Tag Archives: students

Getting to Know a Ph.D.

At Google, there are many opportunities for Ph.D. students to gain industry experience. Check out the story of Alessandro Epasto, a former Google European Doctoral Fellowship recipient, who interned on three different teams at Google, working on impactful projects across Google+, AdWords and different engineering and research teams.

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Alessandro, tell us about yourself and your Ph.D. topic. 
I come from Italy where I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science at the Ph.D. School of the Department of Computer Science at Sapienza University of Rome. The focus of my Ph.D. thesis and my main research interest is graph mining -- in particular the study of algorithmic problems arising when analysing large-scale graphs. Graphs, or networks, are increasingly becoming the lingua franca of data mining (and Big Data), as they can be used to represent and analyse arbitrary relationships between arbitrary entities (including social networks, mobile networks and the Web, for instance).

The focus of my thesis was designing and evaluating efficient algorithms for extracting meaningful information from very large-scale graphs (with billions of nodes and edges), in which data might dynamically evolve at high speed. In particular, I have been interested in the problems of graph clustering, similarity rankings and in the study of information diffusion on social networks. All of these problems have important practical applications ranging from recommendation system design to social network security as well as a theoretical interest for the understanding of social behaviour. In this context, my aim was to design methods that are both practical and able to provide theoretical guarantees on their correctness.

Why did you apply for an internship at Google and how supportive was your Ph.D. advisor?
Before my internship at Google, my experience was mostly in academia. I was very curious about the challenges that a company with such amounts of data deals with every day. Moreover, I was extremely interested in experiencing the stimulating environment and culture at Google. I was advised by professor Alessandro Panconesi who was very supportive and encouraged me to apply for an internship at Google. 

You interned three times at Google. What projects were you focused on?
Each of the three times I interned, I had the opportunity to work on a distinct research problem with different research groups.

During my most recent internship I joined the Google+ group in the Mountain View, California headquarters working with Sunita Verma. We worked on the problem of friend suggestion, which deals with the challenging issue of suggesting to a given user the people he/she may be interested in adding as a friend. This is an important problem for online social networks, as receiving good friend suggestions significantly improves the user experience.

In one of my previous internships, I joined the AdWords team in New York City working with Jon Feldman where I worked on the problem of automatically identifying, for any given advertiser, who their main competitors in the AdWords system are. 

During my first internship in Mountain View working with Alon Altman I worked on defining algorithms for detecting potential attacks in the Google+ network. 

Could you share more details about the outcomes of your collaboration with teams at Google?
During all my internships I had the opportunity to closely collaborate with researchers in other teams at Google, in particular with the Graph Mining team in Google Research NY led by Vahab Mirrokni, who is also my Google Doctoral Fellowship mentor. A productive collaboration has continued even after the end of my internships. This joint collaboration with researchers at Google and at Sapienza University has also led to a publication awarded with the best paper award at the 2015 ACK SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD).

While the three problems addressed in my internships have very different applications and independent interest, perhaps surprisingly, they can all be tackled by using related graph mining techniques. Both Google+ and AdWords datasets can, in fact, be modeled as a very large scale graph (or network).

In this context, one is interested in designing algorithms that can extract the information needed efficiently (the friends of a user, the competitors of a company, the potential spam users, etc.) while working at Google scale. In all of my internships I also had the opportunity to implement and test these algorithms in the powerful MapReduce infrastructure available at Google on extremely large datasets with billions of entities.

The approach at Google in evaluating the results of projects is very academic in the sense that rigorous empirical evaluations are conducted to show that the approach proposed actually improves over the state-of-the-art. I was also able to share some results of my work with the public through academic publications.

Did you publish at Google during your internship?
Yes, we successfully published a paper at the 2014 International World Wide Web Conference (WWW) as a result of my internship on the AdWords team in NYC. Moreover, we are currently working on a paper submission based on research done during my last summer internship. We also submitted two patents applications for the algorithms developed during my first two internships.

