Education

Rajavi Mishra on becoming a computer science researcher

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 17:00:00 +0000

Rajavi Mishra first knew she wanted to become a computer science (CS) researcher when she was a high school junior in Delhi, India. After studying electricity in her physics class, she was hooked on learning even more about the field. Rajavi spent her summer interning with a lab supervisor to design experiments that studied the mechanical life deterioration of electrical contractors, and then expanded that work into a research paper that was published during her senior year of high school.

Today, Rajavi is a senior studying CS at the University of California, Berkeley, and is one of the most recent graduates of Google’s CS Research Mentorship Program (CSRMP). Growing up in India, Rajavi felt like her dream of completing a computer science internship as a high school student and pursuing a career in computer science would be daunting and difficult to achieve. But, thanks in part to the relationships she built during CSRMP, she’s enjoyed every bit of it.

Started in 2018, CSRMP provides mentorship, networking and career exploration to undergraduate and graduate students from historically marginalized groups (HMGs) who are interested in pursuing computing research. The program’s fifth class of students — which included Rajavi — graduated in December 2021, adding 201 students from 109 institutions across the United States and Canada to an alumni community of more than 500 CS researchers. Here’s what Rajavi had to say about her CSRMP and computing research experience:

How has CSRMP impacted your research journey?

I gained insight into a breadth of research domains during speaker series and hands-on workshops. One of our small-group pod sessions had panels with researchers from various Human and Computer Interaction (HCI) sub-domains, which helped me get a taste of different skills, roles and projects in the space.Our pod sessions were real-world learning-focused, and explored different research tools and methodologies in HCI, interesting case studies of projects, and what life as a researcher at Google is like.

What was the highlight of CSRMP?

One-on-one sessions with my mentor were the highlight of my experience. Through discussions with my mentor, I was able to gain solid feedback on my work — from grad school applications and industry research experiences to my current research project at Berkeley. I have a much better understanding of computer science industry research positions and future opportunities for the role.

What were some challenges you had to overcome during the program?

The biggest challenge was letting go of my internal inhibitions and taking the initiative to connect with peers and mentors. To make the most of the program, I had to communicate expectations with my mentor and not feel ashamed for not knowing something. In the end, being a curious learner helped me broaden my horizons and network.

What are you looking forward to most in the year ahead?

As part of my EECS honors thesis, I have been working with Professor Chasins to study how people interact with digital assistants, which we hypothesize do not sufficiently fulfill all possible user queries. While the current research focuses on what people ask their assistants, we wanted to explore how people want to be able to express themselves to their voice assistants. With this in mind, we designed a seven-day in-situ diary study where we asked people with no voice assistant experience to record requests they would ask their assistants. I am using open-coding and language processing techniques to analyze study data, categorize diverse user needs and build an ecologically valid benchmark suite of queries that current voice assistants fail to fulfill. As I wrap up my senior honors thesis, I’m excited to see how my skills have grown since I published my first paper as a high school senior. I'm also thrilled about graduating next semester and joining graduate school as a master’s student to further explore the research area of HCI.

What advice do you have for students like you who are curious about becoming a researcher in computing?

A mentor who can help you identify, shape and strengthen your interests in computer science is pivotal. Learning from my mentors has been invaluable to my progress as a learner, researcher, problem solver and human being.

Congratulations to all of the students who graduated from the CS Research Mentorship Program in the second half of 2021! If you’re interested in joining students like Rajavi Mishra to explore what the world of CS research has to offer, then be sure to apply for the September 2022 mentorship cycle in July when applications open.

Connect confidently with Google Meet security features

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 15:30:00 +0000

Safer Internet Day is about coming together for a better, safer internet – and we at Google for Education are committed to working with schools and families to provide a safe online learning environment. Every day, Google keeps more people safe online than anyone else in the world with products that are secure by default, private by design and put you in control. And this promise extends to all that we build for you, school leaders.

Constant online protections for education

At Google for Education, we’re always looking for new ways to keep you safe. All of our products are private by design, which means they support compliance with the most rigorous data privacy standards — including FERPA, COPPA and GDPR — and are regularly audited by independent, third-party organizations. By making Google for Education products secure by default, we provide additional layers of protection, with ad-free learning experiences that help keep students safe from online threats and age-inappropriate content. And we put you in control, with a dashboard that gives you full visibility of your data and security, regular Google Security Checkups that help you maintain a secure account and additional security features in your security center to protect your school’s data and devices.

Our goal is to support and protect each member of your education community so they can focus on what matters most: teaching and learning.

Google Meet offers more moderation, control and integration

With our ongoing effort to provide a safer learning environment, we’ve been focusing on combating a prominent security pain point for many schools today: video meetings. We’re excited to share some recently announced enhanced security measures for Google Meet to help educators and students connect in a full class setting or one-on-one with fewer distractions and more privacy and security.

In-meeting moderation controls: To help educators engage with their students, we’ve added more ways to help moderate class meetings and eliminate unwanted intrusions or interruptions. With these new features hosts can:

Control who can use the chat and present features
Turn on or off audio and video of individuals or everyone in the main call and breakout rooms
Move participants from breakout rooms[f18fc6]back to the main room
Share moderation controls with up to 25 co-hosts

Control and visibility: We know admins need more ways to protect their schools and more data and insights to drive comprehensive decision making, so we’ve rolled out additional admin features that allow them to:

Apply safety settings across their domain
End meetings for everyone and prevent people from rejoining
Get insights into how people are using Meet
Identify, triage and act upon any security breaches[f3304d]

Google Classroom integration: We’re making Meet and Classroom work even better together. The Google Meet integration with Classroom helps educators meet and work with their classes more easily and securely, allowing them to:

Access the Class Meet link from the stream to limit distribution to class members only, while making meeting links easier for teachers to manage and for students to find
Keep students in a waiting room until the teacher joins, and uninvited guests must ask to join to ensure a safer environment for class interaction
All designated co-teachers are co-hosts by default so multiple teachers can help keep the class meeting on track and secure

Built-in security

In addition to these newly added moderation and security features, Google Meet runs on one of the world's most advanced security infrastructures for scalability and control. Meet adheres to IETF security standards for Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) and Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP). In Meet, all data is encrypted in transit by default, whether meeting on a web browser, on the Android and iOS apps, or in meeting rooms with Google meeting room hardware. Meeting IDs are 10 characters long, with 25 characters in the set, making unauthorized access by guessing the ID extremely difficult.

We look forward to sharing more about our work to keep you safer with Google, including details on our new partnership with Khan Academy to develop free, online lessons that will help teach people how to stay safe online.

We remain committed to providing industry-leading privacy and security protections built into Google for Education products, which enable students and teachers to work better together by connecting safely and securely.

Investing in Detroit with Ford and Michigan Central

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 11:00:00 +0000

At Google, we believe everyone should have the opportunity to learn the skills needed for today’s most in-demand jobs. Across the country, we are investing in workforce readiness and mentorship programming, and are growing our efforts by partnering with others in the private and public sectors.

Consistent with this, today in Detroit we announced that we will be joining Ford Motor Company as a founding member of Michigan Central. Michigan Central is a new innovation hub where companies, government and community stakeholders will focus on the future of mobility — both in terms of economic opportunity and transportation solutions — in Detroit and beyond. Michigan Central will deploy new urban transportation solutions, workforce development and other tools to tackle the world’s mobility challenges to create opportunities for everyone. This new partnership will bring together the automotive and tech industries to equip job seekers with new skills, mentor high schoolers learning to code and provide critical tools for Michigan Central projects and research.

