My Summer @ Google: Computer Science Summer Institute
April 1st, 2013 | Published in Google Student Blog
Introduction: Earlier this month we launched the application for the Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI), a three-week summer program for graduating high school seniors who are interested in studying computer science. Today through the My Summer @ Google series, we're bringing you another story from former CSSI participant, Alice. Alice is a CSSI alum and freshman at the University of California at Berkeley studying computer science. If you'd like to learn more about CSSI, visit our website and apply by April 7th.
I have always been inspired by how computer scientists such as Larry Page and Sergey Brin have changed the world through technology, and I thought it would be cool to spend my summer at Google. Although I was quite interested in computer science, I was actually uncertain whether or not I could pursue it. I had never programmed before CSSI, and I had this misconception of computer scientists being expert hackers (which I wasn’t) who played video games for most of their time (which I didn’t). Therefore, attending CSSI seemed like the perfect way for me to not only experience what it is like at Google, but also learn more about computer science and find out if it is right for me.
On the very first day of CSSI, the instructors told us we would learn how to program in two weeks and build a web application by the end of the program. I could not believe my ears. For someone who had never even typed a single word in any programming language before, building a web application in one week was unimaginable. For the first two weeks we learned a new topic each day. First it was App Inventor, then it was HTML, Javascript, CSS, Python, and AppEngine—basically everything we needed to build a web application.
At the end of two very intense weeks of training, we were ready to take on the big challenge of creating our first web applications. We were divided into groups, and immediately began working together. What I really liked about the projects was that we could do anything we wanted. This made the process extremely enjoyable because everyone was so excited about what the group was creating that we all worked tirelessly together to make our web applications the best they could be. We also received lots of support from interns and other Googlers who not only helped us debug our programs but also showed us the master ways of doing things. Finally, after a week of frantic programming, we finished our web applications and presented them to Googlers around the world (thanks to Hangouts!). It was truly an amazing feeling to realize what everyone achieved in three weeks and to have our web applications tried out by other people.
CSSI was life changing for me because it helped me discover my love for computer science and convinced me to pursue the field. It really opened up the door to a whole world that I had never dared to enter, and showed me how beautiful computer science is. Learning how to make web applications has given me the power to create anything I want, and since the program ended I have built several web applications myself to solve some of my problems. The Googlers and fellow CSSIers I met have taught me how to tackle problems in different ways and have inspired me to be the programmer I am today.
Interested in CSSI? Apply here!
Posted by Alice Jia Qi Liu, CSSI Participant
On the very first day of CSSI, the instructors told us we would learn how to program in two weeks and build a web application by the end of the program. I could not believe my ears. For someone who had never even typed a single word in any programming language before, building a web application in one week was unimaginable. For the first two weeks we learned a new topic each day. First it was App Inventor, then it was HTML, Javascript, CSS, Python, and AppEngine—basically everything we needed to build a web application.
At the end of two very intense weeks of training, we were ready to take on the big challenge of creating our first web applications. We were divided into groups, and immediately began working together. What I really liked about the projects was that we could do anything we wanted. This made the process extremely enjoyable because everyone was so excited about what the group was creating that we all worked tirelessly together to make our web applications the best they could be. We also received lots of support from interns and other Googlers who not only helped us debug our programs but also showed us the master ways of doing things. Finally, after a week of frantic programming, we finished our web applications and presented them to Googlers around the world (thanks to Hangouts!). It was truly an amazing feeling to realize what everyone achieved in three weeks and to have our web applications tried out by other people.
CSSI was life changing for me because it helped me discover my love for computer science and convinced me to pursue the field. It really opened up the door to a whole world that I had never dared to enter, and showed me how beautiful computer science is. Learning how to make web applications has given me the power to create anything I want, and since the program ended I have built several web applications myself to solve some of my problems. The Googlers and fellow CSSIers I met have taught me how to tackle problems in different ways and have inspired me to be the programmer I am today.
Interested in CSSI? Apply here!
Posted by Alice Jia Qi Liu, CSSI Participant