Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
JESSICA LULOVICS: Hi everyone.
My name is Jessica Lulovics and I work on the Google
Students page and I'm here today talking to some folks
about the Google Computer Science Summer Institute.
So I'm going to go ahead and let them introduce themselves
starting with Jac, who's sitting right next to me.
JAC DECICCO: Hi, I'm Jac DeCicco.
I work on the Engineering University Programs
team here at Google.
My role is I'm responsible for computer science student
outreach in the US, mainly to schools on the East Coast,
including historically black colleges and universities.
And I am one in the program managers for Computer Science
Summer Institute.
JESSICA LULOVICS: How about Liz?
LIZ ARNOLD: My name is Liz Arnold, I actually, also am a
university program specialist working out of the Cambridge
office so I focus on a lot of the schools in the New England
area working with computer science student outreach, and
also I'm another program manager for the Computer
Science Summer Institute.
RADHA NARAYAN: Hi, I'm Radha Narayan and I am a software
engineer on Google Search, and I work on CSSI designing
curriculum that's exciting and relevant for students.
So I look forward to seeing you guys.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Great.
We had a little bit of a technical issue there.
I'm not sure what happened, but we're back on now.
So I wanted to start off by asking a little bit
about what is CSSI?
So Jac, maybe you can talk a little bit about what the
program is.
JAC DECICCO: Yeah, sure.
So we call it CSSI for short.
It stands for Computer Science Summer Institute and CSSI is a
summer program.
It's a three week program for students who are currently
high school seniors who plan to enroll in a computer
science program in the US or Canada come Fall of their
freshman year.
So that would be Fall of 2012.
So in a sense, the program is intended to enrich the
computer science skills of students who participate.
So throughout your three weeks at Google, you will actually
take various introductory classes to computer science.
You'll get mentorship from Google engineers, you'll meet
other interns at Google, who are software engineer interns,
and you'll get a lot of development too.
So you'll really understand what it means to be an
engineer at Google.
But at the same time, be meetings students from other
universities, and also have a lot of fun and just get to
live the Google life for three weeks.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Great.
So a lot of the questions that we got from Google+ over the
last couple days-- and thank you all for submitting
questions--
were about the application process, so I thought we could
start there.
And maybe, Liz, you can talk a little bit about the
application process in general, like what happens
after the deadline, what can students expect as far as next
steps or when to hear back whether or not they're still
considered, et cetera.
LIZ ARNOLD: Sure.
So as many of you know or hopefully, you know, this
Friday is our application deadline, so Friday,
April 20, 11:59 PM.
And at that point, the following week, we'll start
reviewing the applications and it's our hope that towards the
end of next week or a little bit after that, we will start
reaching out to students for interviews.
And the interview is not a coding interview.
It's not anything scary.
What we hope to find out is more about your interest in
computer science, telling us about your passion, as well as
your technical skills.
Like what is it that you've already been doing, and why
are you interested in computer science.
And once we go through the interview process, then
hopefully, in mid-May we'll be moving to the next stage to
select students to participate in the CSSI this summer.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Great.
Radha one of the questions that we got from Logan
Lawrence on Google+, is Logan would like to know what kind
of experience we're looking for.
Would lots of experience with computer science be preferred
over someone with good basic computer skills but an
interest in computer science?
RADHA NARAYAN: Hi Logan, so this answer is for you and for
anyone else who is applying.
And no, someone with experience will not be
preferred over someone who has basic skills but is really
interested.
What we are trying to do is find people who have passion
for computer science and technology that haven't
necessarily found the experience or the program that
caters to their interests.
And we want to make sure that we give you guys the relevant
skills that you will need both in your university career and
whatever you do afterwards.
So it is very likely that the class that we see this summer
will be much like the class that we saw last summer, where
there's a wide range of skills and a wide range of
experience.
And we make the class interesting and accessible to
people regardless of their level.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Great.
So, Jac, maybe you can take this next question from Steve
[? Buchimi, ?]
who hopefully, I did not butcher his name.
Steve would like to know about the
competitiveness of the program.
How many students apply, and how many slots are available?
JAC DECICCO: Sure, good question.
So last year, we had about 400 applicants to CSSI for about
60 participants total.
And so we envision the competitiveness to be really
similar this year.
We will have about 60 students over two sessions.
So 30 students in sessions one, which takes place June 24
through July 12 here in Mountain View, California.
And then 30 students in our second session, which takes
place July 22 to August 10 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
So it's really competitive, but at the same time, we
definitely encourage you to apply if
you fit all the criteria.
And even if you don't, don't be upset, there are many other
ways in which we can keep in touch as you enter into your
freshman year of college and enroll in CS because we have
lots of opportunities for students, regardless of year.
So there are other internships and programs that Google does.
But certainly apply by the end of this week, if you are
interested.
JESSICA LULOVICS: And then, since you did talk about the
sessions, this question is also from Steve.
He wants to know that if he's accepted is there a way to
select which session he will attend?
