1. Nearly one hundred guests from the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Boston joined Googlers for a fascinating technical talk Wednesday, March 21 at our Cambridge office. Google Cambridge partnered with the local chapter of SWE to showcase some of the incredible work women at Google are accomplishing and showcase the Cambridge office. Women from all areas of engineering joined us: academia, industry professionals and local students.

    Guests began the evening with a sit down dinner and drinks with Googlers and had the opportunity to network with each other. After dinner, engineering manager Julie Farago touched on some of the amazing opportunities available for women at Google, and then I , Alice Bonhomme-Biais, Software Engineer, delivered the technical talk, Crisis Response: The Story of How Technology Helped After the Earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.

    I walked guests through the work of the crisis response team at Google and how we responded to the Japan and Haiti earthquakes last year. I highlighted some of the other tools our team is building for potential future crisis, which aim to assist responders and partners during emergencies. I also touched on some of Google’s partnerships with NGOs and how Google.org is making an impact in the world.
    People in the audience sit back and enjoy the presentation
    The audience stayed for nearly an hour afterward, asking questions and expressing an interest in getting involved with Google.org and other efforts around crisis susport. We were thrilled with the engagement from the nearly one hundred women that attended.

    For more information about Google’s crisis response team and efforts and tools for responders, visit www.google.org/crisisresponse.

    Posted by Alice Bonhomme-Biais - Software Engineer, Crisis Response Team
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  2. PyCon 2012 was held in Santa Clara, which was particularly convenient for many of the dozens of participants who work at Google, whose headquarters is a few miles away in Mountain View.  The location was obviously convenient for others too; instead of the anticipated 1500 attendees the conference drew well over 2200, and hundreds of them stayed for the development sprints.

    In addition to Guido van Rossum, whose entertaining keynote addressed the answers he gives to frequently asked questions, half a dozen Google engineers had the opportunity to present in the conference technical tracks.  Augie Fackler and Nathaniel Manista, for example, delivered an introductory talk titled “Stop Mocking Start Testing” that discussed lessons learned about testing python code over the many years since Google Code originally launched. Of course, Google Code itself hosts many projects, among which is “gaeunit,” a project for testing python code.

    The Friday evening party sponsored by YouTube, New Relic, Loggly, Rackspace, and Skullcandy at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara had opportunities for lots of thought provoking discussions.

    Google was a platinum sponsor, but what seemed to draw the most interest was this year’s edition of the Google at PyCon challenge. Just like past years, the challenges were relevant to the conference’s Python topic. Even before the exhibit floor opened, many attendees had obviously been hard at work on the problems and were already prepared to head straight to the booth and show off their solutions.  The next morning, the same rush arrived from people who had worked on the problems overnight.

    Between bursts of excited game participants, the booth was a casual place to hang out and chat about interesting Python challenges with whoever else happened to be around.  A comfy red couch was certainly a draw, often for those whose competition submission had a bug in it.
    A few of the Google attendees who happened to be in the booth at the same time

    After three days, the conference drew to a close. One lucky attendee won a dancing robot, and then the PyCon event moved into its next phase, the sprints. While many left, hundreds of people remained to form focused groups to develop key improvements in Python technologies.


    Posted by Alex Perry, Site Reliability Engineer
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  3. Today, we're opening up registration for Google Code Jam 2012. This year thousands of students, professional programmers and freelance code wizards will pit their ingenuity against a new set of algorithmic challenges concocted by our tireless team of red-eyed, LED-illuminated problem writers.

    Last year’s champion, Makoto Soejima, was asked to build a house for kittens, serve food to hungry mathematicians, escape from a shady casino and help Goro control his anger. Who knows what our problem writers have on their minds this year?

    Code Jam is a world-wide programming competition in which contestants may use any programming language to solve algorithmic problems. The qualification round takes place April 13, followed by three online rounds in the following months. At the end of it all, the top 25 contestants will be invited to Google’s New York office on July 27 for a final match up and a chance to win $10,000. If you are up for the challenge, throw your hat into the ring now.

    Posted by Igor Naverniouk, Software Engineer, Google Code Jam

    (Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)
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  4. Last month, in honor of Black History Month, Google offices in five cities in North America hosted events celebrating black professionals in our community. Across the country, we opened our doors to over 400 guests consisting of engineers, entrepreneurs, technologists, students and professors. The inaugural series of celebrations focused on creating opportunities to network, build relationships and discuss the achievements and challenges of blacks in technology with organizations like NewMe, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the meetup group Blacks In Technology (LA & NYC), among others.

    Events ranged from networking to tech talks to poetry readings. Offices in New York, Mountain View and Los Angeles brought together technical leaders from the local area for panel discussions, while in cities like Chicago and Atlanta, the events focused on establishing a relationship between Google and the local chapters of NSBE and NewMe.




    Slideshow of photos from last month's festivities


    Even though our celebrations for Black History Month have ended, we continue to celebrate Google’s diverse and innovative culture year-round. We look forward to growing our relationship with each of these organizations in the months and years ahead.
    Posted by Nilma Rubin, on behalf of Industry Programs and Diversity & Inclusion
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