Student Blog
Google news and updates especially for students
Google Intern Insights 2014 - Meet Cassie Kozyrkov
June 30, 2014
From Google Glass to Project Loon, Adwords to Docs, our interns have the opportunity to work on some of Google’s most cutting edge and innovative projects. Interns also work across sales and other business functions, bringing a fresh perspective to the work done at Google. To show you just how much of an impact interns make and to highlight their unique experiences, we’re bringing you a special blog series: Google Intern Insights.
For today's post, meet Cassie Kozyrkov, a Decision Support Intern located in the Google Mountain View office. Cassie is a PHD in Statistics at North Carolina State University. When she’s not crunching numbers and working on machine learning, you can find her at the theater, making art, or playing MOBA games.
Tell us one fun, outlandish fact about you!
I rode an ostrich once!
What inspired you to apply for this internship, and what made Google appealing to you as a potential intern?
Google defines so much of today's technological landscape and all of its employees (even the interns!) have a real chance at creating delight, convenience, and opportunity for the world at large. That’s a huge part of why I chose Google. If that’s not reason enough, who wouldn’t be curious about what it’s like to work in Google's quirky environment?
What team are you working on at Google? Can you provide us with a high-level description of your summer project?
I'm part of the Ads Metrics team. My project focuses on using statistical methods to improve the experience of users who are actively shopping online using their smartphones, helping them find what they're looking for faster.
What’s the best part about working with your manager? What about your team?
My manager, Dan Liu, is wonderfully energetic and friendly (and super-smart, of course). It's a delight to work with her! As for the best part about my team - it's a tough call between their patience in getting me up to speed and their hilarious banter during morning coffee meetings.
We all know Googlers and interns love the food and the other benefits. Outside of some of the well-known perks, what’s your favorite part about working at Google?
The heated toilet seats. Just kidding!
I love the speed at which ideas can become reality here. After working for 4 years in psychology labs (grants, tight budgets, and all kinds of red tape), it felt almost unreal when my boss said in week one, "Okay, I like that idea! Just do it.”
What’s something you’ve accomplished during your internship (thus far) that you’re most proud of? Or something you’re looking forward to working on?
I've got an interdisciplinary background, so I'm really proud that the project I've started here at Google has allowed me to act as a bridge between teams with very different skill sets and approaches. We've had a lot of great, fresh ideas from the collaboration. (And yes, I did get a prototype working within my first few weeks here.)
What does “being Googley” mean to you?
Being Googley means having incredible mental flexibility and a way of brightening the day of everyone you come into contact with. The Googliest people I know have colorful personalities and genuinely care about others.
If you could give one piece of advice to potential student applicants, what would it be?
Don't try to fit a career stereotype. Highlight the experiences, skills, quirks, and interests that make you unique - part of what makes Google an amazing place to work is that Googlers dare to be unusual.
Best meal at Google so far?
Before the summer is over, I'm pretty sure I'll send a thank you card to whoever is responsible for the heavenly gluten-free cherry cakes at breakfast.
Outside of being a Google intern, what are some fun things you do outside the classroom/office throughout the year?
Did you just mention the theatre? Let's go!
I also spend a lot of time playing MOBA games and making art by abrading mirrors with sandpaper. (Remember to wear a respirator if you try it at home, kids.)
Dream Google office to visit?
Google Ghana in Accra - I haven't traveled nearly enough in Africa and I'd love the excuse.
While at Google, Cassie is interning with her host, Dan Liu, on the Ads Quality Team. Dan attended Tsinghua University in Beijing before getting her PHD from UCSD and coming to Google in 2008. Originally from China, Dan chose Google because she wanted “to work with smart people and have a big impact”. Dan is a former Google intern herself, so she knew the benefits of interning when she signed on to host Cassie.
What are you working on at Google?
I am an analysis in Ads Quality working on developing ads metrics to measure user’s experience.
Why did you want to host an Intern?
I benefited a lot from my Google internship before I joined google as a full time, and would like to offer someone the same opportunity to learn and grow. Also, I know interns can contribute a lot to the right project.
What’s the best part of working with Cassie as your intern this year?
Cassie is very passionate and has a good intuition of our users’ behaviors and needs. Discussions with her always allow me to put myself into the user's shoes, which is critical to better measure and improve the user’s experience.
What’s the best part about your team?
Everyone is super smart and super fun to work with.
What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not working?
Traveling; I love seeing new places and experiencing different cultures.
What’s your favorite Google moment so far?
My tennis partner and I won the Google tennis championship (group B) in mixed double in 2010
Want to learn more about internships at Google? Check out our
Student Careers Site
. Additionally, follow
Google Students
on Google+ and use the hashtag
#googleinterns
to keep up with Intern Insights this summer.