1. Expanded opportunities to learn digital skills

Since 2017, Grow with Google has trained more than seven million Americans in digital skills. We have trained more than 200,000 Michigan residents, working in partnership with approximately 260 organizations across the state. Beginning today, we will team up with local nonprofits to provide free access to our Google Career Certificates, which help people enter high-growth career fields including data analytics, IT support, project management and user experience design. No prior experience or degree is required, and jobseekers get access to resume templates, coaching and career placement support, mock interview practice and more. 82% of graduates have reported a positive career impact within six months, such as a raise, a promotion or a new job.

There are more than one million U.S. roles open in the Certificate fields. To provide additional job opportunities for our Certificate graduates, we created a network of more than 150 companies, including, Verizon, Deloitte and of course, Google, that are committed to considering Certificate graduates for jobs. Ford will now partner with us to consider new graduates for relevant roles, and will offer current employees the opportunity to participate in the Certificate program.

A Grow with Google training in Michigan.

2. More access to computer science skills for high schoolers

Providing better access to computer science for students, particularly to those from racial and ethnic groups that remain underrepresented in STEM, has been an important part of our work in Michigan. We've previously worked with organizations like the Kapor Center's SMASH Program, Wayne State University and the Detroit Public Schools to provide computer science education and resources to historically underrepresented students in the region.

Now Code Next, our immersive computer science education program for high schoolers ,will provide coaching at a new Code Next Lab in Michigan Central for local Detroit students, so that they can learn and develop the skills needed to pursue further education and careers in technology fields. Code Next focuses on serving Black, Latino, Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native students, and nationally, approximately 88% of Code Next graduates have gone on to pursue STEM majors at the higher education level. This Code Next Lab is Google’s first in the Midwest, and will join our other locations in New York and Oakland in offering computer science education programming. The Lab will provide live coaches, state-of-the-art technical equipment and content ranging from Javascript programming to UX design.

3. Powering technology with Google Cloud

In order for the United States to build the next great technologies, people need access to the latest data and digital tools. That’s why we are bringing Google Cloud technology, including our Cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities and data and analytics tools, to Michigan Central to be used on projects and research for future mobility solutions.

The world is in the midst of a digital revolution – cities, mobility, digital tools and the skills people need for their jobs are all changing. It goes without saying that truly effective solutions can come about only through collective efforts, and we are confident our partnership with Michigan Central will enable us to make a difference in the lives of Michigan residents and communities around the world as they navigate these changes.

Supporting education with a new line of Chromebooks

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 18:00:00 +0000

Chromebooks play an important role in the classroom, helping 50 million students and teachers learn and collaborate from wherever they are. So as the education world adjusts to new changes, especially when it comes to virtual learning, our devices should too. Teachers need more powerful machines to help them plan and share lessons, manage student performance and teach both remotely and in person; IT teams need devices they can easily repair, repurpose and upgrade; and students need ones that keep their personal and school data safe, and can easily fit into a backpack.

So today, we’re introducing a new line of more secure and sustainable Chromebook devices — plus updated programs, resources and Chrome OS advances — built entirely for education.

Discover more device options

We know there are many types of Chromebooks out there, and it can be hard to find the right match. On our new Chromebook discovery page, you can easily search for device capabilities like graphic design and lesson planning. You can also find which Chromebooks have features like LTE connectivity, improved video conferencing and camera-based document scanning.

New teacher-inspired Chromebooks — like the Acer Chromebook Spin 713, HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook and Lenovo ThinkPad C13 Yoga Chromebook — have improved stylus capabilities, design and performance. And with the same OS as their students, teachers can easily help them troubleshoot and navigate the latest updates. New student devices — including the HP Fortis 14 G10 Chromebook, ASUS Chromebook Flip CR1, Dell Chromebook 3110 and Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go — also have greater durability and updated connectivity capabilities. And like all Chromebooks, each one has a cloud-based operating system that keeps apps and documents securely backed up, even if devices are damaged or lost.

With these new, more powerful devices, schools can continue helping students plan their futures. Read how the Chester Upland School District in Pennsylvania is using Chromebooks to deliver design software programs like Adobe to prepare their students for design and engineering jobs.

Repair, revive and future-proof your devices

The best way for schools to drive sustainability while cutting costs is by extending the life spans of their devices. We just announced the Chromebook repair program, where we’re working with partners like Acer and Lenovo to share more information about Chromebooks that schools can easily repair themselves with proper training. As part of the program, we’ve also introduced new resources and best practices like setting up a student-run IT shop.

For more about these updates, visit the revamped Chrome Enterprise and Education Help Center. You can also register for our upcoming virtual event, Teach With Chrome Series, to hear from teachers and other educational leaders using Chromebooks in the classroom.

The Chromebook repair program: A sustainable fix for schools

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 18:00:00 +0000

Did you know that using a Chromebook can help reduce your carbon footprint? In fact, Chrome OS devices made by our manufacturing partners consume up to 46% less energy than comparable devices and are designed with sustainability in mind — from their durable shells to their scratch-resistant glass. And we’ve worked with these same partners to make Chromebook components interchangeable, reusable and safely disposable.

Sustainable features like these are particularly helpful to the education world, with 50 million students and teachers using Chromebooks made by our manufacturing partners. With such a large community of Chromebook users, we want to work with our partners to build towards a more sustainable device ecosystem — starting by helping schools find information about repairable devices. Today, we’re taking the first step by creating a Chromebook repair program for schools, beginning in the United States.

Easily find repairable devices

Many Chromebooks have been repairable for years, with some repairs already covered under system warranties and managed by authorized service providers. But it’s been challenging for school IT administrators to find information about which devices they can repair. As part of the Chromebook repair program, we’re partnering with companies like Acer and Lenovo to spotlight more Chromebooks that are repairable. On our new site, schools can easily identify which Chromebooks have commonly repaired components, like the keyboard, display and palmrest. Online manufacturer guides will also show how to repair the devices, find tools to safely fix them, get replacement parts, find training and get system update access if needed. This is just the first step, and we’re looking forward to hearing feedback to help grow and improve the program.

Start your own school repair program

Some Chromebook manufacturers, like Acer, provide training for schools to perform their own repairs. So, many schools have already created Chromebook repair programs, working alongside teachers and IT teams to repair their devices (shout-out to some of our favorite names, like “Chromestop” and “Chrome Depot”). Some even offer Chromebook repair as an elective course. In-school programs like these are not only eco-friendly, they can significantly reduce turnaround time, save on costs and help students learn valuable skills.

"Acer designs its Chromebooks for the education market with both durability and ease-of-repair in mind,” says James Vick, Vice President, Customer Service, Acer Pan America. "On campus repair programs enable students to help their own school by conducting safe and rapid repairs of Chromebooks, while also teaching them a valuable transferable skill that can help them pursue a career in the IT field. Acer supports valuable programs that give students an opportunity for hands-on learning beyond traditional curriculum.”

We’re inspired by schools around the world that are creating their own Chromebook repair programs — like Jenks Public Schools in Oklahoma, whose in-school repair service led to faster turnaround time for Chromebook repairs and stronger IT skills in graduates. To help others get started, we’ve created a playbook for setting up a Chromebook repair program in your school, with input from IT administrators. Keep an eye on our page for more resources and sustainability-focused devices best suited for a repair program.

Looking for a sustainable way to reuse other devices? Schools can also revive and extend the lifespans of PCs and Macs by converting them to deliver a Chrome OS experience using CloudReady.

