Introducing the Europe Scholarship for Students with Disabilities

(Cross-posted with the Google Students Blog)

Today, we're excited to announce the most recent addition to our scholarship programs in Europe, the Google Europe Scholarship for Students with Disabilities. This scholarship is designed for students with disabilities who are pursuing university degrees in the field of computer science at a university anywhere in the European Union, plus Switzerland and Israel. Multiple scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of candidates’ academic performance and demonstrated passion for computer science.

Scholarships will be granted for the 2010/2011 academic year, and recipients will be invited to attend an all-expenses-paid retreat at Google’s Engineering Center in Zurich in 2010.

Here's what Nelson Mattos, our VP for Product & Engineering in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has to say about this scholarship: "We're committed to diversifying the long-term engineering talent pool for the industry as a whole. We hope that this scholarship will increase opportunities for students with disabilities and encourage them to pursue careers in computer science. The retreat fosters relationships so that scholars can form a supportive network lasting the full length of their academic studies and beyond."

We know that a diverse group of people use our tools and services and only an equally diverse workforce can anticipate our users' needs. We've found that the diversity of perspectives, ideas and cultures leads to the creation of better products to the benefit of all users of the Internet. We hope that this scholarship works towards that end.

The deadline to apply is March 15th 2010. For more details, visit www.google.com/studentswithdisabilities-europe.

Posted by Beate List, EMEA University Programmes and Eleanor Mulligan, EMEA Diversity & Inclusion

Growing the next generation of computer scientists and business leaders

(Cross-posted on the Google Student Blog)

We had a busy summer here at Google interacting with students through a wide variety of scholarship, internship and networking opportunities across North America. Here's a look back at a few of our programs (you can bet we'll be hosting them again!) along with news on some upcoming initiatives.

Rising college sophomores participated in two Google programs: Google FUSE, in its inaugural year, and the Google Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI).

For FUSE, we welcomed 50 rising college sophomores to our New York City office for a three-day retreat designed to connect students from groups that are under-represented in the field of computer science. The retreat focused on making connections between students and Googlers, encouraging students to create meaningful academic experiences and allowing them to learn more about possible career paths via hands-on activities, panel discussions and a bit of fun around the New York City area.

Another group of twenty rising sophomores spent two weeks at the Googleplex in Mountain View for the second annual Computer Science Summer Institute. This special program included an interactive and collaborative Computer Science curriculum, as well as a living-learning residential experience for student networking. Students worked in teams to create an interactive web application using Python in Google App Engine. When not in class, they heard technical talks from Google engineers, spoke with professionals from across the technology industry and academia about the many things they can do with a Computer Science degree. They also had some fun joining the Bay Area summer interns on a boat cruise and catching a baseball game after an exciting San Francisco scavenger hunt.

In addition, our engineering internship program hosted more than 450 college (undergraduate and graduate) interns in 15 locations across North America. These interns were an integral part of the engineering team and made significant contributions this summer working on exciting projects including Android, Chrome, Docs and machine translation.

We also had more than 100 students working across multiple functions, including sales and engineering in Mountain View, New York, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Boston as part of the Building Opportunities for Leadership and Development (BOLD) Program. BOLD is a 10-week internship program designed to provide exposure to the technology industry for students from groups that are historically underrepresented in technology. This summer experience includes a unique glimpse into a business or engineering career, professional development and leadership courses, as well as one-on-one mentorship designed to further support professional growth.

Of course, we realize that growing future leaders in engineering and business doesn't just start with college students. For this reason, we partner with the LEAD programs in both business and engineering to encourage outstanding high school students to pursue careers in these fields. This year, all four LEAD Summer Engineering Institute participants had the opportunity to tour a local Google office to attend technical talks and interact with Google engineers (okay, with some tasty food and video games thrown in as well).

As part of Google's ongoing commitment to recognizing student achievements and promoting leadership, we also offer a number of academic scholarships. We are currently accepting applications for the Google Lime Scholarship for Student with Disabilities in the U.S. and Canada, and the Anita Borg Scholarship in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the United States. In case you're curious, we offer a host of scholarships for many other international regions.

If one or more of these opportunities sounds like something you'd like to participate in, you can find applications for full time opportunities and summer internship opportunities on our student job site. Visit our scholarship page for more information on our scholarship opportunities. And follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates on application deadlines and new program announcements.

Making an early connection playing People Bingo at Google FUSE.

Taking a break from bowling during Google FUSE.

Posted by Kyle Ewing, Talent and Outreach Programs - University Programs and Recruiting

The best and the brightest

I can't think of a better environment than academia for asking hard questions and trying to solve the unsolvable. It's at universities that graduate students perform some of the most exciting and game-changing research in computer science and technology. These university labs foster the students that are going to be the next innovators and leaders in research.

We started the Google Fellowship Program this year to support graduate students in their quest to discover and achieve great things. Our goal was to find the best and brightest PhD students and award them a unique fellowship that highlights their contributions to research and supports them through their graduate studies. Several top universities submitted their students for consideration by research scientists, distinguished engineers and executives at Google. The breadth of research covered by these students and the scope of their vision was astounding. Learning about them was exciting; choosing from among them was truly difficult.

