology Resident

What career advice do you have for aspiring technologists who will be attending the conference?

"Be curious and ask questions — learning how to investigate systems and figuring out how parts interact is a great skill that'll help in your career." - Desiye Collier, Software Engineer

"What do you find yourself researching/reading/doing when no one is around? Take whatever popped in your head and try to build a career around it." - Kenny Sulaimon, Program Manager, Android System Health

"Get everything you can out of every opportunity! Make your time mean something." — Kim Martin, Software Engineer

"Be yourself — don't conform for anything. You're unique and bring something to the table that's missing, so share all that you are." - Bakary Diarrassouba, Program Manager, Privacy

"Try to keep an open mind. You may not find the position you are looking for, but once you get your foot in the door, then you can look towards the position you really desire." - Everone Graham, Information Technology Resident

Why is attending NSBE meaningful to you?

"I received my first full-time offer through a NSBE conference, giving back means everything to me." - Bakary Diarrassouba, Program Manager, Privacy

"It's important for me to see and be an example for other Black Computer Scientists." - Kim Martin, Software Engineer

"NSBE to me is like a second family. Without NSBE I would not be where I am today and I am forever grateful for that. I got my first Google job at a NSBE conference and since then I've been able to go back and help other people get opportunities just like me. Attending NSBE is my way of giving back to my community and also reuniting with the family that gave me the opportunities I have today." - Kenny Sulaimon, Program Manager, Android System Health

Even if you're not at #NSBE45 we hope you can apply some of this advice to your next career fair, convention, or conference. Follow along as we go behind the scenes at #NSBE45 including at the upcoming hackathon in our Detroit office Mar 29-30 : Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Black History Month Pay It Forward Challenge: Recognizing students making a difference (Part 3)

2019-03-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

In honor of Black History Month, Google hosted a Pay It Forward Challenge to recognize Black student leaders who are advancing opportunities for their local communities. We ended up receiving so may great submissions that we decided to make this a three-part blog series. This is the final piece. We’re excited to share the work of the students below and hope you’ll be inspired by their stories.

ICYMI, be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this post.

Ayoola John-Muyiwa

While studying at the University of Houston, Ayoola founded an online learning community for Black millennials, Blademy. Blademy helps ambitious Black millennials develop new skills in technology, media, finance, business and entrepreneurship.

"It became apparent to me that my community has been unable to benefit significantly from the burgeoning innovation economy. I was doing my part by helping a handful of people every week, but I needed to help them at scale to disrupt the current trend in economic opportunity disparity. Today, growing at 50% month-over-month, Blademy reaches over 400,000 millennials monthly with instructional content. The company was also recently accepted into the Google Cloud for Startups Program. In 2019, I hope to reach more millennials of color with instructional content and continue to inspire more young people to prioritize solving problems in their communities.”

Ayoola's advice to others:
“As long as there is one person out there who can benefit from your talents and ideas, I strongly encourage you to step outside your comfort zone and start solving problems you care about. Besides, if you choose to ignore the problems in your own community, why should outsiders care? Just start!”

Ashley Fox & DeAndrea Staes

During their second year of studies at McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin, Ashley and DeAndrea saw an opportunity to promote diversity and inclusion in their MBA program and larger Austin community. They founded the Elevate Diversity & Inclusion Conference and used 100% of the proceeds to create a scholarship to support underrepresented candidates at The University of Texas.

"Beyond actively participating in student organizations to promote diversity at McCombs, we decided to create a sustainable, long-term solution that would provide an annual forum for the University of Texas and Austin community to engage and learn about diversity, culture, and community. The Elevate Diversity & Inclusion Conference at McCombs was held February 8, 2019 and educated attendees on the impact, challenges, and future of diversity and inclusion for business. Attendees heard from distinguished speakers at Google, PepsiCo, Dell, Cross Culture Ventures, Kapor Capital and more. We hosted panel discussions on inclusion and innovation in tech, minority and women funding needs in venture capital and the importance of diverse talent having a seat at the table. Attendees left with concrete leadership strategies and tools that will advance the inclusion agenda across all spectrums."

Ashley & DeAndrea's advice to others:
“Think big. Big beyond what you imagine lies in the realm of possibility. Believe in yourself and then think BIGGER.”

Edward Mancho

Motivated by his own experience with imposter syndrome during his sophomore year in college, Edward created a student organization, Code: Black, at The University of Maryland, College Park catering specifically to minorities in tech. Since it's creation Code: Black has now grown to over 100 members.

"The first year was a tough one because I had no experience in creating and running an organization, so it was a lot of trial and error to the point where I had to get the help of my friends. Once I had my friends on the executive board, the organization was able to grow. The Computer Science department flew us out to AfroTech. We've had companies sponsor and give tech talks to our members. We teach elementary school kids how to code. Through Code: Black, we've created a community, given people opportunities to get internships, and created workshops to better prep our members for the outside world. This is just the beginning."

Edward's advice to others:
“Seeking a problem to solve is easy but taking action is the hardest part. Despite the notion, this shouldn't discourage you because every big, impactful movement has started as an idea.”

Oluchi Chukwunyere

Oluchi is currently a student at North Carolina A&T State University and the co-owner of Janet Hope Alive, a non profit organization that equips Nigerian citizens with programing and entrepreneurship skills through hands-on programs and mentorship.

“We aim to increase the quality of life for our students and increase Nigeria’s economic stability. Last year we were able to graduate over 400 students. That's over 400 students whose lives have been changed through our program and now the chairman of the community wants to adopt our program in twelve of his vocational schools. We’re bringing hope back to Nigeria."

Oluchi's advice to others:
“Never let your gifts and talents take you to a place where your character can't sustain you. Always remember it’s about the people. It’s always about the people. Always remember your 'why' so when greed and fame come, you remain grounded in your passion”

Charles Arday

Charles is currently a student at Illinois College. With his passion for public speaking and motivating others to achieve their goals, he created The Millennial Podcast, where he addresses topics in the millennial community including finding your passion. He is also the co-founder of Students of LinkedIn — a community with a mission to educate and encourage people from all walks of life to share their stories, build their personal brand, and get their dream internships/jobs. Charles has spoken at multiple events on the topics of digital literacy, collaborative thinking, and mentorship.

“My experiences and interactions with other college students made me realize that issues such as depression and not knowing your passion are problems many of us are faced with — so I began releasing weekly podcasts and videos to equip millennials with resources and tools to address these issues. I am passionate about educating, motivating and exposing my peers to the field of STEM and the limitless opportunities in the world."

Charles' advice to others:
“Everyone can make an impact no matter where they find themselves. Three things that have been with me since I started all my initiatives include know your why, be persistent, and just do it."

Keep up with us on social (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube) to hear more about our initiatives.

Last call for Google's Computer Science Summer Institute applications

2019-03-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

Applications for Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI) and the Generation Google Scholarship close on Monday, Mar 18. Submit your application today!

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a CSSIer? Meet Jonathan James Mshelia, Tarik Brown, and Kaycee Tate — three CSSI students from this past summer here to share their CSSI experiences and give any CSSI/Generation Google applicant (we’re lookin’ at you!) a better idea of what’s to come.

Jonathan is currently a junior at Medgar Evers College. He grew up in Nigeria and moved to America to pursue an education in computer science. When he’s not glued to the computer screen, he’s usually hanging out with friends or learning a new language.

Tarik is now a freshman at the University of Notre Dame (Go Irish!) where he intends to double major in Computer Science and Economics. He has a deep love for jazz and the world of technology (especially robotics). Tarik lost hearing in his right ear when he was young and explains that he is, “quite grateful for this disability because it made me into the dedicated and motivated person that I am today.”


	Kaycee grew up in Alabama and is currently attending Xavier University of Louisiana. If she’s not studying for her double major (Computer Science and Computer Engineering) or working on campus, she enjoys quiet time reading, coloring, or researching things that interest her — currently it’s investing and digital currency.

What motivated you to apply to CSSI?

Kaycee: I knew that I wanted to expand my mind as much as possible before getting to college so that I was prepared — not only in actual programming and coding skills, but also in the ability to think creatively and share my perspective in innovative ways. I definitely believe that the CSSI experience gave me a chance to do that.

Tarik: From as early as I can remember, I was always interested in how things worked. This inclination to enjoy knowing the inner workings of everything that I worked with steered me into the direction of the tech world and introduced me to Computer Science.

Jonathan: My passion for computers and my attitude towards learning were the driving forces behind my choice to join the Google CSSI program. Before CSSI, I only tried to learn the syntax of a programming language and I did not necessarily know how to apply what I learned to make anything, but during the CSSI program I put these programming languages into proper use and I began to see it differently.

What do you wish you’d known before you arrived at Google for CSSI?

Tarik: A valuable lesson that I learned from Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute was that I am much more capable than I give myself credit for. Imposter Syndrome is real and it affects many, I wish I had known that there was no reason to doubt myself and CSSI definitely gave me a more positive outlook upon my ability and self worth.

Jonathan: Upon getting started at Google CSSI I had some experience with a few front end technologies and that gave me the ability to learn more and improve my skills. The learning experience was fun so I never thought about wishing I knew more than I already knew.

Kaycee: Before going to CSSI, I wish I had truly understood that it didn’t matter how much you knew about computer science and programming prior to the experience. Of course the FAQs and application mentioned that, but truly processing that and just hearing it are two different things.

Can you tell us how the CSSI experience has impacted you?

Jonathan: The CSSI experience opened my eyes to the possibilities technology has to offer. I now understand the internal workings of the web — how the front-end and back-end worked hand in hand to give a fully functioning website. This helped me at college because I was able to accomplish more in terms of applying my knowledge to school work.

Kaycee: CSSI isn’t just about computer science — I feel like CSSI promotes the idea that to be good in anything you do, you first have to know yourself, what you’re striving for, and what you want to get out of every experience you are able to partake in.

Tarik: The knowledge I gained from CSSI was truly invaluable. We delved into the world of web development and received instruction on front-end and back-end web development. We ran the gauntlet when it came to learning multiple programming languages as we learned HTML/CSS, JavaScript and Python — all essential tools in web development. Also, we learned how to utilize the Google Cloud Engine which is actually used to run well known applications such as Snapchat. With this we were able to create our own web application from scratch and it was truly an amazing experience. Not only did I gain a wealth of technical skills, I also acquired essential soft skills that involved collaboration in small teams and being able to explain my work to others. We learned how to tactfully use version control with Github and focused on team based work. In the end, we presented our projects to the entire office of Google Software Engineers.

Reminder: applications for Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI) and the Generation Google Scholarship close on Monday, Mar 18. Submit your application today!

Black History Month Pay It Forward Challenge: Recognizing students making a difference (Part 2)

2019-03-07T00:32:00.001-08:00

In honor of Black History Month, Google hosted a Pay It Forward Challenge to recognize Black student leaders who are advancing opportunities for their local communities. After receiving so many submissions we’re excited to share the work of the students below and hope you’ll be inspired by their stories. Stay tuned for more features over the next few weeks!

Abdullaah Robins

Abdullaah is student at Boston University and teaches 3rd and 5th graders in Boston Public Schools coding and robotics. “I teach the 3rd graders ‘scratch’ which is an elementary coding language to start with and learn basic engineering principles. For the 5th graders, I teach them more complex engineering principles with the Lego EV3 robots which allow the students to build mechanical engineering skills and programming skills. As a STEM Instructor, I have the ability to inspire young students and prepare them for careers in STEM.”

Alongside teaching, Abdullaah also serves on the executive board for BU NSBE and the organizing board for the annual conference, BUNITED.

Abdullaah’s advice to others
“When deciding on what you want to do or what initiative you want to take, look towards the things that bother you — those are the things you will be more passionate about and more times than not those things bother others in the community.”

What inspires Abdullaah about Black History Month
“Apart from the history I'm focused on creating meaningful dialogue on improving and advancing as a community which means having purposeful conversations about issues in the community and finding creative ways to push Black advancement in marginalized spaces.”

Miriam Duen

Miriam is currently attending North Carolina Central University where she dedicates her time to improving her community as well as the lives of her fellow student athletes. Miriam focuses on educating and empowering student athletes at her school and community centers by helping create internship and job opportunities for student-athletes and teaching the importance and ability to excel both as a scholar and athlete.

“I have helped build houses, plant trees, clean up trash, and teach the Durham community. I have spoken with kids on what it's like to attend college as well as how to excel as a student athlete. I have devoted my time to giving back to the community through various programs such as the Ronald McDonald Charity House, Durham Boys and Girls Club, Seeds Local Garden, and the Durham Rescue Mission. I would just like people to see the importance of peer to peer mentoring.”

Miriam’s advice to others
“It starts with you. Give back as much as you can, doing whatever you can. It doesn't matter if people do not believe in your dream — believe in your own dreams and work towards them. It's the little things that matter most.”

George Hostetter

George is currently a student at Menlo College. He uses both his technical and public speaking skills to aid and educate his community.