Acer designs its Chromebooks for the education market with both durability and ease-of-repair in mind. On campus repair programs enable students to help their own school by conducting safe and rapid repairs of Chromebooks. James Vick
Vice President, Customer Service, Acer Pan America

Students at Jenks Public Schools in Oklahoma run their own student-led repair program for Chromebooks

Educate the next generation

Preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s environmental challenges is also key to our commitment to sustainability. As we aim to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030, we’ll continue to share Google’s best practices with the education world. And we’ll keep developing sustainability courses in our Teacher Center and through programs like Science Buddies, Your Plan, Your Planet, Google Arts & Culture Expeditions, Experiments with Google and Google Earth Education.

Celebrating a decade of partnering with Technovation

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 18:00:00 +0000

In 2006, engineering grad student Tara Chklovski looked around at her classroom and realized how few women and people of color were in the room. Determined to change that, Tara launched Technovation, and this year, Google is celebrating over a decade of support.

In 2010, we brought the first group of 45 girls to Google’s Mountain View cafe to learn from Google mentors how to build and bring apps to market through Technovation Girls, a program that prepares girls for tech entrepreneurship and leadership.

The first Technovation Challenge season was conducted in-person, with Google mentors helping the group to learn how to build apps using MIT App Inventor. In the decade since, Google has continued to support Technovation, both through groups of dedicated volunteers, as well as through funding. In 2017, Google hosted Technovation's World Summit, and along the way has helped Technovation reach 350,000 people across 100 countries. The collaboration also allowed Technovation’s AI education program to empower 20,000 children and parents to identify problems in their communities and develop AI-based solutions.

Through Google.org, we support organizations using technology and innovation to help more students, particularly those who have been historically underserved, get a better education. Since 2013, we’ve given more than $80 million to organizations around the globe focused on closing the computer science education access gap. And we recently shared resources to help nonprofits like Technovation that are working to close the gender gap in CS education.

To date, Google’s investment in Technovation programming totals nearly $2 million, and more than 50 Technovation alumni have worked at Google campuses around the world. Those alumnae include women like Padmapriya in India, Dalia in Palestine, Jenny and Emma in the United States, and Adelina in Moldova, who graciously agreed to share their stories about participating in Technovation.

The current Technovation Girls season is now open—if you know a girl who's ready to change the world, let her know about Technovation and encourage her to sign up. And if you want to support girls taking their first steps as technology creators and entrepreneurs, learn more about participating as a mentor or a judge. There are thousands of girls like Padmapriya, Dalia, Adelina, Emma, and Jenny who are just getting started and could use your encouragement!

2021 Year in Review: Google Quantum AI

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 18:00:00 +0000

Google’s Quantum AI team has had a productive 2021. Despite ongoing global challenges, we’ve made significant progress in our effort to build a fully error-corrected quantum computer, working towards our next hardware milestone of building an error-corrected quantum bit (qubit) prototype. At the same time, we have continued our commitment to realizing the potential of quantum computers in various applications. That's why we published results in top journals, collaborated with researchers across academia and industry, and expanded our team to bring on new talent and expertise.

An update on hardware

The Quantum AI team is determined to build an error-corrected quantum computer within the next decade, and to simultaneously use what we learn along the way to deliver helpful—and even transformational—quantum computing applications. This long-term commitment is expanded broadly into three key questions for our quantum hardware:

Can we demonstrate that quantum computers can outperform the classical supercomputers of today in a specific task? We demonstrated beyond-classical computation in 2019.
Can we build a prototype of an error-corrected qubit? In order to use quantum computers to their full potential, we will need to realize quantum error correction to overcome the noise that is present during our computations. As a key step in this direction, we aim to realize the primitives of quantum error correction by redundantly encoding quantum information across several physical qubits, demonstrating that such redundancy leads to an improvement over using individual physical qubits. This is our current target.
Can we build a logical qubit which does not have errors for an arbitrarily long time? Logical qubits encode information redundantly across several physical qubits, and are able to reduce the impact of noise on the overall quantum computation. Putting together a few thousand logical qubits would allow us to realize the full potential of quantum computers for various applications.

An interactive map of our journey to build an error-corrected quantum computer

Progress toward building an error-corrected qubit prototype

The distance between the noisy quantum computers of today and the fully error-corrected quantum computers of the future is vast. In 2021, we made significant progress in closing this gap by working toward building a prototype logical qubit whose errors are smaller than those of the physical qubits on our chips.

This work requires improvements across the entire quantum computing stack. We have made chips with better qubits, improved the methods that we use to package these chips to better connect them with our control electronics, and developed techniques to calibrate large chips with several dozens of qubits simultaneously.

These improvements culminated in two key results. First, we are now able to reset our qubits with high fidelity, allowing us to reuse qubits in quantum computations. Second, we have realized mid-circuit measurement that allows us to keep track of computation within quantum circuits. Together, the high-fidelity resets and mid-circuit measurements were used in our recent demonstration of exponential suppression of bit and phase flip errors using repetition codes, resulting in 100x suppression of these errors as the size of the code grows from 5 to 21 qubits.

Suppression of logical errors as the number of qubits in the repetition code is increased. As we increase the code size from 5 to 21 qubits, we see 100x reduction in logical. Image acknowledgement: Kevin Satzinger/Google Quantum AI

Repetition codes, an error correction tool, enable us to trade-off between resources (more qubits) and performance (lower error) which will be central in guiding our hardware research and development going forward. This year we showed how error decreases as we increase the number of included qubits for a 1-dimensional code. We are currently running experiments to extend these results to two-dimensional surface codes which will correct errors more comprehensively.

Applications of quantum computation

In addition to building quantum hardware, our team is also looking for clear margins of quantum advantage in real world applications. With our collaborators in academia and industry, we are exploring fields where quantum computers can provide significant speedups, with realistic expectations that error-corrected quantum computers will likely require better than quadratic speedups for meaningful improvements.

As always, our collaborations with academic and industry partners were invaluable in 2021. One notable collaboration with Caltech showed that, under certain conditions, quantum machines can learn about physical systems from exponentially fewer experiments than what is conventionally required. This novel method was validated experimentally using 40 qubits and 1300 quantum operations, demonstrating a substantial quantum advantage even with the noisy quantum processors we have today. This paves the way to more innovation in quantum machine learning and quantum sensing, with potential near-term use cases.

In collaboration with researchers at Columbia University, we combined one of the most powerful techniques for chemical simulation, Quantum Monte Carlo, with quantum computation. This approach surpasses previous methods as a promising quantum approach to ground state many-electron calculations, which are critical in creating new materials and understanding their chemical properties. When we run a component of this technique on a real quantum computer, we are able to double the size of prior calculations without sacrificing accuracy of the measurements, even in the presence of noise on a device with up to 16 qubits. The resilience of this method to noise is an indication of its potential for scalability even on today’s quantum computers.

We continue to study how quantum computers can be used to simulate quantum physical phenomena—as was most recently reflected in our experimental observation of a time crystal on a quantum processor (Ask a Techspert: What exactly is a time crystal?). This was a great moment for theorists, who’ve pondered the possibility of time crystals for nearly a century. In other work, we also explored the emergence of quantum chaotic dynamics by experimentally measuring out-of-time-ordered correlations on one of our quantum computers, which was done jointly with collaborators at the NASA Ames Research Center; and experimentally measuring the entanglement entropy of the ground state of the Toric code Hamiltonian by creating its eigenstates using shallow quantum circuits with collaborators at the Technical University of Munich.

Our collaborators contributed to, and even inspired, some of our most impactful research in 2021. Quantum AI remains committed to discovering and realizing meaningful quantum applications in collaboration with scientists and researchers from across the world in 2022 and beyond as we continue our focus on machine learning, chemistry, and many-body quantum physics.

You can find a list of all our publications here.