Posted by Sidnie Davis, Intern Programs Team
Google Intern Insights 2014 - Meet Brandon Nixon
June 26, 2014
Our interns have the opportunity to work on some of Google’s most cutting edge and innovative projects - not only in engineering, but across sales and other business functions, bringing a fresh perspective to the work done at Google. To show you just how much of an impact interns make and to highlight their unique experiences, we’re bringing you a special blog series: Google Intern Insights. Make sure to look out for the different interns being featured on the blog throughout the summer!
Tell us one fun, outlandish fact about you!
Before the start of my freshman year of college, I backpacked in the Talkeetna Mountain range of Alaska as a Class of 2016 Levine Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I spent the summer sleeping in tents, scaling mountainsides, and seeing amazing sites. I did all of this without running water, which meant no showers for almost an entire month!
What inspired you to apply for this internship, and what made Google appealing to you as a potential intern?
A personal mentor of mine, Fabian Elliott, is a former BOLD intern and is now a full-time Googler in the Chicago office. He is an alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and has set an excellent example that I attempt to embody through my personal and professional life. I heard of his experience as a BOLD intern, applied, and quickly realized I could not pass up this opportunity.
What team are you working on at Google? Can you provide us with a high-level description of your summer project?
Currently, I am working on the People Operations Programs and Communications team. My current project involves completing the Great Place To Work Application, which will determine Google’s ranking amongst the Fortune list of the
best places to work
in the United States. We hope that this will be the sixth year of winning the #1 spot on the list.
What’s the best part about working with your manager? What about your team?
If you walk into my workspace, it won’t be long until you hear the singing of a catchy song or jingle followed by the laughter of the entire cube. My team may be super silly at times, but we always get work done. I consider my manager, Annie Robinson, to be like a second mom to me. The best part about working with her, and the rest of the People Operations Programs + Communications team, is that I can sense that they genuinely care about my well-being and want to see me succeed in my role as an intern. My team challenges me professionally by providing me with an active workload, but also caring about my personal development and constantly stressing the importance of an inclusive intern experience.
We all know Googlers and interns love the food and the other benefits. Outside of some of the well-known perks, what’s your favorite part about working at Google?
The people are great! My favorite part about working at Google has to be receiving the opportunity to work with my aforementioned team members. They have been able to provide me with an open, positive working environment that I do not think could be recreated elsewhere.
What’s something you’ve accomplished during your internship (thus far) that you’re most proud of? Or something you’re looking forward to working on?
Thus far, I have already been able to present at a People Programs + Comms weekly meeting and hope to continue to develop my public speaking skills through similar opportunities as the summer continues.
What does “being Googley” mean to you?
When I think about “being Googley” several words come to mind: audacious, open-minded, and thinking big.
If you could give one piece of advice to potential student applicants, what would it be?
Though this may sound cliche, I would offer this one piece of advice to potential student applicants: “Just be yourself.” I have already learned from my few weeks of working in Mountain View that the stereotypical Googler does not exist. No one possesses an identical perspective or the same pathway to Google and I believe this sort of diversity is greatly embraced by the company.
Best meal at Google so far?
Cheeseburgers and fries hold a special place in my heart, so I am slightly biased when I say the cheeseburger and fries I had for lunch during my first few weeks here has been the best meal I have had while at Google.
Outside of being a Google intern, what are some fun things you do outside the classroom/office throughout the year?
Throughout the year, I am often busy with my coursework and studying, but I am also actively involved in my school’s Student Government Association and recently joined Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Outside of the classroom and library, I enjoy spending time with my friends and fraternity brothers, while planning on-campus events that the entire student body can enjoy. With my fraternity, I look forward to competing in this year’s step shows and other performances.
Dream Google office to visit?
If I had the opportunity to visit any Google office in the world, it would probably be one in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Visiting an office like our Singapore office would be an immersive cultural experience that I believe would be the experience of a lifetime!
Want to learn more about internships at Google? Check out our
Student Careers Site
. Additionally, follow
Google Students
on Google+ and use the hashtag #googleinterns to keep up with Intern Insights this summer.
Posted by Maggie Hohlfeld, University Programs Team
Google Intern Insights 2014 - Meet Andrew Ring
June 24, 2014
From Google Glass to Project Loon, Adwords to Docs, our interns have the opportunity to work on some of Google’s most cutting edge and innovative projects. Interns also work across sales and other business functions, bringing a fresh perspective to the work done at Google. To show you just how much of an impact interns make and to highlight their unique experiences, we’re bringing you a special blog series: Google Intern Insights. Make sure to look out for the different interns being featured on the blog throughout the summer!
Meet Andrew Ring, a Software Engineering Intern in Google’s Chicago office. Andrew just finished his BS in Computer Science and will be headed back to the Computer Science Masters program at the University of Illinois at Chicago this fall, focusing on Artificial Intelligence, especially Machine Learning. When he’s not coding, you can find him spending time with his wife and four awesome kids. He also enjoys photography, racquetball, science fiction, and space exploration (he has also interned with NASA!).