“I created an app called CopStop, inspired by Trayvon Martin. This app’s purpose is to inform users how to behave when interacting with police officers, and sends your location to an emergency contact when you get pulled over. Throughout the development of this application I’ve spoken to civil rights attorneys, civil rights activists, sociologists, and the commanding staff of multiple police departments. A year after the app was accepted into the app store, I was invited to speak at Colin Kaepernick's Know Your Rights camp in South Florida to over 300 youth of color. After the camp I got to meet Trayvon's mom, Sybrina Fulton, and the first thing she did was give me the warmest hug. She shared words of encouragement that I'll hold close for the rest of my life and that motivation is what drives me to create real change through technology.”

What inspires George about Black History Month

“The concept of Afro-Futurism has been on my mind as of recently. It's a complex term that some have trouble defining but I explain Afro-Futurism as a mentality — looking into the future with a focus on Black inclusion, technology, and the heights we as a community can reach. I describe the afro-futurist mentality as understanding that to truly pay homage to your ancestors you need to be a disruptive innovator of the future and abandon trying finding comfort in the past. Afro-Futurism is designing your future with the absence of discrimination and society's stereotypes. That's a future worth working towards.”

Kehinde Totoola

Kehinde is currently attending QueenMaris College and using the knowledge he is acquiring to give back by teaching classes to those who may not be able to afford them otherwise.

“I am always passionate in helping other people learn better which led to my activities engaging young teenagers (living in low income areas) into the tech world by providing coding classes to them at their schools or any other open center conducive for learning. This was achievable with the support of an organization, TeensCanCode, whose main goal is to provide technology to everyone.”

Kehinde has been able to reach over 300 students across 9 schools in his community. “These teenagers can now build a complete website from scratch — that’s my JOY.”

Kehinde’s advice to others:

"Someday is not a day of the week.”

Keep up with us on social (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube) to hear more about our initiatives.

Black History Month Pay It Forward Challenge: Recognizing students making a difference

2019-02-28T12:00:00.002-08:00

Blessing is the co-founder of the Students of LinkedIn movement at Drexel University. This campaign started as a hashtag, and “ bloomed into a global community of students who encourage each other to find their voice, expose the limitless opportunities that they can find/create, and educate each other on the importance of personal branding as college students.”

"I wanted to create this community, because there is power in lifting others as we climb. Through my posts, I have been able to serve as an example of how a college student can provide value to industry professionals around the world and have garnered an audience of more than 5,000 students. Students of LinkedIn equips students with resources such as monthly webinars and organic video content that teaches how to connect with professionals and land/create that dream job.”

Blessing’s advice to others:
“Find joy in learning from your mistakes, knowing that it leads to growth. There is power in starting, failing at something, and learning from it."

What inspires Blessing about Black History Month:

“As a community, it’s important to celebrate the sacrifices that our ancestors made. Sacrifices, that have enabled us to be able to do what we do/want to do with our lives. It’s important to be gracious towards those have made sacrifices for us - those from the past and those from the present. Growth equals success. As a community, we need to continue to grow and strengthen as we display black excellence and unity."

Natsai Ndebele

Natsai is currently a student at Georgia State University. She is the co-founder of Our Journey Through Code and a mentor with organizations such as Girls Who Code and Black Girls Code. Natsai started her non-profit, Journey Through Code with a purpose of, “increasing diversity in technology, especially for women and underrepresented minorities."

“By highlighting the many faces in technology, I hope to inspire more minorities to enter the tech world, break stereotypes and biases, and build a community for us with mentors while creating inclusion.”

Natsai’s advice to others:
“The best time to start is now. You don't have to wait to get a team or gain resources or recognition, just do it. When I started, I didn't have much but I had knowledge that could be passed on. So I volunteered with organizations with missions aligned to my cause, and I reached out to people to hold events, panels, or workshops to teach girls how to code.”

What inspires Natsai about Black History Month:

“I'm really excited to celebrate being black, and highlight all the people that have contributed to the black community. There is still so much that we need to work on as a community, and so many challenges we still face, and I want this focus on building on our community to last beyond a month or just a hashtag.”

Alysa Miller

Alysa is currently pursuing her Doctoral degree in Psychology from the University of Chicago after recieving her Master’s in Public Health from New York University. Alysa has always had a passion for finding ways to improve health within underrepresented communities, including in her hometown of Detroit, MI.

"Through these educational and professional experiences I have had the opportunity to engage in a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to learning about contributing to social change and promoting health equity. Specifically, my passion for food and improving the world’s diet, particularly in minority communities, has influenced my interest in learning the different approaches communities take toward food policy, food culture, and health disparities.

As I have made advancements on my career path, I have noticed the scarcity in strong female, minority, role models in the health sciences fields. Because of my experiences as a woman of color, I feel it is my duty to serve as a scholarly role model for future minority scholars in the health sciences field”

Alysa’s advice to others:

“Wise words I strive to live by are, 'make data driven decisions.' I would tell that person to do their share of research to make their dream a reality through decisions driven by data. Numbers carry weight and having others to bounce ideas off of and stimulate meaningful conversation goes a long way. Also when collaborating, engage the community. Educate and empower them, and strive for sustainability."

What inspires Alysa about Black History Month:

“In our current political climate, it’s especially crucial for young minorities to see minorities old and young making impactful change and positive social contributions. The internet and mainstream media have allowed all sorts of messages to come into our daily lives, and many of us over time become desensitized to the negativity and hatred spanning our world. Utilizing a platform as influential as Google to acknowledge, promote, and encourage commitment to community serves as a reminder of what Black History Month (and those who fought for equality) embodies – particularly at a time when diversity and inclusion are needed most.”

Rayna Dunham

Rayna is both a student and a teacher. She is a high school biology teacher and a member of the Greater New England Alliance of Black School Educators while she simultaneously attends Central Connecticut State University. On top of that she volunteers at the Legacy Foundation of Hartford, a local food pantry.

“Upon completing an internship as a public health educator at the age of nineteen, I made the decision to become a high school biology teacher in an urban setting. I specifically wanted to work in an urban setting to serve as a role model for my students impacted by the vision gap disallowing them the privilege of being educated by a black teacher in a core subject area. I quickly learned that being a black teacher is more than just teaching the curriculum. I dedicate myself to each scholar’s academic success by being present every week and instilling a love of science into every potential doctor and engineer I teach.”

Rayna’s advice to others:
“Become a member of an existing organization that aligns with your goals and devote your time to improving it or expanding it with your resources. The most valuable gift you can give someone is your time.”

What inspires Rayna about Black History Month:
“I will use my postgraduate education to create generational change by disseminating my research in the community at large and investing in future teachers. Black History Month makes me reflect on the current realities of the world and inspires me to combat them in my classroom by teaching and furthering my own education. I will be the change this world needs by any means necessary."

Saba Tshibaka

Saba is currently a student at the University of Maryland, College Park. On and off campus, Saba participates in multiple organizations. She is the founder of the Jeopardy! Club, a computer literacy tutor in BcauseIcan, part of the University of Maryland Black Student Union's Big/Little Mentoring Program, and an ambassador for the Academic Achievement Program.

“At the Jeopardy! Club meetings, we invite not only students, but staff, faculty, and most importantly neighborhood/community members. It brings me great joy to be the president of an organization whose mission statement is to, 'commemorate the wealth of ALL of our knowledge!'"

Saba’s advice to others:

“My advice to someone looking to make an impact in their local community is focus on what you're passionate about! I've been watching Jeopardy since I was 7 with my family, and one of my biggest dreams was to act like Alex Trebek in Jeopardy, and now I get to do that monthly in a group run by my closest friends! Anything is possible if you try your hardest and believe in your work. Having a positive mindset makes the biggest difference.”

What inspires Saba about Black History Month:

“Something on my mind as we enter Black History month is how to better combat stereotypes against minority groups. So far I've just been trying to work as hard as I can to be the opposite of what people think I am. As a young black woman, I've gone to college, held countless jobs, and work to support my family as well as myself while staying hopeful."

Keep up with us on social (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube) to hear more about our initiatives.

Dive into computer science with Google's Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI)

2019-02-05T15:46:00.001-08:00

Opportunities are live for the 2019 Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI) and the Generation Google Scholarship (both available to graduating high school seniors in the US or Canada). Learn more about both programs below and apply before March 18!

What
Google's Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI) is a three-week introduction to computer science (CS) for graduating high school seniors with a passion for technology — especially students from historically underrepresented groups in the field.
The program includes:

A specially designed project-based curriculum that includes HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Python and Google App Engine to help prepare students for their first year of college CS
Daily development sessions to help you prepare for future job opportunities
An opportunity to interact directly with Google engineers
Exposure and insight into Google’s internship programs and technical career opportunities
Exposure and insight into Google’s internship programs and technical career opportunities

The Generation Google Scholarship helps aspiring computer scientists from underrepresented groups excel in technology and become leaders in the field. Selected students will receive 10,000 USD (for those studying in the US) or 5,000 CAD (for those studying in Canada) for the 2019-20120 school year. Please note, the Generation Google Scholarship and CSSI programs share an application – only CSSI applicants will be considered for the scholarship.

Where & When
We offer several options for CSSI depending on where you may be attending school. You can find more details on location here. Most of our programs run from June - August 2019.

Who
Any high school senior who plans to attend a four year institution in the US or Canada, has a passion for technology, and intends to enroll in a computer science, computer engineering, software engineering, or related department for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Why
Google is committed to increasing the enrollment and retention of students in the field of computer science. CSSI is not your average summer camp. It's an intensive, interactive, hands-on, and fun program that seeks to inspire the tech leaders and innovators of tomorrow by supporting the study of computer science, software engineering, and other closely-related subjects.

Visit the Google CSSI page for more information and to apply. The application deadline is Monday, March 18 at 11:59 pm PST. Final decisions will be announced in mid-to-late May.

Questions?
Give us a shout at cssi@google.com or generationgoogle@google.com.

The Ultimate Guide to Hash Code 2019

2019-01-22T07:59:00.000-08:00

Looking for your next programming challenge? Google’s flagship team coding competition, Hash Code, is back and registration is now open! The sixth (and first global) edition is bound to be bigger than ever. In the past, contestants have attempted to optimize the layout of a Google data center and transport commuters via self-driving cars. This February, developers of all skill levels will flex their coding muscles, get a glimpse into software engineering at Google, and have some fun (oh, and did we mention potentially win $4,000 USD?). Follow our top tips to make the most of Hash Code 2019:

Tip 1: Mark your calendars. Hash Code kicks off with an Online Qualification Round on Thursday, February 28th from 17:30 to 21:30 UTC. Top teams from the Online Qualification Round will then progress to April’s Final Round, hosted at Google Ireland, where they’ll compete for the title of Hash Code 2019 Champion. Check out last year’s Final Round highlights video to get a sense of the action!

Tip 2: Form a team. To compete in Hash Code, you’ll need to form a team of 2 to 4 people. Your team can be made up of classmates, peers, coworkers, friends, strangers, or – a combination! No matter your team composition, be sure to connect with your team before the contest to talk strategy, preferred programming languages, and, of course, come up with an awesome team name. Not sure where to find teammates (or just looking to connect with other Hash Coders)? Join our Facebook group or Google+ page to connect with the Hash Code community.

Tip 3: Get your team ready. Hash Code problems are modeled after real Google engineering challenges – and just like the problems that Google engineers tackle, there is no one right way to solve them! Instead, each round of the competition is designed as a battle of heuristics, meaning there isn’t a right or wrong answer. Hash Code’s optimization problems allow your team to approach the challenge in many different ways – and the best way to get comfortable with this type of coding is to practice. Use the Hash Code archive to hold a practice session with your team.

Tip 4: Join a hub. Hubs are locally-organized meetups that allow teams to compete side-by-side during the Online Qualification Round. These meetups are hosted by fellow Hash Coders at universities, coworking spaces, and company offices all around the world. Competing from a hub adds even more excitement to the Online Qualification Round and is a great way to meet new people plus strengthen your local developer community. Check out hubs in your area and be sure to join one before they fill up. Think you might be interested in organizing a hub? Learn more and apply.

Tip 5: Have fun. Whether you’re competing from a hub or from home with your team, or whether this is your first Hash Code or your sixth, the best part of Hash Code is the exciting, fun environment and community! Show Hash Coders around the world how your team is getting ready for the competition using #HashCode on social media.

If you’re up for the challenge, be sure to register at g.co/hashcode by February 25th. Follow these tips and who knows, maybe we’ll see you in Dublin for the Final Round!

Getting to know a research intern: Tomas Effenberger

2018-12-20T08:29:00.000-08:00

Google offers a variety of opportunities for students who wish to gain industry experience. Through our "Getting to know a research intern" series, we provide a glimpse into some of these opportunities as well as the impactful projects research students work on at Google. Today we’re featuring Tomas Effenberger, Master student (now PhD) from Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. Tomas interned with our Brain Applied Zurich team. Read On!

Tomas Effenberger

So tell us about yourself and your PhD topic …

I am a member of the Adaptive Learning research group at the Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. Our mission is to make learning more efficient and engaging by personalizing educational systems using artificial intelligence techniques. To achieve this mission, we research things like how to model students, how to reliably estimate difficulty of tasks, how to find optimal parameters for mastery learning, or how to deal with dangerous feedback loops and fairly evaluate adaptive learning systems.