Continuing investment in the quantum computing ecosystem

This year, at Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, we reaffirmed our commitment to the roadmap and investments required to make a useful quantum computer within the decade. While we were busy growing in Santa Barbara, we also continue to support the enablement of researchers in the quantum community through our open source software. Our quantum programming framework, Cirq, continues to improve with contributions from the community. 2021 also saw the release of specialized tools in collaboration with partners in the ecosystem. Two examples of these are:

The release of a new Fermionic Quantum Simulator for quantum chemistry applications in collaboration with QSimulate, taking advantage of the symmetry in quantum chemistry problems to provide efficient simulations.
A significant upgrade to qsim which allows for simulation of noisy quantum circuits on high performance processors such as GPUs via Google Cloud, and qsim integration with NVIDIA’s cuQuantum SDK to enable qsim users to make the most of NVIDIA GPUs when developing quantum algorithms and applications.

We also released an open-source tool called stim, which provides a 10000x speedup when simulating error correction circuits.

You can access our portfolio of open-source software here.

Looking toward 2022

Resident quantum scientist Qubit the Dog taking part in a holiday sing-along led by team members Jimmy Chen and Ofer Naaman.

Through teamwork, collaboration, and some innovative science, we are excited about the progress that we have seen in 2021. We have big expectations for 2022 as we focus on progressing through our hardware milestones, the discovery of new quantum algorithms, and the realization of quantum applications on the quantum processors of today. To tackle our difficult mission, we are growing our team, building on our existing network of collaborators, and expanding our Santa Barbara campus. Together with the broader quantum community, we are excited to see the progress that quantum computing makes in 2022 and beyond.

Supporting digital education in Europe

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 09:00:00 +0000

The way we teach and learn has changed. We have all seen the world shift beneath our feet during the pandemic, as homes became classrooms and teachers found new ways to connect with their students while using technology in new ways.

While schools around the world are now moving back towards in-classroom learning, the importance of access to digital tools has been brought into focus, not only to support hybrid learning practices but also to ensure students are equipped with the tools and skills that set them up for success in building the future they want for themselves.

We’re excited to see that many EU member states, guided by the Digital Education Action Plan, have allocated a significant portion of Recovery and Resilience Facility funds towards national digital education transformation plans. However, large-scale projects in digital education sometimes struggle to deliver expected benefits or outcomes, and investments in digital equipment for schools are often under-utilized. To address this challenge and to support countries with their digital education transformation plans, Google is thrilled to announce the €15 million Google for Education EU Digital Support Fund.

Working with SMEs to support digital education

The Google for Digital Education Fund is designed to foster the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem, including the provision of infrastructure, connectivity and digital equipment, enabling digitally competent and confident teachers, and training staff. The Fund is open to local SMEs who are supporting national education projects funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility program. They can apply for funding from Google for the duration of the program (or until the funds have been exhausted) to cover Google's digital equipment and software. In this way, the Fund will contribute to addressing key digital education priorities in the EU by stimulating local innovation ecosystems in education and training.

The fund can be used towards supporting teacher training to help them leverage the most out of devices in the classroom

What does that look like in practice?

We have already seen impactful ways this could work across the EU region. The Municipality of Plovdiv in Bulgaria exemplifies the type of digital education transformation program that the Google Digital Education Fund intends to support. The aim of the Municipality of Plovdiv’s program was to successfully implement a cloud platform in order to deliver on the “digitalization and modernization of the learning process” and elevate the digital skills of educators and learners in all 77 of the schools in the Municipality. This program was delivered over three years from 2017-2019 and was the first digital education program of its kind in Bulgaria. Plovdiv’s School in the Cloud program has become the benchmark for all of Bulgaria and has led to widespread use of the Google for Education platform, with more than 10,000 teachers trained (over 1,000 of them certified by Google), and thousands of Chromebook devices being used across the country in accordance with acceptable use policies established by the Ministry of Education in Bulgaria.

Looking to the future

Our goal is to provide the information, tools and services that help students build knowledge, fuel curiosity, and prepare for what’s next. We are proud and excited to support the European Digital Education Action Plan, and look forward to helping EU Member States deliver successful digital education transformation programs.

The Google for Education EU Digital Support Fund is available to qualifying SMEs that are supporting EU Member State national digital education transformation programs funded through the Recovery and Resilience Facility and related to the provisioning of Chromebooks (with the associated Chrome Education Upgrade license) and Google Workspace for Education. Click here to learn more and to apply.

A new literacy tool promoting inclusive LGBTQ+ language

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 16:00:00 +0000

Imagine living your truth, but not being able to tell anyone. That was my experience as a young queer person in small-town Alabama. Twenty years ago, nobody, including LGBTQ+ people, had the language we have today to talk about queerness or gender outside the binary. Coded language made it even more difficult to learn about the LGBTQ+ community, much less learn about myself. Even when I felt safe (mostly in anonymous chat rooms), I found it nearly impossible to talk about what I was going through.

It wasn’t until my college professor, Cliff Simon, shared his story that I first heard someone use terms like “gay” and “lesbian” without shame or judgement. Cliff’s story proved to me that I could be happy, and it’s the reason I came out — and ultimately, my inspiration to start VideoOut, an LGBTQ+ education and advocacy nonprofit.

As the population of openly LGBTQ+ people increases around the world, VideoOut aims to shepherd people from a place of limited exposure to a place of expanded understanding.

LGBTQ inclusive language glossary and definitions

I’m queer trans nonbinary. Not long ago, queer was a derogatory word — it’s what the bullies used when they weaponized their language against me. As attitudes and society evolved, so did our language and our understanding of the power words have to uplift or disparage people.

This year, VideoOut launched The LGBTQ+ Learning Project. It includes multiple phases, including a comprehensive educational resource and live community events that ladder up to our long term goal of building a museum on the National Mall. The Google News Initiative has supported us every step of the way during the first phase – the LGBTQ+ Language and Media Literacy Program.

Partnering with the GNI gave VideoOut the opportunity to work with a team of PhD linguists from the LGBTQ+ community to research the origin, evolution and current usage of 100 words and phrases that range from clinical terminology, like HRT and dysphoria, to slang terms used in niche communities like drag and ballroom. We will continue to expand the data visualization, designed by Polygraph, and employGoogle Trends technology to show the popularity of search terms over time.

This tool guides journalists through the complex world of LGBTQ+ vernacular. It shows who should be credited when using words that belong to marginalized communities. Most importantly, it arms reporters with knowledge, helping them to use LGBTQ+ terminology respectfully and accurately.

The program aims to inform people who are less familiar with the LGBTQ+ community, with the hopes of warming attitudes and fostering allyship. To that end, we’ve partnered with Men’s Health magazine to help contextualize the research and data in the program. We hope to reach a new audience and model how sharing information makes the most impact when it’s done across lines of difference.

The tool will be accessible through the Men’s Health website.

Queer and trans people are not new, but increasingly people are beginning to feel safe about living authentically. According to a recent Gallup poll, “One in six [U.S.] adults in Generation Z identifies as LGBT.” At the same time, a GLAAD report found 45% of non-LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. say they’re confused by the different number of terms to describe individuals who comprise the LGBTQ+ community.

Thanks to the efforts of queer and trans people on the forefront of the liberation movement, things are better now than they have ever been — but they are still fragile. The news media can help. Journalists can reference this tool to ensure they are using language appropriately. They can also interact with members of the community in their process. For example, if there is a story written about trans rights, VideoOut believes the writer should interview trans people, particularly ones who are active in the movement for trans rights.

The LGBTQ+ Language and Media Literacy Program is more than a glossary, though at its simplest, it can function that way. It’s a way to understand the LGBTQ+ community, and hopefully, it will transform the way journalists — and all of us — write and talk about LGBTQ+ people.

