Google Code-in is our global online contest that invites pre-university students ages 13-17 to learn by contributing to open source software. The contest begins its 7th year on November 28th, 2016. With the start date of the contest rapidly approaching, we are now accepting applications for open source projects interested in being a part of Google Code-in.
Working with young students is a special responsibility and each year we hear inspiring stories from mentors who participate. To ensure these new, young contributors have a great support system, we select organizations that have gained experience in mentoring students by previously taking part in Google Summer of Code.
There were 14 organizations in 2015 that collectively created thousands of bite-sized tasks for students to choose from. Tasks are created in 5 categories:
Code: writing or refactoring
Documentation/Training: creating/editing documents and helping others learn more
Outreach/Research: community management, outreach/marketing, or studying problems and recommending solutions
Quality Assurance: testing and ensuring code is of high quality
User Interface: user experience research or user interface design and interaction
Once an organization is selected for Google Code-in 2016 they will define these tasks and recruit mentors who are interested in providing online support for students.
You can find a timeline, FAQ and other information about Google Code-in on our website. If you’re an educator interested in sharing Google Code-in with your students, you can find resources here.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be an engineer at Google?
Now’s your chance to satisfy your curiosity byvolunteering to host a Hash Code hub at your university. Hash Code, a team-based programming competition, tasks university students and professionals across Europe, the Middle East and Africa with solving a real Google engineering problem. And we’re looking for developers to help bring the excitement to their own communities in February 2017. Are you up for the challenge?
Students compete in the Online Qualification Round in February 2016 from a hub at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain
Last year, 17,000 students and professionals from more than 90 countries teamed up to optimize drone delivery schedules for Hash Code’s Online Qualification Round. While teams can compete from wherever they’d like to, many opted to join in from one of the 300+ hubs organized by fellow developers (where, it’s safe to say, they had a lot of fun).
Laco Pápay organized the hub at his university in Bratislava last year (and is now a Googler based in Zurich). “Before the competition started, we had a lot of fun with set-up: decorating the room, taking pictures for the hub photo contest,” he said. “When the problem was announced and people sat down to work, the fun continued. Competing against teams on a scoreboard is great, but it’s even more exciting if the teams you’re up against are sitting just one desk over.
The Online Qualification Round for 2017 will take place on February 23, 2017. From there, the top 50 teams will be invited to Google Paris for the Final Round on April 1.
This post is part of our series of Google Summer of Code wrap-ups, guest posts from students, mentors and organization admins reflecting on Google Summer of Code 2016. Don't miss our first post and follow along for more wrap-up posts and announcements.
All 15 students passed their midterm and final evaluations, resulting in a wide range of (mostly) production-ready code, covering algorithm, UI, importer and converter development for both web and desktop for Cytoscape, cytoscape.js, SBML, SBGN, cBioPortal, Cell Designer, GraphSpace and more.
We are proud of the technical accomplishments and productivity of our students, and we are also proud of the many important aspects of diversity our students represent in the GSoC program, including geographical, gender and academic. Here are some numbers and facts about our 15 students compared to overall GSoC 2016 student stats in parentheses:
9 different countries, including 1 (of 2) from Croatia, 1 (of 3) from Armenia and 2 (of 12) from Turkey
20% female (compared to 12% overall)
67% Computer Science (compared to 78% overall), including PhD students in Biological Oceanography and Medical Biochemistry & Biotechnology, an MS student in Bioinformatics, and a pre-med undergraduate.
Here are some quotes and blogs from our students this year. If you are considering applying as student (or mentor) next year, here is some inspiration:
“I had the opportunity to learn and practice JavaScript with a very interesting project and having a mentor available was great for getting help when needed. The program seemed extremely well run and I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested.”
“Working in an NRNB [GSoC] training program helped to strengthen my resume and introduced me to the idea of combining a career in medicine with computer-based research.”
“I love the friendly atmosphere and the way the team works together. From the very beginning I [felt] well integrated in the group. It was pure fun to work together on the same project and to see how it [has] grown over the time. I [would] recommend everybody try the NRNB training program.”