What inspired you to apply for this internship, and what made Google appealing to you as a potential intern?
I’ve respected Google for a long time, not only for their technical achievements, but (perhaps more importantly) for their ethical and moral standards. Google’s well known mantra of “Don’t be evil” is a very powerful statement to me. It’s a recognition of the ability to violate people’s privacy and expectations that everyone deals with everyday, but is much more pronounced at a large data dependant organization such as this. It’s also a commitment to fight against that possibility. I respond really positively to this view, and think it’s important that this issue is given a great deal of emphasis.
On top of a solid ethical foundation, I have been very impressed by the breadth of problems that Google has been tackling. My favorite example is the self-driving car program (Disclaimer: I’m not working on this project, I’m just a fan). I’m thrilled at the idea that we could help save tens of thousands lives every year that are lost to car accidents by systems which can respond much more quickly, consistently and soberly than humans.
As to the application process and encouragement, I have to thank a couple of my professors for helping encourage me in that realm, specifically Prof. Tanya Berger-Wolf and Dr. Mitch Theys.
What team are you working on at Google? Can you provide us with a high-level description of your summer project?
I’m working on the Double Click for Publishers, Inventory Management and Forecasting core team. It’s a mouth full, I know. Basically, the team projects advertising traffic information into the future to help content publishers (website owners) plan out advertising on their websites.
I’m working on the backend system for this, and am transitioning some of the storage architecture to be more efficient, saving resources. I’ve also been updating some internal monitoring tools to help the team more quickly analyze the state of the system.
What’s the best part about working with your manager? What about your team?
Steve has really set me up to be able to work on a meaningful project which will have a tangible impact, which is really exciting and encouraging. He provides good support while still giving me enough room to be self driven.
Joel is a fantastic technical mentor, and I love all of the little efficiency improvements he’s able to impart. Everyone on the team has been extremely friendly and helpful, and it’s made it a wonderful environment to work in. Thanks guys!
We all know Googlers and interns love the food and the other benefits. Outside of some of the well-known perks, what’s your favorite part about working at Google?
The people. Everyone has been very friendly and supportive, but more than that it’s an intellectually stimulating environment. There are big challenges being faced, and the supportive discourse is pervasive. It’s a wonderful blend of anything is possible and a pragmatism that allows for tangible accomplishments.
What’s something you’ve accomplished during your internship (thus far) that you’re most proud of? Or something you’re looking forward to working on?
One of the first things I worked on, as I was getting used to the technical environment / infrastructure, was some internal tools. A particular one was suffering from slow down, and I restructured and expanded it to make it much more responsive. It was a really good feeling to finish that and allowed me to get a feel for the whole process before tackling a much larger challenge. Context is critical, so this is a huge benefit for me.
What does “being Googley” mean to you?
I feel the core of this is an attitude built of optimism and care. Care for people, both Googlers, our users, and beyond. Care for the immediate and the future. Optimism as to how far we can go if we work together.
What’s your favorite thing about working in the Chicago office?
Not having grown up in a big city, I love getting the experience of working downtown among all the high rise buildings. There is a certain gravitas to the scale in which I find myself, walking from the train station or looking out the window at work.
If you could give one piece of advice to potential student applicants, what would it be?
Think seriously about what it is you care about and want to achieve. You are a unique and able individual. Figure out what you dream of doing, and work towards that dream. Your passion will show, your drive will make you work harder, and better. The person that you are is as important as the skills that you’ve learned. You need them both.
Best meal at Google so far?
I’m going to have to go with BBQ Pulled Chicken sandwiches, though stir fry day is definitely a close second.
Outside of being a Google intern, what are some fun things you do outside the classroom/office throughout the year?
I spend most of my time outside work at home with my four wonderful children. Outside that, I’ve spent a lot of time in robotics over the years, from UIC’s Chicago EDT (Engineering Design Team) who competes in various robotics competitions throughout the year, to a two year internship at NASA Ames Research Center where I worked primarily on human robotic collaboration projects.
Dream Google office to visit?
I’d love to visit Sydney, Australia. It looks like a beautiful place, and it would be fun to get exposed to a cultural perspective which has grown out of a different part of the world.
What is something that you’ve learned thus far about working on a team and/or in a professional environment?
I’ve definitely gained an appreciation for what thorough code reviews can provide in the sharing of information about a system. It’s not a practice that tends to crop up in academic settings, so I didn’t have a lot of experience on that front prior to this, but it’s been very helpful. It takes time, but the end result is better and there is less stress because you know someone else will have the chance to catch it if a mistakes slips past you. I also love that the attention to detail goes all the way down to the level of grammar in comments. ;)
Andrew’s intern host at Google is Steven Milak. Steven attended Purdue University and has been a Software Engineer at Google since 2008. When Steve isn’t working on Inventory Management and Forecasting, you can find him in the office’s gym, doing 50 pushups and pullups daily. He has advice for those pursuing an internship or career at Google...and a strange story about some nut-throwing monkeys.