Two professors are leveling the field in computing research

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000

Editor’s note: This guest post is by Professors Maria Gini and Shana Watters from the University of Minnesota.

Research is about opening up new worlds and systematically answering questions about their possibilities. But access to research opportunities, including computer science (CS) research, is not equitable: In Canada and the United States in 2020, resident students who identified as Black, Indigenous, Latino, women and intersections of these identities made up only 12.1% of CS Ph.D. enrollments. As educators, we felt compelled to address this inequity. We learned about Google’s exploreCSR program in 2018, and it’s helped us make important progress in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

exploreCSR provides faculty with funding, community, evaluation and connections to Google researchers in order to introduce students to the world of CS research. We used our first two years of exploreCSR funding to create content for an undergraduate research course and pilot it in weekend workshops. We started with the belief that all students are capable of executing research, but needed guidance on how to get started. But once we began the workshops, we realized that we needed to first establish a foundation of what research is and how it’s done. That way, students could move from sheer curiosity to hands-on practice. We also saw a need to recognize their commitment to this work through official academic credit.

Based on our learnings from the workshops, we offered a one-credit class in 2021 called “Introduction to Undergraduate Research in Computer Science.” The course helped students develop research skills like identifying and formulating research problems, reading research papers and analyzing data. Faculty mentors from a variety of backgrounds discussed their research, and mentors from Google engaged with the students through talks, panels and mock interviews. At the end of the semester, students understood how to network, present their knowledge and develop game plans to reach their computing research goals.

Our inaugural class included 45 students with a diverse range of identities, some of whom are now doing research with faculty, receiving undergraduate research funds and completing research internships. Our students reflected that having access to researchers in both academia and the tech industry opened up new ways of thinking about research. “Learning that it’s okay to change your academic and career plans really calmed some of the worries I have,” one student shared. Another learned the value of taking risks: “If you get stuck on a problem, try to jump out of the box to view it, and you might find brand new solutions which you had never imagined.”

Our goal from the start was to prepare the next generation of researchers, including many students historically marginalized in computing. And we’re still making progress. The support we received from exploreCSR and the program’s mentors helped make our first class a rewarding learning experience for both the students and instructors. Moving forward, we will work towards improving the course based on student feedback, and developing strong partnerships with local companies. And we're proud that the University of Minnesota’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering has committed to offer "Introduction to Undergraduate Research in Computer Science" as an annual course.

As the scientist Carl Sagan said, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” Our students are going to explore those incredible “somethings” with purpose and direction. We look forward to their accomplishments!

Visit our websiteto learn more about exploreCSR and meet the 35 institutionsin our 2021 cycle.

Learning on the go with Classroom on Android

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000

The past two years have seen a rapid rise in the use of educational tools by teachers and students everywhere – driven primarily by the need for distance learning. Now that educators and schools have experienced the benefits of these tools, their use continues to grow, even as many schools return to in-person and hybrid learning.

While this industry-wide shift to more hours online can be an opportunity for many, it can also be a challenge for some teachers and students, especially in places where communities rely heavily on mobile phones or because of limited internet connectivity.

Google Classroom and other Google Workspace for Education tools are designed to be used anytime, anywhere and on any device. In many countries around the world, the investments we’ve made in our mobile apps have already helped tens of millions of students keep learning remotely by using personal or shared phones.

With this in mind, we’ve launched three new features to improve access to Classroom in mobile-first and limited internet conditions.

Use Classroom when you’re offline

With the Classroom Android app, students can now continue to work and learn, even when offline or when faced with spotty internet connections. Now students have the option – when they are online – to download assignment attachments to their phone for viewing and editing later when they are offline.

Although the ability to submit and download assignments, or pose questions and get answers, still requires an internet connection, offline mode gives students the flexibility to take schoolwork anywhere and keep learning on the go.

Scan and upload multiple pictures with ease

Many more students today are taking and submitting photos of assignments that are easier and more ideal to complete by hand — like math or science homework.

The Classroom Android app now has a handy scan feature, which students can use to capture and combine multiple pictures into a single file. The upload action in the app now allows for easy selection and submission of multiple different types of files in a single step.

These improvements will help students submit their assignments more efficiently, even if they’re in a rush to meet a deadline.

Easier grading on mobile for teachers

For teachers who are primarily using a phone, we’ve made big updates to the experience of viewing and grading assignments on the Classroom Android app.

Teachers can now seamlessly swipe between students and assignments and add grades on the app. Teachers can also give feedback to students by enabling comments on individual files, even if there are multiple files in an assignment. They can comment on a file or highlight specific passages to leave more targeted feedback pinpointing improvement areas for students.

The vast majority of people who are new to the internet today use phones rather than computers. With these new Classroom Android app features, we’re providing students and teachers everywhere with a better mobile experience.

We are fully committed to investing in helping educators and schools spark learning and close equity gaps with more supportive, inclusive, and productive educational tools

Supporting media literacy with new partnerships

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 16:00:00 +0000

From the COVID-19 pandemic to the climate crisis, we’ve seen how misinformation can have catastrophic consequences. Misleading information can spread among family and friends, impacting not only the way people see the world and relate to each other, but the decisions they make for their health, and for their loved ones and communities.

Separating fact from fiction online has gotten more difficult, and no generation is immune: A 2019 Pew Research study found that only 26% of U.S. adults could identify a factual statement from an opinion. A Stanford University study from the same year found that two-thirds of high school students surveyed couldn’t tell the difference between news stories and sponsored content.

Communities need to be able to spot a fake story when they see it and stop it in its tracks. That’s why today, the Google News Initiative (GNI) is building on our commitment to strengthen media literacy in the U.S. through partnerships with PBS NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs, the News Literacy Project, and Poynter’s MediaWise program.

Bridging generations with PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs

Started in 2009, PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs (SRL) is a leader in the youth media landscape, currently operating in more than 160 classrooms and after-school programs across the U.S. Thousands of teachers have used SRL’s journalism, civic engagement and video production resources, which train students on the ins and outs of producing reliable news, learning journalism ethics, fact checking and engaging with their communities.

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As part of our partnership, Student Reporting Labs will build educational resources to help teach young people how to have conversations about misinformation with older family members and friends. The hope is that new audiences, and those already familiar with PBS NewsHour and local public media station partners, will come together to help tackle misinformation.

“Through storytelling and co-production with students, we’ll explore the media literacy needs of different communities and generations, and how they can connect with each other to find solutions,” says SRL Founder Leah Clapman.

Expanding to rural communities with News Literacy Project

Through online classes, events and in-person visits to schools, the News Literacy Project (NLP) provides media literacy education to students, educators and the public. More than 300,000 students have completed lessons on NLP’s virtual classroom platform, Checkology, since its launch in 2016.

The Google News Initiative’s partnership will help the NLP bring their Newsroom to Classroom program to even more journalists and educators. NLP is now expanding into rural areas of California, Colorado, Texas, Iowa and Nebraska — places hit particularly hard by the decline in local news.

“News literacy is an essential skill for everyone everywhere in a healthy democracy,” Claudia Borgelt, Vice President of Development at NLP says. “Access to news literacy education should not be limited by a community’s zip code.”

Expanding Spanish-language resources with Poynter’s MediaWise

Our efforts extend beyond students and educators. The GNI was the original supporter of Poynter’s MediaWise project, which was initially focused on students and has since expanded to seniors. Launched in 2020, the MediaWise for Seniors program has trained more than half a million Americans to date.

We’re joining forces with the team again to translate their “How to Spot Misinformation Online” course into Spanish, and create a text-based version of the course that will be delivered via SMS, which is how many seniors find and share news.

