Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
See through the clouds with Earth Engine and Sentinel-1 Data
Monday, August 3, 2015
This year the
Google Earth Engine
team and I attended the European Geosciences Union General Assembly meeting in Vienna, Austria to engage with a number of European geoscientific partners. This was just the first of a series of European summits the team has attended over the past few months, including, most recently, the
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society
meeting held last week in Milan, Italy.
Noel Gorelick presenting Google Earth Engine at EGU 2015
We are very excited to be collaborating with many European scientists from esteemed institutions such as the
European Commission Joint Research Centre
,
Wageningen University
, and
University of Pavia
. These researchers are
utilizing the Earth Engine geospatial analysis platform
to address issues of global importance in areas such as food security, deforestation detection, urban settlement detection, and freshwater availability.
Thanks to the enlightened free and open data policy of the European Commission and European Space Agency, we are pleased to announce the availability of
Copernicus Sentinel-1
data through Earth Engine for visualization and analysis. Sentinel-1, a radar imaging satellite with the ability to see through clouds, is the first of at least 6
Copernicus
satellites going up in the next 6 years.
Sentinel-1 data visualized using Earth Engine, showing Vienna (left) and Milan (right).
Wind farms seen off the Eastern coast of England
This radar data offers a powerful complement to other optical and thermal data from satellites like Landsat, that are already available in the Earth Engine public data catalog. If you are a geoscientist interested in accessing and analyzing the newly available EC/ESA Sentinel-1 data, or anything else in our multi-petabyte data catalog, please
sign up for Google Earth Engine
.
We look forward to further engagements with the European research community and are excited to see what the world will do with the data from the European Union's Copernicus program satellites.
Posted by Luc Vincent, Engineering Director, Geo Imagery
Hacking against Ebola
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Like other epidemics, Ebola creates panic, dangerous rumors and unverified facts. Journalists must be prepared, yet unfortunately they often lack the necessary resources and tools that match the responsibility to inform local communities.
To help fill the gap, we’re supporting the
Global Editors Networks's
#HackAgainstEbola on January 14 and 15. Other supporters include
Open Society Initiative for West Africa
(OSIWA),
Union for Francophone Press (UPF)
, and
Code for Africa
. Follow the two-day event through GEN's
live blog
and the hashtag #HackAgainstEbola.
Our goal is to help develop the best tools needed to explain the Ebola epidemic. In Dakar, a dozen teams, composed of one journalist, one designer, and one developer, who will work to build a prototype online product in 48 hours.
This is only the final of a
three part series
. Nigeria's
Pan-Atlantic University
, Ghana's
PenPlusBytes
and
South Africa's 24.com
hosted previous Ebola hack days.
The Editors' Lab has been running
Google-supported hack events
in newsrooms around the world for the past few years, bringing journalists and coders closer together to explore new ways of creating and presenting the news. World-renowned media organizations including The New York Times, The Guardian, El Pais and Le Parisien have hosted hack days on different themes.
The winning team in Dakar will compete against the other winning Editors Lab teams at the GEN Summit 2015 in Barcelona next June.
Posted by Simon Morrison, Public Policy and Government Affairs Manager, London
Teaming up with Oxford University on Artificial Intelligence
Thursday, October 23, 2014
It is a really exciting time for Artificial Intelligence research these days, and progress is being made on many fronts including image recognition and natural language understanding. Today we are delighted to announce a partnership with Oxford University to accelerate Google’s research efforts in these areas.
The Oxford skyline. Credit
Oxford University Images
Google DeepMind
will be working with two of Oxford’s cutting edge Artificial Intelligence research teams. Prof Nando de Freitas, Prof Phil Blunsom, Dr Edward Grefenstette and Dr Karl Moritz Hermann, who teamed up earlier this year to co-found
Dark Blue Labs
, are four world leading experts in the use of deep learning for natural language understanding. They will be spearheading efforts to enable machines to better understand what users are saying to them.