After careful review, we are proud to announce the 2009 Google Fellowship recipients:

• Roxana Geambasu, Google Fellowship in Cloud Computing (University of Washington)
• Michael Piatek, Google Fellowship in Computer Networking (University of Washington)
• David Sontag, Google Fellowship in Machine Learning (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
• Ali Farhadi, Google Fellowship in Computer Vision Image Interpretation (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• Nicholas Chen, Google Fellowship in Human-Computer Interaction (University of Maryland)
• Siddhartha Sen, Google Fellowship in Fault Tolerant Computing (Princeton University)
• Ryan Peterson, Google Fellowship in Distributed Systems (Cornell University)
• Eric Gilbert, Google Fellowship in Social Computing (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• Micha Elsner, Google Fellowship in Natural Language Processing (Brown University)
• Subhransu Maji, Google Fellowship in Computer Vision Object Recognition (University of California, Berkeley)
• Nicolas Lambert, Google Fellowship in Market Algorithms (Stanford University)
• Han Liu, Google Fellowship in Statistics (Carnegie Mellon University)
• Lixia Liu, Google Fellowship in Compiler Technology (Purdue University)

These students exemplify excellence in all areas, and we look forward to the impact that they are sure to have on their fields and the world. The Google Fellowship will provide them with funding to cover their tuition and expenses, plus an Android-powered phone and a Google mentor. Our sincere congratulations to all of them!

Posted by Leslie Yeh Johnson, Google University Relations

Announcing the 2009 Anita Borg Scholars and Finalists

We're pleased to announce our 2009 Anita Borg Scholars and Finalists. We established the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship in 2003 to encourage undergraduate and graduate women completing degrees in computer science and related fields to excel in computing and technology and become active role models and leaders in the field. This year, we're awarding 50 scholars and finalists in the U.S., 18 in Canada and 56 in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. We'll also be awarding scholarships to female students in Australia and New Zealand later this year.

In addition to receiving academic scholarships, all of our winners will be invited to participate in all-expenses-paid networking retreats featuring workshops, speakers, panelists, breakout sessions and social activities at Google offices.

For more information on the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship and other Google scholarship opportunities, visit our scholarships page.

Congratulations to all of our winners!

The 2009 U.S. Anita Borg Scholars

• Dana Forsthoefel - Georgia Institute of Technology
• Divya Ramachandran - University of California-Berkeley
• Elaine Short - Yale University
• Isabel Mattos - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Jennifer Roberts - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Katherine Corner - University of Colorado at Boulder
• Leshell Hatley - University of Maryland College Park
• Manjari Narayan - Rice University
• Mary David - University of Southern California
• Natalie Freed - Arizona State University Main
• Norma Savage - University of California-Santa Barbara
• Ramya Raghavendra - University of California-Santa Barbara
• Saleema Amershi - University of Washington
• Sara Sinclair - Dartmouth College
• Sarah Cooley - Oregon State University
• Sarah Loos - Indiana University Bloomington
• Sheena Lewis - Northwestern University
• Xuexin (Alice) Zhu - Harvey Mudd College
• Yi-Chieh Wu - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• YoungJoo Jeong - Carnegie Mellon University

The 2009 U.S. Anita Borg Finalists

• Alyssa Daw - California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
• Angela Yen - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Carrie Ruppar - Graduate Program TBD
• Chaitrali Amrutkar - Georgia Institute of Technology
• Cindy Rubio Gonzalez - University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Corey Toler-Franklin - Princeton University
• Ekaterina Gonina - University of California-Berkeley
• Jacinda Shelly - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Jennifer Harrison - Arizona State University
• Julia Schwarz - University of Washington
• Kelli Ireland - University of Pittsburgh
• Kristi Morton - University of Washington
• Krystle de Mesa - University of California, San Diego
• Kyle Rector - Oregon State University
• Manasi Vartak - Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Margaret Leibovic - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Maria Kazandjieva - Stanford University
• Pinar Muyan-Ozcelik - University of California-Davis
• Rachel Sealfon - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Rachelle Fuhrer - University of California, San Diego
• Sarah Shiplett - Wellesley College
• Shilpa Arora - Carnegie Mellon University
• Sneha Popley - Texas Christian University
• Sonal Gupta - University of Texas at Austin
• Sujatha Nagarajan - University of Illinois at Chicago
• Supriya Vadlamani - Cornell University
• Tracy Chou - Stanford University
• Valerie Yoder - Westminster College
• Wendy Stevenson - Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Xia Zhou - University of California-Santa Barbara

The 2009 Canada Anita Borg Scholars

• April Khademi – University Of Toronto
• Jenna Cameron – University Of Western Ontario
• Jing Xiang – University Of British Columbia
• Pooja Viswanathan – University Of British Columbia