How closely connected was the work you did during your internships to your Ph.D. topic?
My Ph.D. topic, graph mining, is closely connected with all three of my internships at Google. During my Ph.D. studies, I improved my understanding of several topics in large-scale graph mining, which turned out to be very relevant for addressing important issues at Google, as evidenced by the internships projects I have completed. Among the various techniques that I learned during my Ph.D., graph clustering algorithms and random walks methods have been central to my internships, giving me the chance to use them in concrete scenarios at Google. Moreover, the fact that the paper published during my internship at Google is also part of my Ph.D. dissertation shows the relevance of such research projects to my Ph.D. studies.

What impact has this internship experience had on your Ph.D.?
Besides contributing to my Ph.D. thesis with a publication, the most important impact are the relationships I built with Google researchers. Even after the end of my Ph.D., I am still in close collaboration with various researchers at Google to complete publications stemming from my internships and other research projects. In addition, programming in a professional environment at Google has definitely improved my software engineering skills.

Has this internship experience impacted the way you think about your future career? 
Thanks to these internships, I have a clearer understanding of research outside of academia and of software engineering. Before joining Google, I had only experienced research at university and my career focus was limited to academic research. Now I know that conducting research at a company in the industry can be a very relevant career path to consider after obtaining a Ph.D.

Now that you just graduated, what’s next? 
I moved to the US to start a postdoc position at Brown University with supervisor Professor Eli Upfal. Our team is currently working in research areas closely related to my Ph.D. studies. I am focusing on algorithmic problems and machine learning methods in the analysis of large-scale datasets with potential applications ranging from social networks to computational biology.

Looking back on your experiences now, why should a Ph.D. student apply for an internship at Google? Do you have any advice to offer?
An internship at Google provides a great opportunity to apply your research skills to very challenging and concrete problems that can be tackled only with the scale of data and resources available at Google. Getting hands-on industry experience with a Google internship can be an inspiration for future academic research, as one gets a glimpse into which research problems are more likely to have a strong impact in practice. Furthermore, taking advantage of all the opportunities offered during a Google internship can boost your Ph.D. studies, by leading to new publications in top conferences. More importantly the internship provides valuable connections with high profile researchers and engineers working at Google, which can have a long-lasting positive impact on one’s career -- regardless of whether you pursue a career in the industry or in academia. 

My suggestion is just to apply! Internships are a great way to experience research from a different and fascinating perspective. 

Posted by Ariana Palombo, Online Hiring & Insights Team

Supporting our young scientists through the Google Science Fair

Posted by Mariette DiChristina, Editor in Chief of Scientific American and Chief Judge of the Google Science Fair

(Cross-posted on the Official Google blog)

Editor's note: Mariette DiChristina is the Editor in Chief and senior vice president of Scientific American—the first woman to hold the role in the magazine's 170-year history. She has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 2011 and served as president of the National Association of Science Writers in 2009 and 2010. She joins us here today to share her perspective on the Google Science Fair, which is in its fifth edition this year.

This marks my fifth year with the Google Science Fair. In October 2010, when I had my first conversations with my friends at Google about their idea to create a global online science fair that any kid 13–18 could participate in, I thought it sounded pretty cool. But I couldn’t then imagine just how inspiring and powerful such a competition would turn out to be in reality.

At the time, I hadn’t even been editor in chief of Scientific American for a year, but I had real ambitions to try to do something to make a difference in educating our young people about science. You see, I believe that science is the engine of human prosperity—it’s the way we grapple with some of the world’s most challenging problems, from cures for diseases to living sustainably in a finite world. So I’ve always seen the idea of fostering evidence-based thinking in our next generation of global citizens as vital.

Now, five years later and working with partners LEGO Education, National Geographic and Virgin Galactic, the Google Science Fair has an impressive track record of enabling our world’s young scientists to shine. Over the years, they’ve tackled serious issues, like world hunger and the energy crisis. Their projects have worked on how to diagnose and treat diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. They’ve engineered flashlights powered by their hands and plastics made of banana peels. And to date, the fair has provided almost $1 million in scholarships, and sent four grand prize winners on trips around the world to further their scientific passions.