Also joining the DeepMind team will be Dr Karen Simonyan, Max Jaderberg and Prof Andrew Zisserman, one of the world’s foremost experts on computer vision systems, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the only person to have been awarded the prestigious
Marr Prize
three times. As co-founders of
Vision Factory
, their aim was to improve visual recognition systems using deep learning. Dr Simonyan and Prof Zisserman developed one of the winning systems at the recent 2014 ImageNet competition, which is regarded as the most competitive and prestigious image recognition contest in the world.
Google DeepMind has hired all seven founders of these startups with the three professors holding joint appointments at Oxford University where they will continue to spend part of their time. These exciting partnerships underline how committed Google DeepMind is to supporting the development of UK academia and the growth of strong scientific research labs.
As a part of the collaboration, Google DeepMind will be making a substantial contribution to establish a research partnership with the Computer Science Department and the Engineering Department at Oxford University, which will include a program of student internships and a series of joint lectures and workshops to share knowledge and expertise.
We are thrilled to welcome these extremely talented machine learning researchers to the Google DeepMind team and are excited about the potential impact of the advances their research will bring.
Posted by Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind and Vice President of Engineering at Google
Launching Code for Germany
Monday, August 11, 2014
At Google, we like to experiment. Today we are experimenting with a guest blogpost from the Germany’s
Open Knowledge Foundation
.
Many in Europe believe that computer science and the Internet is an American invention. This summer, we decided to prove this idea wrong, launching our program, launching our program
Code for Germany.
The feedback so far has been amazing. In the past few months, fourteen labs have sprouted up all across the country, bringing together more than 150 people on a regular basis to work on civic tech, use open data, and make the most of their skills to better their cities.
All told, more than 4000 hours of civic hacking has produced multiple apps and projects. The
OK Lab in Hamburg
has a strong focus on urban development, and have created a map which shows the distribution of playgrounds in the city. An app from the
OK Lab Heilbronn
depicts the quality of
tap water
according to the region, and another from the
OK Lab Cologne
helps users find the closest defibrillator in their area. One of my favourite developments is called
“Kleiner Spatz”
, which translates to “Little Sparrow” and helps parents find available child care spaces in their city. Check out the
list
for yourself to see what amazing things can be built with technology.
This is just the beginning. In the coming months we want to strengthen the various communities and establish ties with officials, governments and administrations. We want to foster innovation in the field of Open Data, Civic Innovation and Public Services and create fertile collaborations between citizens and governments. Our OK Labs offer this possibility.
So far, Code for Germany has been a blast! Let me express my most heartfelt gratitude towards the community of developers and designers who have contributed so much already. Let’s rock and stay awesome!
Posted by
Fiona Krakenbürger
, Code for Germany
Thirty ideas to change the world: EMEA Science Fair finalists
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
UPDATE, September 24, 2013:
Three winners were
named
yesterday in Mountain View, California. Unfortunately, none of the EMEA finalists was picked. Better luck next year.
Many
great scientists
developed their curiosity for science at an early age and in January we called on the brightest young minds from around the world to send us
their ideas to change the world
. Our
2013 Google Science Fair
attracted an exciting and diverse range of entries, with thousands of submissions from more than 120 countries.
After a busy few months for
the judges
, we’re ready to reveal our
90 regional finalists
for the 2013 Google Science Fair. It was no easy task selecting these projects, but in the end their creativity, scientific merit and global relevance shined through.
Thirty of the finalists come from 15 countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa, from Belarus to the United Kingdom. They range from Aya Hazem, age 15, from Egypt who is working on a
SOS Phone to prevent domestic violence
to three Kenyan 14 year olds who are pursuing a project titled
Can heat and tomatoes produce electricity?
. In the UK, 13 year old Isabel McNulty is one of the youngest finalists; her project is called:
Natural Electricity Production Using The Dynamo Effect
.
The 90 Regional Finalists come from all over the world.
For the second year, we’ll also be recognizing the
Scientific American Science in Action Award
. This award honors a project that makes a practical difference by addressing an environmental, health or resources challenge. From the 90 finalists’ projects, 15 were nominated for this year’s award.
