Internship

After my interview trials, I have become successful in at least one position: between December 2007 and March 2008, I will intern as a Software Engineer in Google, Sydney. During my time here, I will work on a project related to Google Maps. But still Data Mining related, which is where my interests lie.

The internship means I will be taking a break from my PhD. Instead of reading papers, I will be writing code. Instead of writing papers, I will be writing code. This will be a change indeed. The coding that I have done in the past have all been very standalone applications. Programming in the large has never been something I have been familiar with. I look forward to the opportunity to work on software that is part of a larger application.

Hopefully this experience will help me decide on what I would like to do after my PhD; would I like to remain in research or do I want to work in industry?

Internships are a big thing in the US. From what I hear, most PhD students work in companies over the summer. I'm not so sure about Australia though. There are some vacation work positions but are more limited in number than in the US.

I think internships are a great way to see what life can be like after university so students can make a more informed decision about their future when they finish their degree. Seeing the practical side of what is taught at university can ground understanding of fundamentals and enhance skill development in the future.

I look forward to the opportunity of working for one of the biggest and best companies in the world. Hopefully I won't eat too much while I am here. It is difficult to say no to free food, especially for a PhD student.

That google scholarship (The Google 2006 Australia Anita Borg Scholarship)

As a fun side project, I track who views my websites and how they get to them. Recently, some people viewing this blog and my personal blog have searched in relation to the Australia Anita Borg Memorial Google scholarship I won recently. For some reason, my blogs come up when people search for things related to the scholarship, like winners, essays and the sort. All the searchers so far reside in Europe (I had some from France and Sweden yesterday). At the retreat in Sydney, the conveners mentioned that they were going to be starting it in Europe and I guess the announcements are out and potential applicants are wanting to know more about it.

It's quite keen of them to be Googling and searching through blogs to finding out what other finalists and winners did in the application process. Quite clever in some aspects because it might give them some insight. I don't know the exact details but the applications are due at the end of January and the essay questions would be similar. I'm not particularly sure how much I want to write about my application because I feel that potential applicants from Europe may be reading this right now!

But since the scholarship is for such a great cause and Anita's legacy should live on through us, I may give a few details on what I wrote. Sharing and networking is what it's all about. Let's just say my responses to the first and third question was very technical, focusing mainly on the contributions and the motivations to why I would/have chosen such projects. The second question I loved because I got to write about myself. I talked about my teachings and community service. And finally, the last question I went a little overboard. A similar idea to what I had in mind was actually presented at the last Grace Hopper Conference for Celebration of Women. For my proposal, I planned exactly where each portion of the money went, where it would be spent and prospective locations. I also rang up venues to find exact prices and availability dates. There may also have been a time line. This time line included when advertisements should be placed and how publicity should proceed.

Please if you've read this through a search or whatever technique you used, leave a comment and let me know how you went/go. Also if you're in Data mining or security, please feel free to look around this blog and leave any ideas. Anita's all about networking with more women in technical fields of computer science. If you're not sure if you should apply or not, do it. It's great fun. You never know, you might win! But even if you don't, it's a great opportunity to just have a go. The ladies at Google are fantastic and it was great to meet other women from Australia who shared my interests.

Florida here I come

I think I've just been told that I will be getting funding to go to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing next year. It's part of my Anita Borg Scholarship. Omg woo. Meghan from Google just sent an email saying I will be getting my $5K in addition to support for the 2007 Grace Hopper Conference in Orlando, Florida.

The Google 2006 Australia Anita Borg Scholarship

And the winner is... me. After I thought I received the Google scholarship to go to the 2006 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing, I emailed Alistair Moffat to say "thank-you" for telling me about the scholarship opportunity. (I write "I thought" because I didn't actually get the Google scholarship. I thought I did because that's what I applied for and I received money for what I applied for. But I later discovered while I was at the conference that the money actually came from NFS/Grace Hopper/someone other than Google. But funding is funding, wherever it comes from and I got the opportunity to travel). Now, being the top bloke that Alistair is, he said congrats and told me about another women in computing opportunity: The Google 2006 Australia Anita Borg Scholarship. So I thought why not. I'll apply closer to the deadline.

The Sunday before it was due (it was due on a Friday), I read the applicant criteria and application requirements. I needed two character references and I needed to answer a series of essay type questions. They essay questions were not a problem, but the thought of extracting a character reference in 5 days or less out of Rao was somewhat of a concern. Rao is a very busy man and he was not one of those people that say write me a letter and I'll sign it (which is good because I don't like doing things like that). In the end, Rao made a time for me at 7pm on the Thursday where we worked on it together. He is one busy man.

My other character reference was from Rita Manesis who is the coordinator of SALP, a leadership program that supports volunteer work in the community. I participated in the program in 2004 and I still do some of the volunteer work that I started in the program. I'm buying both of these people a plant for Christmas or something.

So anyway, that was the application process and while I was in San Diego, I receieved an email informing me that I was a finalist for the scholarship and I was going to Sydney for a retreat with the other finalists. There was 16 finalists in total, 8 ugrad and 8 postgrad selected from over 60 applicants. I had my two phone interviews and last week, Neetu Vacin rang up to tell me that I was the postgrad winner for Australia.

I got back from Sydney on Saturday where I spent time with the other finalists and Google people at Hilton and the Google Sydney office. The other women I met were incredible, in the accomplishments, in their intelligence and in their abilities. But what's more amazing is the fact that I was picked as the winner. There is one postgrad winner and one ugrad winner. There is one postgrad winner in all of Australia and that winner is me. Quite an amazing feeling, really. This is also the first year the Anita Borg scholarship has come to Australia. So I'm the first. Awesome.

Now all I have to do is some real research to justify all my awards. Hmmm.

Also see: some hints on the application process.