Tonight we added some new winners to that list as we recognized and celebrated the 2015 top 20 finalist projects and the bright young scientists behind them:

  • The Grand Prize went to Olivia Hallisey for creating a novel way to detect Ebola.
  • Girish Kumar won the Google Technologist Award for helping improve learning through auto-generated study questions.
  • The National Geographic Explorer Award went to Deepika Kurup for her idea to use solar-powered silver to create clean drinking water.
  • Krtin Nithiyanadam’s project focused on improved diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and won him the Scientific American Innovator Award.
  • Pranav Sivakumar's automated search for gravitationally lensed quasars earned him the Virgin Galactic Pioneer Award.
  • And Anurudh Ganesan took home The LEGO Education Builder Award for his unique twist on effectively transporting vaccines.

If you didn’t get to tune in, you can still watch the Awards Show live stream and check out the complete list of impressive finalists and winners, including our first ever Inspiring Educator, Aydan Meydan from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In all of these finalists and the thousands of submissions from students in 100+ countries, we see something common. These students are inventive, thoughtful, and determined to help make the world a better place. All they need is a chance and a platform to do so. And, unlike some of us adults, they are ready to try things that other people think are “impossible.” I find them inspiring.

It’s imperative for us to support and encourage our young people to explore and challenge the world around them through scientific discovery. So we’re especially glad that Ahmed Mohamed—the 14-year-old clock maker from Texas—took us up on our invite to attend this year’s event. Curious young scientists, inventors and builders like him should be encouraged and empowered.

The past decades have brought tremendous innovations and challenges, and none of us knows what the future of scientific discovery holds. But I can tell you one thing: it’s going to be better thanks to these kids. They will be part of building a brighter future for us all—and as they do, those of us at Scientific American, Google, LEGO Education, National Geographic and Virgin Galactic will be cheering them on.

So start thinking of your ideas for next year! We can’t wait to see what you’ll try next. 

2016 US and Canada scholarship opportunities for computer science students

We are excited to announce that applications are now open for 2016 Google scholarships. The application deadlines are in November and December, but don’t wait to get started on your application!

At Google, we believe information should be universally accessible. Our education and scholarship programs aim to inspire and help students become future leaders in computing and technology by breaking down the barriers that prevent them from entering these fields.  We are now accepting applications from current university students, undergraduate and graduate, for the following scholarship programs:


Scholarship recipients will receive $10,000 USD or $5,000 CAD for the 2016-17 academic year. Scholars will be invited to the annual Google Scholars' Retreat in Mountain View, CA next summer. At the retreat, scholars will participate in networking and development sessions, including sessions on how to lead outreach in their communities.
2015 scholarship recipients participating in a code retreat at the annual Google Scholars' Retreat.
For more information on all scholarship programs, please visit the Google Scholarships site.

Posted by Sarah Safir, Tech Student Development Programs

Google Summer of Code wrap-up post: Pencil Code

Pencil Code is a collaborative programming site for art, music and creating games. It is also a place to experiment with mathematical functions, geometry, graphing, webpages, simulations and algorithms. Pencil Code had three Google Summer of Code students in 2015. You can read more about their project successes below.

As we return to school and look around Pencil Code in preparation for classes this fall, there are quite a few improvements created by our Google Summer of Code (GSoC) students. The first thing you see when you log in — icons everywhere! But better yet, if you have saved the program recently, the icon will be a screenshot of the program's output. This change will help students and teachers quickly identify saved projects, and will help people find interesting projects they want to share.
The icon implementation was done by Xinan Liu, a student at Singapore National University. He rewrote several bits of the Pencil Code server to support the icons, and then on the client side, he integrated the very cool html2canvas library to create the screenshots.