On June 27 we’ll announce the 15 global finalists and the winner of the Science in Action Award. These young scientists will then be flown to Google’s California headquarters for the last round of judging and a celebratory event on September 23.
Thank you to everyone who submitted a project—we really appreciate all your hard work. Congratulations to our 90 regional finalists!
Posted by Sam Peter, Google Science Fair team
Free Raspberry Pi’s for aspiring young UK programmers
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
"The success of the BBC Micro in the 1980s shows what's possible. There's no reason why Raspberry Pi shouldn't have the same impact, with the right support."
That was Eric Schmidt
speaking in May
about the opportunity for Raspberry Pi to inspire budding computer scientists.
Today Google is backing the
Raspberry Pi Foundation
with more than words, by providing funding
to allow 15,000 UK kids
enthusiastic about computer science to get a Raspberry Pi for free.
Photo credit: Paul Beech (@guru)
To ensure no Pi is wasted, devices will be doled out with the help of six educational partners:
Codeclub
,
Computing At School
,
Generating Genius
,
Coderdojo
,
Teach First
and
OCR
. Each organisation will have a supply of free Pi’s to give to children they meet who demonstrate an aptitude and passion for computing. As an added bonus, each device handed out will come with a teaching and learning pack, created by OCR, and designed to help kids dig in right away and get the most out of their Pi’s.
There’s no magic solution to the UK’s computer science education woes, but real progress is being made thanks to the combined efforts of many. Google is proud to lend our support and, we hope, a little Pi will go a long way.
Posted by Theo Bertram, Public Policy Manager, UK
Hanging out with women engineers at Google
Friday, January 25, 2013
One of the problems girls face when considering a career in computing is the lack of female role models. It’s hard to aspire to be what you can’t see.
To help redress this, the
CS on Air
team in partnership with
Women Techmakers
have started an informal series of hangouts with women engineers across Google.
Each tells the story of how they discovered their passion for computing, and gives advice for others considering pursuing it as a career. We learn about the kind of projects they’ve worked on and why they’ve personally found computing to be such an exciting field of study and work.
So far we’ve recorded three of these short conversations, featuring engineers from across Europe:
Beryl Nelson, Software Engineering Manager
in Krakow, Poland came late to computer science, as an extension of her Masters degree in genetic biochemistry. She’s since had a long programming career, spanning India, Japan and Poland, while also raising a family.
Mandy Waite, Developer Advocate
in London, UK studied radio and TV mechanics and transitioned to computing early in her career, creating software for printing imagery. At Google she works with startups, supporting them in using Google’s cloud platform and API’s.
Ania Marszalek, Software Engineer
in Zurich, Switzerland discovered her love of programming at high school. She now makes software tools that monitor the performance of Google Maps, allowing the team to pinpoint any areas that need improving and fix them fast.
Over the coming months we plan to continue the series and extend it to other regions, so it can be a resource for teachers, career counselors, and women everywhere considering a career in computing. Check out the
CS on Air listings
to see upcoming episodes.
Posted by Alison Cutler, Pre-University Education Outreach
Introducing Google’s “Computer Science on Air” initiative
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
There’s an old joke: “The secret of teaching is to appear to have known all your life what you just learned this morning”. Like many such sayings it has a grain of truth. As teachers know better than most, education is a lifelong pursuit and there’s always more you can learn—especially in fast-changing and relatively young fields like computer science.
It’s in this spirit that Google’s European Education team have embarked on their latest initiative:
CS on Air
. Making use of the broadcast feature in G+ Hangouts, it consist of a series of video discussions on topics related to teaching computer science, which you can join in live on the
Google in Education G+ page
or watch later on YouTube.
