Student Blog
Google news and updates especially for students
Congratulations to this years Google Scholars!
June 26, 2013
As part of Google's ongoing commitment to advancing computing and technology, we are pleased to provide scholarships to encourage students to excel in their studies and become active role models and leaders.
Over the past few weeks, we have announced our scholarship recipients from the
Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship
and
Generation Google Scholarship
. Our third and final installment of scholarship announcements conclude with the recipients of our
AISES
,
HSF
,
Lime Connect
,
SVA
, and
UNCF
Scholarships, which are all administered in partnership with these respective organizations. Scholars are selected based on their passion for computer science, academic achievement, leadership, and technical accomplishments.
Below are the list of recipients, along with the universities they attend. Congratulations to this year’s Google scholars!
2012 Google Scholars’ Retreat
Photo by Robert Fischer, Google Engineer
AISES (American Indian Science and Engineering Society) Scholars:
Alec White, University of Kansas, Lawrence
David Hayden Demerson, Carnegie Mellon University
Lonny Strunk, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Brandon Bass, Colorado Technical University
Harrison Kurtz, Texas A&M University, College Station
John Holland, Covenant College
Robert Boling, Harvard University
HSF (Hispanic Scholarship Fund) Scholars:
Gabriel Adrian Reyes, Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus
Vincent J Romo, University of California-San Diego
Justin David Lara, University of California-Irvine
Eric M Castro, San Jose State University
Joseph Karl Hirshman, Cornell University
Nelian Edlin Colon, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez
Ruben Eduardo Villegas, University of Central Florida
Yoanna De la Caridad Dosouto, Florida International University
Edward Latorre, University of Florida
David Cota Gonzalez, University of California-Santa Cruz
Daniel Bueso, Texas A & M University-College Station
Jose Miguel Almodovar-Faria, University of Florida
James Tyler Romo, Arizona State University
Salvador Melendez, The University of Texas at El Paso
Camilo Andres Moreno, Stanford University
Paola Fatima Mariselli-Huggins, Harvard University
Lime Connect Scholars:
Adrian Trejo, Carnegie Mellon University
Jimmy Tobin, Stanford University
Laura D'Aquila, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Patrick Berens, Cornell University
Vaibhav Agarwal, University of Southern California
Zane Hintzman, Carnegie Mellon University
Bradley Sturt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Eric Gustafson, University of California-Davis
Jenna Raderstrong, University of Colorado at Boulder
Jeremy Rand, University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
Leslie Wu, Stanford University
Lisa Kelly, Michigan State University
Lizz Bartos, Northwestern University
Michael Vitousek, University of Colorado at Boulder
Namit Katariya, Carnegie Mellon University
Philip Asare, University of Virginia
UNCF (United Negro College Fund) Scholars:
Emmanuel Bello-Ogunu, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Robin Brewer, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Jarvis Johnson, Georgia Institute of Technology
Blake Mcmillian, Hampton University
Temiloluwa Olubanjo, Georgia Institute of Technology
Chad Shields, Carnegie Mellon University
Oreoluwa Alebiosu, Kansas State University
Ashley Jones, Spelman College
Stanley Cantrell, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Brian Mcclanahan, Norfolk State University
Zachary Hinton, Hampton University
Isaac Supeene, University of Alberta
Neel Shah, Northeastern University
Daniel Martelly, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
Samantha Allen, Hampton University
Michelle Collins, Georgia Institute of Technology
Ashley Robinson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
SVA (Student Veterans of America) Scholars:
Geoffrey Russel, Indiana University
Jennifer Rouan, University of Georgia
Michael Hotan, University of Washington
Sudesh Banskota, Fordham University
James Youngquist, University of Washington
Jonathan Beard, Washington University in St. Louis
Matthew Schwegler, University Of California San Diego
Edward Lopez, Park University
All recipients are invited to attend
the annual Google Scholars’ Retreat this summer in New York City, where they will have the opportunity to attend tech talks, network with other scholars and Googlers, participate in developmental activities and sessions, and attend social activities. This year, the scholars will also be able to participate in a scholars’ edition of 24HoursOfGood. 24HoursOfGood is a hackathon in partnership with local non-profit organizations who work on education and STEM initiatives to make progress against a technical problem that is critical to their organization’s success.
If you're interested in learning more about our scholarship programs and timelines, please visit our
Google Scholarships page
.
Posted by Azusa Liu, Student Development Programs Specialist
It's a bird... It's a plane... It's Google Games 2013!
June 21, 2013
Just like Superman, Google Games made its return in 2013. This year, we invited over 1,000 students from 39 universities located near a Google office in North America to join us for a day of fun and a glimpse of Google culture. The day included trivia, puzzles, word association, Lego building and coding, all of which happen to be a few of Googlers’ favorite activities. To add to the fun, we encouraged students to reveal their alter egos by donning capes and other super powers.