We develop applications that provide personalized learning experience by estimating students’ skills as they practice and recommending them tasks of the optimal difficulty. Suitable challenges, neither too easy, nor too difficult, help the students immerse themselves into the problem solving activity and achieve the state of flow.

What does this mean for education?

We provide teachers with tools that help them be more impactful. We focus on automating the activities that are either too boring, too difficult, or even impossible for teachers, such as giving immediate personalized feedback on students’ homework. That gives the teachers time to prepare more sophisticated learning activities that couldn’t be performed well by computer tutors – for example a complex game followed by a guided reflection.

In addition, we develop tools that help teachers understand better the current skills of all their students. I like to think about our mission as giving teachers super-powers. No matter how good machines are, there will always be a place for teachers – though hopefully their jobs will be more fun and less frustrating than today.

Why did you choose this topic?

I strongly believe that improving education can have a huge and positive impact on the lives of every person on the planet. Every child spends many hours learning nearly every day, and the process of learning is often experienced as either boring or frustrating. By making the learning more efficient and engaging, we can help the students become happier and more skillful. That is why improving education is such a strong leverage point: happy and skillful people are likely to lead advances in all other aspects of our society – including improving education even further!

During my master studies at Masaryk University, I learned many useful tools that can help me on my life mission to advance personalized learning. Research on adaptive learning is a sweet spot at the intersection of what I consider important (improving education), and what I am good at (computer science and artificial intelligence).

Tomas Effenberger

Why did you apply for an internship at Google?

I had not worked as a software engineer before and I realized that I was lacking some essential skills for an efficient development of complex scalable adaptive learning systems. Interning at Google was a great opportunity to learn best practices from top software engineers and to see how machine learning can be used at scale.

What project was your internship focused on?

I worked under Quentin de Laroussilhe from the Brain Applied Zurich team to make state-of-the-art image dataset augmentation easily accessible to anyone inside and outside Google. A more high-level goal of my effort was to improve the quality of machine learning models by a combination of three concepts: data augmentation, meta learning, and transfer learning.

Data augmentation is a powerful technique for improving generalization. When training a machine learning model, the more data you have, the better performance you can achieve. By applying random distortions to the training data you already have, you can create new artificial training data. For images, those distortions can be random crops, rotations, increasing brightness, etc.

Since image augmentation includes many parameters, researchers at Google developed an algorithm called AutoAugment that searches for the best augmentation policy using millions of labeled images. This technique of learning an architecture and hyperparameters is referred to as meta learning, or learning to learn.

Reusing components learned on one task to solve new tasks is called transfer learning. I have released several image augmentation policies, and published them on TensorFlow Hub, allowing anyone to import and use them in the TensorFlow graphs of their models.

We have also incorporated the image augmentation policies into a meta-learning framework that can now jointly optimize the choice of the image augmentation policy and architecture of the model.

How closely connected was the work you did during your internship to your research topic?

The focus of my internship project was much broader with the goal to advance machine learning in general. Nevertheless, machine learning is one of the main tools that is used for adaptive learning. It was inspiring to see how various machine learning techniques and state-of-the-art tools are used at Google to tackle challenging problems that share some common aspects with adaptive learning.

Tomas Effenberger

This is already your second internship at Google. What were the reasons to come back?

I wanted to further develop my software engineering skills while working on research projects that can make the world a better place, at least transitively. After my first internship, I knew that Google was the perfect place for this. I received a lot of open and actionable feedback and I was not afraid to make mistakes, because I knew that they will be taken as great learning opportunities.

Engineers at Google are passionate about their work and have a clear vision of what they want to achieve, why they want to achieve it, and how they will do it. Even more importantly, they know how their work relates to the core values and mission of the company.

What key skills have you gained from your time at Google?

I have definitely improved my coding skills, especially through code reviews and pair programming sessions. I also had plenty of opportunities to practice data analysis, build machine learning models, and evaluate them properly. Last but not least, I think I quite considerably improved my communication skills, thanks to my host who pushed me to collaborate with many people both inside and outside our team.

What are your next steps? What is coming next after the internship?

I am now back to Brno to conduct a PhD in the Adaptive Learning research group at the Masaryk University under the supervision of Radek Pelanek. My main focus is on adaptive learning of introductory programming, which is a topic that I have already started to explore in my master thesis. I have developed a web application for learning the basics of programming that combines several strategies to support learning and motivation, such as using drag-and-drop blocks to build programs, visualizing their execution in a game world, and recommending the next suitable task.

Despite focusing primarily on learning programming, I also plan to explore more general methodological aspects concerning the development and evaluation of adaptive learning systems. I will strive to make my research readily applicable and helpful in existing large-scale educational systems such as Khan Academy.

Celebrating Google’s heroes at the Army-Navy game

2018-12-07T16:27:00.000-08:00

Each fall, students from the U.S. Military Academy and U.S. Naval Academy, and members of the U.S. military community brave the cold for the famed Army-Navy football game. In the 128 years since the first kick-off, the Army Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen have developed a fierce rivalry that keeps thousands coming back to the game every year.

At Google, we take immense pride in the military community members who make up the Google Veterans Network, or VetNet as we call it. This year, Grow with Google, an initiative to create economic opportunities, will be an Associate Partner of the Army-Navy game to continue to show our support for transitioning service members, veterans and their families. On behalf of Grow with Google, Googlers from our VetNet community, many of whom are alumni from USMA and USNA, will attend the game to support their respective teams. To celebrate the big game, we highlighted six of our VetNet community heroes.

How do students prepare for the big game?

Larraine Palesky
Former Engineer Officer, U.S. Army and Staffing Channels Specialist at Google, Texas
“The biggest event we celebrate leading up to the game is where we host a large boat burning. Yes, we actually fire up and burn a boat. We take beating Navy very seriously!”

Larraine Palesky, USMA Class of 2013, with her daughter Joelle.

Peter Yu
Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy and Program Manager at Google Fiber, Utah
“At USNA, the week itself is unofficially coined ‘Army-Navy Week.’ The Navy Flying Club occasionally will fly over a West Point noon formation and drop thousands of ‘Go Navy’ flyers right on top of the West Point cadets' heads.”

Peter Yu, USNA Class of 2003, with his wife Jahan.

What’s it like to participate in a game that dates back to 1890?

Yu: “Whether a student or a player, it is a great honor knowing that the nation is looking onto the large wave of uniformed Annapolis and West Point students with pride and high expectations.”

Andrew Burger
Former Captain, U.S. Marine Corps and Staffing Channels Specialist at Google, Texas
“I'm proud to say that I played on the football team for four years and we never lost to Army during that time! I was always in awe actually being at the games, because I remember watching them as a kid with my family, thinking, ‘How do these soldiers and sailors have time to play football?’ All the while, not realizing they were just college kids and through some strange pattern of events, I would one day become a USNA football player, too.”

Andrew Burger, USNA Class of 2010.

Why is Grow with Google’s work in support of the military community important?

Burger: “The veteran community is one of the largest untapped talent pools our nation has to offer. I’m not alone in that I struggled to define my strengths and talents in order to identify what profession I wanted to dedicate my time towards once I had to find a ‘real job.’ Grow with Google has the ability to help them personally define their particular skill sets, especially those that interest them.”

Tate Jarrow

Captain, Infantry, U.S. Army and Investigator at Google, California

“Veterans have an amazing sense of duty, selfless service, motivation, and an ability and desire to learn. Grow with Google can help veterans build on the skills and attributes developed during their service, and help them fully leverage their previous experience so they can be successful in their future endeavors.”

Tate Jarrow, USMA Class of 2004.

Larry Green

Supply Corps Officer (Lieutenant), U.S. Navy and Health and Performance Program Manager at Google, California

“The military experience embeds the values of maturity, teamwork, hard work, discipline, integrity, courage, being successful under pressure, and the list goes on. These core human values are timeless and will always be in demand in any industry.”

Larry Green, USNA Class of 1995.

Joe Schafer

Captain, Infantry, U.S. Army and Software Engineer at Google, California

“There’s a wealth of experience amongst veterans related to leadership, process management and integrity that is broadly useful across technology companies.”

Joe Schafer, USMA Class of 2010.

Which Grow with Google tools would you recommend to help fellow veterans transition to civilian life?

Palesky : “The Grow with Google tool I would share with fellow veterans looking to start a small business would be the veteran-led business attribute where veterans can identify their local businesses as veteran-led on mobile Google Search and Maps. The attribute helps businesses stand out, and makes it easy for everyone to proactively support veteran-owned businesses.”

Burger: “The Military Code Job Search Tool is a fantastic start in providing free and comprehensive assistance to curious and/or frustrated veterans and transitioning service members. It truly affirms to me Google’s mission, ‘Organizing the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’ to all!”

Women Techmakers Scholarship - last chance to apply

2018-11-29T06:59:00.000-08:00

Editor’s Note: The application window for our North America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa scholarships closes on Thursday, Dec 6, 2018. Our Asia-Pacific scholarship application will open in Spring 2019. You can find the most up to date information on the Women Techmakers Scholars site.

Through the Women Techmakers Scholars Program - formerly the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship Program, Google is furthering Dr. Anita Borg’s vision of creating gender equality in the field of computer science by encouraging women to excel in computing and technology and become active leaders and role models in the field.

Students selected for the scholarship will receive a financial award for the 2020-21 academic year and will be invited to the annual Google Scholars' Retreat in their region next summer. At the retreat, scholars participate in networking and development sessions, including sessions on how to lead outreach in their communities. In addition, scholars join a long term community, offering guidance and support in outreach and personal development.

Meet some of our current scholars from across the globe as they share their experiences with the program and advice to those applying:

Zoe Tagboto, Africa

Zoe is currently an undergraduate computer science student in Africa. When one of her lecturers encouraged her to apply, she wasn’t sure if she’d be qualified. She took a chance and advises those who feel they’re not ready to trust themselves and reflect on the impact they’ve had on their communities – no matter how big or small.

“Take the plunge. Tech is fascinating and multifaceted. You aren’t restricted. You can be creative in so many different ways. It feels like you are doing magic. Once you’ve made the decision to pursue this field it is important to find your community. Having support or people who can drive you can inspire and motivate. Having a mentor is also a great resource that will help guide you as you progress through your career.”

Zoe explains that her highlight of being a scholar includes attending the Scholar’s Retreat in London this summer, as well as receiving a travel grant to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration where she had a chance to connect with other scholars and many other women in tech.

Kati Elizabeth, Australia

Kati is currently an undergraduate student studying human computer interaction, UX, and product management in Australia. She was reading about the Grace Hopper Celebration when she spotted the scholarship and decided to apply.

Her advice to potential applicants is, “Do not second guess yourself. Apply! You are so much cooler than you give yourself credit for, and you absolutely should just go for it. Secondly, I would say to spend time on answering the questions thoughtfully. Write out dot points answers first and then expand on them.” Outside of the application, she also recommends joining a club or society related to your field of study, and attending local hackathons and talks to meet and learn from people with similar interests.

“For me, the highlight was the retreat and meeting all the other amazing scholars & Googlers. Every scholar genuinely cared about making the world a better place. In the STEM industries there are fewer women than men, and this means we often find ourselves working in isolation. Now we have an incredible network of smart and inspiring women in tech. I made some life-long friends and allies.”

Lena Ngungu, North America

Lena is currently an undergraduate student in North America and will be graduating next year to pursue a career as a software engineer. She heard about the scholarship through the Women Techmakers newsletter and decided to apply. Her advice to potential applicants while writing essays is to be authentic and demonstrate a passion for what you have accomplished and hope to accomplish – especially in the tech industry.

“Being a scholar, I feel more competitive on the market which is very empowering. However, the people, my fellow scholars, would be the highlight of my journey. They have been a true inspiration. Having stayed in touch with them has motivated me to continue to give my best, as they are continuing to do so too and achieving so much. I love having a network of outstanding people who are caring and supportive.”

Melissa Rossi, Europe

Melissa is currently a research student in France specializing in Cryptology. A former scholar got her thinking about what she has done for women in tech and what more she can do which motivated her to apply for the scholarship.

She says the retreat was an opportunity to meet many original and independent minds that left her inspired. Her motivation to challenge gender inequality in scientific research has been boosted after this experience. She sums up advice to potential applicants, “Be positive! Go for it – you will never stop being amazed by what can be achieved.” She encourages women to speak out and continue a dialogue about the underrepresentation of women in technology.

Hispanic Heritage Month Pay It Forward Challenge: Recognizing students making a difference (Part 3 of 3)

2018-11-16T08:01:00.000-08:00

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15 - Oct 15), Google hosted a Pay It Forward Challenge to recognize Latinx/Hispanic student leaders who are advancing opportunities for their local communities. We ended up receiving so may great submissions that we decided to make this a three-part blog series. This is the final piece. We’re excited to share the work of the students below and hope you’ll be inspired by their stories.

ICYMI, be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this post.