Tell us one fun, outlandish fact about you!
I was once attacked by a bunch of nut-throwing spider monkeys while hiking in the jungle.
What are your favorite things to do outside of work?
Most of my time outside of work is spent with my family. Some fun things we do together are hiking, camping, fishing, gardening, soccer, bike rides, and visiting with family and friends.
What inspired you to host an intern?
Over the past 6 years that I have been here people have always taken the time to help coach and grow me as an engineer. I desired the opportunity to do that for another individual. In a sense, to pay it forward.
What team are you working on at Google? Can you provide us with a high-level description of the work you do?
Inventory Management and Forecasting, which is a feature of the larger DFP ads platform. IMF basically forecasts the traffic to a site and helps the publisher maximize their advertising opportunities.
What’s the best part about your team?
The people with which I have the privilege of working.
We all know Googlers and interns love the food and the other benefits. Outside of some of the well-known perks, what’s your favorite part about working at Google?
Again, the people. The caliber of people on our team (and, for that matter, Google Chicago Engineering as a whole) is absolutely amazing.
What’s the best part about working with your intern?
The excitement, cheerfulness, and eagerness that he [Andrew] brings to the job every day. For example, I had to smile when he kept telling me how awesome it was to push a button from his workstation and have 800 machine cores running for him in Oregon.
If you could give one piece of advice to potential student applicants, what would it be?
Make sure you can solve problems and that code can roll off the tips of your fingers!
Want to learn more about internships at Google? Check out our
Student Careers Site
. Additionally, follow
Google Students
on Google+ and use the hashtag #googleinterns to keep up with Intern Insights this summer.
Posted by Sidnie Davis, Intern Programs Team
Google Intern Insights 2014 - Meet Marieh Scales
June 23, 2014
Our interns have the opportunity to work on some of Google’s most cutting edge and innovative projects - not only in engineering, but across sales and other business functions, bringing a fresh perspective to the work done at Google. To show you just how much of an impact interns make and to highlight their unique experiences, we’re bringing you a special blog series: Google Intern Insights. Make sure to look out for the different interns being featured on the blog throughout the summer!
For today's post, meet Marieh Scales, a BOLD intern on the People Operations team in Mountain View.
Tell us one fun, outlandish fact about you!
I collect stickers off of fruit.
What inspired you to apply for this internship, and what made Google appealing to you as a potential intern?
I am part of Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), a career prep program, of which Google is one of the corporate partners. Through the program, I was able to visit the New York office and better understand the many different roles within Google. That trip helped me realize that Google wasn’t solely a tech company and that there are many other equally important roles that make Google a wonderful company. As a potential intern, I enjoyed learning about how valuable employee development is to Google as a company, and I was sure that if selected as an intern, I would not only further develop my pre-existing skills, but I would also learn new skills.
What team are you working on at Google? Can you provide us with a high-level description of your summer project?
I am working in People Operations, specifically in the PeopleDev organization with the Metrics and Evaluation team. I have been tasked with two major projects. The first is to reverse-integrate two major websites (and other online resources that overlap with similar content) to create a one-stop-resource for Program Managers and Program facilitators. This resource will outline all phases of the program design cycle, including assessments and evaluation. In addition, I help to improve the user-functionality of a dashboard which helps Program Managers evaluate and conduct post-program survey analysis. In essence, both projects will simplify the process of conducting program evaluations and assessments.
What’s the best part about working with your manager? What about your team?
What I like about my host is that she trusts me enough to give me a project/task and the autonomy to finish it the best way I see fit. It gives me ownership and really challenges me to use my critical thinking skills. I often think to myself “would my team do it this way?” or “How would my team approach this problem?”
My team are also such comedians! I laugh a lot, but at the same time get so much work done. They make Google an even more enjoyable place to work. Each team member has their own super skill, which makes my team all the more phenomenal.
We all know Googlers and interns love the food and the other benefits. Outside of some of the well-known perks, what’s your favorite part about working at Google?
It was not hard to transition from school to Google. (I had two days between the end of the semester and my start date.) I love the fact that the dress code is, “just wear clothes,” and that there is flexibility with the hours in your day. Also, I like working in a huge workspace with five other people. I never feel isolated or alone, plus it makes it easier to build a relationship with my team.
What’s something you’ve accomplished during your internship (thus far) that you’re most proud of? Or something you’re looking forward to working on?
I’m looking forward to the completion of the reverse-integration project that I spoke of earlier. While I am sure the project will be completed and easier to use than previous versions, I am anxious to see how many people will utilize the website!
Dream Google office to visit?
Sao Paulo
Best gFit class?
The Brazilian Samba class! UJam is a close second!
What does “being Googley” mean to you?
Being Googley means being your genuine self. There is no right or wrong way to be Googley—as long as you treat others like you want to be treated! I don’t feel like I need to hide my interests, or be dishonest with people. It’s ok to say, “that [insert music/sport/game/etc.] just isn’t my thing,” and I am not judged for that.