Some of our student blogs:
Hovakim Grabski – "Java support for Deviser, a code generation system for SBML libraries"
Kaito Ii – "Interconvertible Layout software for CellDesigner"
Roman Schulte – "Offline SBML validation in the Java-based JSBML library"
Mridul Seth – "Import graphs in multiple formats and Cytoscape files into GraphSpace"
By Alex Pico and Kristina Hanspers, NRNB organization admins
Every year Google Summer of Code pairs university students with mentors to hone their skills while working on open source projects, and every year we like to post wrap-ups from the open source projects about their experience and what students accomplished. Stay tuned for more!
The Holistic Urban Energy Simulation (HUES) platform is an open source platform for facilitating the design and control of renewables-based distributed energy systems. The platform is an initiative of the Urban Energy Systems Laboratory at Empa in Switzerland, in collaboration with our research partners at ETH-Zurich, EPFL, the University of Geneva and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences. As we push towards the second version of the HUES platform, we had help from three bright and enthusiastic students as part of the Google Summer of Code (GSoC).
Project 1: Real-time wind flow in cities
Air flow pattern around a building configuration (left); link to Rhinoceros/Grasshopper (middle & right)
People in cities are suffering more and more from scorching heat, caused by global warming and bad urban planning. This traps heat inside cities and has led to soaring air conditioning demand, making cities even hotter - a vicious circle! Clever bioclimatic urban design can mitigate urban heat by facilitating the use of natural ventilation and guiding air streams. However, the simulation of wind flow is a computationally and technically demanding task. There is a need to provide urban planners and architects with a tool able to predict wind flow patterns in real-time to facilitate development of energy efficient and passive designs.
Lukas Bystricky, a student at Florida State University, developed a Fast Fluid Dynamics (FFD) library in C# exactly for this purpose. Lukas’s implementation is based on the paper by Jos Stam (1999). In contrast to the original implementation, where a cell centred finite difference is used to discretize the equations, Lukas applies a staggered grid finite difference, which is the standard finite difference in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). This is done to prevent spurious pressure oscillations near the boundary which can occur in cell centered finite difference for the Navier-Stokes equations. This does not change much in the algorithm or solvers, but makes enforcing the boundary conditions significantly more complicated. So far, Lukas uses a simple Jacobi solver as linear solver, as was the case in Stam's original implementation, but he plans to replace it with more efficient solvers in the future. Also, he is validating his library with typical benchmarks.
We are now coupling Lukas’s library into our HUES platform, more specifically into the 3D CAD software Rhinoceros and its visual programming platform Grasshopper. The final goal is to have an intuitive real-time visual design tool of wind flow for urban planners and architects. Also, we will use it to couple it to whole year dynamic building energy simulation programs, to better capture microclimatic effects of the urban context in simulating building energy consumption of designs.
Project 2: Modular energy hub modeling framework
A connection between two bus objects in a CopyHub container
Distributed energy system components are modular in nature and interact across multiple scales. As such, there is a need for a modeling framework that can easily construct and configure systems of modular entities (energy demands, sources, converters, storages and network links) across scales. Frederik Banis, a student at the University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart, developed a modular approach to modeling distributed multi-energy systems (energy hubs) in Python, based on the Open Energy System Modelling Framework (Oemof) and Pyomo.
In the developed framework, energy systems components are specified in a common format allowing for easy duplication and reconfiguring at larger scales. The platform enables easy manipulation of an energy hub grouping multiple components (demand, sources: electricity, natural gas; systems: photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, gas boils, combined heat and power engines, etc.), as well as copying it (from hub1 to hub2) to create a larger interlinked system (district) where multiple energy hubs are connected. This hierarchical nested structure can be repeated as needed, and detailed results about the energy supply of each technology or energy stream can be analyzed in the form of different plots for each system or sub-system.
