The 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge is on

Online advertising is an increasingly important part of Australian businesses' marketing mix.

In 2008, we launched an Online Marketing Challenge to give students the chance to experiment with the medium and empower small local businesses to harness the power of the web to attract more customers.

The response to last year’s Challenge was so overwhelming that we decided to make this an annual competition. Giving students direct experience of online marketing whilst they are studying is a great way for Universities to provide students with direct practical skills they can use on graduation. Whether they find a job in marketing, accounting or retail, or set up their own business, graduates can all benefit from understanding online marketing.

The 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge is now open. It's a global online marketing competition that is open to any higher education institution, anywhere in the world. To find out more or to register your team, visit the 2009 Challenge website.

1650 different teams across 47 different countries took part in 2008, pitting their wits against one another to further develop and maximise returns for real world local businesses' online marketing strategies.

Using free $200 vouchers to spend on Google AdWords, each student proposes and implements a campaign for their chosen local business, makes tweaks and then final recommendations at the conclusion of a three week competition period.

Full details on 2008’s winning teams and finalists can be seen here.

Last year, a team from the University of Western Australia was the global winner. We're hoping Australia can go back-to-back this year!

Recently, the 2008 Asia Pacific regional winners – from the Australian Graduate School of Management, and two regional finalists – The National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences (Taiwan) and The National Taiwan University – visited Google's headquarters in Sydney for the Regional Finalists' retreat. For many students, it was their first visit to Australia and a chance to compare approaches, discuss strategies with online marketing optimizers at Google and gain some insights prior to the 2009 Challenge.

For us at Google, it was immensely gratifying to meet these students and hear them speak of the enthusiasm and benefit they received from competing. In fact, one of our winners had to leave early for a job interview, and it was fantastic to hear that his Challenge experience is helping him in his quest to find a job!

We hope lots of Australian students from across different academic disciplines will get involved in 2009. Good luck!

Posted by Will Blott, University Programs Manager

Aussie Scholars visit Grace Hopper Conference

1500 women technologists in one room: this is the 2008 Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing! As one of a number of Google Australia Anita Borg scholars, I was sent to this year’s GHC as part of the scholarship. Held in Keystone, Colorado, nestled in the beautiful Rocky Mountains at an elevation of about 9300 feet (just less than 3000m), GHC participants are urged to drink plenty of water to ward off altitude sickness; but, feeling woozy and out of breath from simply walking up stairs doesn't deter me from jumping headfirst into the networking, technical, and career development sessions!

GHC was unlike any other technical conference that I have been to before. With only a handful of men present (quite the opposite of a typical engineering conference), participants were a range of ages and from different technical backgrounds - be they students, academics or industry professionals (or all of the above!). The sessions covered a wide variety of professional development and technical topics, from petaflop computing to projects helping the developing world. Also, social activities and networking were as integral to the conference schedule as the technical sessions.

Universities and industry, invited to hold stalls at the conference, lined the foyer with information about graduate programs, internships and job opportunities; not to the mention the plethora of freebies including T-shirts, pens, water bottles, notebooks, bags, lip gloss, Rubik's cubes and rubber duckies (holding laptops, no less!). Armed with only a backpack, I ended up having to return a few of the freebies as they just wouldn't fit!

GHC gave me the chance to share experiences and ideas with other Google scholars (from the US, Latin America, and Canada), undergraduate and graduate students, academics and women from the computer technology industry - including Googlers! It was a really motivating experience to be in a room with so many like-minded women who share a passion for technology; from just one of the keynotes I walked away inspired and amazed by how much one woman had achieved with the OLPC project!

My thanks to Google for the scholarship which made my first trip to the US possible, and without which I might not have heard about GHC. I've taken home with me the importance of having mentors and a strong support network, ideas and opportunities for after study (a second PhD!), inspiration for innovative technology that can help change the world, and the knowledge that there is always more than one path to achieve what you really want.



Guest post by Eva Cheng, 2007 Google Australia Anita Borg Scholar, University of Wollongong

Introducing our 2008 Anita Borg Scholars

On Friday we hosted our annual Anita Borg Scholars' Retreat at our Engineering Centre in Sydney as a way for women to come together and share their experiences as leaders in the field of computer science.