Outside of being a Google intern, what are some fun things you do outside the classroom/office throughout the year?
Dance! Give me an upbeat tempo and I am sure to work up a sweat!
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Repeating myself
What is something that you’ve learned thus far about working on a team and/or in a professional environment?
Work with the information that you have and if need be, ask questions. But you’ll almost never have every minute detail given to you, so do the best with what you have.
If you could give one piece of advice to potential student applicants, what would it be?
Be genuine. Do not try to hype up your accomplishments, service hours, skills, etc. Be genuine and that will shine through on the application.
Want to learn more about internships at Google? Check out our
Student Careers Site
. Additionally, follow
Google Students
on Google+ and use the hashtag #googleinterns to keep up with Intern Insights this summer.
Posted by Courtney Mogavero, University Programs Team
The App Developer Business Kit: Different Ways to Monetize an App
June 18, 2014
There are a variety ways for app developers to monetize. In the
App Developer Business Kit
by AdMob, we cover the different monetization models and when to use them. We encourage developers to think about monetization as they’re creating the app, not something they plan to figure out later.
Choosing a monetization model depends on the type of content that an app is offering and how users are engaging with it. Two ways to measure this are frequency of use and potential download volume. For example, an app that’s opened weekly for a very brief amount of time probably won’t monetize well with ads. An upfront payment (paid download) may be a better solution. On the other hand, a gaming app used often will monetize well with ads since revenue grows as impressions increase.
A popular monetization option to consider is in-app purchase, which is forecast to account for 48% of app store revenue by 2017 [Gartner, Sept 2013]. The growth of in-app purchases can be attributed to the growing popularity of games. AdMob surveyed game-playing smartphone users to ask them what percentage of their recent spend on gaming apps could be attributed to in-app purchases. Respondents in the US indicated that it was as high as 89%, and other markets surveyed were at a comparable level.
Advertising is a versatile and reliable way to earn revenue and can be the cornerstone of a monetization strategy, as app developer Fingersoft discuss
in this video
. Ads can also be a complementary option to an in-app purchase model, helping to monetize non-paying users.
To find out more about app monetization, check out
Chapter 4: Making Money
on the AdMob website and stay connected to AdMob by following our
Google+
page.
Posted by Henry Wang, Product Marketing, AdMob
EMEA 2014 Grace Hopper Conference Travel Grant
June 16, 2014
As part of Google's ongoing commitment to increase the number of women in engineering, we are excited to offer travel grants to the 2014 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference taking place in Phoenix, Arizona from October 8 - 10, 2014. The theme for this year's conference is "Everywhere. Everyone." and will offer incredible opportunities for mentoring, networking, and career development.
Female university students and industry professionals
from Europe, Middle East or Africa
, excelling in computer science may apply for one of the 5 travel grant to attend the 2014 Grace Hopper conference.
Sponsorship includes:
Conference registration
Round trip flight to Phoenix, AZ (from within Europe, Middle East or Africa)
Reimbursement for ground transportation to and from the airport and the hotel
Arranged hotel accommodations from October 7-11 - A fun event with your travel scholar recipients from across the globe, on one of the evenings of the conference!
Please apply using
this form
by
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
. The Grace Hopper Travel Sponsorship winners will be announced the week of August 4, 2014.
Posted by Nicola Dixon, University Programs Team
Google Intern Insights 2014 - Meet Mira Leung
June 12, 2014
From Google Glass to Project Loon, Adwords to Docs, our interns have the opportunity to work on some of Google’s most cutting edge and innovative projects. Interns also work across sales and other business functions, bringing a fresh perspective to the work done at Google. To show you just how much of an impact interns make and to highlight their unique experiences, we’re bringing you a special blog series: Google Intern Insights. Make sure to look out for the different interns being featured on the blog throughout the summer!
For our second installation of Intern Insights, meet Mira Leung. Mira is a Software Engineering Intern working on the Analytics Team in the Irvine Office. When Mira is not coding or TAing CS courses at the University of British Columbia, you can find her reading, listening to music and spending a lot of time figure skating - she was the youngest athlete on the 2006 Canadian Winter Olympics Team!
Tell us one fun, outlandish fact about you!
I competed in the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in figure skating, and was the youngest athlete on the Canadian Olympic Team.
What inspired you to apply for this internship, and what made Google appealing to you as a potential intern?
Google is well known for having great engineering, so I've always wanted to learn from and be one of their software engineers. I also love how they value Googley-ness in their people and products, which makes for an awesome work environment.
What team are you working on at Google? Can you provide us with a high-level description of your summer project?
I work on the Analytics Config Services team, which is part of the backend of Google Analytics. The mechanism that my team currently uses for master election is being decommissioned, so my project is to re-implement leader election with a different service.
What’s the best part about working with your manager? What about your team?