Xinan also contributed quite a bit beyond this project. He refactored our node.js-based build to switch from require.js to browserify, and he has been contributing to other sharing and scaling features on Pencil Code, helping other non-GSoC contributors get up to speed and reviewing their pull requests. We're looking forward to Xinan's continuing involvement and contributions to our little open source community.
The next contribution was by IIIT Hyderabad student Saksham Aggarwal. Saksham has implemented an HTML block mode for the Droplet block editor, which means that teachers can introduce beginners to HTML syntax using a drag-and-drop interface. And as usual with Droplet, you can toggle between blocks and text at any time. Saksham is also working on a similar Droplet-based editor for CSS syntax. The visual HTML syntax editor is a very accessible way to see and work with HTML syntax without having to type every bracket. And yet, magically, it does not hide the syntax - by toggling into text, you can work directly with traditional code. It is fully authentic, but highly accessible. You can read a paper about Saksham's work here.
The final project was a collaboration between GSoC student Jeremy Ruten from the University of Saskatchewan, and two of our summer students Amanda Boss from Harvard and Cali Stenson from Wellesley. They created an incredibly ambitious project to implement a "rewindable" debugger in Pencil Code. Although it is not quite ready for production yet, we are already using pieces of it in Pencil Code. You will see the debugger in coming months! For examples of how it transforms code, you can check out Jeremy, Amanda and Cali's writeup of their debugging work.

Did I mention that the three of them are students? And that they built this rewindable debugger over just one summer!? They made improvements that will make a real difference as we use Pencil Code to bring computer science to the next generation of students.

We'd like you to participate!

If you are interested in bringing some of this cool work into your classroom, join our discussion group by signing up at teach.pencilcode.net. We have teachers from elementary school to college, from Texas to Singapore. And if you'd like to make an open source contribution, check out ideas.pencilcode.net for project ideas, and join the teaching discussion group — also an area where our open source contributors hang out.

We are grateful to Google for supporting our summer open source program with GSoC. We hope the summer was as interesting for our students as it was productive for our project. We look forward to our students' continued involvement in the Pencil Code community.

By David Bau, Organization Administrator for Pencil Code





Google Docs and Classroom: your school year sidekicks

School’s in! As you settle into your classes and start to juggle soccer practice, club meetings and homework, we’re here to help. We’ve been spending the summer “break” creating new tools to help you save time, collaborate with classmates and create your best work—all for free.



Schoolwork, minus the work 

Writing papers is now a lot easier with the Research tool in Docs for Android. You can search Google without leaving Docs, and once you find the quotes, facts or images you’re looking for, you can add them to your document with just a couple taps. That means less time switching between apps, and more time perfecting your thesis statement.
 
With Voice typing, you can record ideas or even compose an entire essay without touching your keyboard. To get started, activate Voice typing in the Tools menu when you're using Docs in Chrome. Then, when you’re on the go, just tap the microphone button on your phone’s keyboard and speak your mind. Voice typing is available in more than 40 languages, so we can help with your French homework, too. Voilà!

Do more, together

We’ve made it easier for you to tell what was added or deleted in Docs—and who made the changes. Now when you’ve left a document and you come back to it later, you can just click “See new changes” to pick up right where your classmates left off.

Forms helps you get a lot of information easily and in one place—so when you want to vote on your class field trip or collect T-shirt sizes for your team, you don’t have to sort through dozens of emails. With the new Forms, you can survey with style—choose one of the colorful new themes or customize your form with your own photo or logo, and we’ll choose the right color palette to match. Easily insert images, GIFs or videos and pick from a selection of question formats. Then send out your survey and watch as the responses roll in!


Your best work, your best you 

Creating presentations, crafting newsletters and managing your team’s budget is hard enough without having to worry about making everything look good. With the new collection of templates in Docs, Sheets and Slides, you can focus on your content while we make sure it gets the expert polish it deserves. Choose from a wide variety of reports, portfolios, resumes and other pre-made templates designed to make your work that much better, and your life that much easier.

With Explore in Sheets, you can now spend less time trying to decipher your data, and more time making a point. Explore creates charts and insights automatically, so you can visualize trends and understand your data in seconds on the web or on your Android. It’s like having an expert analyst right by your side.
 