The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship started in the United States in 2003 in association with the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology to honour the legacy of Anita Borg and her efforts to encourage women to pursue careers in computer science and technology. Australia became the first country outside of the US to launch the scholarship in 2006, and in 2007 we extended the opportunity to students studying in New Zealand.

 

This year we received applications from women at 28 universities throughout Australia and New Zealand, and we're pleased to announce Andrea Schweer, from the University of Waikato and Janina Voigt, from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, as the recipients of $5,000 scholarships for the 2009 academic year.

A big congratulations as well to the twelve 2008 finalists, each of whom will be awarded $1,000:

• Gretel Png (University of Adelaide)
  
• Heather Macbeth (University of Auckland)
  
• Iris Yan (Monash University)
  
• Jenine Beekhuyzen (Griffith University)
  
• Magdalena Stremeski (Swinburne University of Technology)
  
• Miriam Hochwald (University of Queensland
  
• Olena Medelyan (University of Waikato)
  
• Sally Hodson (University of Western Australia)
  
• Sarah Killey (Queensland University of Technology)
  
• Shaoqun Wu (University of Waikato)
  
• Sue Lynn Choy (RMIT University)
  
• Tamara Beames (University of South Australia)

The scholarship recipients and finalists enjoyed their retreat, which included tech talks, workshops, career panels and social activities and provided an opportunity to network with other women in technology-related fields.

One of the scholarship winners, Janina Voigt, told me, "It's been a great experience to meet people with similar views of issues we all face as women in this industry - we're all girls going through the same thing right now. It has also been great to share ideas and participate in the workshops." 

The scholars are studying a wide variety of disciplines and talked openly about their projects, inspiring and learning from each other.

Shaoqun Wu shared how she's creating a system to assist with second language learning.  Having moved to New Zealand from China seven years ago, she understands what it's like to learn a second language first-hand.  Her project has been funded by the New Zealand government, and she hopes to continue developing her career around this area.  During the retreat, she emphasised how important it is that women in IT connect and help one another.  

We also discussed how to encourage other women to enter the field of engineering and computer science.  Sue Lynn Choy, a Ph.D. student in surveying, geomatics and cartography, told me "Studying computer science or other IT-related fields can be a big stepping stone to other things.  The possibilities are only limited by your imagination."

Posted by Will Blott, University Programs, Australia & New Zealand

Female IT students: A different type of Google Scholar

Posted by Will Blott, University Programs Manager

Google Sydney was recently taken over by emerging female leaders in computer science and related fields as the second annual Google Australia Anita Borg Scholarship retreat was held. 17 female students attended this year – as well as several female Googlers from both Australia and overseas - for two days of networking, discussions, learning and of course socialising.

Topics covered many areas from the technical – including user experience, software engineering and product engineering – to more broader discussions on the choices and challenges facing women in computer science. This year’s retreat was capped off by a celebratory private dinner cruise around Sydney Harbour.



The Google Anita Borg Scholarship started in the United States in 2004 in association with the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology to honor the legacy of Anita Borg and her efforts to encourage women to pursue careers in computer science and technology. Australia became the first country outside of the US to launch the scholarship in 2006 and this year was extended to students studying in New Zealand also.

Each scholarship recipient is awarded a $5,000 scholarship plus an expenses paid trip to the Grace Hopper conference in the US and the retreat in Sydney. Every finalist is awarded $1000 plus an expenses paid trip to the retreat also. To be eligible, students had to have had at least one year of undergraduate study remaining and be enrolled in study for the 2007 - 2008 academic year at an university in Australia or New Zealand. The scholarship this year received applications from students at 18 different universities across Australia and New Zealand.

Most finalists arrived at Google for the retreat as strangers. All left as friends.

We are pleased to announce this year’s scholarship recipients as Eva Cheng, University of Wollongong and Tracy Footitt, University of Western Australia .

