1. Cross-posted on the Google Student Blog

    We are happy to announce that the 2012 GRAD CS Forum application is now open!

    As part of Google’s ongoing commitment to encouraging students of underrepresented backgrounds in technology to pursue graduate study, we are pleased to host the 2012 Google Graduate Researchers in Academia of Diverse backgrounds (GRAD) CS Forum. This forum will bring together students who are historically underrepresented in the field to connect with one another and with Google.

    January 2010 brought the launch of the initial Google Graduate Researchers in Academia of Diverse backgrounds (GRAD) CS Forum. Over 70 students from universities across North America came together to meet Googler developers and researchers to discuss topics ranging from security, to databases, and machine learning.

    During the second day, researchers mapped out their own research topics during the “unconference” style portion.

    The 2012 GRAD CS Forum will invite up to 75 computer scientists to an all-expenses paid forum that will run Wednesday evening through Friday afternoon on January 18–20 at Google’s offices in Mountain View, CA and San Francisco, CA.

    The Google GRAD CS Forum will include technical talks from established researchers – both from Google and universities – and a unique occasion to build and strengthen networks with other emerging researchers. Students will also enjoy tours of the Googleplex, have the opportunity to meet with Google engineers in their focus areas, and have fun exploring the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Eligibility Requirements
    Applicants must:
    • be a computer science (or related technical discipline) graduate student currently enrolled in a Masters or PhD program at a university in North America
    • demonstrate academic excellence and leadership in the computing field
    • maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.3 on a 4.0 scale or 4.3 on a 5.0 scale or equivalent in their current program
    How to Apply
    Applicants will be asked to provide:
    • a current copy of your resume
    • unofficial or official copies of your transcripts from both your undergraduate and graduate degree-granting institutions
    • brief thesis abstract or description of your current research (500 words or less)
    Please note that recommendation letters are not required.

    The forum is open to all qualified graduate students, and is committed to addressing diversity in our company and in the technology industry. Students who are a member of a group that is historically under-represented in the technology industry are encouraged to apply, including women, Native American, African American and Hispanic students as well as students with disabilities.

    Please send any questions directly to gradcsforum@google.com. We look forward to reviewing your applications!

    Application Deadline: Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. PST

    Apply today!

    Posted by Liz Arnold, University Programs Specialist
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  2. Last week, in Aarhus, Denmark, GOTO 2011 (the international software development conference) kicked off with the announcement of Google’s new programming language Dart a class-based optionally typed programming language for building web applications. Lars Bak and Gilad Bracha made the announcement during their opening keynote address, and they (along with about 20 other Google engineers) answered questions about the new language after the speech. We’ve invited Lars Bark to give us his thoughts on Dart here on the blog. -Editor


    By Lars Bak, Software Engineer, Dart Team

    Cross-posted on the Chromium Blog

    Today we are introducing an early preview of Dart, a class-based optionally typed programming language for building web applications. Dart’s design goals are to:
    • Create a structured yet flexible language for web programming.
    • Make Dart feel familiar and natural to programmers and thus easy to learn.
    • Ensure that Dart delivers high performance on all modern web browsers and environments ranging from small handheld devices to server-side execution.
    Dart targets a wide range of development scenarios: from a one-person project without much structure to a large-scale project needing formal types in the code to state programmer intent. To support this wide range of projects, Dart has optional types; this means you can start coding without types and add them later as needed. We believe Dart will be great for writing large web applications.

    Dart code can be executed in two different ways: either on a native virtual machine or on top of a JavaScript engine by using a compiler that translates Dart code to JavaScript. This means you can write a web application in Dart and have it compiled and run on any modern browser. The Dart VM is not currently integrated in Chrome but we plan to explore this option.

    The language comes with a set of basic libraries and tools for checking, compiling and running Dart code, all of which will evolve further with your participation. We've made the language and preliminary tools available as open source on dartlang.org. Check out the site to give feedback, learn more about Dart, and participate in its development.

    We look forward to rapidly evolving Dart into a solid platform for structured web programming.

    Lars Bak is a veteran virtual machinist, leaving marks on several software systems: Beta, Self, Strongtalk, Sun's HotSpot and CLDC HI, OOVM Smalltalk, and V8.
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  3. On September 19 - 21, Google partnered with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) to host the 17th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium at our Mountain View office. Over 100 of the nation’s most distinguished engineers, aged 30 - 45, from industry, academia and government, took part in a three-day meeting examining four areas: additive manufacturing, engineering sustainable buildings, neuroprosthetics and semantic processing.

    These young leaders presented their work and learned from one another about cutting-edge topics in engineering today. A combination of formal sessions and social engagement proved to be effective in achieving the overall goal of the symposium which, according to NAE President Charles M. Vest, was to stand back and allow stimulating dialogue to unfold---an element that he calls “electric magic.”

    Watch some of the electric magic yourself—we have photos on our Picasa album and the following videos of sessions led by Googlers posted on the YouTube Tech Talks channel:
    • Perspectives on the Evolution of Computer Science
      Vice president of research & special initiatives, Alfred Spector, addressed participants at the symposium dinner, sharing his perspective on the evolution of computer science and its intersection with our daily lives.


    Participants enjoyed getting a peek into the exciting world of Google, and it was our pleasure to help mentor young engineering leaders who are defining their scientific disciplines.

    Posted By Jenise Erwin, Research Programs Team

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  4. [Updated October 14, 2011: check out the embedded video of Google @ Surge 2011 below]


    Google was a sponsor of the Surge 2011 conference which was held in Baltimore, MD from September 28th through the 30th. Surge is where several hundred DevOps and System Architects go to brainstorm on matters of scalability, so Google was a natural fit; so much so that our own CIO, Ben Fried, delivered the keynote address. Ben discussed the skills and techniques that will successfully carry an enterprise’s systems through meteoric leaps in demand.

    A team of three Google engineers shared how Google plans for scalability from the ground up: our front end services, middleware and infrastructure and even our storage and disaster recovery systems are all built to deal with sudden increases in demand of many orders of magnitude.

    The Googlers' presentations took the attendees from the most user facing services through to the storage systems that lie underneath it all:

    * Running a Frontend Webservice at Google Scale
    author: Maxwell Luebbe
    * Challenges in Building a Large Scale Crawling System
    author: Dr. Jia Guo
    * Solidifying the Cloud: How to back up the Internet
    author: Raymond Blum

    In addition to the presentations, Google hosted a number of live Google+ Hangouts where anyone on the internet could chat live with Ben, our presenters, and with one of our recruiters, Laura Grantham.  Throughout the conference, Google ran an online quiz for participating attendees to win various swag, including several Samsung Galaxy Tabs.  Afterward, Google hosted a dinner for attendees to mingle and get to know each other—and us—better.

    This was our first year at Surge and it was a great experience for both Google and the attendees.  Take a look at Google’s presence at Surge: 



    Posted by Raymond Blum, Site Reliability Engineer
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