Throughout the course of the day, teams of five went head to head in challenges developed by Google engineers specifically for the event. Their goal was to see who had the power to score the most points! The day kicked off with trivia with questions such as “What is the opposite of Brobdingnagian?” and “The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are two children of this super-villain.” From there, teams tackled seven logic based puzzles, and by the time lunch rolled around, teams were ready to refuel and recharge for the second portion of the day. This year, we reintroduced Word Association (a Google Games version of
shygypsy.com/farm
) and challenged teams to be the first to uncover 95% of the word graph. In true Google Games spirit, the culminating round was the coding challenge, where we posed four problems to the teams via the
Code Jam
platform.
But it didn’t end there! It wouldn’t be Google Games without a Lego challenge, and this year we included it as our bonus round. The team with the highest point-scoring tower, based on height and the number of super heroes on the tower, received a special honor of their own.
At the end of the day, we totalled the points and crowned the winning teams at each location. Congratulations to everyone that participated and to the winning teams:
New York - Orange Bubblesort (Princeton)
Mountain View - QBRNKNBR (UC Berkeley)
Cambridge - NEVA EVA (Harvard)
Chicago - Conjurers of Erasers (University of Chicago)
Atlanta - Trashball Champions (Georgia Tech)
Seattle - Honey Badgers (University of Washington)
Boulder - The Planeteers (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Los Angeles - Team Beavers (Caltech), 3-time winning streak!
Irvine - FUS ROH DAH (Harvey Mudd)
Pittsburgh - Lemon Nonesense (Carnegie Mellon)
Washington DC - Started from the bottom now we are here (University of Maryland)
Waterloo - FortyTwo (University of Waterloo)
We could not have hosted these 12 events without the help of our trusted Google engineers, who created all of the challenges and helped on-site, too, so a huge shout out to them!
Check out our
photo album
to see more pictures, and don't forget to add
Google Students
to your circles on Google+ to learn more about next year’s competition.
Posted by Caitlin Merrell and Kat Leung, University Programs
Google scholarships recognize 84 computer science scholars in Europe, Middle East, and Africa
June 19, 2013
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
We’d like to recognize and congratulate the 84 recipients and finalists of the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship and Google Scholarship for Students with Disabilities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The full list of the 2013 scholars and finalists and the universities they attend can be found in this
PDF
.
Both scholarships aim to encourage underrepresented students to enter the computing field. The
Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship
honours the memory of
Dr. Anita Borg
who devoted her life to encouraging the presence of women in computing; we recently announced the
U.S. recipients
of this scholarship. The
Google Europe Scholarship for Students with Disabilities
aims to help dismantle barriers for students with disabilities as well as encourage them to excel in their studies and become active role models and leaders in creating technology.
All of the students receiving the scholarships are pursuing degrees in computer science or related fields at universities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This summer, they’ll attend the annual Google EMEA Scholarships Retreat in Zurich, where they’ll have the opportunity to attend tech talks on Google products, participate in developmental sessions, network with Googlers and attend social activities. Notable speakers at the 2013 retreat include Alan Eustace, SVP of Knowledge, Megan Smith, VP of Google [x], and Carolyn Casey, Founder of
Kanchi.org
.
Applications for the scholarships will be open again in just a few short months. Learn more about how the scholarships impacted the lives of previous recipients:
For more information on all of our scholarships and programs, please visit the
Google Students
site.
Posted by Efrat Aghassy, EMEA scholarships program manager
Announcing the 2013 Generation Google Scholars!
June 12, 2013
The
Generation Google Scholarship
was established in 2012 to encourage aspiring computer scientists to excel in technology and become active role models and leaders in the field. Every year, high school seniors with financial need who have demonstrated a passion for computer science, technical aptitude, academic achievements, and leadership amongst their peers will be selected as recipients of this scholarship.
We are pleased to announce the 2013 Generation Google Scholars, along with the universities they will be attending this Fall:
Yasmin Adams, Pomona College
Ikechi Akujobi, Stanford University
Megan Gebhard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Diana Hernandez, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Descartes Holland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Aneesha Kommineni, University of Texas at Austin
Setareh Lotfi, University of Utah
Daniel Mariselli, Amherst College
Karolina Pyszkiewicz, University of Washington, Seattle
Stephanie Yu, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Generation Google Scholars will receive a $10,000 academic scholarship and are attending Google’s
Computer Science Summer Institute
this summer, in Mountain View, CA or Cambridge, MA.
If you're interested in learning more about our scholarship programs and timelines, please visit our
Google Scholarships page
.
Posted by Azusa Liu, Student Development Programs
Hacking for change at Google
June 5, 2013
Cross-posted from the
Google Developers Blog
On June 1st and 2nd, thousands of developers from across the U.S. came together at nearly 100 different locations to participate in the first ever
National Day of Civic Hacking
. Using
public data
recently released by the government on topics like crime, health and the environment, developers built new applications that help address social challenges.
At the Googleplex in Mountain View, we hosted nearly 100 developers, statisticians, data scientists, and designers, who stayed long into the night hacking together prototypes that show how data on health and the environment can be used to enrich lives.
Fusion Tables
and
Google App Engine
were used to prototype, and groups relied on
BigQuery
as a workhorse to crunch the biggest datasets. Participants used Google+ Hangouts to connect with hackathons in other states and collaborated with Google Apps and platforms.