Diana Lee Guzman

Diana Lee Guzman is a recent graduate from New York University with a B.S. in Computer Science. She grew up in Phoenix, AZ in a primarily Latinx community. She is currently the Founder/CEO of Coding in Color and a Software Engineer at Boeing.

Diana started her non-profit, Coding in Color, with the purpose of providing educational resources to underrepresented students in computing. “Over the past 9 months, I had the pleasure of working alongside two of my amazing high school colleagues, Lirio and Robert, to create a Summer Coding Camp, specifically for our community. We worked alongside our high school administration (Carl Hayden Community High School) where they provided us with a classroom and computers. The course was sponsored by individual members of the community who helped with supplies and providing stipends for students. I taught the course for three weeks where we covered topics such as Web Development, Object Orientated Programming, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence.”

After the course ended, Diana continued mentoring, and along with her mentee, created websites for two local Latina business owners with businesses catering towards the Spanish speaking community.

What inspires Diana about Hispanic Heritage Month

"What I enjoy the most about Hispanic Heritage month is being able to see all these amazing opportunities being acted on by people just like me, people who speak like me, eat some of the same food as me and listen to the same music as me. I enjoy seeing the celebration of our cultures and accomplishments and it always makes me hopeful that the next generation, next graduating class, next wave of us will be able to accomplish more than we ever have."

Katerina Alvarez

Katerina Alvarez is a Posse Foundation Scholar at Mount Holyoke College studying Statistics and Sociology. Katerina is a Latina civic leader and STEM advocate committed to “engaging purposefully in mutually-beneficial community partnerships to advance social justice, education and community development with tech.”

Through her work as a Mount Holyoke Community-Based Learning (CBL) STEM Fellow for The Care Center, a transformative education program, Katerina helps support and empower young Latinx mothers to complete their high school equivalency exams and pursue higher education and successful careers in tech.

“For the past year, I've recruited over 50 Spanish-speaking tutors and developed an innovative partnership with Makerspace – a laboratory on campus which aims at inspiring and educating underrepresented women in STEM by blending the arts and sciences together to create fun and engaging workshops. As I continue collaborating with The Care Center, I am also mentoring and supporting 30 other CBL Fellows, to help them build successful and sustainable partnerships with their community partners.”

Katerina’s advice to others
"Remember: Never assume, be transparent, and complete a '360 review' frequently, so you may learn from the organization and volunteers about what is and what isn't working."

What inspires Katerina about Hispanic Heritage Month
"Hispanic Heritage Month inspires me because it reminds me of my Cuban grandparents who taught me the importance of perseverance, determination, and believing in the unbelievable. I remember my grandfather, a 90-year old tennis player and painter, vividly sharing their story of love and sacrifice as they immigrated to the US while my wise and practical grandmother fact-checked him along the way. They've empowered me to embrace my roots and live my best life with passion and resilience. This month, and every month, I celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month for my grandparents, Aba y Abu."

Angel Ortega

Angel is a graduate student at The University of Texas at El Paso. He was born and raised in Mexico City before moving to El Paso to seek an education. He is an avid learner with interests in technology, culture, foreign languages, and education. He is also a big Harry Potter fan.

Angel has been a long-time member of the Sol y Agua Project. The Sol y Agua Project aims to attract middle school students, specifically minorities, from the Rio Grande Region into STEM fields and careers with a focus on water sustainability, biodiversity, and the human-impact on the environment. “I combined my passion for technology and education with my background as a minority, international student, and Computer Science major to teach children in El Paso about computing, computational thinking, and water.” His goal is to help and inspire young students to pursue a higher education, ideally in STEM.

Angel is also very active in the Computing Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institutions (CAHSI). He was recently selected as a CAHSI Scholar and currently acts as the CAHSI Student Coordinator for the Google TechExchange Program.

Angel’s advice to others
“Sometimes the things with the most impact are those that seem the least significant. You'll never know how impactful you can be, until you try. Go out there and be the change you want to see in your community.”

Orlando Gil

Orlando lives in Harlem, New York. He is graduating soon from Baruch College with a concentration in Data Analytics.

On campus, Orlando helped over 30 undocumented students share their stories in a university publication. “My mission is to uplift the contributions of immigrants in American society, and positively shape the rhetoric towards undocumented immigrants. It has taught me the value of owning one's story and using it to combat stereotypes.”

As an intern at the U.S. House of Representatives, Orlando helped lobby on behalf of undocumented students such as himself and “bring light to the various issues faced by those of us who are currently DACA recipients.”

“Although the efforts to pass the DREAM Act, a legislative solution, were not successful, I see far more value in the self-determination of immigrants as natural entrepreneurs. For that reason, I am passionate about helping undocumented entrepreneurs bridge gaps in business and technical expertise.” This is why he has launched his new initiative – Dream Ventures NYC. “Dream Ventures is a springboard for innovation, education and communal entrepreneurship within the immigrant community. We help ‘UndocuPreneurs’ finance their bold ideas, and pair them with experienced advisors.”

Through advocacy, Orlando has been able to share and perform his writing at various magazine launch events, festivals, and television.

Orlando’s advice to others

“Know yourself and understand your ties to your own community. It will reinforce your passion for helping and persevering through constant challenges. Also, analyze your available network and see how you can create value. Value is not always determined by the structure of power—one may not have the power to bring about overnight change, but one can gradually and creatively find the resources to do so.”

Andreina Martinez

Andreina Martinez is currently a senior at The City College of New York majoring in Psychology with an interest in public service. She is from the Dominican Republic and came to the United States in 2010.

Andreina volunteers as a High School Educator, with Peer Health Exchange, an organization that wants to provide young kids with the right tools and information to make smart decisions about their health. She previously interned with the New York State Senate where she focused on constituent casework ranging from housing issues to military benefits. After spending last summer in Washington D.C “interning and learning more about the legislative process our nation goes through,” Andreina took on another internship in the New York City Council where she works to help low income communities and immigrants.

Andreina’s advice to others

"We don't know who we can impact with our actions and even with our words. It's extremely important to know the value of your voice and your story, when you are able to share those things with the world you will see change in your communities. Give it a try!"

Itzel Tapia

Itzel is currently a junior attending the University of Texas at Dallas full-time on a full scholarship. She is majoring in Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence with a minor in Cognitive Science. She was born in Dallas, Texas, after her parents immigrated from Mexico. She is the first person in her family to attend college, and has a three year old daughter.

When Itzel returned to school in 2016 she began volunteering at with Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society in the form of scholarship fundraisers, food drives, and mentorship. This is where she found her passion – helping other students.

Itzel began mentoring classmates on the abundance of resources available to help them succeed. This led to helping with scholarship applications, class registration, major exploration, university admissions, and even tutoring. Eventually she began reaching out to high school juniors and seniors who desperately needed help navigating their last years of high school, in preparation for college.

“It is so common to encounter Hispanic students who are intimidated and thus unsure of whether they should attend college. There is so little help offered in the advising offices, and so many resources that go unused. I’ve always loved research, so collecting a growing list of resources, scholarship opportunities, and the like came naturally – once I knew where to look.”

“First-generation college students cannot count on the experience of our parents to help guide us in our journeys, we rely solely on our own grit, and the few generous mentors we encounter along the way. I felt personally responsible to be that mentor to every student I met who needed help.”

Itzel is also passionate about increasing the interest of girls and women in STEM. She has begun mentoring girls who cannot afford coding/robotics camps, and hopes to inspire them and give them the self-confidence to become the engineers, scientists, and doctors of the future.

What inspires Itzel about Hispanic Heritage Month?
“I am inspired by the stories of other Latinx who come from humble backgrounds and still find their own ways to help our community. It’s a powerful thing to see a mother of four, raising money for scholarships by throwing a Tamalada. It gives great comfort knowing that I’ll never be alone, and that no matter what, someone will always step-in to offer me their help with a few Tamales in tow.”

Keep up with us on social (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, G+, YouTube) to hear more about our initiatives!

My Path to Google: Jesus Lugo, Windows Systems Administrator

2018-11-14T06:55:00.002-08:00

Welcome to the 31st installment of our blog series “My Path to Google.” These are real stories from Googlers, interns, and alumni highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Today’s post is all about Windows Systems Administrator, Jesus Lugo. Read on!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I was born in Ciudad Ojeda, Venezuela and moved to Miami, Florida when I was ten years old. Shortly after high school, I joined the Marine Corps where I served for 4 years as a Hygiene Equipment Operator. I was very fortunate because once my chain of command learned of my technical abilities, I was allowed to use these skills as an unofficial Information Systems Coordinator. In this capacity I helped manage our computers and networking equipment during my two deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After finishing my active duty service, I attended Miami Dade College, where I received my associate’s degree in Business Administration. After two years of working as an on-site customer engineer, I decided to go back to school for my bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from Florida International University.

I am obsessed with new technology and in particular, hardware. When I am not at work, I spend time looking for ways to integrate new technology into my home. I am generally the first to buy and test new tech.

Whenever I get a chance, I enjoy helping Google at student conferences like those run by Student Veterans of America (SVA), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). I talk to students about what it is like to work at Google and how to prepare their resumes and their interviewing skills.

Volunteering at one of the numerous student conferences Jesus helps out at.

What’s your role at Google?
I am currently a Windows Systems Administrator. My team, WinOps, develops, maintains, and supports all the Windows OS related infrastructure for use within Google. We are directly responsible for the configuration and health of all Windows clients and we own the infrastructure and build process for all Windows servers. Within my team, I am part of the configuration management group – specifically tasked with ensuring systems are compliant with internal policy configurations.

What I like most about this role is the continuous evolution. We are always looking for ways to innovate and improve our service offerings. As much as possible we collaborate with other platform teams (Linux and Mac) to build cross-platform tools.

I am currently rewriting a Linux specific tool to work on all other platforms, and integrate a Firebase Cloud Messaging listener to receive notifications from a centralized location. This new software will allow us to manage software distribution and enforcement throughout the fleet, and how tech support teams manage software requests and assist users in getting what they need to get their job done.

Complete the following: "I [choose one: code/create/design/build] for …"
I build to provide a good Windows user experience while maintaining platform security.

What inspires you to come in every day?
I am grateful I get to work with an amazing and supportive team, and the projects I get to work on are always challenging and help me grow both personally and professionally.

I am also very excited about the direction we are headed as Google's cloud business continues to grow. We are constantly looking for opportunities to open source our tools so that other systems administrators can have alternate ways of solving problems we've faced.

In my current project, we are migrating our software distribution tools into solutions that are used across all of our platforms, are largely automated, use code review processes to manage changes, and are more scalable. This results in releases that are easier to track and maintain, saving us countless engineering hours.

Can you tell us about your decision to enter the process?

During my associate’s degree, I did a project about Google and discovered a lot of information about the culture and many of the perks.

On my last semester at FIU I applied to many companies in South Florida, and even after graduation I had not heard from any of them. As I looked through many different career sites, I decided to see if Google had a job opening that matched my skills. I had applied to many different large companies in Silicon Valley, but I hadn’t heard back from any of them and was sure that Google would be the same way.

Since I was working and attending school full-time, I was unable to take any internships in order to gain real-world experience in IT. However, my job as a Customer Engineer required being knowledgeable in over 20 distinct systems, being capable of troubleshooting issues to root cause, and having great customer service skills.

Two weeks after graduation, I discovered Google’s Information Technology Residency Program and applied for the job. Even though it was a fixed term position, it was an opportunity to work at Google, and see what it was like from the inside.

How did the recruitment process go for you?
It was a smooth, though long process. I applied directly from the careers site job posting on December 23, 2011, and received the first email from a recruiter on January 3rd, 2012. I had my technical phone screen scheduled on January 7th in the afternoon, and two days later I received a call from the recruiter inviting me for on-site interviews in Mountain View, CA.

My on-site interview date was set two months after the phone screen, which allowed me to brush up on many of the topics I felt I could have done better during the phone screen.

I received the results from the interviews the day before my birthday, and I was so excited when I heard the news from the recruiter, that I accepted without waiting to hear the rest of the offer.

What do you wish you’d known when you started the process?
Recruiters often send or mention topics that may be covered during the technical interviews, focus on those during your studying.

Some available positions may have a time constraint, be sure to work with your recruiter or coordinator to ensure you have ample time to study prior to the technical interviews.

Can you tell us about the resources you used to prepare for your interview or role?
I read "The Google Resume" by Gayle Laakmann McDowell. I found it to be an invaluable resource, and it helped me a great deal.

I read a lot of books on basic IT topics, as the job that I applied for was as an IT generalist. It was tough deciding on what was important, so I focused at the time on having a good understanding of how things worked. I used CBT Nuggets, and other video training tools I could get my hands on. Since I used to drive a lot, I used them like audiobooks and kept track of topics that I needed to view later for additional understanding.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share with aspiring Googlers?
Anything on your resume is fair game, ensure that you can talk at length about anything on it. I personally had listed a number of programming languages on my resume without specifying a level of expertise and was asked to solve a programming problem during my initial interviews, even though the role didn't necessarily require coding skills.