The best part about working with my manager is that she helps me with my technical development, even outside of my project scope. She not only explained to me my project domain, but also the motivations that led to certain design and architectural decisions. This helped me better understand my project realm and make better engineering choices.
My team is very welcoming and supportive. It's been great getting to know them all, and I really like the team spirit we have.
We all know Googlers and interns love the food and the other benefits. Outside of some of the well-known perks, what’s your favorite part about working at Google?
One of my favorite things about working here is getting to learn about new architectures, systems, and tools. I think it's fascinating to see the different ways of doing things at Google, and to weigh the trade-offs of various choices. I also love applying my knowledge in a practical setting every day while building products and solving problems. There's no feeling like the satisfaction of getting tests to pass with an optimal and efficient implementation. :)
Another terrific aspect about working here is GoogleServe, where Googlers get to take part in community projects for local charitable causes. I recently participated in a GoogleServe at Second Harvest Food Bank, and it felt wonderful to give back to the community.
What’s something you’ve accomplished during your internship (thus far) that you’re most proud of? Or something you’re looking forward to working on?
I'm happy about the current iteration of my project, because I've been able to bring together all the new concepts I've grasped so far at Google into a basic, functioning version of the final product. I’ve learned so much along the way that I can apply to the rest of my project. I'm really excited about my next step, which is to get the current version of my project to run on Google's systems.
What does “being Googley” mean to you?
My interpretation of being Googley is putting the user and their best interests first, paying attention to details, coming up with efficient and optimal solutions, and improving continuously. It also means collaboration over competition and being ethical, and I feel that this results in amazing products. I think that passion for what you do, creativity, trying new things, and lifelong learning are Googley traits as well, and I love working in an environment that values these qualities.
If you could give one piece of advice to potential student applicants, what would it be?
Be passionate. This will power you through your internship, especially since you are given a lot of responsibility and independence on your project. I think that great passion leads to great work, so if you love computer science and great engineering, then you should definitely apply.
Best meal at Google so far?
Yam noodle chap chae with wood ear mushrooms and tofu, followed by root beer froyo! Yum. :)
Outside of being a Google intern, what are some fun things you do outside the classroom/office throughout the year?
I’ve volunteered on our school’s CS Student Development committee and TA’ed a couple of CS courses. I also like listening to music and enjoy reading books. And of course, I love figure skating.
What is something that you’ve learned thus far about working on a team and/or in a professional environment?
Teamwork is very important in helping you work efficiently and improve your skills. My team has introduced me to a lot of new tools and systems that have helped me streamline my workflow, and code reviews are really polishing up my coding style.
Best intern event you’ve attended?
Orientation week at Mountain View was so much fun! I had a great time getting to know my fellow interns and taking classes. I'm really looking forward to our next event: whale watching at Newport Landing!
Mira’s Host, Ruth Doane, has been at Google since 2007. Before Google, Ruth had a very interesting background, spanning everything from gaming to working on microprocessor design. A yoga class at Google introduced Ruth to the joys of hot yoga, which she enjoys in her spare time, along with ballroom dance. Ruth is also passionate about giving back and serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children. Ruth also knows 100+ digits of Pi. Ruth was compelled to host an intern because of how internships shaped her own career, and has enjoyed her time working with Mira so far.
Why did you want to work at Google?
My background included a few other industries, including running a game startup with my husband, and writing custom software for microprocessor design. I learned from those experiences, but still had not figured out quite what I wanted to be when I grew up.
When did you start working at Google?
I joined Google in 2007, three years after the IPO. At the time, I felt like a latecomer, with so very much to learn in a fast moving environment. Seven years later, there is still much more to learn and do, but I have now been here longer than about 80% of the engineers.
What are you working on at Google?
I work on Google Analytics, which helps web site owners gain insight about what brings visitors to their site and how the site is being used.
Why did you want to host an Intern?
The internships I did when I was in school benefited me enormously. After a few years of watching other people host interns, and taking on more responsibility myself, I finally felt ready to oversee what I hoped would be a great experience for an intern and a big value add to my team.
What’s the best part about your team?
My team takes on interesting modeling and scaling questions, has a role to play in most new Analytics features, and moves quickly while maintaining good code and project health. The best part, though, is the people I work with.
What’s the best part about working with your intern?
Mira picks up complex concepts quickly, comes back with great questions, and is always curious to learn more. I enjoy getting into deep technical discussions with her, and then seeing the way she has synthesized and applied these disparate conversation threads to the work at hand.
What’s your favorite perk to utilize at Google?
I’m a big fan of the food, massage, and fitness programs. I’ve used the latter for everything from bike maintenance workshops to Bollywood dance. I also have fantastic memories from team offsites, like rafting, ziplining, flight simulators, and scavenger hunts. My favorite perk, though, is the way Google seeks to give time and money to do good, and supports me in the same endeavor. There is a ridiculously generous donation match ($6,000 to non profits, with opportunities throughout the year to get several thousand more matched), and a community of people having meaningful discussions about how to direct money most effectively. There are also organized team volunteer events, along with amazing support for the ways I volunteer. I get extra paid time off to volunteer, and Google matches that time with a per-hour donation to the organization!