Here are a few highlights from the hackathon that stood out as useful, visually stunning, and informative ways to use public data:
Eat Healthy for Less
, the winner of our Mountain View hackathon, is a mobile web application that uses the Consumer Pricing Index to suggest healthy recipes that can be made on a budget.
Data+
, a reimagining of how we access data, can make exploring public datasets more intuitive and easily understandable for everyone.
Detoxic.org
is a web experience and Android app that shows you toxic sites and landfills nearby that you might not know about so that you can take civic action against toxic waste.
Many of the ideas have great potential, and we are encouraging participants to continue their work. We hope that the National Day of Civic Hacking will be a catalyst for innovation in this space, and encourage you to keep track of our tools for civic developers at
g.co/civicdevelopers
.
Congratulations and thanks to everyone who participated!
Patrick Copeland
is director of engineering at Google.org, where he works to build systems that leverage Google's reach to help people around the world.
Posted by
Scott Knaster
, Editor
Creative Computing Online Workshop: Google CS4HS goes online
June 3, 2013
Google’s
Computer Science for High School
(CS4HS) program traditionally brings computer science workshops to locally train teachers how to incorporate CS and computational thinking into their classrooms. Through partnerships with universities, these workshops have reached thousands of teachers worldwide.
This year, CS4HS is piloting a new online format to allow anyone to participate in a CS4HS event. The first of the four online courses is built on the open source
Course Builder
platform and is entitled “
Creative Computing Online Workshop
;” it starts on today and runs for six weeks. We caught up with the workshop’s creator and head instructor Karen Brennan, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to find out more about the project.
Your workshop is called “Creative Computing.” What exactly does that mean?
While I was a doctoral student at the
MIT Media Lab
, I co-hosted annual Google CS4HS events from 2009 until 2012 with Mitch Resnick -- workshops we called "Creative Computing." The name reflected a desire to broaden the scope of our CS4HS workshops beyond "computer science" and beyond "high school." The concepts, practices and perspectives that people explore in computer science are valuable across disciplines and across ages, and we wanted to emphasize the creative potential for a wide range of young learners. The Scratch programming language, which was developed at the MIT Media Lab, was our primary tool for exploring creative computing.
At Harvard, I have continued my work in supporting educators' explorations with Scratch, and the "Creative Computing" name still perfectly frames how I hope people will think about engaging with computing, computer science, and Scratch.
Does the workshop have a specific audience? Who should participate?
The workshop is designed primarily for K-12 educators. But anyone who is interested in learning more about creative computing with Scratch is welcome to join -- the workshop is not limited to a particular number of participants.
We hope that people from a wide range of backgrounds and settings -- and with varying levels of prior Scratch familiarity and comfort -- will participate.
What is the workshop like?
The workshop is six weeks long, and runs from Monday, June 3 until Friday, July 12. The first three weeks, called Foundations, are an opportunity to develop greater familiarity and fluency with the Scratch authoring environment and online community through a series of scaffolded activities. The final three weeks, called Explorations, are an opportunity to define and pursue a self-directed project (such as designing Scratch activities, documenting your experiences of helping others learn Scratch, or experimenting with advanced features), which you can develop on your own or with others.
Each week is composed of primarily asynchronous interactions, so you can work at your own pace, depending on your schedule and your time zone. The asynchronous components include mini-lectures, activity overviews and walkthroughs, tutorials, and discussion forums -- and will be made available at the beginning of each week. These asynchronous interactions are accompanied by twice-weekly synchronous sessions (a.k.a. "Office Hours"), held on Tuesday evening and Friday morning (Boston time).
You can participate as much or as little as you like during the six weeks -- and all of the resources will be publicly available after the workshop.
This workshop focuses on the use of Scratch. Can you tell me more about what Scratch is and why you chose it for this workshop?
Scratch, developed by researchers at the MIT Media Lab, is a free authoring environment for creating interactive media and an online community for sharing those interactive media creations. Launched in 2007, Scratch is used by hundreds of thousands of people (mostly ages 8 through 18) around the world, and more than 3 million projects have been created and shared through the Scratch online community.
"Creative computing" isn't Scratch-specific -- there are many other great tools that can serve as entry-points for exploring the big ideas underlying creative computing. But Scratch was a natural choice for the workshop because it was designed for a broad audience, with the aim of making interactive media creation accessible to as many people as possible. I was also a member of the Scratch Team at the Media Lab for 5 years, so it is something with which I am familiar!
I also chose Scratch because a new version was recently launched in May 2013. Scratch 2.0 includes a new web-based project authoring environment and many new features (such as cloning, custom blocks, and cloud variables), and the online workshop will serve as an opportunity to explore the new version.
How does someone get involved?
Join us at
creative-computing.appspot.com
. You can participate as much or as little as you like -- dive into building Scratch projects, connect with others interested in creative computing, or just explore the resources. The Creative Computing Online Workshop facilitation team is excited about working with you and learning from your experiences.
For updates on Creative Computing Online and the other in-person and online CS4HS workshops, join our
CS4HS G+ community
, open to all students, teachers and other CS enthusiasts.
Posted by Erin Mindell, Program Manager for Education
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