So far there have been three sessions:
Professor Peter McOwen
illustrating how card magic tricks can be a fun introduction to computer science topics such as data compression and image recognition
Professor Paul Curzon
talking about how the challenge of helping someone with locked-in syndrome to communicate can serve as a bridge to computational concepts like the efficiency of algorithms and frequency analysis
Lynette Webb
sharing some of her favourite stories from the earliest days of computing, and ideas for how they could be used to inspire and engage in a classroom setting
More sessions are planned for the coming months, including speakers from elsewhere in Europe and beyond. As new sessions are scheduled
you’ll be able to see them here
, or sign up to follow the
Google In Education G+ page
for alerts to upcoming events. Suggestions for future sessions are welcome, so
let us know
if you’ve got any special requests or ideas for topics.
Posted by Alison Daniel-Cutler, Pre-University Education Outreach
Rebuilding an illustrious ancestor to modern computing
Friday, November 16, 2012
As any traveller knows, photos are no match for the vividness of a physical encounter. The same is true for historians of computing. It’s only once you’ve seen something in reality -- be it the great
computing Colossus
, or the
Great Pyramid
-- that you fully appreciate the mastery of its creators. Unfortunately, few relics remain from the early days of computing, which is why we are so happy to support those striving to bring them back to operational life.
One such worthy project is the EDSAC rebuild, currently being championed by the
Computer Conservation Society
. Earlier this year Google provided funding to support the reconstruction work. Since then much progress has been made, which you can learn about on the
project’s new website
.
EDSAC holds an important place in computing history. While not the world’s first stored program computer (beaten by the prototype
Manchester Baby
), EDSAC heralded a cultural shift in computing.
From the moment it became operational
in May 1949, EDSAC was put to work by Cambridge University researchers, helping solve problems in many scientific fields -- far beyond the military and code-breaking tasks to which computing had previously been dedicated.
EDSAC was the world’s first computer to
use subroutines
(originally charmingly called “Wheeler jumps” after their creator), which remain a key part of modern programming. EDSAC also served as the prototype for
LEO, the world’s first business computer
, and was the foundation for the
world’s first computer science diploma course
at Cambridge University.
EDSAC is
remembered fondly
by those who worked with it. We look forward to its reincarnation providing fresh insight into a remarkable period of British computing history.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
Tracking Europe's interest in Red Hot Chili Peppers
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Cross-posted from the
Insights for Search Blog
Since we launched
Google Trends
and
Google Insights for Search
, we’ve seen millions of people using Trends to keep up with trending interests online, and a range of journalists, businesses and researchers around the world using Insights for Search to compare the popularity of search terms over time and across regions. We have made steady
improvements
over time, most recently
revamping our Hot Searches list
to provide richer context for breakout searches.
Now we are merging Insights for Search into Google Trends, wrapping it all up in a clean new interface to give you a clearer view of what’s on the world’s mind.
The new Google Trends
now includes features from both products and makes it easier and more intuitive to dig into the data. We’ve updated the line chart and map using
HTML5 based Google Chart Tools
so you can now load the page on your mobile devices, visualize the results without scrolling, and get Hot Searches not just for the U.S., but also India, Japan, and Singapore.
So, what exactly can you learn about people’s interests from Google Trends? A few of our recent favorites:
[beach] and [snow] are
just about inverse throughout the year
West Virginia leads the US in
searches for spooky things
(play around at the bottom left!)
Interest in [
red hot chili peppers
] shifted around Europe this summer as the band toured there -- see this time-lapse map:
We’ve seen so
many examples
of insights gleaned from Trends, from the
Oscars
to the
Super Bowl
; from
shopping
to
elections
; from our yearly
Google Zeitgeist
summary to the many we’ve found
around the web
.
Google Trends data can be used to better understand global trends -- identifying health trends such as in
flu trends
,
nowcasting in economics
, and studies on the
predictability of search trends
. And it has been used in many
scientific articles
across disciplines.
There’s so much in this data for journalists, academics, and anybody who’s curious about the world to explore, and we’d love to see what you find. Email us your favorites at
trends-stories@google.com
.