JAC DECICCO: Yes, definitely.
Our goal would be, for students who are accepted into
CSSI, that we do give you the option of which section you'd
like to attend, but, of course, that will be based
upon availability of seats in each session, too.
So we would ask you to be open minded, but if you do have
vacation plans or other things on the calendar already, we'll
try to be as flexible as possible.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Liz, I'm hoping that you can help us
answer this question from Patricia, she wants to know--
She quoted from the website that it says, students need to
intend to enroll or be accepted for enrollment at a
university with computer science, computer engineering,
software engineering, or related department for the
2012 to 2013 academic year.
And Patricia would like to know, does this mean that she
needs to be entering one of the above departments or just
entering a university that has one of those departments?
LIZ ARNOLD: So the goal is that you are, yes, entering a
university that has one of those departments, but that it
is also your stated interest to major in one of those areas
when you reach that university.
We do recognize that many universities don't allow you
to state your major until you're a sophomore, but the
hope is that your intent is to major in a computer science
field or related area.
JESSICA LULOVICS: So we got a number of questions about the
essay questions, specifically about what some of them mean,
so I'm hoping that we can answer some of those
questions for folks.
Starting with Kevin Cow would like to know, for the essay
question that is quoted as Google is committed to
encouraging underrepresented students to seek degrees in
computer science, which specific action would you take
to increase diversity in the field of technology?
Kevin would like to know for this essay question, I'm
unsure of whether the question is asking how I, as a person,
would be contributing to the diversity or if the question
is asking what actions I would carry out to promote more
underrepresented students to delve into computer science.
Maybe, Jac, you can answer that.
JAC DECICCO: Yeah, sure.
So sorry our question was a little vague there.
I think there is room for interpretation so if you read
the question one way and you really want to answer it one
way, please do that.
I think when we wrote the question we were hoping to get
a better sense of what you, as a student, might do to
encourage diversity within your field.
So would you start, let's say, a club for women in computer
science the last few months of your high school experience,
or how might you inspire others to get more exposure to
computer science or technology, or what might you
participate in in college once you get there to promote the
study of computer science to underrepresented groups?
So, in a sense, just kind of, I guess, be inspired to take
the question in the direction that you're most interested
in, most passionate about.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Then Nicholas Swarez has a follow
up question about the same essay question, he would like
to know if the question is asking what action he would
take as an individual or what action he would take if he was
the executive team at Google.
JAC DECICCO: Oh, wow.
It would be pretty cool to know what you would want to do
if you were on the executive team at Google.
So I guess, again, we could be open with that question.
There is no right or wrong answer to any of the questions
that we've given you.
So certainly, some creativity and, again, where you are
inspired to take this open ended question is recommended.
I don't think it was intended for you tell us what we might
do here at Google, but what you, on your own, might do as
you explore computer science a little bit further.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Then the last question about the
essays, I'll direct this one towards Liz, Logan Lawrence
again, would like to know how much he'll be marked down if
he goes over the 300 word limit on the essay.
He really has a lot to say about the third essay question
and feels it would be very difficult to fit
within the 300 words.
Do you care if my essay's over 600 words if it is well
written or very relevant, informative and important, or
should I be wary of going over that 300 word limit?
LIZ ARNOLD: Well, while I would love to say write as
long as you can, as we mentioned earlier, we do have
a lot of applications we're looking through and, we want
to make sure that we give everyone as
much time as we can.
So obviously, if 350 completes that thought and completes
your essay, then that's OK.
But I think trying to keep to the word limit will really
help us to make sure that we process and read every
application as fast as we can take to move to
the interview process.
JESSICA LULOVICS: So, Radha, let's switch gears a little
bit to talking about the program itself.
Once a student is selected to attend the program, do they
need to do any preparatory work before coming to Google.
RADHA NARAYAN: No, they don't.
It would be cool if they were doing work on their own just
because I love knowing what people are doing in their high
schools and in the communities in the field of technology and
what inspires them.
There is no pre studying or something like that, so we
definitely don't--
I think basically, you're free to do whatever you want, and I
look forward to hearing about it, but there is no pre
studying required.
JESSICA LULOVICS: And another question for you.
What can students expect from the technical curriculum?
What will they be doing during their three weeks at Google?
RADHA NARAYAN: Well, that's a very good question.
Basically, it goes into what I would like to achieve with the
curriculum, which is always changing.
And we tried a few things last year and we made the
curriculum web architecture based so that it was suited
for the world of the internet and what it
means to be a web developer.
So we found some successes and a few things we could work on,
and we are changing the curriculum to make it both
more relevant and more exciting.
The field of technology changes very, very fast.
By the time we teach you or learn how to teach you
specific technology, it's already old and outdated.
And so basically, we'll have to see.
We have some ideas and we'll be working on them and
perfecting them.
And we look forward to also knowing your input, what
worked, what didn't.
And I hope that once you're done with CSSI you'll go back
to college and come back to us with feedback, and let us know
what worked and what didn't and what interested you.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Great.