The 2009 Canada Anita Borg Finalists

• Barbara Macdonald – University Of Waterloo
• Fahimeh Raja – University Of British Columbia
• Gail Carmichael – Carleton University
• Kate Tsoukalas (withdrawn) - Simon Fraser University
• Katherine Gunion – University Of Victoria
• Marjorie Locke – University Of Western Ontario
• Melanie Tupper – Dalhousie University
• Michelle Annett – University Of Alberta
• Mona Mojdeh – University Of Waterloo
• Ozge Yeloglu – Dalhousie University
• Phillipa Gill – University Of Toronto
• Sarah Carruthers – University Of Victoria
• Somayeh Moazeni – University Of Waterloo
• Xiaoyuan XU – Simon Fraser University
• Zahra Ahmadian – University Of British Columbia

The 2009 Europe, Middle East and North Africa Scholars

• Anna Magdalena Michalska - University of Warsaw (Poland)
• Bianca Madalina Milatinovici - RWTH Aachen (Germany)
• Chia Ching Ooi - University of Freiburg (Gemany)
• Christiane Lammersen - Technische Universität Dortmund (Germany)
• Christiane Peters - Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands)
• Daria Yartseva - Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia)
• Ekaterina Volkova - Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia)
• Elisa Rondini - University College London (U.K.)
• Katayon Radkhah - Technische Universität Darmstadt (Germany)
• Keghani Kristelle Kouzoujian - Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (Qatar)
• Keren Censor - Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Israel)
• Kira Radinsky - Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Israel)
• Iulia Ion - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Switzerland)
• Ligia Nicoleta Nistor - University of Oxford (U.K.)
• Maja Temerinac-Ott - University of Freiburg (Germany)
• Marian George - Alexandria University (Egypt)
• Moran Yassour - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel)
• Regina Bohnert - Universität Tübingen (Germany)
• Selen Basol - Sabanci University (Turkey)
• Suzan Bayhan - Bogazici University (Turkey)
• Tali Treibitz - Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Israel)

The 2009 Europe, Middle East and North Africa Finalists

• Adrienn Szabo - Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary)
• Anastasia Shakhshneyder - Novosibirsk State University (Russia)
• Andreea Voicu - Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands)
• Anna Astrakova - Novosibirsk State University (Russia)
• Anna Sperotto - University of Twente (Netherlands)
• Anna Katarzyna Zych - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Switzerland)
• Birgit Vera Schmidt - Graz University of Technology (Austria)
• Didem Gozupek - Bogazici University (Turkey)
• Elena Smirnova - INRIA Sophia Antipolis (France)
• Franziska Huth - Saarland University (Germany)
• Gaya Nadarajan - The University of Edinburgh (U.K.)
• Irina Calciu - Jacobs University Bremen (Germany)
• Kerstin Bauer - Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (Germany)
• Laia Subirats i Mate - Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain)
• Limor Leibovich - Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Israel)
• Lina AL Kanj - American University of Beirut (Lebanon)
• Lu Feng - University of Oxford (U.K.)
• Lucia Fedorova - Czech Technical University (Czech Republic)
• Maria-Camilla Fiazza - University of Verona (Italy)
• Maya Kabkab - American University of Beirut (Lebanon)
• Melinda Toth - Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary)
• Naama Elefant - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel)
• Nadezda Osadchieva - Bauman Moscow State Technical University (Russia)
• Natalia Criado - Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain)
• Nina Kargapolova - Novosibirsk State University (Russia)
• Noga Zewi - Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Israel)
• Noura Yousef Salhi - Birzeit University (Palestine)
• Oana Tifrea - Vienna University of Technology (Austria)
• Rehab Khalid Alnemr - Hasso Plattner Institute (Germany)
• Riina Maigre - University of Technology (Estonia)
• Talya Meltzer - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel)
• Tamar Aizikowitz - Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Israel)
• Unaizah Hanum Obaidellah - University of Sussex (U.K.)
• Yana Momchilova Mileva - Saarland University (Germany)
• Yimeng Yang - University of Twente (Netherlands)

Posted by Meghan O'Farrell, Talent & Outreach Programs Specialist

Introducing the Google Lime Scholarship

Today, we're pleased to announce the most recent addition to our scholarship programs, the Google Lime Scholarship for Students with Disabilities. We're partnering with Lime to offer scholarships to students with disabilities who are pursuing university degrees in the field of computer science in Canada or the U.S. Lime is a not-for-profit organization that brings together global corporations and people with disabilities, bringing to light an untapped source of talent. Scholarships will be granted for the 2009–2010 academic year, and recipients will be invited to attend an all-expenses-paid retreat at the Googleplex in Mountain View in 2010.

We hope that this program will increase opportunities for students with disabilities and encourage them to pursue careers in computer science. We also hope to foster long-lasting relationships through which these students can support each other over the course of their academic studies.

The deadline to apply for this year's Lime Scholarship is June 1, 2009. For complete details, visit www.google.com/jobs/scholarships.

Posted by Meghan O'Farrell, Talent and Outreach Programs Specialist