We are pleased to announce this year’s finalists as:

• Anita Rahman, Monash University
• Barsha Karki, University of Technology, Sydney
• Flora Salim, Monash University
• Gauri Pradhan, University of Technology, Sydney
• Janet Saw, Monash University
• Jessica Manea, University of Western Australia
• Jette Viethen, Macquarie University
• Li Sun, RMIT University
• Nandika Thapar, University of Wollongong
• Nandita Sharma, Australian National University
• Valentina Haziri, Monash University
• Valerie de Silva, RMIT University
• Vineetha Menon, University of Technology, Sydney
• Wai Yau, RMIT University

Congratulations to all!

Build Your Campus Competition

Posted by Will Blott, University Programs Manager

The Build Your Campus in 3D Competition has launched in Australia and New Zealand! If you're a college or university student in either country, this is your opportunity to show off your university. All you have to do is model your campus buildings in Google SketchUp, geo-reference them in Google Earth, and submit them through the SketchUp competition website. The winning teams will earn eternal online glory and an all-expenses-paid visit to our office in Sydney.

To enter the competition, you must be a college or university student in Australia or New Zealand, and you must be at least 18 years old. You can take on the project yourself or enlist the help of your classmates, and to do your best possible work, we suggest that you have a faculty advisor. The deadline for entries is October 31st, 2007.

We've recruited a really great panel of judges to help us determine the winners, including Andrew Carter of Utile Design, Karl May of Turner & Associates, and Andrew Maynard of Andrew Maynard Architects. Visit the competition website to learn more about best practices, see example models, and peruse a whole pile of Frequently Asked Questions.

You might not know that a similar Sketchup Competition just ended in the U.S. and Canada; you can read all about it. Check out the winning models, and get ready for some friendly, cross-Pacific rivalry.

We can't wait to see what you create. Good luck and happy sketching!

Old school social networking

Posted by Will Blott, University Programs Manager

Despite plateauing university enrollments in Computer Science in recent years, the passion and enthusiasm for ICT, emerging technologies and the strong career prospects open to graduates continues unabated.

We found this out last week when two Australian universities' Computer Science /IT departments – UNSW and University of Queensland - held their first ever alumni reunions and generously invited Google to co-host the evenings.

UNSW event

UNSW alumni met at Google’s Darling Harbour offices whilst the UQ faithful returned to St Lucia for a night of discussion, refreshments and old-school social networking. One alumnus, in true Google fashion, even brought his dogs!

From questions on how to launch your own start up, to the future of broadband in Australia, to Google’s plans for Australia and New Zealand, to career opportunities in the industry, much was learned by the more than two hundred who attended. With both venues full, a big thank you to all involved.

As both schools are planning future events it is never too late to become reunited - click here:

• UNSW
• UQ

University Programs in Australia

Posted by Will Blott, University Programs Manager

This year saw the launch of Google’s University Programs team for Australia and New Zealand. We’re looking to encourage more students to tackle some of the complex and highly rewarding technological challenges at Google Australia. There’s a myriad of opportunities (and it’s a lot of fun).

Program initiatives run year round with opportunities for both students and staff, including student competitions, scholarships, technical presentations and challenges, research grants and work opportunities amongst many others.

We get a lot of common questions when we visit Australian and New Zealand universities, so we thought we’d help shed some light on some of the most frequently asked questions by students.

What opportunities are there for students this year?

Our engineering teams are looking for as many good student software engineers as we can find . Opportunities exist for graduates, summer interns and through partnerships with Google’s Summer of Code.

Google’s Anita Borg Scholarships and Global Community Grace Hopper Conference Scholarships are provided to encourage more females to study ICT.

Do you have opportunities outside of Engineering?

Yes indeed. More positions will be announced on our student website later this year.

What type of student do you look for?

Within engineering, students who’ve studied computer science/engineering (or closely related fields such as Maths, Physics) from all degree levels: Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. For non-engineering roles, Googlers join us with all sorts of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

Degrees aside, if you’re smart, inquisitive, love to innovate, relish tough problems and working in teams with like minded individuals, then you’ll fit right in.

When should I apply by and what do I need to do?

Various opportunities become available throughout the year. See the student section of our website for more details. The application process is simple.

What are the perks?

There are so many! Where to begin…the food? The toys? World travel? The relaxed, informal environment? Jeans and t-shirt to work? The colleagues? Secondments to Google’s lunar base? (Just checking if you’re still reading)

Tomorrow, we'll answer the most common student FAQ’s put to Software Engineers.