It's best to think out loud, ask clarifying questions, and verify your assumptions with the interviewer, to avoid going too far in the wrong direction in an interview. Do your research about the role you’re applying for, and think of questions you want answered by your interviewers.

Getting to know a research intern: Renata Khasanova

2018-11-07T09:02:00.002-08:00

So tell us about yourself and your PhD topic …
I am currently pursuing my PhD in the signal processing group in EPFL Lausanne under the supervision of Professor Pascal Frossard. My main research topic is extending deep neural network systems to irregular domains such as graphs. For example, we have recently shown that we gain significant accuracy improvement when using graphs for omnidirectional image classification tasks.

Why did you apply for an internship at Google and how supportive was your PhD advisor?
I was always very interested in doing applied research and Google offers the unique opportunity to work on various research topics in application to real tasks. Therefore during my PhD, I decided to apply for an internship in the Compression group led by Jyrki Alakuijala. My supervisor, Professor Frossard, was very supportive and saw this as a great opportunity for me.

What project was your internship focused on?
I worked on improving the new compression algorithm, PIK, designed at Google. My project was really challenging and fun. The main goal of my project was to improve the quality of PIK at the high compression rate.

At Google we care about the responsiveness of web pages, and we look for new ways to make loading faster. Transferring large amounts of data is one reason for slowness, and images constitute a large fraction of that data traffic. This can be mitigated by compressing images more, but higher compression rates reduce visual quality. In this work, we propose a method for resynthesizing the noise that is commonly lost in image compression. We show that resynthesizing the noise increases the perceived quality of the images.

Zoom of dancer’s back with three variations: 1. normal compressed version 2. uncompressed original 3. compressed version with added noise.

In our study we looked at the impact of noise generation within the PIK image compression algorithm. With higher compression densities, details disappear and images look overly smooth. Our noise re-generation system keeps the images looking more natural even when aggressively compressed.

Noise regeneration system improves the perceived quality of lossy compression algorithms by adding 'texture'.

In both experiments we conducted (one focused on perceived quality, the other on perceived authenticity), we saw improvements well above the 95% confidence level. The images are more pleasant for the users and the added noise makes compressed images look more natural.

Did you publish at Google during your internship?
In the end of the internship, we published a paper describing our approach. I really enjoyed the process of writing the paper as all my colleagues were very supportive and helped me a lot. I have also received a lot of help from other teams in Google regarding the user study experiments. Overall the whole process of publishing was very easy and enjoyable.

How closely connected was the work you did during your internship to your PhD topic?
During my internship, I had the opportunity to work on something related, yet quite different from my main research topic at EPFL. I really loved this because it gave me the chance to learn about the topic of compression and its challenges. I have received a lot of support on this from my colleagues at Google. Though this area is not directly related to my PhD topic, my knowledge in graph signal processing helped in determining the direction I should take while working on my internship project.

Did you write your own code?
Writing code is an important part of Google projects. For me it was a great opportunity to practice and receive feedback from very talented engineers. This allowed me to improve both my programming and algorithmic skills. At the end of my internship project we made our code public, which was a very easy process and I received a lot of help on it from the members of my team.

What key skills have you gained from your time at Google?
During my time at Google I have learnt a lot of exciting things about various compression algorithms and methodologies for conducting user studies. I also got hands-on experience with novel Google technologies for coding and code reviews. Furthermore, I participated in a very exciting robotics project with the Google Brain team. This gave me the chance to work with great researchers and engineers as well as allowed me to discover various connections between state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and neuroscience.

What impact has this internship experience had on your PhD?
My internship at Google broadened my horizons in different ways. It introduced me to various fields such as compression and neuroscience. It also enriched and diversified my knowledge, allowing me to look at my PhD research topic from a wider perspective. My internship inspired me to extend my PhD work to compression algorithms and seek for the possible improvements that can be done in this area using the power of graph signal processing.

Looking back on your experiences now: Why should a PhD student apply for an internship at Google? Any advice to offer?
Google is an amazing place to work. Here you can have an impact on both the research community and the real products. I recommend PhD students apply for an internship, because it is a great opportunity to work with and gain unique experiences from very smart people. At Google, I was amazed by the variety of research directions that people are working on and the freedom they have in choosing them. This combined with access to the most advanced and well-designed infrastructure gives you, as an intern, a great opportunity to do research that will impact people’s lives. Apart from these advantages – Google is a very fun place to work. There were numerous events organized to bring researchers from very different areas together to share knowledge and exchange ideas.

Hispanic Heritage Month Pay It Forward Challenge: Recognizing students making a difference (Part 2 of 3)

2018-10-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15 - Oct 15), Google hosted a Pay It Forward Challenge to recognize Latinx/Hispanic student leaders who are advancing opportunities for their local communities. We’re excited to share the work of the students below and hope you’ll be inspired by their stories.

After receiving so may great submissions, we've decided to make this a three-part blog post. ICYMI, be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 3.

Claudia Saavedra

Claudia is a student at Rutgers University-Newark studying Public Affairs and Administration. She was born in Chile and her family immigrated to the United States. She is the youngest of six and is the first in her family to go to college.

As someone coming from poverty, an immigrant, and a first generation high school graduate, she received no guidance when it came to the college process. She did not want anyone to go through the same experience. When Claudia was 17 years old, she founded college access workshops to help low-income and first-generation students through the college process. As a result, every student participant graduated from high school and attended college with scholarships. In an effort to scale her workshops, when she was a freshman in college, she founded FlairNow - an online mentoring website where she mentored over 100 low-income and first-generation students through the college admission process.

Her platform is currently working with Newark Public Schools, and her first partnering school is West Side High School. FlairNow helps Westside high school students navigate the process from the time they are in 9th grade and beginning the college exploration process to the time they graduate. Claudia's goal, "is for every student, no matter their background, to graduate from high school and enroll in a college or trade school."

What inspires Claudia about Hispanic Heritage Month
“Hispanic Heritage Month Inspires me because as an immigrant and Latina, this month honors the sacrifices the Hispanic/Latinx community makes to live up to the "American Dream" in the United States. Regardless of the obstacles encountered, we are still fearless, bold, and hungry to make the world we live in a better place. In short, we make things happen no matter of how much we have.”

Alejandro Chardon

Alejandro was previously a student at the University of Puerto Rico and is currently a senior at the University of Central Florida studying Health Services Administration.

Starting with the "Master Plan for Bicycles" at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, Alejandro helped develop cycling infrastructure from scratch and paint the first bicycle lane in the history of the University of Puerto Rico. From this organization stemmed BiciCoop – the first bicycle shop established in the University of Puerto Rico. With this start-up, Alejandro and his co-founders created part-time jobs for students and promoted the culture of entrepreneurship on campus.

After Hurricane Maria, Alejandro, and hundreds of Puerto Rican students, left the island in search of better opportunities to continue their studies. The University of Central Florida granted them in-state-tuition for one semester. Alejandro quickly got involved with the Puerto Rican Student Association and helped put together a proposal to extend the in-state-tuition waiver for a whole year. As a result, the board of trustees extended the tuition waiver to Spring 2023.

Alejandro’s advice to others
“With time I have realized that the most valuable assets I obtain from any project are the relationships cultivated. The people that you work with become your friends and your supporters, as you become theirs."

Arnold Moctezuma

Arnold Moctezuma is a first-generation Mexican raised in New York City. He currently studies Computer Science and Information Security at John Jay College.

Working as a peer mentor at LaGuardia Community College with CREAR Futuros – a City University of New York (CUNY) wide program spearheaded by the Hispanic Federation – Arnold helps support college retention and graduation rates for Latinx students. “I share stories of my experiences to inspire and motivate a higher sense of self and value in others.”

“Growing up in NYC as a first-generation Mexican, I didn't always understand who I was and where I belonged.” With the help of the America Needs You Scholarship Program Arnold was able to improve his interview and public speaking skills while getting to know other first-generation fellows, which further motivated him. “I see it as a responsibility to myself and others to continue building the change that I want to see in this world by encouraging others to find for themselves the opportunities that will help them grow.” Reflecting on his accomplishments, Arnold was inspired to start a blog to further document and share information and resources specific to the Hispanic and Latinx communities.

What inspires Arnold about Hispanic Heritage Month
“Identity is important to everyone, regardless of our individual backgrounds. Many people share different cultures through their lineage, complicating their sense of identity. Hispanic Heritage Month, for me, is a way of including and recognizing everyone who identifies as Latinx or Hispanic into a big loving community full of color and life.”

Marcelo López

Marcelo is a senior at Middlebury College studying International and Global Studies with a focus on Latin America. Marcelo also has a minor in American Studies, with a Critical Race Theory focus. He was born and raised in Richmond, California, and when he is not busy studying, he is dancing in one of his college's dance crews – Evolution.

Marcelo established the first Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC) affinity group at Middlebury College during his sophomore year. He founded the group after hearing many of his friends express that they felt there were no LGBTQ+ groups/spaces on campus with the majority of members who could relate to their ethnic/cultural backgrounds.

“When I kicked off the QTPOC initiative two years ago, I intended for the space to be one where not just students, but faculty and staff could also engage. That was one of the largest visions I had in my head when establishing the space. After two years, and with Middlebury increasing its diversity efforts, the number of people benefitting from this space has quadrupled. As the founder of this initiative, it brings me peace knowing that this space will live on after my time at Middlebury.”

Marcelo’s advice to others
“In order to effectively inspire change in others, I believe that it is first necessary for one to inspire change within oneself. You, as an individual, have to be the first person to believe in whatever project or movement that you conceive. Once that’s done—well there’s nowhere to go but up.”

Lesly Bohuchot

Lesly is a student at theUniversity of Colorado Boulder in the engineering and applied mathematics department. She is from Houston, Texas and in addition to engineering, she loves to sing and draw.

After coming back from a 2018 Python conference (PyCon), Lesly and another friend revived the Houston PyLadies MeetUp group that had been inactive for over two years. This time, however, they wanted it to be more than just a meet up. Lesly wanted to create an avenue for educational opportunities for young girls and women in general to get into STEM.

“So I took it upon myself, coordinating with a few other wonderful women to not only bring PyLadies back to Houston, but to turn it into an outreach and volunteer program.” They recently held a large event welcoming all women traveling to Houston for the Grace Hopper Celebration and are actively coordinating with schools and other programs to grow their impact. “I want the Houston PyLadies to stand on its own and grow to one be one of the biggest chapters in the country.”

Lesly’s advice to others
“Every person matters. No matter how small we think our impact is, it can be huge to a single person. That is the most important thought to keep in mind. Do not be discouraged. Focus on the people that will benefit and be helped.”

Ryan and Dani DaCosta

Ryan and Dani DaCosta are a brother-sister duo behind "AYUDA! Tutoring" at their high school. Ryan is now a freshman in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan while Dani is a sophomore at Suffern High School in their hometown of Suffern, New York.

As a junior in high school, Ryan created the program, AYUDA! Tutoring – a free tutoring service targeting the large population of Latinx/Hispanic immigrants in Suffern. Ryan explains, “Many students move to the United States and struggle to adjust to classes taught mostly in English and they have limited resources to seek out extra help.” Dani currently serves as a facilitator of AYUDA! Tutoring and is responsible for coordinating and recruiting new tutors. She ensures all involved students have someone to assist them with homework, test prep, language practice, or anything else they may want. The group of tutors offer academic support as well as communication skills to English Language Learner classmates.

In college, Ryan has become involved with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Michigan Community Scholars Program – a living-learning community dedicated to social justice and community service. Dani is still managing AYUDA! Tutoring while balancing schoolwork and playing field hockey, basketball and lacrosse throughout the school year.

Ryan and Dani’s advice to others
“To anyone looking to start a community service initiative, start small and use any resource you have. It may take a while to scale down a larger goal and find your first step, but that leads to your second and so on.”

Luis Gasca

Luis Gasca is a sophomore at Rutgers University – New Brunswick studying Environmental Business and Economics. Luis was born in the small city of Popayan, Colombia and grew up in Trenton, New Jersey.

Throughout high school Luis was involved in Mill Hill P.E.E.R.S – a non-profit youth development program that focused on encouraging responsible strategies throughout Trenton by presenting skits to the community on bullying, dating violence, drug awareness, and much more.

Once in college, Luis was elected to serve as President for C.O.S.I.N.E – an organization that advocates academic excellence amongst underrepresented students and engages in community service. C.O.S.I.N.E creates a safe space where individuals can seek resources, connections, and find networking opportunities.

What inspires Luis about Hispanic Heritage Month

“Hispanic Heritage Month is a month that brings enlightenment to my spirit. It is a month full of joy, tradition, smiles, and good times. I enjoy the events that are usually put on this month because they unify the community and allow everyone to connect, bond, and really build on each individual's sense of culture.”

Keep up with us on social (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, G+, YouTube) to hear more about our initiatives!

How to start coding (without paying much) today!

2018-10-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

School's back in session, and you're curious how you can start coding in your free time? Never fear, because Aaron Hobson, Code Next Oakland coach and lead curriculum developer, has rallied to assemble a list of opportunities and tools that you can pull from. While geared towards middle and high school students – we've found these resources to be effective for new learners of all ages who are interested in coding, the arts, or just making something with their hands.