Posted by Yossi Matias, Senior Engineering Director in Search, Head of Israel R&D Center
Talking Moonshots at the London Design Festival
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
London has long been considered a global centre for design and innovation. Google UK partnered with the
London Design Festival
, a ten day event bringing some of the world’s leading designers and visionaries together to discuss the future of the planet.
Our own Google visionariy,
Dr. Astro Teller
, Engineering Director of Google X, joined the festival live from California, via Google+ Hangout. Google X affords an opportunity for top researchers to take a high impact technology vision and bring it to the world at scale. Much of the group's work is still in the very early stages, but the lab is already known for its technology moonshots like
self-driving cars
and
Project Glass’s computer animated eyewear
.
Astro spoke about Google’s culture and ambition to take Moonshots; audacious projects that aim to solve global problems. “Our goal is to create things that are massively positive for the world,” Teller said.
Moonshots may sound like science fiction. But Teller and his Google X colleagues are showing that what may sound like science fiction may end up solving enormous global that affect billions of people.
Posted by Stephen Rosenthal, UK Communications and Public Affairs Manager
Spanish teenagers capture a Google Science Fair prize
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Some of the world’s brightest young scientists gathered at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View this week to present their projects to a panel of
renowned judges
at the Google Science Fair finals.
The
15 finalists
were chosen from thousands of projects from more than 100 countries. Their work covered a wide variety of topics: from cancer research to vertical farming, 3D electronics to dementia. It was a tough decision, but we’re proud to name three projects as winners of this year’s Google Science Fair, including one project from Spain:
13-14 age category:
Jonah Kohn
(USA)—“Good Vibrations: Improving the Music Experience for People with Hearing Loss Using Multi-Frequency Tactile Sound.” By creating a device that converts sound into tactile vibrations, Jonah’s project attempts to provide the hearing impaired with an improved experience listening to music.
15-16 age category:
Iván Hervías Rodríguez, Marcos Ochoa and Sergio Pascual
(Spain)—“La Vida Oculta del Agua (The Secret Life of Water).” Iván, Marcos and Sergio studied hidden microscopic life in fresh water, documenting the organisms that exist in a drop of water, and how those organisms influence our environment.
17-18 age category
AND
Grand Prize Winner:
Brittany Wenger
(USA)—“Global Neural Network Cloud Service for Breast Cancer.” Brittany’s project harnesses the power of the cloud to help doctors accurately diagnose breast cancer. Brittany built an application that compares individual test results to an extensive dataset stored in the cloud, allowing doctors to assess tumors using a minimally-invasive procedure.
Each of the winners will receive
prizes
from Google and our Science Fair partners: CERN, LEGO, National Geographic and
Scientific American
. This evening, we also recognized Sakhiwe Shongwe and Bonkhe Mahlalela, from Swaziland, the winners of the
Scientific American
Science in Action award
.
The judges were impressed with the quality of all the projects this year—and by the ingenuity, dedication and passion of the young scientists who created them. We applaud every contestant who submitted a project to the 2012 Google Science Fair and look forward to seeing the innovations, inventions and discoveries of young scientists in the years to come.
Posted by Cristin Frodella, Google in Education
Explore Chrome's “Exquisite Forest” at London’s Tate Modern
Friday, July 20, 2012
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
This week, in partnership with the
Tate Modern
in London, we released an online art experiment called
This Exquisite Forest
, which lets you collaborate with others to create animations and stories using a web-based drawing tool.
Seven renowned artists from Tate’s collection, including
Bill Woodrow
,
Dryden Goodwin
,
Julian Opie
,
Mark Titchner
,
Miroslaw Balka
,
Olafur Eliasson
and
Raqib Shaw
, have created short “seed” animations. From these seeds, anyone can add new animations that extend the story or branch it in a new direction. Or you can start a tree of your own with some friends. As more sequences are added, the animations grow into trees, creating a potentially infinite number of possible endings to each animation.
In addition to the website, an interactive installation will open on July 23 in the Level 3 gallery of Tate Modern. Trees seeded by Tate artists—and the contributions from the public—will be on display as large-scale projections. Gallery visitors may also contribute using digital drawing stations.