Mission control, for teachers and students

A year ago, we launched Classroom to save teachers and students time and make it easier to keep classwork organized. Today we’re launching a Share to Classroom Chrome extension to make it easy for teachers to share a website with the entire class at the same time—no matter what kind of laptop students have. Now the whole class can head to a web page together, without losing precious minutes and focus to typos.
 

Rock this school year with Google Docs and Classroom. Your first assignment? Try these new features, which are rolling out today.



Posted by Ritcha Ranjan, Product Manager

My sweet adventures with Sugar Labs and Google Code-in

Today we have a guest post from Sam Parkinson, a 15 year-old Google Code-in 2014 grand prize winner. Sam worked with Sugar Labs for two instances of Google Code-in and tells us more about his journey navigating the world of free and open source software. We hope this is only the beginning of Sam’s contributions.
Ever since I was young, naive and enjoying my first tastes of Linux, I've wanted to contribute to the FOSS community. For me, Google Code-in (GCI) made that dream come true. I was lucky enough to be able to participate for the last two years with the mentoring organization Sugar Labs.

Sugar Labs is a “desktop environment without a desktop” that uses Python. Officially, Sugar Labs is the core component of a worldwide effort to provide every child with an equal opportunity for a quality education. Available in 25 languages, Sugar Labs activities are used every school day by nearly 3 million children in more than 40 countries.

I started my FOSS journey in GCI 2013 by completing the simple task of changing a ValueError to a logged exception. At first, my confidence level went from "yeah, I know some cool Python tricks" to "omg! how do I code?". I discovered new (and sometimes confusing) things like PEP8, git-branch and mailing lists. However, having the GCI and Sugar Labs communities as a support system made my dream of contributing to FOSS manageable by breaking it up into small, manageable tasks.

I worked on some pretty cool features, like adding a nutcracker-style mode in a Speak activity, where users could insert a picture of a face and have it talk to them.
I also worked on some not-so-fun tasks, like fixing bugs caused by GTK updates while trying not to break compatibility with ancient versions. But by the end of GCI 2014, I had learned how to pass code reviews and even completed some of my own. Hopefully I’ve programmed something that has made somebody smile.

In 2014, I was lucky enough to be chosen as a GCI winner. The grand prize trip was the cherry on top of the proverbial cake. I got to meet the amazing people I'd been hacking with, plus some pretty inspiring people from Google and other FOSS projects. I found it mind blowing to actually talk with people about programming face to face, and even better to sit around laughing about the programming culture. A highlight of the trip was meeting Walter Bender, one of the Sugar Labs mentors. Together we hacked on a project improving the Sugar Labs website. It’s not done, but it’s in better shape than it was before, and I can claim that I did some coding during the trip.

GCI was truly something that changed my life. I went from being an open source newbie to being able to contribute to really cool projects, thanks to the amazing GCI and Sugar Labs communities. It's something that I would recommend any young programmer consider doing. Participating in GCI is something that can make dreams come true.

By Sam Parkinson, Google Code-in grand prize winner

Intern Spotlights – Daniel Wiskman

At Google, interns have the opportunity to work on some of the most cutting edge and innovative projects in the world. 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 Spotlights. This week, the spotlight is on Daniel Wiskman, a Business Intern in Google’s Dublin office. He was born in Gothenburg on the Swedish west coast but is currently living in Uppsala and attends a Master programme in Management, Communication and IT at Uppsala University.
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Give us one fun, outlandish fact about yourself.
I built my first computer when I was nine years old, and yes, sometimes I ask myself why I gave up my engineering career.

What inspired you to apply to this internship?
It is not for the free food and the other perks, even though those are really amazing. The answer is actually quite simple. I wanted to join Google for the opportunity to learn from a group of really smart people. Another thing that attracted me about Google was the opportunity to work on cool, cutting edge projects and to really make a difference.
What team are you on? What stands out to you about your co-workers?
I am on the Nordics Small and Medium Business (SMB) Sales team, delivering customer sales experience to Google's Swedish advertisers. In sales we work with all kinds of businesses, from small, family-owned advertisers to big digital marketing agencies. The most interesting thing about my peers is that they are all really well rounded with unique backgrounds and talents. That means there is always something inspiring you can learn from them over a cup of coffee.