What does “being Googley” mean to you?
I think being Googley is about the citizenship that makes our open culture possible, and that earns trust from users and from each other. We are empowered in so many ways to be productive, make good choices, and scale up. Whether it is free food, access to computational resources, or transparency from the leadership, we all need to respect the privilege in order to make it work. When we make collaborative choices to steward such information and resources well, rejecting arrogance and entitlement, that is being Googley.
Want to learn more about internships at Google? Check out our
Student Careers Site
. Additionally, follow
Google Students
on Google+ and use the hashtag
#googleinterns
to keep up with Intern Insights this summer.
Posted by Sidnie Davis, Intern Programs Team
Google Games 2014: Snapshot of a Google Games Champion
June 9, 2014
Why are students dressed in shoulder pads and parachute pants furiously building towers out of straws, answering trivia questions, coding their hearts out, and using all of their brain power to solve puzzles? Because it’s The Google Games, that’s why!
The Google Games, Google’s annual invitational competition, was held at 14 locations this year and celebrated the Greats of the 1980s. This year, the Google Games came to Capital City (better known as Washington, D.C.) where students from Howard University, Gallaudet University, George Washington University, and University of the District of Columbia battled it out. This year’s Capital City winner was Gallaudet University’s “Loud Hands,” which consisted of team members Trudaline McNece, Timothy Yu, Luis Figueroa-Montanez, Wesley Layton, and Larwan Berke.
We’re bringing you an insider look at this winning team, as told by team captain Trudaline, on what it takes to be the champion of The Google Games.
The Google Games Capital City Champions
How did you learn about the Google Games?
We learned about the Google Games from our professor who strongly encouraged us to join in. We hadn’t heard of it before then, but we immediately agreed to join in since it sounded like a lot of fun! We also always wanted to have the opportunity to demonstrate that deaf students are capable of great things.
What did you think the Google Games would be like prior to your arrival?
We mostly expected the Google Games to be a friendly competition with all the famed Google culture and style. Some of us were extremely nervous if we could take on the challenges, but it turned out that the Google Games were really fun in the end!
Tell us a bit about your experience. What was your favorite part of the Google Games?
The whole experience was great, particularly the trivia section, where we as a team vigorously answered trivia questions. Of course, this was all signed in American Sign Language, so you can imagine that our hands were moving actively the whole time. Our team name, LOUD HANDS, couldn’t have suited us any better than in the trivia section!
What did it feel like when they announced that your team had won the Google Games Capital City?
It felt really great. We were actually very nervous before the results because although we had gotten 1st place in trivia, we came in at a very close 2nd to another team in the other two sections, building and coding, so we had no idea who was going to win. We won in the end so it was all good! And adding the fact that we are deaf, I think a lot of people were surprised at our victory. It was the greatest feeling to be able to show that there are very talented deaf professionals, specifically in coding fields.
Team Loud Hands during the building challenge
What was the biggest challenge you faced at the Google Games?
The biggest challenge was the coding category, because as three of our teammates were new to coding, either solely focusing on IT networking or were beginners, it fell upon Timothy and Larwan to take on much of the coding work. Believe it or not, Timothy completed two out of the four programming challenges all by himself, Larwan took on one himself, and the rest of us collaborated on the last one. In the end, we managed to complete three out of the four programming challenges and would probably have gotten the last one with just a little more time!
What do you think was your team’s biggest asset that helped you to take the 1st place spot?
Everyone contributed greatly in their own ways, but if I had to say so, it would probably have to be Timothy and Larwan’s experience and knowledge in programming that helped out greatly. Timothy was able to contribute a lot of points to our team in the Coding section, Larwan and Trudaline helped a lot in the Building section, and Wesley and Luis also supported us greatly in the Building section. Everyone contributed equally in the Trivia section. In the end, we each brought our own talents in different ways which contributed to our overall win of The Google Games.
All Gallaudet Participants
Posted by Maggie Hohlfeld, University Programs Team
Getting to Know a PhD - Ian Goodfellow
June 3, 2014
Google interns have the opportunity to work on some of Google’s most cutting edge and innovative projects. We also offer a variety of opportunities for PhD students who wish to gain industry experience. Through our Getting to Know a PhD series, we’ll provide a glimpse into some of these opportunities as well as the impactful projects PhD students at Google work on. Today we’re featuring
Ian Goodfellow
, a Google PhD Fellowship Recipient and a former Software Engineer Intern in our Mountain View office, who interned with the Street Smart team.
So Ian, tell us about yourself and your PhD topic ...