This Exquisite Forest
uses several of Google Chrome’s advanced
HTML5 and JavaScript features
to produce a unique content creation and exploration experience. For example, the Web Audio API makes it possible for contributors to generate music to accompany their submissions. The project also runs on
Google App Engine
and
Google Cloud Storage
.
Please try it out at
ExquisiteForest.com
and contribute your own animation to help the forest grow.
Posted by Aaron Koblin, Google Creative Lab, Data Arts Team
Web Lab brings Internet magic to London Science Museum
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
Inspiration comes in many forms and can influence you in unexpected ways. I can trace my own interest in programming to
Babbage’s Analytical Engine
, which fascinated me on my childhood visits to the
Science Museum
in London. This idea that science and technology can inspire people is one that we hold close to our hearts.
It’s also the thought behind a new exhibition we’re launching today online and at the Science Museum in London. We hope to inspire people around the world by showcasing the magic that the Internet makes possible.
Launching in beta,
Web Lab
is a set of five physical installations housed in the Science Museum in London. You can interact with them in person at the museum, or from anywhere in the world at
chromeweblab.com
.
By opening up the museum experience to the world online, Web Lab doesn’t play by the usual rules—a visitor’s location and museum opening hours no longer matter. Each of the five experiments—Universal Orchestra, Data Tracer, Sketchbots, Teleporter and Lab Tag Explorer—showcases a modern web technology found in Chrome to explore a particular theme in computer science.
For example, the Universal Orchestra experiment uses
WebSockets
to demonstrate real time collaboration as people from around the world make music together on custom-built robotic instruments housed in the Science Museum. Please join us online or at the Science Museum in London (entry is free), and let us know what you think. True to its name, the year-long exhibition is a working lab, and we’ll continue to tinker with it based on your feedback. Here’s to the next wave of Internet invention!
Posted by Jayme Goldstein, Product Marketing Manager, Chrome, on behalf of the Web Lab team
Exploring the Higgs Boson particle with CERN
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Update:
Watch the exciting hangout with CERN.
Has the recent discovery of the Higgs boson particle left you scratching your head trying to master the basics of the standard model and particle physics? Are these
useful explanations
sufficient?
If you are still confused - or just curious, then you’re in luck. This Thursday, the team behind CERN People, a documentary film
project
chronicling the cutting edge work being done to better understand our universe, will take part in a Google Hangout with the Guardian’s Ian Sample, author of "Massive: The Hunt for the God Particle". They’ll discuss their most recent findings, what’s next for the researchers at the Large Hadron Collider and answer your questions.
CERN People is a feature-length film project by the award-winning documentary-maker
Films of Record
. They’ll be releasing a full length film on the Higgs boson next year but you don’t have to wait to see their work. Their
YouTube channel
and
Google+
page are full of interviews and explanations from CERN scientists.
The Hangout will be live at 5pm BST and available at on the
CERN People G+ Page
. Tune in and catch up on the exciting news about the origins of our universe and other head-scratching insights into our world.
Posted by Jon Steinberg, External Relations
A different Olympics comes to Hungary
Monday, July 16, 2012
As London gears up to host Olympic athletes, Hungary recently attracted some of the world’s most promising computer scientists for its own cerebral Games - the
Central European Olympiad in Informatics
. A total of 52 competitors, aged 15 to 17, came from 12 countries to the town of
Tata
. They worked for two days coding. All shared a common goal: to build the best algorithm and to solve complex problems of everyday life with the power of technology.
This computer Olympiad, launched in 1994, is held annually, in a different country each year. The
John von Neumann Computer Society
organises the 2012 Games, in Hungary and Google joined as a sponsor.
Competitors were given practical problems to solve by building efficient algorithms. The faster the program, the higher the score. One task - inspired by the scenic view from the venue - was to design a program that can calculate the longest possible path a sightseeing cruise can travel on a lake, touching multiple stops in a restricted order, while only crossing its own path once. Romanian and Bulgarian teams won the Gold Medal in this contest and the highest number of overall gold medals. A full listing of medal winners is found
here
.