What’s your typical day like?
Every morning I start the day in the Google gym or attending one of the swim classes in our lap pool. I am a triathlete and currently preparing for a full Iron Man. Hence, I really appreciate Google’s fitness facilities and great food that is available in our cafes, which allow me to improve my work-life balance and focus on the training. From 9:00am to lunch time, I usually work on my two personal projects. At lunch time, I like scheduling catch ups with fellow interns or other interesting Googlers. If the weather is good, we have lunch on the rooftop terrace with a stunning view of Dublin. After lunch to around 6:00pm, I continue to work on my projects and ensure they are moving forward. I regularly schedule catch ups and meetings with my sponsors to keep them in the loop.  
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An iconic graduation photo of my Noogler group when throwing up our caps
Has there been anything that has surprised you about working at Google?
One thing that has surprised me is how enthusiastic and helpful people are. They really try to grow the company as a team and everyone I have met during my internship has been really positive and supportive when I ask for help. Also, after being here for a couple weeks I found that interns at Google aren’t treated like interns, but rather as full-time employees. In fact, employees actually like that you have fresher ideas and want to listen and learn from you.

Do you have any words of advice to aspiring Google interns?
My best advice to students interested in Google is to do your research. Before you send in your resume, be curious and try to familiarize yourself with the company. For example, the company's values and current market trends. Try to understand, at least at a basic level, how the products, services and business model works. Start from the internship or role you are applying for and work outward. Doing your research can definitely be a great way to buff up your resume and answer interview questions more insightfully. That said, make sure that your resume and interview answers reflect your research.
You can learn more about student internship and full-time opportunities at Google here.

Posted by Ariana Palombo, Online Hiring and Insights Team

New (School) Year resolutions with #GoogleEdu

Posted by Miriam Schneider, Google for Education Team

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

The tradition of ringing in each New Year with resolutions (whether we stick to them or not) is always an opportunity to reflect and start the year ahead on the right foot. As students and teachers around the world return to campuses and classrooms this fall, we’re embarking on a different kind of fresh start: a New (School) Year. And we want to help you make the most of it. So we’ve put together a few resolution ideas, plus tips to help you stick to them. We’ve also made a resolution of our own: to bring the best of Google technology to education.
The best of Google, for education
Like many resolutions, ours might sound familiar—and that’s because the Google for Education team has been working on it for a while. Over the last few years, we’ve spent a lot of time with teachers and students, witnessing firsthand how technology is helping in the classroom and learning about challenges that are yet unsolved. With feedback from schools, we’ve improved products like Google Apps for Education and Docs, building in new features specifically useful for education. We’ve also created new learning experiences like Google Classroom—a sort of mission control for teachers and students, offering a single place to keep track of all class materials, eliminating paperwork and making it easy for teachers to collaborate with students, and students to collaborate with each other. 

So as part of our resolution this school year, we’re launching some new features in Google Classroom. Teachers can now easily ask students questions in Classroom, alongside all the other class materials in the stream. Teachers also told us that they want more ways for students to engage with each other, and flex their critical thinking muscles. So now students can comment on each other’s answers in Classroom and have open-ended discussions. In the next month, we'll also make it possible for teachers to add assignments, due dates and field trips to a shared calendar.

So what’s your resolution?
We’re sure you’ve already set some big goals for the year ahead—from acing AP Bio to landing that killer internship. Whatever your plans, it can be tough to stick with those goals once assignments and social commitments start to pile up. So we’ve collected 50+ tips from more than 15 Google products to help you follow through with your resolutions. Here are some ideas:
Resolution 1. Get (and stay) organized
When you’re bogged down by clutter, it can be tough to get stuff done. Make this your year to be more organized. Never miss another study group with help from Google Calendar. Use Google Sheets to keep all your classmates' info in one place, and better manage your inbox by emailing everyone at once with a Google group.