I’m a PhD candidate at the
Université de Montréal in Québec
. I’m a member of
Yoshua Bengio’s
LISA lab
where essentially all of us study deep learning. Deep learning is a form of machine learning based on learning hierarchical, distributed models to solve artificial intelligence tasks. My PhD
thesis
is focused on developing new deep learning techniques and applying them to
computer vision
problems like object recognition,
image inpainting
, recognizing occluded objects, and transcribing sequences of characters from photos.
Why did you apply for an internship at Google?
Entering the final year of my PhD program, I was unsure whether I wanted to go into industry or remain in academia. Having spent several years in academia already, I had a good idea of what to expect there, but little firsthand experience in industry. I thought an internship at Google would be a good opportunity to find out whether I like working in industry.
What was the focus of your internship project?
The focus of my internship project was to develop a neural network capable of
transcribing the address numbers on houses from photos taken by the Street View cars
. By combining the transcription data with the cars’ GPS data, the Street Smart team can then place houses accurately on the map. This system has already been used to transcribe nearly 100 million house numbers. Yaroslav Bulatov had the basic idea for the system and had a prototype working already when I arrived. My role as an intern was to set up the correct equations for maximum likelihood learning and inference in the model, write the code for those features, and tune the configuration of the network to get good performance.
What is working on the Google Street Smart team like?
Fun and exciting. My intern host,
Julian Ibarz
, was very supportive and welcoming and the team lead,
Sacha Arnoud
, had a lot of interest in our project. As a computer vision researcher, Street Smart was an especially interesting place to work because they have assembled datasets of labeled images unavailable anywhere else. The team hosted social events as well, which allowed me to get to know my team on a personal as well as professional level.
What was your favorite part of the internship?
Getting to work with my intern host, Julian. He was good at planning objectives that I could accomplish in just one summer but that also had big impact. He knows the database and high performance computing infrastructure very well. As a PhD student, machine learning people only get to collaborate with other machine learning people most of the time. Doing the internship was a good opportunity to get outside the “machine learning bubble” for a few months and collaborate with people who have a broader skill set. I learned new skills that I could take back to the lab.
What key skills have you gained from your internship?
I gained an intuition of how deep learning models work at scale. Their performance is quite a lot better in this regime. I also learned a lot about the system infrastructure necessary for working with large datasets and distributed high performance computing.
What impact has this internship experience had on your PhD studies?
The project I worked on during my internship was the basis for a
publication
at the
International Conference on Learning Representations
. We were delighted that it was accepted for an oral presentation. The system also went into production a few weeks before the end of my internship. Within a few months, it transcribed the addresses of nearly 100 million houses. My advisor let me include this paper in my PhD thesis since there was a close connection to the subject area. It’s a nice way to close my thesis--I can show that some of the work developed early in the thesis has had a real impact.
I also learned a lot about how to keep large codebases with many contributors organized. This has benefited my lab already. After I returned from my internship I had a lot of ideas how we could overhaul the way the lab develops software. I supervised a masters student, Alassane Ndiaye, who implemented a lot of automated format checking tools that help to keep our libraries much cleaner than they were before.
You are also a recipient of a
Google PhD Fellowship
in Deep Learning, mentored by
Samy Bengio
. What can you tell us about your fellowship experience?
The fellowship was a really great opportunity and gave me the freedom to spend time on things like developing the Pylearn2 open source machine learning library and helping
Yoshua
write a textbook instead of being completely focused on specific grants. Samy gave me a lot of advice about careers at Google, my internship project, and applying for a full time position.
Has your internship experience impacted the way you think about your future career?
One of the main reasons I applied for the internship was to gain experience working in industry to help decide whether I wanted to become a professor at a university or a research scientist at a company. Doing the internship helped me to figure out that a lot of my personal interests are better suited to industry than academia.
You will start working at Google soon. What are you going to work on?
I will be joining
Jeff Dean
’s deep learning infrastructure team. I plan to split my time between collaborating with Street Smart, and improving DistBelief, Google’s distributed deep learning library.
Why should a PhD student apply for an internship at Google? Any advice to offer?
To gain more exposure to industry for your work. The work I did as an intern was covered in publications like
MIT Technology Review
,
Vice
,
Wired
, and
Slate
, and part of a presentation I made during the internship was reproduced in
PC World
and a
keynote talk
by the CEO of NVIDIA. I think the experience raised my research profile significantly.
Another piece of advice is that if you are given a choice between teams, choose the team where you can have the biggest impact. This is probably not a team that is already known for publishing in your field--look for a team that can benefit from your area of expertise but doesn’t have enough people in your subject area on staff yet.
For more information on our research areas, award programs, people, and publications, please visit
Research at Google
. To learn more about other internships, outreach programs and scholarships, check out our
Student Careers Site
. Additionally, follow
Google Students
on Google+ and use the hashtag
#googleinterns
to keep up with more 'Getting to Know a PhD' and 'Intern Insights' this summer.
Posted by Beate List, Research Programs, EMEA
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