Project 3: Open source energy simulation database
The HUES platform includes a growing array of datasets describing the technical and economic characteristics of distributed energy technologies. Currently, this data is stored in separate modules using different data structures and file formats, making it difficult to explore holistically and query systematically. To address this, GSoC student Khushboo Mandlecha has developed an open source database to enable the linked exploration, querying and visualization of data in the platform.
The first part of the project involved the development of server based scripts to automatically extract relevant data from the modules of the existing HUES platform, and write this data to a common database. A standard format for technology component data was developed, enabling users to upload technology data files to be stored in the new database. The new database has been developed in MongoDB, enabling fast data retrieval and allowing everything to be retrieved in the form of JSON objects. The second part of the project involved the development of a web-based portal for querying, visualizing and downloading data. Once this portal is complete, it will be possible to visualize the contents of the database in different ways, enabling users to get a sense of the distribution of property values and facilitating the identification of outliers. Ultimately, the database will help researchers and practitioners using the HUES platform to develop models and perform comprehensive analyses of distributed energy systems.
By L. Andrew Bollinger, Julien Marquant and Christoph Waibel; Urban Energy Systems Laboratory, Empa, Switzerland
We here at Google UK are delighted to launch applications for the Higher Level Apprenticeship in Digital Innovation Program! As the entry point for students’ career in technology, the Higher Level Apprenticeship in Digital Innovation Program provides the skills students need to pursue a career in tech. This apprenticeship targets students who are in their early career stages and want to experience working in a tech company, while at the same time studying towards a foundation degree in Computer Science.
Students selected as apprentices will be assigned to a Google host for the duration of their two-year apprenticeship and will get the opportunity to work alongside a team of engineers to solve real-life problems. The program will start with a two-month initial training with our partners, Ada College, the National College for Digital Skills, in May 2017.
If this sounds interesting and you meet the minimum qualifications listed below, we encourage you to apply at goo.gl/tTkW52 before 30th November, 2016.
Minimum qualifications:
Have authorisation to work in the United Kingdom
A Levels (or equivalent) at grade B or above (or equivalent) in Math or Science related subjects
Ability to speak and write in English fluently and idiomatically
Some prior coding experience in either Java, C++ or C
We are excited to announce the launch of the 10th edition of the Google Online Marketing Challenge! Professor and student registrations for the 2017 GOMC are now open.
What is GOMC?
GOMC is an annual global online marketing competition for students from higher education institutions around the world. Google provides student teams with a $250 Google AdWords budget to develop and run an online advertising campaign for a real business or nonprofit organization of their choice. An independent Academic Panel, along with AdWords experts at Google, review the campaigns and select winning teams based on the success of their campaigns and the quality of their competition reports.
Why GOMC?
GOMC gives professors a chance to bring marketing theory to life by engaging students and allowing them to:
Gain relevant and valuable skills through a practical hands-on learning experience
Build a true relationship with a client and make a real-life impact in their community
Gain exposure to the digital marketing landscape using real money on a live advertising platform
Become AdWords Certified as a way to showcase their AdWords knowledge to potential employers
Win awesome prizes like a trip to the Googleplex, a donation for their nonprofit partner, digital devices, cool Google swag and more
2016 GOMC Regional Europe Winners visiting the Google Ireland office.
Many students have found a real passion for helping businesses/nonprofits build awareness and find new customers by growing their online presence in this fast-paced digital world. Students have graduated and continued to work with their GOMC competition client, some have launched their career at a digital marketing agency, others have become entrepreneurs and used their skills to market their own business (or even start their own digital marketing agency to help local businesses in their community), and others have embarked on a career path at Google. Whether students find that digital marketing is the career for them or not, the valuable business, consulting and communication skills gained from working with their team on a comprehensive project, from strategy development, to execution and analysis, and working with a real business or nonprofit will help them prepare for a successful career.
To learn about the impact of the GOMC, check out the video below.
What's new?
Over 110,000 students and professors from almost 100 countries have participated in the past 9 years, and this year GOMC is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary with some exciting updates to the competition:
The optional Google+ Social Media Marketing category is being replaced with a new and exciting AdWords Certification Award.