Resolution 2. Get (mentally) fit
Push yourself to take your studies to the next level. Teach yourself how to code with Made with Code. Make the most of language class by saving your most used words and phrases with Google Translate or magically translating webpages with Google Chrome.

Resolution 3. Get some worldly perspective
Not studying abroad this year? No problem. You can still unleash your inner explorer with Google Maps Treks and visit the Pyramids of Giza or the Great Barrier Reef without leaving your room. Or bring your art history class to life by seeing those masterpieces up close and in perfect detail with Cultural Institute.

We hope these give you new ideas for how you can make this school year your best yet. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be announcing more tips and other updates—so follow along with #GoogleEdu and on Google+. We’ll be doing our homework to stick to our resolution, so we can hopefully give you what you need to do the same. Now go hit those books! 

The results are in for the 2015 Google Online Marketing Challenge!



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Digital marketing is a growth machine for many businesses, and the Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) enables us to share knowledge through hands-on experience with the e-marketers of tomorrow. By participating in the GOMC, students and academics get to work with real businesses and real budgets, and provide them with an opportunity to deliver tangible results.
Every year, as part of the annual Google Online Marketing Challenge, Google gives hundreds of student teams across the world an AdWords online advertising budget of US$250 and three weeks to help a local business improve their marketing campaigns. Over 18,000 students from more than 80 countries and territories participated in this year’s Challenge and the results are in!

I. AdWords Business Awards

The AdWords Business Awards recognize the GOMC teams that made an outstanding difference to their business partners via online marketing campaigns.

Global Winner

The global winning team comes from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in India, under Professor Shilpa Sawant. The team of Saumil Tripathi, Shreeyash Dharmadhikari, Jainam Talsania, Jelam Bhatt and Agastya Sanjai worked with Devgad Alphonso Mango, a cooperative society of 700 farmers of the Devgad Taluka who sell the Devgad Alphonso Mango.

Regional Winners

The Asia and Pacific winner comes from the Foundation for Liberal And Management Education, under Professor Sajith Narayanan in India. The team of Aashima Praveen, Rohit Tiwari, Vyom Shah, Drishti Hingorani, Khushbu Patel and Manan Gala worked with Vega Auto Accessories Private Limited, one of the leading manufacturers of helmets and biking accessories in India.
The Americas winner comes from James Madison University in the United States, under Professor Theresa B. Clarke. The team of Morgan Mackenzie Moore, Lauren Crain, Dan Froehlich and Brea Zeise worked with the Calvert Marine Museum, a museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, research, and interpretation of the natural and maritime history of Southern Maryland.
The Europe winner comes from the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt in Germany, under Professor Mario Fischer. The team of Thomas Kraus, Dimitri Schneider, Ramil Schweizer and Kristoff Gras worked with LEDMarkt24.de, a retailer specializing in LED lighting and accessories.
The Middle East and Africa winner comes from the Bilkent University in Turkey, under Professor Timothy Kiessling. The team of Akif Karaismailoglu, Nur Betül Ozdemir, Hansa Kaya, Arda Akat and Nihal Tokluoglu worked with Very Cupcake, a family-owned, local bakery that is bringing cupcake culture to Turkey.