“More than 41 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish at home,” says MediaWise Director Katy Byron. “Research shows that health and vaccine-related falsehoods and conspiracy theories are some of the most pervasive forms of misinformation targeting Hispanic communities. Making these Spanish-language educational resources available in multiple formats, on platforms popular with the 50+ Hispanic population, will help combat the Spanish language misinformation gap.”

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These partnerships build on Google’s other media literacy efforts around the world, including a €25 million contribution to the European Media and Information Fund. Along with products like Fact Check Explorer and the “about this result” feature in Search, Google is committed to equipping people with the skills they need to stop the spread of misinformation and sort fact from fiction online.

This Code Next student is paying it forward

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 17:30:00 +0000

As part of Google’s Code Next program, which brings computer science (CS) education to underrepresented communities in tech, student Gideon Buddenhagen took on a research project that would make a big impact. Through his research, he found that young students of color without financial resources don’t have the same access to technology, computer science education and mentors who look like them — opportunities that had a meaningful effect on Gideon’s own life. So for his final project with Code Next, Gideon is introducing technical education to middle school students and helping them see the many doors tech can open for them.

“I wanted to offer opportunities to learn about computer science as a pathway out of poverty and show these students cool, smart role models who look like them,” Gideon said.

Leadership in Motion is a free program Gideon designed to expose middle school students in underrepresented communities to the field of technology through mentorship from diverse high school students who have participated in Code Next. This not only gives younger students access to tech education, it also provides high school students with leadership opportunities.

Gideon collaborated with his Code Next mentors and partnered with Bridge the Gap College Prep, a nonprofit serving low-income youth, to launch a nine-week pilot of Leadership in Motion in early October. Fifteen students signed up for the pilot session, taught by four high school student engineers, and Gideon and his partners plan to scale the program to more participants soon.

Gideon knows firsthand that initiatives like Code Next and other CS programs at Google can be transformative. And with Leadership in Motion, Gideon is opening new pathways for younger students — helping them learn about technology, grow their tech networks and explore exciting possibilities for their futures.

To learn more about Code Next or if you know a student who should apply for the program, sign up for updates.

Igniting a spark for Computer Science Education Week

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:00:00 +0000

I feel extremely lucky. My job at Google is to find and support the next generation of Black, Latino and Indigenous leaders with a passion for computer science (CS). As a Black woman, this role has a deep meaning for me. In fact, it’s the job I’ve always dreamed of — one that bridges my passion for computer science and equity. And, I get to work with people who look like me.

But it wasn’t always this way. When I started my first tech job after graduate school, I started asking questions that would change the course of my career. Where would I get career guidance as a Black woman? How would I navigate a computer science education alone?

These questions ignited a spark in me. I realized I wanted to help students from historically marginalized groups who, like me, were interested in computer science. And now, I get to do that every day.

My experience, however, is the exception rather than the rule. Most young people, especially those from underrepresented communities, aren’t exposed to CS concepts in school. In addition, and perhaps maybe even more concerning, many Black, Hispanic and female students don’t believe that CS skills will benefit them.

For this year’s Computer Science Education Week — happening December 6-12 — Google is helping students from all backgrounds explore computer science. Educators can bring Hour of Code^TM activities from Google’s CS programs into their classrooms, or join livestream events with Googlers who have CS backgrounds. Educators in Title 1-funded schools can also virtually host a Google volunteer in their classroom to lead an Hour of Code activity or career chat. Find out more and sign up on Code with Google’s CSEdWeek page.

These initiatives are a part of Google’s larger commitment to try and help every student explore the potential paths computer science can offer them. Since 2013, Google.org has given more than $80 million to organizations around the globe working to increase access to high-quality CS learning opportunities. Code with Google has also launched K-12, higher education, research, and mentorship programs to help students along their entire CS education journey.

My own journey has had a lot of bumps, twists, and turns, but each of them led me to the career I have (and love) today. I hope that hearing about others’ experiences will light a similar spark for students from all backgrounds, and inspire them to explore all of the different doors computer science can open for them.

Inspiring 1.4 million students to learn computer science

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 16:00:00 +0000

For many of the challenges our world faces — like access to healthcare and climate change — technology will be part of the solution. For those solutions to affect change, the technologists behind them should be reflective of everyone. However, in the U.S. today 26% of computing professionals are women, 8% are Hispanic and 9% are Black.

Access to education is at the root of this inequity. Girls, historically underrepresented groups and students from small and rural towns are less likely to have the opportunity to build interest and confidence in computer science and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills. To help make sure every student has the chance to build confidence and interest in computer science, 4-H, an organization working to give all youth equal access to opportunity, with Google.org support, created the Computer Science Pathway. This program teaches technical subjects — like data analytics and robotics — and equips students with essential life skills — like problem-solving and leadership.

In 2019, 4-H and Google.org set a goal that with Google.org’s support, 4-H would introduce one million students to computer science within three years. Members of our own Code with Google team assisted the National 4-H Council and local 4-H chapter leaders to pilot, train and iterate for several months to help establish the foundations of the Computer Science Pathway program. Fast forward to now, just two years later, and 4-H has already reached over 1.4 million students. Of those 1.4 million, 47% are from historically underrepresented groups in computer science, 65% live in rural areas and 56% of teen leaders for the program are girls.

These numbers represent real kids finding their voice, discovering a brighter future and realizing their dreams.

Aubree from Utah is using her newfound voice to encourage educators to offer computer science in their schools. “I am only the beginning of a long list of students,” says Aubree. “My greatest hope is that I will never be the end.”
Jeffery from South Carolina says the program inspired him to reach for a brighter future. “I want to become a Computer Engineer and create innovation that improves our daily lives.”
Aja from Illinois was looking for a place to belong as a student with learning difficulties. Now, she has her very own organization, See Me in STEM, to empower minority youth to get involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “4-H inspired me to be the change I wanted to see.”

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Throughout this journey, the 4-H team brought together nonprofits, businesses, community leaders and schools to create an inclusive and impactful computer science program for all ages across 50 states. For others looking to create computer science programs, here are a few things 4-H learned to help each and every student achieve their potential.

Teach life skills, create career pathways, and provide ongoing mentorship to make computer science skills relevant.
Develop equitable, accessible and inclusive content. Weave in teachings to relevant topics or existing student interests, partner with community organizations and invest in a technology lending infrastructure.
Invest in your staff and volunteers. Provide regular training sessions, build a strong community culture and hire full-time employees with experience in computer science and proven approaches to engage youth.

As a 4-H alum myself, I’m proud to celebrate this incredible milestone and achievement toward equitable education and opportunities. We believe that the Computer Science Pathway, and the 4-H team’s thoughtful evaluation and collected learnings, will help make the future brighter — not just for the students who participate, but for their communities and the world as a whole. As we face global challenges, we’ll need the best and brightest out there solving them.

Check out Chromebook’s new accessibility features

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 18:00:00 +0000

With accessibility features on Chromebooks, we want everyone to have a good experience on their computer – so people can get things done, families can play together, students and teachers can learn together, and employees can work productively and efficiently, wherever they are. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, so we wanted to share a few recent and new Chromebook features that help people access information in a way that works for them.

New enhanced voices for Select-to-speak

People spend a lot of time reading on their laptop, doing things like reading news articles or reviewing school textbooks. Reading on a screen can be less than ideal for many, including people with dyslexia (an estimated 10-20% of the population), low vision, those learning a new language or people who have a hard time focusing on busy text.

With a few clicks, Select-to-speak on Chromebooks allows you to hear selected text on your screen spoken out loud. Earlier this year we added new features like controls to speed up, slow down or pause the reading voice, and to easily jump to different parts of text. Plus, you can choose to highlight the words being spoken while shading background text to help focus your attention.