SO YOU WANT ONLINE CODING TOOLS...

Here is a list of free (or in some cases, “free trial”) tools that you can use if you wish to learn programming on your own. They are organized into arbitrary “levels” in order to help you determine where you might want to start, based on experience.

Level 1 (Beginner, never really tried to code)

Try block-based coding, with either Code Studio or Scratch (both free).
Google-specific programs that support learning block-based coding on one's own:

CS First has an entire collection of computer science enrichment materials.
Made With Code includes coding challenges and DIY projects. Be sure not to miss the Wonder Woman one!

Level 2 (Done some basic block-based coding)

Move away from block-based to actual code with Alice 2 (free), CodeCombat (free trial) and CodeHS (purchase required).

Level 3 (Ready to start creating apps)

Alice 3 (free) is an upgrade from Alice 2. You can also try your hand at MIT App Inventor (free) to start creating your own apps!

Level 4 (Looking to code with actual languages like Python)

Processing (free) is a software sketchbook, and great for creating cool art and graphics. Greenfoot (free) and BlueJ (free) are also great free coding platforms.
What about going straight for a language that our own Google engineers use? Try a hand at Python. Check out these two online textbooks—Invent with Python and A Byte of Python.
There are also other websites with huge collections of computer science courses worth checking out, including CodeHS, Coursera, Udacity, and Code Academy. These cover artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.

SO YOU WANT CREATIVE TOOLS...
If you’re the type who is looking to get a bit more creative and experimental with your code this summer – here is a list of tools you can use to develop video games, graphics, 3D designs, music, and more. Most of these are free to use, while others have free trials.

For those who love creating games:

For those into computer graphics, design, and art:

For those looking to create their own blog or website:

For those who want to create their own music or audio files:

SO YOU WANT TO GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY WITH PHYSICAL COMPUTING...

Check out the following list of tools for students interested in building computers, robots, gadgets, and so forth (not all are free, but all are helpful).

If you want to start off with the basics, littleBits are kits filled with electronic building blocks to create cool projects and small networks of circuits.

Use Arduinos or Raspberry Pis to build DIY computer programs. Or, go for a full Kano kit to build a full computer, which includes a Raspberry Pi, a wireless keyboard, and a speaker.

Want to make a banana play a song when you peel it open? Check out MakeyMakeys – kits that allow you to connect typical, everyday objects to computer programs.

Last, but not least, if you’re looking for project ideas to work on with your Kano kits, MakeyMakeys, or Arduino boards, Instructables is a website filled with DIY project suggestions and a community of students who love to create.

LOOKING FOR MORE?

We’ve got plenty more tidbits and recommendations for computer science education. Interested in learning more from the Code Next lab? Sign up for our free newsletter—and happy coding!

Hispanic Heritage Month Pay It Forward Challenge: Recognizing students making a difference (Part 1 of 3)

2018-10-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15 - Oct 15), Google is hosting a Pay It Forward Challenge to recognize Latinx/Hispanic student leaders who are advancing opportunities for their local communities. We’re excited to share the work of the students below and hope you’ll be inspired by their stories.

Update: After receiving so may great submissions, we decided to make this a three-part blog post. Be sure to check out Part 2 and Part 3.

Edgar Bustos

Edgar Bustos is a junior at the University of Southern California triple majoring in Economics, Business Administration, and Political Science with a minor in Law and Public Policy. He was born in Dallas, Texas, is a first-generation American, and a self-described "son of a proud Mexican woman".

Edgar has devoted his undergraduate career to supporting the development of Latinx/Hispanic students as the President of QuestBridge at his university. QuestBridge matches high-achieving, low-income students to elite universities with full scholarships. Edgar explains, "QuestBridge made college possible for me. Now, I serve as President of QuestBridge at the University of Southern California, where I partner with a talented executive board to serve college students and the surrounding community. I have prioritized training events that help first-generation/low-income students to become competitive job seekers and graduate school applicants. I am also reaching out to public schools with majority-Latinx students to sponsor events where we can teach students about scholarship opportunities."

In an effort to increase Latinx representation in executive roles, Edgar also created Latinxs in Human Resources. Edgar uses LHR to promote the development of underrepresented communities and provide information about career paths in Human Resources. "It is my hope that by targeting the development of Latinxs before, during, and after college, I can make lasting impacts in the Latinx community." In his "spare" time, Edgar acts as a student teacher with Mission Science. He actively supports STEM exposure for Latinx/Hispanic students by leading after-school science lessons.

How can you help?

If you, or someone you know, is a high-achieving, low-income student – you can read more about QuestBridge here. If you are a representative from a university not currently partnering with QuestBridge, please consider advocating for a QuestBridge partnership at your University.

Bianca Alvarez

Bianca is a student at The University of Texas at El Paso, the Vice President of UTEP's chapter of ACMW (Association for Computing Machinery Council on Women in Computing), a National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) AspireIT Program Leader, and "passionate about empowering Hispanic girls through technology and educational programs".

The NCWIT AspireIT program is a computer science initiative for girls in grades K-12. As a program leader, Bianca helped raise over $5,000 in 2018 to engage Hispanic girls through summer camps and programming clubs. This year, she partnered with Latinitas, a nonprofit organization focused on empowering young Latinas using media and technology. Together they hosted the summer camp "Latinitas Code Chica", aimed for girls in 4th-8th grade and will begin the "Code Chica After School Club" in late October.

"As the AspireIT Leader, I was able to share my passion in tech and teach participants fundamentals in programming and computational thinking in a fun and creative environment. My vision for the future of women in the tech industry is to see Latina girls having the same opportunity to learn programming skills at a young age, regardless of their ethnicity or economic status."

What inspires Bianca about Hispanic Heritage Month

"The magic of the Hispanic Heritage Month is about learning from other Hispanics willing to contribute to our next generation in the technology industry. To be part of the present and future and recognize that we also have inspirational role models to follow and imitate their willingness and hard work to reach our goals. Being a Latina in a technology field means being part of a minority group, it can be both challenging and difficult to 'fit in'. I strongly think that everyone is capable of thriving in the tech world. To Latina girls that want to pursue a career in technology, I will tell them not to be afraid of stereotypes and go for it."

Guillermo Camarillo

Guillermo is a junior at Stanford University studying Management Science and Engineering. He was born and raised in Chicago's West-Side neighborhood, La Villita. He is the middle child of a family of three boys and is the first one to attend college in his family. His parents are immigrants from Mexico.

Guillermo has been involved in just a few things:

Guillermo launched an organization called Chicago Latinx Scholars that works to connect and give resources to Latinx high schoolers, college students, professionals, and nontraditional students in and from Chicago. The organization has taken initiative to set up workshops across the city to help youth and young professionals network and get assistance with scholarships and college applications. They have partnered with various nonprofits like Mind+Hand and Chicago Scholars to help setup workshops. The organization utilizes social media platforms to connect students and has around 4.3k members as of today.
Guillermo also runs Barrio Assistance – a community service group at Stanford that brings in Latinx youth to be mentored and tutored by Stanford students. Guillermo has spent two hours every Saturday since tutoring his mentee since his freshman year.
He also works at the Stanford Undergraduate Admissions Office as a Diversity Associate, is part of a nonprofit called Human Engineers that takes medical missions to the Philippines to help build prostheses for amputees, is a Jopwell ambassador where he connects students of color to professional careers, and this past spring quarter he led an alternative spring break trip to Chicago where he connected Stanford students to communities of color and immersed them in their activism efforts.

How can you help?

"This platform can be helpful to me by bringing more publicity to Chicago Latinx Scholars and the movement that I have started in Chicago. I want people to see that youth like myself are proactively trying to solve some of the most pressing issues affecting Chicago. I want my organization and movement to serve as a model for what youth can be doing to fill in the gaps. In addition, I hope that the publicity connects me to people, organizations, and resources that can support me in this mission to provide resources to Latinx youth in and from Chicago. Chicago is currently facing many issues ranging from gun violence to lack of adequate educational institutions, I want to challenge the narrative and I want to show the world that youth in Chicago are part of the change and not the problem."

Diana Balderas

Diana is a freshman at Bakersfield College studying Computer Science. She was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California. Her love for technology came to be when she participated in CS summer programs throughout high school such as Kode With Klossy, Girls Who Code, and Google CSSI. She is an advocate for Hispanics in STEM and is currently working on her ongoing project called Food Distribution, a mobile application to decrease food waste, poverty, and hunger.

"The community where I was raised Hispanics had little to no role models to look up to . That shifted when I took a step forward to become a leader." Diana began by volunteering with Girls Who Code to teach young women how to code. She became an ambassador to recruit and get more females involved in technology and computer science. Additionally, she created a mobile application prototype called 'Food Distribution' for the Congressional App Challenge – she was one of the few Hispanics who participated and was awarded with recognition. This motivated her to build her tech startup called Nebala, a platform to build mobile applications and technology products.

Diana’s advice to others

"Advice I would give to an individual would be to never doubt yourself. You may have to take a risk to get your initiative to function. Be someone who is willing to make a difference. Think positive. There is someone out there in the community that could use your resources. They are hoping to find you and get involved."

Keep up with us on social (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, G+, YouTube) to hear more about our initiatives!

Behind the scenes of Google’s new Paris office

2018-10-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

In Paris, this time of year marks “la rentrée” – the national return to class for students all over France. The most direct translation in English is “back-to-school,” but whether you’re a student or not, “la rentrée” carries a spirit starting fresh and anew.

For Googlers in Paris, this “rentrée” marks the opening of a new building – hosting all existing engineering teams and a few new ones. The new building features a view of the Parisian skyline and eight floors of workspace for the 200 engineers (and growing!) who work there.

The view from the 8th floor roof terrace – on a sunny day, you can see the Eiffel Tower!

One of the things Paris is known for is great café (coffee).

As Googlers unpack their boxes and find their teammates, let’s take a moment to go behind the scenes and learn about what they do:

Art Selfie

Art Selfie matches from around the world.

Did you already find your classical painting lookalike? Last December, the Google Arts and Culture team launched “Art Selfie” – the feature, based on computer vision algorithms developed at Google, allows users to find their counterpart in the enormous corpus of world’s heritage of art, and in doing so took the Internet by storm. The popular app is developed in Paris and London by a team whose mission is to make the world’s art universally accessible. This is done by working in collaboration with museums and cultural organizations throughout the planet.

YouTube Search & Discovery
Ever think about those suggested videos you see on YouTube? The YouTube team in Paris applies the power of machine learning to the incredible amount of videos on YouTube. Their work allows the service to automatically find some topics that each video is about and thanks to that, help users find videos they are interested in.

One of the new microkitchen (MK) workspaces.

Chrome on your phone
In today’s world, you need to be able to search fast no matter what type of device you are using. In Paris, there are teams working on Chrome for both Android and iOS. Their achievements include a redesigned user experience (UX) for Chrome on iOS (which launched earlier this month), and significant improvements in browsing speed for Chrome on Android.

Bringing the outside, inside at the new Paris office.

Operations Research
If you want to know who the true behind the scenes heroes are, meet our Operations Research team. They help hundreds of projects run more efficiently. From planning the routes of Street View cars to optimizing the layout of Google data centers, these folks do it all.

Paris Googlers hard at work in the new office.

New frontiers
While most Google engineers work on existing operating systems like Linux, one of the teams in Paris is an exception to that rule – working on a new open-source operating system called Fuchsia. Fuchsia engineers in Paris focus on how the system stores and synchronizes data. The building also hosts a new Google AI team. This team works on fundamental Machine Learning research and advanced applications of artificial intelligence to the problems of today.

And there’s more!

2018 HashCode participants.

Besides their day jobs, engineers from across the office work on a variety of programs designed to collaborate and engage with the computer science community in Europe – from university outreach to promoting computer science education. Hash Code (Google’s popular coding competition where participants solve real-life Google engineering problems) was created at Google Paris! From small beginnings in 2014 (150 participants from Parisian universities) the competition grew to over 38,000 developers last year across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Paris is also where Google Cardboard was invented. This virtual reality headset lowered the barrier to experiment with budding VR technology for developers across the world.

From speeding up mobile browsing to the digitization of art, it is an exciting time at the Google France engineering center. We’re wishing all of our Google Students readers a “bonne rentrée,” whether you’re heading back to university or are simply inspired to continue learning and growing. We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the work we’re doing in Paris. If you’re excited about these projects, we hope that you’ll consider joining us when you start looking for your next internship or full-time job.

Applications are open for 2019 Google scholarship opportunities in the US, Canada, Europe, Middle East, and Africa

2018-09-24T06:03:00.002-07:00

At Google, we believe information should be universally accessible. Our education and scholarship programs aim to inspire and help students become future leaders in computing and technology by breaking down the barriers that prevent them from entering these fields.