II. Google+ Social Media Marketing Awards

The Google+ Social Media Marketing Awards recognize the GOMC teams that made an outstanding difference to their non-profit partners by creating online marketing campaigns using AdWords and Google+.
Global Winner
This year's global winner comes from Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania under Professor Elena Vitkauskaitė. The team of Egle Zalnerauskaite, Aiste Stanislaviciute, Giedre Labanauskaite, Vydmante Rastokaite and Ignas Radzius worked with Sveiko Stuburo Mokykla, a company that organizes specialized spinal exercise classes in small groups under the supervision of a physiotherapist, and also arranges seminars and exercises for companies.
Regional Winners
The Americas winner comes from Fanshawe College in Canada, under Professor Liz Gray. The team of Shannon Cross, Emily Matlovich, Tess Bobbie and Nick Broadley worked with the London’s Children Museum, which aims to educate children ages 1 to 8 about the world through interactive play.
The Europe winner comes from Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais in France, under Professor Corinna Stocky. The team of Sidonie Vermont, Pascale Eigho, Laurie Marjolet and Vincent Bellido worked with La Chambreaux Confitures, a jam shop which invites lovers of taste and culture to discover the magic of its delicious jams.
The Asia and Pacific winner comes from PEC University of Technology - Chandigarh in India, under Professor Anju Singla. The team of Kirti Khade, Neha Gupta, Vaibahv Gupta, Jeevesh Sharma, Agam Kansal and Tanu Singla worked with Holidify, an online travel portal specializing in travel recommendations for India.
The Middle East and Africa winner comes from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Nigeria, under Professor Olatunde Michael Oni. The team of Obitade Ayobami Samuel, Ajeigbe Solomon, Oluwaseun Majolagbe, Stephen Odesola, Kunle Akinlabi Akinkuade and Iyanuoluwa James Adegbaju worked with Jandus Radio, a company with a mobile app that allows you to listen to Nigerian radio and other African radio stations on your mobile device anywhere in the world.
III. AdWords Social Impact Awards
The AdWords Social Impact Awards recognize the GOMC teams that made an outstanding difference to their non-profit partners via online marketing campaigns.
1st Place is awarded to Shannon Cross, Emily Matlovich, Tess Bobbie and Nick Broadley, who were taught by Professor Liz Gray at Fanshawe College in Canada. The team partnered with London’s Children Museum, which aims to educate children ages 1 to 8 about the world through interactive play.
2nd Place is awarded to Morgan Mackenzie Moore, Lauren Crain, Dan Froehlich and Brea Zeise, who were taught by Professor Theresa B. Clarke at James Madison University in The United States.  The team partnered with the Calvert Marine Museum, a museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, research, and interpretation of the natural and maritime history of Southern Maryland.
3rd Place is awarded to R Jason Griffin, Aigul Aubakirova, Neil Gustafson and Matt Avery, who were taught by Professor Steven Koch at The University of Houston in The United States. The team partnered with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, a forty-piece professional, nonprofit chamber orchestra in Houston, Texas.
2015 Team Results have been posted to the GOMC Past Challenges page.


A big congratulations to 2015 winners and a big thank you to all teams for participating in this year's Challenge.


To learn more about the Google Online Marketing Challenge and to pre-register for next year’s competition, please watch the GOMC video and visit our website: www.google.com/onlinechallenge




Young people who are changing the world through science

Posted by Andrea Cohan, Google Science Fair Program Manager

(Cross-posted from the Google for Education Blog)

 Sometimes the biggest discoveries are made by the youngest scientists. They’re curious and not afraid to ask, and it’s this spirit of exploration that leads them to try, and then try again. Thousands of these inquisitive young minds from around the world submitted projects for this year’s Google Science Fair, and today we’re thrilled to announce the 20 Global Finalists whose bright ideas could change the world.

From purifying water with corn cobs to transporting Ebola antibodies through silk; extracting water from air or quickly transporting vaccines to areas in need, these students have all tried inventive, unconventional things to help solve challenges they see around them. And did we mention that they’re all 18 or younger?

We’ll be highlighting each of the impressive 20 finalist projects over the next 20 days in the Spotlight on a Young Scientist series on the Google for Education blog to share more about these inspirational young people and what inspires them.
Then on September 21st, these students will join us in Mountain View to present their projects to a panel of notable international scientists and scholars, eligible for a $50,000 scholarship and other incredible prizes from our partners at LEGO Education, National Geographic, Scientific American and Virgin Galactic.

Congratulations to our finalists and everyone who submitted projects for this year’s Science Fair. Thank you for being curious and brave enough to try to change the world through science.