Today, we’re announcing new, more human sounding voices for Select-to-speak, to help spoken text be more fluid and easier to understand. Natural voices are currently available in various accents in 25 languages with more to come.

To develop this feature, we worked with educators who specialize in dyslexia, as well as individuals with dyslexia. They shared that hearing text read out loud enhances comprehension – especially in an educational setting. By bringing natural-sounding voices to the feature, for example a local accent you’re used to, it’s also easier to follow along with the content being read and highlighted on screen.

Try it out by enabling Select-to-speak in Chromebook settings, and picking your preferred voice. Then select the text you want read out loud and press the Everything Button or Launcher Key + S.

I'm dyslexic and have ADHD and have trouble with reading/learning. You have no idea the amount of knowledge I've had to “let go of” because I simply can't navigate through the words and my attention just would not stick. I'm a great audio learner and have just discovered text-to-speech features. I’m so excited to use this tool!

- Chromebook user with dyslexia

Making Chromebooks more accessible

Over the past year, we’ve also made it easier to use, discover and customize Chromebook’s built-in accessibility features. This includes updates to the screen magnifier, like keyboard panning and shortcuts. We have also developed new in-product tutorials for ChromeVox, and we’ve introduced point scanning to make the selection process for switch users more efficient.

As a public middle school Reading & Dyslexia Specialist, accessibility tools are crucial to student success in education… stop, fast forward, and rewind help build metacognition and reading comprehension skills. Thank you for adapting to the accessibility needs of children.

- Sharon McMichael, Structured Literacy Dyslexia Interventionist (C.E.R.I.)

Become a certified Chromebook

accessibility expert

For assistive tech trainers, educators and users with a disability who want to learn more about Chromebook’s accessibility features, this summer we launched an online training program in conjunction with The Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation & Education Professionals (ACVREP). This eight-module course covers Chromebook and Google Workspace accessibility features. After completing the free course and final exam, you’ll receive a digital badge as a Chromebook Accessibility expert.

We’ll be back later this year to share more new Chromebook features.

Meet the Ph.D. students changing the face of computing

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 19:00:00 +0000

Every day, computer science researchers are working to solve big problems that impact all of our lives — from expanding accessibility in wearable technology to improving the lives of rural farmers through AI. For CS research to explore issues that impact all communities, it’s crucial that the researchers themselves are representative of those communities. However, in 2020, less than 10% of computer science Ph.D. degrees in the United States were awarded to researchers from historically marginalized groups in computing.

As part of our efforts to make CS research careers more accessible, Google Research is continuing our work with the Computing Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institutions (CAHSI) and the CMD-IT Diversifying LEAdership in the Professoriate (LEAP) Alliance to increase the diversity of Ph.D. graduates in computing. Together, we are providing dissertation awards to support Doctoral students from historically marginalized groups as they complete their Ph.D. requirements. This year, we have six winners: Abel Gomez Rivera, Dhruv Jain, Elsa Tai Ramirez, Matthew Anderson, Rodrigo Augusto Silva Dos Santos, and Saadia Gabriel.

We spoke with two of our 2020 award recipients — Amber Solomon from The Georgia Institute of Technology (Ph.D. ‘21) and Oscar S. Veliz from The University of Texas at El Paso (Ph.D. ‘21) — about their computing research journeys and aspirations for the future.

What inspired your interest in computer science research?

Amber: Computer science has reached a critical point in its evolution. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have made major leaps from ideas in a lab to tools in the palm of people’s hands. This increases the urgency to understand its benefits and potential negative effects. Few disciplines have this level of impact on society. For that reason, it's super important that we have different perspectives in this space.

Oscar: I took a course on Multi-Agent Systems and Game Theory with a professor who later became my advisor. The subject was fascinating, and I dove head first into the latest, cutting-edge research. I felt that this was an area of Artificial Intelligence that had so many possibilities and unanswered questions that I had to get involved.

What were some defining moments in your computer science journey?

Amber: During the second year of my Ph.D. program, I taught introductory programming and human-computer interaction at a private, alternative high school. Students designed and programmed technology to address issues they cared about, including gentrification, racism, and police brutality. They had so many interesting and important things to say. It pushed me to reflect on the impact computer science has on the individual and society, and my role as a researcher.

Oscar: Going to conferences and talking shop with the authors of papers I had read helped put a real person behind the research. Attending research discussions and mentorship panels with senior researchers who looked like me, and shared their similar struggles with me, also struck a chord. I learned that it wasn’t uncommon to feel like an impostor and that I could, and should, seek help.

How has the Google dissertation award impacted your research career path?

Amber: Research from racially and ethnically minoritized researchers often gets ignored or isn’t considered as legitimate as others. So, to win the Google-LEAP Dissertation Award was incredibly validating. It made me feel like my voice mattered and was legitimate.

Oscar: I am quite terrible at giving myself credit. I wouldn’t apply to certain jobs because I believed that I wasn’t good enough. All it took was a mentor who believed in me. After the recognition from Google-CAHSI, I started to build up my confidence and apply to prestigious places. Now, I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University.

What are some experiences and/or accomplishments you are most proud of?

Amber: I am the first person in my family to get a Ph.D. It wasn't easy because my family had never been through the process, so they could not understand what I was going through. I'm also proud of how I conducted my dissertation research, which was not typical in my field. I try to learn with and from as many people as possible, including academics, TikTokers, grandmothers, friends, etc. I try to be as willing and open as possible to different perspectives. That made me more open to different methodologies and theoretical frameworks.

Oscar: I was fortunate to do research on AI applications in teaching and learning with college students using a variation on poker. I had just as much fun creating the lesson as I did performing the research. While pursuing my Ph.D., I also became a course instructor and lectured 80-person classes. I was really proud to watch my students master topics that I was teaching. I’m also proud of creating numerical analysis lessons on my YouTube channel.

What advice do you have for others starting their journeys to becoming computer science researchers?

Amber: Remember that your ideas are valid and important. You deserve to take up space.

Oscar: Develop a community of support — whether it’s family, other faculty, or fellow Ph.D. students. You can’t do a Ph.D. alone, no matter what anyone tells you. It is also OK to ask for help, even professional help. It isn’t a sign of weakness, but an indication of self-awareness, with the ability to recognize that change is necessary. That is the hard part.

Read more about our 2021 winners and their dreams for the future below.

Side-by-side headshots of Dhruv and Abel. Dhruv is wearing black glasses and smiling at the camera. Abel is wearing a grey and white plaid shirt and looking at the camera.
Dhruv Jain, University of Washington (left): I will pursue a research position in an academic or industry research lab to advance "sound accessibility." With my new position, I also hope to increase participation of people from underrepresented backgrounds, especially those with disabilities.
Abel Gomez Rivera, The University of Texas at El Paso (right): Working as a scientific researcher has been my dream since I had my first research-oriented class. Applying my aptitude for research and my passion for educating future generations in an academic setting is my ideal working environment.
Side-by-side headshots of Elsa and Matthew. Elsa is wearing a navy blue shirt and black glasses, and is smiling at the camera. Matthew is wearing a grey and white polka dot button-up shirt, grey tie and black blazer, and is smiling at the camera.
Elsa Tai Ramirez, The University of Texas at El Paso (left): My aspiration is to apply for a faculty position in a software engineering or computer science department. As a faculty member, I would like to continue teaching software engineering and doing research in software requirements and software architecture.
Matthew Anderson, University of California, Berkeley (right): I view technology, engineering and computing as our way of bending the arc of history, as a tool for making our lives more beautiful in any number of ways. My dream is to change the world with the technology I work on and to see all my not-so-silly childhood ideas of a science-filled future realized ... or to at least have fun working on exciting tech along the way.
Side-by-side headshots of Rodrigo and Saadia. Rodrigo is wearing a button-up shirt and black blazer, his arms are crossed, and he is looking at the camera. Saadia is wearing a black shirt, grey blazer, brown headband, brown glasses, and she is smiling at the camera.
Rodrigo Augusto Silva Dos Santos, The University of Texas at Arlington (left): I look forward to connecting academia and industry through joint research and development projects. This would benefit software engineering and computer science students who join these projects as researchers, allowing them to get much-needed practical experience.
Saadia Gabriel, University of Washington (right): I am passionate about socially-motivated machine learning (ML), such as algorithmic fairness. I believe that awareness of social issues leads to more responsible and better-designed ML systems. I plan to use my role as a researcher to mentor Natural Language Processing and ML students working on challenging, real-world problems.