So this is a question that we often get either from students
or from their parents.
Liz, can you tell us what the living arrangements are for
students while they're at CSSI?
LIZ ARNOLD: Sure.
For both sessions, we actually will be staying at local
universities that are near to the Google office.
And, at this time, we're working on whether you may end
up having your own room or you may have a roommate of the
same gender, and it will be supervised.
So one of us will be staying on campus and serving kind of
like as an RA, similar to many colleges, to make sure that
everything goes well.
But we also have many activities that we've planned
for the time that you're not in the courses at Google.
JESSICA LULOVICS: And, Radha, since you were involved last
year, maybe you can talk a little bit about what the
typical day looks like for a CSSI participant.
RADHA NARAYAN: The typical day.
Well, usually it involves--
Well, we don't really do lectures in the lecture sense.
You'll notice that that's one of the things that we are
trying to change because we've found that the lecture format
doesn't necessarily work well or hold people's interest.
So we do a lot of hands on work.
You will be sitting in a classroom but with a computer
at your desk and you'll be writing code, and talking
about it in groups and with your teachers.
And your teachers are software engineers at Google, so you
will essentially be living the life of a Google engineer.
You'll be writing code, talking to people about code,
asking people for help if you run into a problem.
And that's what you'll do, usually until lunch, and then,
after lunch the CSSI team will have some fantastic activities
planned for you.
Those are either educational, fun or both.
And then we continue with more stuff, and we try to keep the
material engaging.
So it is a long work day and you will be studying until
dinner time.
And then, after dinner people go back to their dorm and
usually end up socializing.
But as the program progresses, and the groups start to
realize how interested they are, they tend to go
back and work more.
And that's very interesting for us, and it also encourages
us to know that you guys find the curriculum so engaging.
JESSICA LULOVICS: You brought this up a little bit, so I was
hoping to follow up, can you talk a little bit more about
the group work dynamic, and how students will be working
together during the program?
RADHA NARAYAN: Yes, you will have to work in groups.
I think there is a misconception that the
engineer's life is a solitary one.
And you are not going to be stuck behind a desk, inside a
cubicle, with nobody talking to you.
That's just not how engineers at Google work.
In fact, if you know anything about how the Google campus is
structured, there are no real single person offices.
We all socialize in large cubes and talk to each other
pretty loudly.
Sometimes we throw little thumb darts at each other if
we want someone's attention.
And so it is a very social work life and it's important
that it's that way because the best projects, the best
projects tend to be basically done by people in groups.
Sorry, there was a technical difficulty and
the lights went out.
But, yeah, so we basically encourage
people to work in groups.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Great.
So Jac, maybe you can talk a little bit about one of the
aspects of the program that is talked about on the website,
which is the mentorship piece.
Could you tell us a little bit about the mentors that the
students will receive while they're at Google?
JAC DECICCO: Yeah, sure.
So every student that participates in the program
will benefit from a mentor, and your mentor will actually
be a Google software engineer.
So you'll be able to really understand what it is that
they do at Google and maybe what they studied in their
undergrad, or Masters or even PhD program, courses that were
maybe integral to their success, what they did in
their internships.
So basically free reign, you can ask them anything that you
would like to know that helped them get to Google.
But then also, certainly they want to share their
experiences in computer science with you.
And maybe what got them excited about computer
science, what made them passionate about computer
science, who their idols in the tech space
were, things like that.
So our hope is that you have an ongoing relationship with
your mentor while at CSSI but then even beyond CSSI.
So we want you to have a meaningful relationship with
this person that really sort of carries you through your
undergrad and potentially, even beyond
your undergrad degree.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Great.
So we've cover the application process.
We've talked a bit about what students can expect while
they're at Google.
So for our last question, I wanted to talk about what
happens after CSSI.
So, Liz, maybe you can help us with this.
CSSI is now in it's fifth year.
Can you talk a little bit more about some of the alumni of
our program, and what's happened after CSSI?
LIZ ARNOLD: Sure.
So one of the things we try to do is to continue to keep that
relationship with students who are in CSSI, and invite them
to consider other internship programs as they move through.
We have a freshman engineering practicum program, an
engineering practicum for sophomores.
And so we actually have Googler's who are here now,
who have started in CSSI a few years ago, have continued to
do internships and progress through, and now they are full
time software engineers here.
And we think that's a really great testament to the way
that this program was able to help build their skills and
help support them throughout their development.
JESSICA LULOVICS: Great.
All right, so that exhausted all the questions that we had.
So I just wanted to remind everybody that the application
deadline for CSSI is this Friday, April 20, at midnight.
So if you are considering applying we hope that you do.
If you've started your application but haven't yet
completed it yet, we hope that you do, all before Friday.
And we look forward to seeing our applications and maybe
seeing you at Google this summer.
I want to thank Jac, Liz, and Radha for joining us for this
chat, and I hope you guys got all your questions answered.
Thanks.
JAC DECICCO: Thanks.
LIZ ARNOLD: Thanks.