In addition to all Winners, Finalists and Semi-Finalists, student teams completing the Challenge with a Strong performance rating will also receive a personalized certificate noting their status in the competition this year.
The algorithm has been updated to evaluate AdWords performance beyond text ads with a primary focus on the Search Network, and will now factor in the structure and performance of the following campaign types: Search Network Only Campaigns, Display Network Only Campaigns, Video Campaigns, Shopping Campaigns and Mobile App Promotion/Universal App Campaigns.
This year campaigns do not need to serve for a maximum of 21 consecutive calendar days and instead student teams have the option to pause their campaigns to optimize for their client’s business needs. See the competition Terms & Conditions for more details.
In order for a student team to participate in the competition, they need to have their professor register first. Professors can choose to incorporate GOMC into their curriculum or informally support a group of interested students. Once the professor has registered, students can develop teams of 3-6 members and elect one team captain to register their team for the competition.
Professors Registrations Open: October 5, 2016 - March 22, 2017
Students Registrations Open: October 5, 2016 - April 5, 2017
Google is proud to offer academic scholarships and development opportunities to students from historically underrepresented groups pursuing computer science degrees. We aim to help students from diverse backgrounds become future leaders and role models in computing and technology by breaking down the barriers that prevent them from entering these fields.
Selected students will receive a financial award for the 2017-18 academic year and be invited to the annual Google Scholars' Retreat in their region next summer. At the retreat, scholars will participate in networking and development sessions, including sessions on how to lead outreach in their communities. Scholars also join long term a community of former scholarship recipients for continued networking and development. Check out each program below:
Formerly known as the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, we have joined forces with Google’s Women Techmakers program to continue to honor Dr. Anita Borg and her legacy. Dr. Borg devoted her life to encouraging the presence of women in computing. The program is open to current female undergraduate or graduate students who will be studying at a university for the 2017-2018 academic year.
The Generation Google Scholarship was established to help aspiring computer scientists excel in technology and become leaders in the field. This program supports current university students from underrepresented groups including African American, Hispanic, American Indian or Filipino/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander who will be studying at a university for the 2017-2018 academic year.
The Generation Google Scholarship for current high school seniors in the US/Canada will open in early 2017.
We’ve partnered with Lime Connect (US/Canada) and EmployAbility (Europe), nonprofit organizations that support students with disabilities while they pursue education and promising careers, to help university students with disabilities work toward their academic goals in the field of computer science. The scholarship is open to current undergraduate or graduate students with disabilities who will be studying at a university for the 2017-2018 academic year.
As part of our commitment to military veterans, Google established the Google SVA Scholarship in partnership with Student Veterans of America. The scholarship provides assistance to student veterans or students on Active Duty who are pursuing a degree in computer science at a university for the 2017-2018 academic year.
Please visit each program’s website for specific details, application information and deadlines. We encourage all students who meet the eligibility criteria to apply!
Are you passionate about helping your community? Know someone who is? If so, check out Google’s annual Pay It Forward contest!
In honor of Hispanic Heritage month, the Google Staffing Programs team has worked closely with the Hispanic Googler Network to recognize leaders in education who are advancing opportunities for their local communities.
Students (high school or college, 14 and older), educators (teachers, administrators, school staff), and education-focused organization leaders (non-profit, private) are invited to tell us how they have positively impacted and influenced Hispanic communities within the U.S. We’re seeking leaders whose work in education demonstrates a commitment to expanding access and opportunities for the Hispanic community.
The deadline to enter the contest is October 3rd, 2016 at 11:59pm PT.
Submissions will be judged by a team of Googlers, who will be assessing the innovation, scale and the short- and long-term effects of your impact. Contest winners will have the opportunity to have their work featured on the Google Student Blog and connect with experts from our education outreach team.
We’re excited to announce the winners of the 2016 AdMob Student App Challenge, an app building competition for students. Over 100 student teams from around the world took on the challenge to build a great app and monetize it using AdMob, with a chance to win awesome prizes.