Expanding access to computer science education with Code.org

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 18:00:00 +0000

It’s one thing to hear from your teacher that computer science is a valuable skill to learn. It’s another to hear from professionals using and interacting with computer science concepts every day to help students envision their career paths.

Last month, 35 classrooms and over 1,000 students signed up to hear from Taylor Roper, a Program Manager on Google’s Responsible AI team.

“One thing that drew me to this team at Google is that it’s oriented toward helping people,” Taylor shared with the students. She then reflected on her path to Google: “In high school, I took a web design course and loved it. I loved constructing the page and seeing it happen in real time. Being able to solve a problem and see the result, solve another problem and see the result — that was really satisfying to me.”

These virtual chats and field trips are part of Code.org’s new CS Journeys program to help students use their computer science (CS) knowledge and skills beyond the classroom, and discover CS in unexpected places. Students hear directly from professionals who use computer science in unique and creative ways, like modeling the universe, building robots, or — in Taylor’s case — helping to build responsible artificial intelligence tools for products used by millions of people.

“I remember being in elementary school and people would talk to my class about their careers, but they never looked like me or my family,” Taylor said when reflecting on her participation in the event. “To be a representation of possibilities for a Black child feels like a full-circle moment. I hope I was able to show a child from my community that there is a place for them in tech. Programs like CS Journeys are so important and needed.”

In addition to these sessions, CS Journeys also provides teachers with a collection of resources for students of all ages to help them imagine a journey pursuing CS — from young K-5 students to older teens who are starting to think about college and beyond.

Google.org is proud to continue supporting these efforts with a $1.5 million grant to expand the CS Journeys program, provide professional development workshops, enhance curriculums focused on cultural and gender responsiveness, and launch programs for engaging Black and Latino/Hispanic students studying CS.

Our values at Google closely align with Code.org’s mission to expand access to computer science, and help more young women and students from underrepresented groups participate. Our tight partnership has supported teachers, inspired students, and brought quality computer science into the classroom.

“Google has been a steadfast supporter of Code.org over the years," said Hadi Partovi, Founder and CEO of Code.org, "increasing our ability to reach classrooms on our platforms and engage with students through campaigns and programs. We are grateful for their continued support and excited about the additional impact we can make."

Code.org’s projects over the next two years will support access, diversity, and inclusion in CS classrooms, and focus on engaging students and parents from historically marginalized groups. Because regardless of the passions they ultimately pursue, every student deserves the chance to explore, advance, and succeed in computer science — a foundational subject that impacts all industries and touches so many aspects of our everyday lives.

To check out more CS Journeys events, including an upcoming conversation with Google's Pre-College Programs Lead Kyle Ali, visit Code.org/CSJourneys.

A celebration of strength and resilience this World Teachers’ Day

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 11:00:00 +0000

According to Google Trends, over the last 18 months, searches for “missing my students” increased 150%, and searches for “bulletin board ideas” dropped to an all-time low in April 2020.

Some of the top questions searched were things like “How can educators support students who are struggling with distance learning?,” “How can students and teachers build a useful virtual classroom community?” and even “What does remote learning mean?” Clearly, educators — at home or in the classroom — have had plenty of challenges. So for this World Teachers’ Day, we put together a place where you can see other education and learning-related searches and trends from the past year.

Despite the many questions, I’m inspired by the strength of our incredible global educator community. On this World Teachers’ Day we’re sharing stories of how they found a way to teach during a year that has taught us so many lessons.

Una celebración de la fuerza y solidez este Día Mundial de los Docentes

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 11:00:00 +0000

Según Google Trends, en los últimos 18 meses, las búsquedas de"extraño a mis alumnos" aumentaron en un 150% y las búsquedas de "ideas para el tablero de anuncios"disminuyeron a un mínimo histórico en abril de 2020.

Algunas de las principales preguntas que se buscaron trataban temas como: "¿Cómo pueden los educadores apoyar a los alumnos que tienen dificultades con el aprendizaje a distancia?", "¿Cómo pueden los alumnos y maestros construir una comunidad de aulas virtuales que sea útil?" e incluso, "¿Qué significa el aprendizaje remoto?". Está claro que los educadores, en casa o en el aula, se han enfrentado a muchos desafíos. Así que, con motivo de este Día Mundial de los Docentes,preparamos un lugar donde ustedes pueden ver otras búsquedas y tendencias relacionadas con la educación y el aprendizaje del año pasado.

A pesar de que aún hay muchas preguntas, me inspira la fortaleza de nuestra asombrosa comunidad global de educadores. En este Día Mundial de los Docentes, compartimos historias sobre cómo encontraron una forma de enseñar durante un año que nos hizo aprender muchas lecciones.

Education

Rajavi Mishra on becoming a computer science researcher

How has CSRMP impacted your research journey?

What was the highlight of CSRMP?

What were some challenges you had to overcome during the program?

What are you looking forward to most in the year ahead?

What advice do you have for students like you who are curious about becoming a researcher in computing?

Mentorship inspires Deyrel Diaz and future researchers

Connect confidently with Google Meet security features

Constant online protections for education

Google Meet offers more moderation, control and integration

Built-in security

Investing in Detroit with Ford and Michigan Central

1. Expanded opportunities to learn digital skills

2. More access to computer science skills for high schoolers

3. Powering technology with Google Cloud

Supporting education with a new line of Chromebooks

Discover more device options

Repair, revive and future-proof your devices

The Chromebook repair program: A sustainable fix for schools

Easily find repairable devices

Start your own school repair program

Educate the next generation

Celebrating a decade of partnering with Technovation

2021 Year in Review: Google Quantum AI

An update on hardware

Progress toward building an error-corrected qubit prototype

Applications of quantum computation

Continuing investment in the quantum computing ecosystem

Looking toward 2022

Supporting digital education in Europe

Working with SMEs to support digital education

What does that look like in practice?

Looking to the future

Helping European small businesses grow and succeed

A new literacy tool promoting inclusive LGBTQ+ language

Two professors are leveling the field in computing research

Learning on the go with Classroom on Android

Use Classroom when you’re offline

Scan and upload multiple pictures with ease

Easier grading on mobile for teachers

Supporting media literacy with new partnerships

This Code Next student is paying it forward

Igniting a spark for Computer Science Education Week

Inspiring 1.4 million students to learn computer science

Check out Chromebook’s new accessibility features

New enhanced voices for Select-to-speak

Making Chromebooks more accessible

Become a certified Chromebook

accessibility expert

Meet the Ph.D. students changing the face of computing

Expanding access to computer science education with Code.org

A celebration of strength and resilience this World Teachers’ Day

Una celebración de la fuerza y solidez este Día Mundial de los Docentes