During the Olympiad, contestants took part in an hour long conversation via Google Hangout with Google engineer Mihai Stroe, who leads a team of Google Maps engineers in Zurich, He and his team write algorithms which every day help millions of people and help them find the quickest way from A to B whether they are travelling by foot, by car or public transport.
More than a decade ago, Mihai competed in student programming competitions. He even took part in an Olympiad as a member of the scientific committee. The experience helped shaped his career at Google. “Algorithms, like the ones these talented students built today, are at the very heart of what Google does. Google is making the world better with the power of technology, and these guys are our future too. I’m happy to share my experiences with them,” he said.
Posted by Richard Schuster, Communications Manager, Budapest
Luvvies & Boffins Night at the Museum
Friday, June 29, 2012
[<a href="http://storify.com/lynetter/luvvies-and-boffins-at-the-science-museum" target="_blank">View the story "Luvvies and Boffins at the Science Museum" on Storify</a>]
This week saw the second gathering of Google’s
Luvvies and Boffins
-- this time with added boffinry courtesy of
London’s Science Museum
.
The idea came from Eric Schmidt’s
MacTaggart lecture
, delivered in Edinburgh last summer, in which he said Britain needs to bring art and science back together if its creative industries are to have a successful future. Guests were handed lapel badges denoting “Luvvie”, “Boffin” or the Renaissance “Luvviboff”.
Besides great cocktails and conversation, the evening featured a stellar line-up of computing-themed activities. There were guided tours of the new
Turing Exhibition
, up-close demonstrations of the
Babbage Machine
in action, and hands-on
soldering workshops to make Lumiphones
.
As an added bonus, our evening coincided with
Science Museum Lates
, a monthly night at the museum for adults only. Geek activities abounded --
punk science comedy
, a
cockroach fancy dress tour
, even an impressively silent disco.
Overall, it was a wonderful evening, as the
Storify
below attests. Thanks to the Science Museum for being such great hosts, and to everyone who came along.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director of External Relations, Google EMEA
[<a href="http://storify.com/lynetter/luvvies-and-boffins-at-the-science-museum" target="_blank">View the story "Luvvies and Boffins at the Science Museum" on Storify</a>]
A tribute to Turing, the father of modern computing
Saturday, June 23, 2012
“The past is a foreign country—they do things differently there.” It’s a saying that rings especially true in the world of technology. But while innovating requires us to focus on the future, there are times when it’s important to look back. Today—the 100th anniversary of
Alan Turing
’s birth—is one such moment.
Statue of Alan Turing at Bletchley Park
Turing’s life was one of astounding highs and devastating lows. While his
wartime codebreaking
saved thousands of lives, his own life was
destroyed when he was convicted for homosexuality
. But the tragedy of his story should not overshadow his legacy. Turing’s insight
laid the foundations
of the computer age. It’s no exaggeration to say he’s a founding father of every computer and Internet company today.
Turing’s breakthrough came in 1936 with the publication of his seminal paper “
On Computable Numbers
” (PDF). This introduced two key concepts, “algorithms” and “computing machines”—commonplace terms today, but truly revolutionary in the 1930’s:
Algorithms
are, in simplest terms, step-by-step instructions for carrying out a mathematical calculation. This is where it all started for programming since, at its core, all software is a collection of algorithms.
A
computing machine
—today better known as a
Turing machine
—was the hypothetical device that Turing dreamed up to run his algorithms. In the 1930’s, a “computer” was what you called a person who did calculations—it was a profession, not an object. Turing’s paper provided the blueprint for building a machine that could do any computation that a person could, marking the first step towards the modern notion of a computer.
Considering the role computers now play in everyday life, it’s clear Turing’s inventions rank among the most important intellectual breakthroughs of the 20th century. In the evolution of computing, all paths trace back to Turing. That’s why Turing is a hero to so many Google engineers, and why we’re so proud to help commemorate and preserve his legacy.