Students selected for our scholarships will receive a financial award for the 2019-20 academic year and be invited to the annual Google Scholars' Retreat in their region next summer. At the retreat, scholars will participate in networking and development sessions, including sessions on how to lead outreach in their communities. Scholars also join a community of former scholarship recipients for continued networking and development. Check out each program below: Women Techmakers Scholars Program (United States/Canada/EMEA - Asia Pacific will open in early 2019)The Women Techmakers Scholars Program (formerly known as the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship) continues to honor Dr. Anita Borg and her legacy of encouraging the presence of women in computing. The program is open to current undergraduate or graduate students who will be studying at a university for the 2019-2020 academic year. We strongly encourage students who identify as female to apply. Generation Google Scholarship (United States/Canada)The Generation Google Scholarship was established to help aspiring computer scientists to excel in technology and become leaders in the field. This program supports current undergraduate or graduate students who will be studying at a university in the United States or Canada for the 2019-2020 academic year. We strongly encourage students from historically underrepresented groups, including Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, or Filipino/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, to apply.
Google Lime Scholarship (United States/Canada - open now) and The Google Europe Scholarship for Students with Disabilities We’re continuing to partner with Lime Connect (United States/Canada) and EmployAbility (Europe) - nonprofit organizations that support students with disabilities while they pursue education and promising careers - to help university students with disabilities work toward their academic goals in the field of computer science. The scholarship is open to current undergraduate or graduate students with disabilities who will be studying at a university for the 2019-2020 academic year. Google Student Veterans of America (SVA) Scholarship (United States)Google established Google SVA Scholarship in partnership with Student Veterans of America in 2012 as part of our commitment to military veterans. The scholarship provides assistance to student veterans or students on Active Duty who are pursuing a degree in computer science at a university for the 2019-2020 academic year. Please visit each program’s website for specific details, application information, and deadlines. We encourage all students who meet the eligibility criteria to apply!

Getting to know a research intern: Nicola Pezzotti

2018-08-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

Google's research tackles the most challenging problems in CS and related fields. Being bold and taking risks is essential to what we do, and research teams are embedded throughout Google, allowing our discoveries to affect billions of users each day.

The compelling benefit to researchers is that their innovations can be implemented fast and big. Google’s unique infrastructure facilitates ideas’ speed to market — allowing their ideas to be trialled by millions of users before their papers are even published.

Today we’re talking to PhD Research Intern, Nicola Pezzotti, coming to us from Google Zürich. Read on!

So tell us about yourself and your PhD topic …
I’m a PhD student in the Computer Graphics & Visualization group at the Delft University of Technology. My research interest is mainly oriented towards the application of Machine Learning algorithms, in particular Manifold Learning techniques, in a Visual Analytics context.

I’m particularly interested in the extraction of knowledge from large and high-dimensional datasets without an a-priori model of what we can find in the data. This is particularly useful in the context of exploratory data analysis of medical data and for the interpretation of AI models.

How did you get to work in this area?
I remember implementing my first AI, a not-so-intelligent one that played Tic-Tac-Toe, during the first year of high-school and I have always been interested in AI since then.

That being said, during my years at the University of Brescia, I started focusing on general purpose graphics processing unit programming (GPGPU) for Geometry Processing and I left my passion for AI on the side. I really had a lot of fun in implementing general purpose algorithms that make use of graphics hardware, and I continued to do so in my first work in industry in 2011.

Four years ago, I founded a PhD position in the Computer Graphics & Visualization group in Delft. The position was within the ImaGene project and aimed at finding insights that can help address neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or dementia. I found the possibility to help in this domain very exciting and it gave me the opportunity to combine my knowledge of GPGPU techniques with my passion for AI.

Moreover, the name of the project is VAnPIRe, which gave me the opportunity to make a lot of silly jokes in the office ;)

Why did you apply for an internship at Google and how supportive was your PhD advisor?
GoogIe has top notch AI researchers – I wanted to join Google since the beginning of my PhD. My supervisor, Dr. Anna Vilanova, was very supportive and agreed with me that it would be an amazing opportunity to get in touch with some of these researchers and to make my research more impactful.

Last summer, I felt that I had enough contributions in the field to make my internship at Google a success. Hence, I applied for an internship in research at Google’s Zürich office. The hiring process was extremely fast and well handled and I found a host that was interested in my research topic.

What project was your internship focused on?
My host at Google is Alexander Mordvintsev, one of the creators of Google DeepDream. You may imagine the excitement that I had when I learned that I was chosen to support him in the development of novel techniques for better interpreting Deep Neural Networks results.

During my four month internship I worked on two different projects. First, I helped Alex in experimenting and getting DeepDream to work on different kinds of media, such as 3D objects and Compositional Pattern-Producing Network. This work focused on the artistic aspect of image parameterizations and is published on Distill.pub, an interactive and online journal. It has been particularly exciting to make the results of these techniques available to a large audience directly in the browser through Distill.pub, and reproducible in Google’s Colab Notebooks.

Then, I focused on developing a new implementation of the tSNE algorithm that scales to very large datasets and runs in the browser! tSNE is a manifold learning technique which is used to visualize high-dimensional feature vectors in 2-dimensional scatterplots while preserving the presence of clusters at different scales.

You may be familiar with its results due to its use for interpreting Deep Neural Network outputs in the TensorFlow Embedding Projector and TensorBoard. However, tSNE does not scale well to large datasets, due to its computational complexity. During my internship I developed a new implementation that scales much better thanks to a GPGPU approach that is implemented in WebGL. This implementation is released in the TensorFlow.js family ad you can try it directly in your browser.

I really liked this work as it shows how lateral thinking using a GPGPU approach can solve otherwise unscalable problems.

Did you publish at Google during your internship?
I did publish two papers, one for each project (ArXiV). I believe that my experience in Google will make my PhD thesis stronger and more impactful. I had the chance to publish on such a novel and creative journal such as Distill.pub, while remotely collaborating with researchers in Mountain View. It has been really a nice way to explore a new medium that brings academic knowledge to a large audience through easy to understand and interactive diagrams.

How closely connected was the work you did during your internship to your PhD topic?
Since I’ve been focusing on the scalability of the tSNE algorithm, in particular, and on Deep Neural Network understanding, in general, my work at Google was very much related to my PhD topic. You can read more about it here.

It has been particularly exciting to release my work as an open source work in the TensorFlow.js family. Bringing openly available algorithms to a larger audience is the icing on the cake for any PhD research.

Did you write your own code?
Writing code is my main driver and I’ve been happy to get in touch with so many exceptional programmers in Google. Releasing open source code has been very easy and I received a lot of support from different Google AI teams in Zürich and Cambridge.

What key skills have you gained from your time at Google?
I had the chance to work with a programming language, Typescript, that was completely new to me. It has also been really eye opening to learn how code is developed in a rigorous and high-quality way at Google.

What impact has this internship experience had on your PhD?
I see my experience at Google as the culmination of my PhD project.

I have been working on the topic of the scalability of manifold-learning algorithms such as tSNE for the last 3 years. Having an open source implementation that can run in the browser for large datasets is really satisfying and I can’t wait to see what other researchers can build using this code. I would not have been able to have had such exposure and impact without this experience.

Looking back on your experiences now: Why should a PhD student apply for an internship at Google? Any advice to offer?
Besides working closely with great researchers and engineers, I have to say that the most striking aspect of my time at Google was how wide the exposure to high quality and open research is.

Every week a number of extremely interesting guests are invited to host talks held in the office. You are free to join, either in person or on a video stream. Some days you really have to choose which one is the best to attend since they are so good and there are so many! If you join Google for an internship you should not miss them, they can help your research in unexpected ways.

My Path To Google: Shea Hunter Belsky, User Experience (UX) Engineer Intern

2018-08-01T18:02:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the 30th installment of our blog series “My Path to Google.” These are real stories from Googlers, interns, and alumni highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Today’s post is all about User Experience (UX) Engineer Intern, Shea Hunter Belsky. Read on!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I recently graduated from Cornell University, where I studied Information Science with a concentration in User Experience. The reason I can intern this summer is because I'm returning there in the Fall to finish a Master's in Information Science as well.

I try to focus on the union of developers and user experience. I answer questions like: How can developers be meaningfully invested in the product design cycle? Can designers be more informed about technical constraints and limitations, in order to better inform the design cycle? And how can developers and designers support each other in their goals?

In my free time, I love to run, hike, snow-ski in the winter, waterski in the summer, and practice photography all year long. I'm also recently getting into Dungeons and Dragons!

What’s your role at Google?
I'm a User Experience Engineer (UXE) on the sumUX team, focusing on Search and Assistant. I focus on internal prototyping: empowering designers and researchers to answer the big questions they have, and validate (or invalidate) their research. The process of prototyping, and the tools we use to make it happen, promote much more rapid iteration and ideation. Prototyping allows researchers and designers to quickly identify good and bad things in designs, make adjustments, and test them again until they've got it just right. I’m currently working on a tool to optimize this process even further.

Complete the following: "I [choose one: code/create/design/build] for …"
I create for everyone. Though I work mostly with other Googlers, the ramifications of the prototypes I have worked on are very far-reaching – they’re used by millions of people. It may take a long time for my prototype to eventually become the “real thing”, but when it does, I know it won't just be a few people who use Assistant, but rather countless people who use it in their everyday lives.

What inspires you to come in every day?
Right now I've been working on a tool that will allow designers and researchers to create, edit, share, and test their own prototypes, rather than needing myself or another UX Engineer to make one. This makes the process of testing, evaluating, and improving upon designs even faster. Other tools do this to an extent, but the parameters of the prototypes that the designers and researchers need are such that using one of these tools would take more time than is necessary. I’m learning it's not necessary to over-engineer a solution when something simpler can do the exact same thing, but with faster results. This excites me because it empowers members of the design process to become more involved in the creation and ideation of a product.

Can you tell us about your decision to enter the process?
I'd applied to both the Software Engineering and Product Design roles in the past, but I didn't feel I fit strongly into either category. I had a great deal of experience in both areas (writing code and participating in the design process), but I still considered myself to be somewhere in between the two.

I discovered the UX Engineering internship role in early January, my senior year at Cornell, and it was love at first sight. Not only did I meet most of the qualifications, I felt like it was the perfect blend of development experience and design knowledge that I had been accumulating. It was the destination I didn't know I was heading towards until I saw the signs.

How did the recruitment process go for you?
I applied directly to the position on Google's job site (google.com/students). I was super appreciative of how timely, transparent, and thoughtful the recruitment process was. I had a very good idea of what was going to happen at every step of the process, and I didn't feel like I was missing anything during any step.

To finish, what do you wish you’d known when you started the process?
A UX Engineering interview is different from other engineering roles in that there's two different "lenses" to refer to a UXE – the developer-lens and the design-lens.

A developer-lens UXE writes production code, and should be familiar with writing performant and sustainable code for their platform of choice. I'm a web UXE, but there are UXE roles for other languages (I know we at least have Android and iOS UXEs.) Developer-lens UXEs collaborate with and report to software engineers more closely than designers and researchers. That being said, they are still informed in the design process and are familiar with what needs to happen in that regard.

A design-lens UXE focuses more on the design side, working with designers and researchers to help them do their jobs better (through prototyping, internal tooling, and whatever else they need). The obligations of a design UXE tend to vary on project, but focus on tooling and prototyping.

As a function of this, the interview for a UXE can vary from person to person. My interview was part development and part design, testing my general competency with web development and also evaluating my knowledge in UX. This is different from other kinds of interviews that focus on just one area or the other. That is something to be prepared for.

My Path To Google: Robert Maldonado, Engineering Practicum Intern

2018-07-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 29th installment of our blog series “My Path to Google.” These are real stories from Googlers, interns, and alumni highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

To celebrate the upcoming #NationalInternDay, today’s post is all about one of our Engineering Practicum Interns, Robert Maldonado. Engineering Practicum is a 12-week internship for first and second-year undergraduate students with a passion for computer science. Keep our Engineering Practicum job listing bookmarked for when it re-opens in the Fall and, in the meantime, check out the FAQs. Read on!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I am a rising third year studying software engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). I am very passionate about leadership, personal development, and community outreach. During my sophomore year, I served as Vice President of Outreach for the UCI Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). As a result, I was able to attend Google’s Hispanic Student Leadership Summit two years in a row. This upcoming year, I will be the student head of a planning committee for a regional SHPE conference for hundreds of SHPE members.

For over a year I’ve also been doing research in databases and distributed systems in a software engineering lab at UCI.

As a hobby, I love creating things through various art mediums such as painting, drawing, writing, sewing, and photography. I am always seeking opportunities to create new abstract projects!

What’s your role at Google?
I am an Engineering Practicum Intern for the Node Storage Team, which is a part of Technical Infrastructure. My work is centered around the Linux Operating System Kernel used at all of Google’s Data Centers. I love my work because it is very complex and every day I am learning something new!
Complete the following: "I [choose one: code/create/design/build] for..."
I create for a future where everyone has the opportunity to learn, develop, and prosper.