After reviewing our 4 regional finalists, our judges have selected the global winner who will receive will receive a trip to San Francisco, including a visit to the Googleplex. Chris Akhavnr, a judge for the Challenge and President of Publishing, Glu Mobile, enjoyed reviewing the apps, noting that “After reading the business reports, I was impressed by the amount of thought each team put into their app. I'm sure these finalists will go on to have a big impact in the mobile ecosystem."
Turbo Rocket Games is a team of four: Vladimir, Yaroslava, Illya, and Serhii from Kiev, Ukraine. Vladimir and Serhii are studying informatics at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Yaroslava and Illya are studying computer science at Brock University. To build the app effectively, the team divided the work so everyone could focus on the aspect they were best at. As the project lead, Vladimir focused on managing the development process while Yaroslava took charge of game design. As programmers, Illya and Serhii worked in tandem to write the code for the game.
About the app
Dragon Sim Online is a game where you can become a dragon and play online with friends or by yourself. The app provides a true simulation experience by challenging players to maintain their dragons’ health and energy, raise a family of dragons, fight dangerous enemies and explore the massive 3D world. The app has been downloaded over 500K times worldwide with an average review of 4.5 stars.
Congratulations to Turbo Rocket Games and thanks again to every single student who participated!
This guest post is a part of a short series about Tatyana Goldberg, Guy Yachdav and Christian Dallago and the journey that was inspired by their participation as Google Summer of Code mentors for the BioJS project. Check out the first and second posts in the series.
The success of our Game of Thrones project opened a lot of doors which is what we discuss in this post. First, we were invited to participate in the Morpheus Cup which is a prestigious university olympiad that brings together students from all over Europe to compete in digital challenges.
Our team rocked the competition winning two challenges and making it to the finalist stage in the third challenge. We were honored to represent our university and grateful for Google’s sponsorship of our team.
The students and mentors of the Game of Thrones project at the Morpheus Cup challenge in May 2016. From left to right: Georgi Anastasov, Emiliyana Kalinova, Maximilian Bandle (all students), Guy Yachdav (mentor), Christian Dallago (mentor), Tobias Piffrader, Theodor Chesleran (both students) and Tatyana Goldberg (mentor).
Another opportunity that followed was an invitation to speak at a TEDx event at TUM on July 28th, 2016. In the event, titled “The Common Extraordinary,” Guy presented our work with data mining as bioinformaticians, sharing how we’ve made the field of data science accessible to our students and how we helped popularize it through the Game of Thrones project.
More speaking engagements are already scheduled: at meetups, coffee talks and conferences where we plan to keep evangelizing data mining and tell the story of our open source adventure.
What’s next? We’re excited to continue as mentors and org admins in GSoC and to carry on teaching data science and JavaScript at the university. A recent trade media report pointed out that the “out-of-the-box” thinking demonstrated in our course may revolutionize entire industries. In fact, we are currently signing up industry collaborators to work together on data mining projects.
It’s also extremely rewarding to see how our project resonated with so many people with diverse backgrounds and interests. Friends, family members, colleagues and even strangers ask us whether we can help them use data mining to answer questions on subjects ranging from politics, science, sports and even their personal lives.
Just the other day we were approached with the idea of developing an app that would take in a set of personality traits, process them along with social network data and help in suggesting life decisions: Should I date that person? Should I really take this job? Is Baltimore the city for me?
In the near future we dream of starting our own consultancy, as we already have requests from companies that want our help with upcoming data science projects. It seems our team has found its entrepreneurial bent!
We hope enjoyed this trilogy of blog posts, that our story has inspired you and that you too will continue to adventure in open source and collaborative development. If you’re not involved with Google Summer of Code, consider joining. It’s a great way to build up your project and share it with the world. More importantly, it lets you work with amazing people with whom, as we learned, it is possible to reach the sky.
By Tatyana Goldberg, Christian Dallago, and Guy Yachdav, BioJS