In 2010, Google helped Bletchley Park raise funds to
purchase Turing’s papers
so they could be preserved for public display in their museum. More recently, we’ve been working closely with curators at London’s Science Museum to help put on a stunning new exhibition “
Codebreaker - Alan Turing’s Life and Legacy
.” This tells the story of Turing’s vast achievements in a profoundly moving and personal way, through an amazing collection of artifacts—including items loaned by GCHQ, the U.K. government intelligence agency, never before on public display. Topics addressed include Turing’s early years, his code-breaking at Bletchley Park, his designs for the Pilot Ace computer, his later
morphogenesis work
, as well as his sexuality and death. The exhibition opened on June 21 and is well worth a visit if you’re passing through London in the next year.
And finally, we couldn’t let such a momentous occasion pass without a doodle. We thought the most fitting way of paying tribute to Turing’s incredible life and work would be to simulate the theoretical “Turing machine” he proposed in a mathematical paper. Visit the homepage today— we invite you to try your hand at programming it. If you get it the first time, try again... it gets harder!
Turing was born into a world that was very different, culturally and technologically, from ours—but his contribution has never been more significant. I hope you’ll join me today in paying tribute to Alan Turing, the forefather of modern computing.
Posted by Andrew Eland, Engineering Director, Google U.K.
Commemorating Alan Turing at London’s Science Museum
Thursday, June 21, 2012
As Steven Pinker, the Harvard professor and popular science author,
recently wrote
:
“It would be an exaggeration to say that the British mathematician Alan Turing explained the nature of logical and mathematical reasoning, invented the digital computer, solved the mind-body problem, and saved Western civilization. But it would not be much of an exaggeration”.
For proof, look no further than the stunning new exhibition “
Codebreaker - Alan Turing’s Life and Legac
y” which opens to the public today at London’s Science Museum. This tells the story of Turing’s vast achievements in a profoundly moving way, through an amazing collection of artifacts -- including items never before on display.
Photos from last night’s gala opening
This exhibition is especially close to our hearts at Google, since not only is Turing a founding father of computing, in a way he is also the father of our collaboration with the Science Museum.
A few years ago one of Google’s senior engineers heard there was an idea to stage an exhibition about Turing. He got in touch and volunteered to help; and from that small seed, Google’s association with the Science Museum has now blossomed into a fully-fledged partnership.
In this, the centenary of Turing’s birth,
we’re proud to sponsor
such a fitting tribute to one of computing’s true heroes. The exhibition will be open until the end of June 2013, and entry is free, so do visit if you can.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
Rebooting computer science education in the UK
Friday, May 25, 2012
Last August
, Eric Schmidt lamented the sorry state of computer science education in UK schools. Since then we’ve been in discussion with various educational groups about ways we might help.
Through our grant programmes like
CS4HS
and
RISE
, we’ve long supported educational schemes of merit in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But we wanted to do more.
One key issue stood out in particular -- the lack of qualified people able to teach computing as a science. So this week,
speaking at London’s Science Museum
, Eric announced a partnership between Google and TeachFirst, which we hope will help - in at least a small way - address the teacher shortfall.
From
Eric at Science Museum
Teach First
is a UK charity which recruits exceptional graduates and puts them to work in the most challenging schools. Google has provided funds for them to train and support more than 100 first rate science teachers over the next three years, with the majority focused on computer science. Overall we anticipate this should help more than 20,000 pupils from the most disadvantaged UK communities.
It should take just a few months for the benefits to begin. After undergoing an intensive training course this summer, the first batch of Teach First recruits will be placed into schools where they can make a difference right away, whilst receiving on the job mentoring and training for a further 2 years.
And to ensure they aren’t held back by a lack of equipment, we’ll also provide each computer science recruit with a small bursary to purchase teaching aids, such as
Raspberry Pi
or
Arduino
starter kits.
Rebooting computer science education won’t be straightforward, and it will take a generation coming through schools before we see a real difference. But that’s even more reason to start today.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations, EMEA
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