What inspires you to come in every day?
I love to come to work every day because my work is impactful and my team is amazing! I am very fortunate that my project will be making a real difference at Google. Although I’ll admit my project is a bit intimidating, my hosts and teammates are always more than happy to help. I love talking to my teammates at lunch and around the office, especially because they all embrace my nerdy weirdness!
Can you tell us about your decision to enter the process?
There are a lot of reasons why people would want to work at Google – the complex problems, the benefits, the pay, the work-life balance, the list goes on and on. That being said, I’ve always wanted to become a Googler because of Google’s culture and values, which aim to create positive change in the world.

During my freshman year of college, I found out about Google’s Engineering Practicum Internship (which is specifically for standing 1st and 2nd-year college students) and thought it was a perfect way to start a career as a Googler. Although I found out about the internship too late to apply my freshman year, I knew I wanted to apply during my second year.

I felt confident in my application because I used the prompts to express my passions and because I had developed significant professional/technical skills during my first year of college, however, the thought that thousands of people were applying for the same internship scared me a little. Nevertheless, throughout the interview process I was determined to show how Googly I am.

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to interview and especially to receive an offer.

Robert presenting at #HSLS18

How did the recruitment process go for you?
My recruitment process was, unique, to say the least. I was referred to apply by my mentor, the software engineering PhD student who I do research with, and my application process was very smooth. My interview process wasn't as smooth as I expected, which had me pretty worried that I wouldn't make it! My recruiter helped navigate the issues I had, and it all worked out in the end because I was given an offer.

What do you wish you’d known when you started the process?
I wish I would have started preparing for the technical interviews way earlier. In about a month and a half I prepared by learning about algorithms and data structures, doing practice problems on a whiteboard, and participating in mock interviews. Although I was able to cover a lot of content, there were a lot of sleepless nights involved.

In hindsight, I should have used the summer to prepare rather than squeezing it in during the fall quarter.

Can you tell us about the resources you used to prep?
To prepare for the technical interviews I watched a ton of videos. YouTube is a great way to learn about data structures and algorithms and to find practice problems. @GoogleStudents YouTube channel has a number of videos on technical questions that I watched.

To finish, do you have any tips you’d like to share with aspiring Googlers?
In no particular order, here are a few things that I would tell any aspiring Googler :)

1) Stay hungry
Google is looking for people that have a wide variety of skills and experiences, but sometimes gaining those skills are hard and/or will make you uncomfortable, but only because you haven’t done them enough! Join clubs/programs that interest you, become a leader, build projects, do research, learn a new language – the possibilities are endless you just need to be hungry enough to take them.

2) Google does pretty much everything
Whether you are studying Software Engineering, Business, Mechanical Engineering, Psychology, Teaching, or anything in between/outside there is a pretty good chance that Google needs someone like you!

3) Non desistas, non exieris (never give up, never surrender)
Life is hard, and sometimes things don’t go as planned, but never ever give up on accomplishing your dreams. The most passionate and successful Googlers that I personally know come from tough backgrounds!

4) You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take
The following are all true: Google is a huge company, a ton of people apply, very few people get in, you can do anything you put your mind to, applying to Google can be intimidating but it is far from impossible, you can do it.

2018 Online Marketing Challenge teams up with Google Ad Grants – registration open now!

2018-07-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

Don't miss out on your chance to bring marketing theory to life through a practical hands-on learning experience. Over the past few months, we've been listening to your feedback and exploring opportunities to continue to engage, empower and grow students in the digital marketing space. Today, we are excited to announce that the foundation of the Online Marketing Challenge (OMC) will be returning in partnership with nonprofits from the Google Ad Grants program!

What is the Online Marketing Challenge again?

OMC is a unique opportunity for students to get real-world experience creating and executing online marketing campaigns for real nonprofits through the Google Ad Grants program. Ad Grants empowers over 38,000 nonprofit organizations with free in-kind AdWords advertising of up to $10,000 a month. The new OMC will pair student teams with Ad Grants’ nonprofit organizations for students to gain valuable real-world skills through working with nonprofits’ AdWords accounts and drive real social impact. OMC is a great way to increase your depth of experience on your resume and develop your skill set, all while helping nonprofits change the world!

Who can participate?

The Challenge is open to higher education students from undergraduate or graduate programs, regardless of major. Students must form teams of 2-5 members and register under a verified faculty member, lecturer or instructor currently employed by an accredited higher education institute. Google will partner student teams with select nonprofits that are a part of the Ad Grants program and have opted in to participate in the Challenge.

How does it work?
1. Student teams of 2-5 members review Online marketing trainings, build their digital skills and pass the Academy for Ads AdWords Fundamentals Exam.
2. Student teams partner with an Ad Grants nonprofit, meet with the organization to understand their cause, audience and goals, evaluate their existing campaign structure and performance, and develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
3. Using the free Google Ad Grants AdWords advertising budget — up to $10,000 USD per month — student teams develop and execute online advertising campaigns over the course of at least 4 weeks to help drive conversions for their nonprofit partner.
4. At the end of the partnership, student teams complete a Post-Campaign Analysis and deliver future recommendations to their nonprofit partner to help them continue to thrive online.
5. Student teams that demonstrate strong AdWords knowledge, develop a thorough online marketing strategy, execute optimized AdWords campaigns and provide a post-campaign analysis with future recommendations for their nonprofit partner will receive a personalized certificate from Google recognizing their academic achievement and social impact. Top performing teams also have the opportunity to submit their story to be featured in Google’s Social Impact Spotlight Series.

Registration is now open through the official website. Before registering, please familiarize yourself with our guidelines, as well as Ad Grants’ program policies and limitations. For any questions, please first review our FAQs page.

The future coders of America: Google's Code Next graduates its first cohorts

2018-07-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

What does it take to make a computer scientist? Equipment? Sure. Sufficient learning opportunities? Sounds about right. Passion, enthusiasm, and a motivation to change the world? According to the recent graduates of the Code Next Team Edge program, those last few items are non-negotiables.

New York City’s Andrea Fernandez gets high fives from her fellow Code Next students.

Code Next, a free, Google-run computer science education program for Black and Hispanic high schoolers, started nearly three years ago as an idea sprung from the brain of Google's Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Nilka Thomas. In a commitment to cultivating young Black and Hispanic tech leaders, Code Next’s first signature program, a ninth through tenth grade immersion experience in computer science and leadership called Team Edge, began with 37 eighth graders in two labs on opposite ends of the country — one in New York City and one in Oakland — in the spring of 2016.

Now, fresh out of the tenth grade, those same 37 students have graduated from the Team Edge program with a deep knowledge of programming, several prototypes of apps and websites, and a competitive hackathon under their belts — not to mention Google mentors who met with them every week through the entirety of their tenth grade year.

Oakland's Devin Mateo-Walker celebrates with her superlative award, given to her by her cohort-mates.

“This is an amazing and momentous occasion because these kids have been dedicating a significant amount of time to this program for three years,” shares April Alvarez, one of two original Student Experience Managers for Code Next and current Pipeline Programs Manager for the Pipeline and Integration Team. “This is a great example of what happens when communities come together with an organization like Google. Families and students get the support and resources they need to thrive in the tech world — an ever-changing job market — and Google witnesses the power of the innovations these kids bring to the table.”

Graduation celebrations took place in both New York City and Oakland at each cohort’s lab space, with several students sharing their work and learnings they’d collected from their first two years with Code Next.

Oakland student Jorvir Llanes shared his nostalgia and hopes for the future, saying, “Having a culture where we love each other like family and respect each other, including when we make mistakes, is great. I really want this culture to pass onto our rising tenth graders.”

New York City’s first-ever Code Next cohort celebrates their graduation from Team Edge.

“These kids are really growing into their roles as tech leaders, both here at Code Next and in their own schools and communities. It is going to be great seeing what happens when they are able to deep dive in areas of passion for each of them. We have kids who are already skilled at 3D design/modeling, animation, game development, back-end development, and much more,” says Idris Brewester, a New York City computer science coach who has been with Cohort One from the start.

“But this is just the beginning,” Brewster adds. “I am excited to see them tackle those areas and use their robust foundation that they’ve developed over these last two years,” he smiles.

New York City, New York Cohort	Oakland, California Cohort
Andrea Fernandez	Gerardo Arteaga-Garcia
Andres Murillo	Salvador Avelar
Chelsea Lantigua	Bianca Burciaga
Cindy Hernandez	José Ceja Romero
Corey Carter	Elias Cruz
Gerald Howell	James Dominguez
Giovanni Taveras	Julio Flores
Julie Leon Marcos	Valeria Fornes
Justin Millien	Jessica Franco
Kaiya Idlett	Devin Frisbey
Kevin Medina	Lita Hernandez
Khemasia Pierce	Adalberto Jimenez
Maëlle Sannon	Jovir Llanes
Naia Crump	Orlando Molina
Odalis Bonilla	Emily Ronquillo
Raymond Koratrang	Edgar Suarez
Sarah George	Phu Vo
Shawn West
Tasnim Nahar
Yenry Simon

Congratulations to these 37 students. Interested in learning more about Code Next? Sign up for the quarterly newsletter to receive updates about the program.

Google Travel Grant Application: 2018 Grace Hopper Conference – Apply Now

2018-07-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

As part of Google's ongoing commitment to increase the number of women in engineering, we are excited to offer travel grants to the 2018 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference taking place in Houston, TX from Sept 26-28th. Once again, this year’s conference will offer incredible opportunities for mentoring, networking and career development.

University students and industry professionals in the US and Canada who are excelling in computer science and passionate about supporting women in tech can apply for a travel grant to attend the 2018 Grace Hopper conference.

The Grace Hopper Travel Sponsorship includes:

Round trip flight to Houston,TX (from within the US or Canada)
Conference registration
Reimbursement for ground transportation to and from the airport and the hotel
Arranged hotel accommodations from Sept 25-29
$100 USD reimbursement for miscellaneous travel costs
A fun event specifically for travel grant recipients on one of the evenings of the conference!

Please apply here by July 22nd at 11:59pm PDT. The Grace Hopper Travel Sponsorship winners will be announced by mid-August.

For questions, please email ghctravelgrant@google.com.

My Path to Google: Divya Tyam, Software Engineer (Google AI)

2018-06-26T18:10:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the 28th installment of our blog series “My Path to Google.” These are real stories from Googlers, interns, and alumni highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Today’s post is all about Divya Tyam. Read on!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I grew up in Bangalore, India, where I completed my undergrad in Information Science and Engineering. I came to the US to attend grad school at Carnegie Mellon University, where I received a master's degree in Computer Engineering.

While I was picking my major for undergrad, I was looking for a field that was interdisciplinary and would combine my creative inclinations with practical applications. Computer science seemed like a very obvious choice, and that has proven right in all these years. I've been lucky to have been in a field where I've been able to meld my interests in art, photography, mathematics, and social sciences all into one career.

I tend to pick up new hobbies all the time – the most recent ones have been improv theater, sewing, photography, and drawing. I've also done theatre, music, painting, and more.

What’s your role at Google?
I am a Software Engineer working in a team called Cerebra, part of Google AI, where I work on on-device intelligence. My most recent work has been on Google Clips, a camera built for automatic photography.

Aside from being a camera with a cool application, what's remarkable is that all of the AI runs continuously on device, which poses new and interesting technical challenges.

What inspires you to come in every day?
I am very inspired by the work we're doing around AI, solving a wide range of issues spanning both technical as well as ethical.

One of the areas I work on is ML Fairness, where we're bringing attention to the need for inclusive machine learning algorithms. This includes ensuring that our AI is trained and validated on diverse datasets, as well as exploring techniques in model training that mitigate unintended biases. With the democratization of AI, the work in this field will be crucial in ensuring that innovations in AI across the industry are useful for everyone.

This area also aligns with my interests in the broader idea of diversity and global citizenship, something I’m active in outside of work, as a Senior Fellow and Board Member of the Melton Foundation.

Can you tell us about your decision to enter the process?
After I finished my undergrad, a friend lent me a book about Google. As I was reading through it, I realized that Google was my kind of place and I simply had to be there. That being said, my path to Google wasn't a straight line. I worked at IBM and Microsoft for a few years learning the ropes as an engineer. These experiences were helpful to me and and my personal path to Google.

My priority has always been to work on things that interest me, so I'm glad that I chose the path that I did, because I learnt a lot of things and met a lot of great people along the way.

How did the recruitment process go for you?
I was referred to Google by a former co-worker. My interview process was great and I left with a good feeling about it. I also worked with a really awesome recruiter who helped me navigate the whole process with ease.

What do you wish you’d known when you started the process?
I'll be candid and say that I didn't make it through the Google interviews on my first try. Part of the process of getting it right on my next try was to refresh my CS problem solving skills. As someone who was working in the industry at that time, it took me a while to realize that being able to demonstrate strong skills in CS fundamentals was always going to be important, irrespective of how many years of work experience I'd rack up.

My challenge with design interviews was that I didn't have experience in large scale distributed systems at that time, so I had to rely on theoretical knowledge. I was honest about this with my interviewer, and that helped put me at ease through the interview.

Can you tell us about the resources you used to prepare for your interview or role?
I went through the usual list of resources my recruiter shared with me. One thing that I did to adapt to my specific learning technique was to pick a problem and then spend days thinking about different ways to solve it as well as different ways that it could be formulated.