August 2021 Summaries

The Google for Startups Accelerator program has expanded its support for underrepresented founders by launching a second year of programming specifically for women-led startups in North America. Originally started in 2020 to address gender disparity in the startup ecosystem, this initiative offers mentorship and support to bridge the gap women face in accessing venture capital and accelerator programs. For 2021, twelve women-led startups have been selected to participate, with businesses spanning various industries such as wastewater treatment, wheelchair navigation, food safety, and financial planning. Starting on September 27, these startups will engage in a 10-week intensive virtual program featuring mentorship on technical challenges, machine learning, and nontechnical programming to overcome barriers specific to women founders. The program aims to leverage Google's resources to help these businesses achieve their goals, fostering innovation and growth.

The Google Cloud Startup Summit, scheduled for September 9, 2021, is an inaugural event designed to unite the startup community, including founders, CTOs, venture capitalists, and Google experts, to share insights and stories of innovation. The summit will feature a keynote by Astro Teller, X’s Captain of Moonshots, focusing on innovation, along with various technical and business sessions led by Google leaders, industry experts, venture investors, and startup leaders. Attendees will have the opportunity to gain diverse perspectives and learn from the experiences of industry professionals, with the event commencing at 10 am PT. Registration is open for those who wish to secure their spot at this gathering.

Kose, the community lead for Google Developer Groups (GDG) Juba in South Sudan, shares insights into his journey of building and nurturing a tech community in a region with limited access to technology. Driven by a passion for solving agricultural and social issues through technology, Kose emphasizes the importance of volunteerism and community learning, having previously served as a mentor for the Google Africa Developer Scholarship. Despite challenges such as costly internet and limited resources, he is committed to dedicating a portion of his earnings to furthering his tech education and building a supportive network. Kose's involvement in various tech meetups and conferences, including a pivotal experience at an International Women's Day event, inspired him to establish a GDG chapter in Juba. Under his leadership, the group has grown significantly, fostering knowledge sharing through events and meetups that engage students and encourage women in tech. The upcoming Android mentorship program is a highlight for GDG Juba, reflecting Kose's dedication to developing a skilled tech community in South Sudan.

The Video-Touch project presents an innovative system enabling multi-user remote control of robots through video conferencing applications like Google Meet, utilizing DNN-based gesture recognition to enhance teleoperation. Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, this system leverages computer vision technologies, specifically MediaPipe, to recognize and transmit user hand gestures in real-time to a robot, circumventing the need for additional devices. The architecture involves capturing video streams through software like OBS, processing gestures with a modified MediaPipe hand tracking module, and employing ZeroMQ for real-time data transmission to a Python-based robot control module. The system integrates high-density tactile sensors for dexterous manipulation, offering users tactile feedback on objects' properties, and supports potential applications in areas requiring remote collaboration or operation in challenging environments. While promising, the current implementation faces challenges related to latency, depth perception, and gesture convenience, with future updates anticipated to enhance capabilities, including potential expansion to other hardware forms like drones or mobile robots.

The video mini-series "Serverless Migration Station" from Google Cloud's Serverless Expeditions helps developers modernize applications by migrating them from the legacy App Engine to Cloud Run through containerization, an optional strategy that offers advantages like flexibility, reproducibility, reusability, and portability. Although App Engine has long-term support, containerization is beneficial for developers seeking to move away from serverless restrictions, allowing them to deploy their apps across various platforms. The process involves transitioning app configurations from App Engine's proprietary APIs and artifacts to Cloud Run, where developers use Dockerfiles and service.yaml files instead of app.yaml and appengine_config.py. The series provides sample apps, tutorials, and code samples to assist developers in understanding and executing these migrations effectively, highlighting the importance of modernizing development workflows and adopting best practices like CI/CD pipelines.

Google's Assistant Developer Relations team is expanding, seeking to enhance voice-driven technology on the Assistant platform by hiring for various roles in locations such as Mountain View, New York, Seattle, and Austin. The team, comprising engineers, technical writers, and content producers, works closely with developers to integrate and innovate with voice interactivity, contributing to the creation of Conversational Actions, Smart Home tools, and App Actions with Android. They are actively involved in Google I/O and other conferences, producing content for the Google Developers YouTube channel, and maintaining open-source projects and the Assistant Developer Platform. The roles open for application include Developer Relations Engineer and Developer Relations Engineering Manager, both of which involve building developer tools, code samples, and educational content to support the API-driven development community.

The Solution Challenge, organized by Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSC), invites students worldwide to utilize Google technologies to address real-world issues in alignment with the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This year's competition featured innovative projects from students across various countries, focusing on diverse aims such as clean water access, community volunteering, educational enhancement, and healthcare improvements. Notable projects include Flow from Cameroon, which helps locate clean water sources using a mobile app; Helppier from Canada, which fosters local volunteering; E-Owl from Egypt, which enhances virtual education; and Eye of God from India, which assists visually impaired individuals with navigation. Other remarkable contributions include SimplAR from Germany, aimed at simplifying text for those with functional illiteracy, and i-RISE from the Philippines, which enhances disaster risk management. These projects, among others, will be showcased during the Demo Day on August 26th, where the finalists will present their solutions to a global audience, with judges selecting the top grand prize winners.

Google Developers Experts (GDE) specializing in Machine Learning (ML) made significant contributions to the global ML ecosystem during the second quarter of 2021. Highlights include participation in ML Developers Meetups at Google I/O, where experts from various countries shared their experiences with TensorFlow, Cloud AI, and JAX. Post-event, many GDEs published insightful articles and tutorials on platforms like Vertex AI, emphasizing its capabilities in automating and customizing ML pipelines. Community events, such as those organized by Google Developers Groups and TensorFlow User Groups, facilitated further discussions on ML topics. Contributions also extended to the publication of books and research papers on TensorFlow and JAX, including advancements in neural networks and domain adaptation, demonstrating the diverse expertise within the GDE community. Additionally, GDEs engaged in research, such as a collaborative paper with DeepMind on deep reinforcement learning, and explored the robustness of Vision Transformers, showcasing their active involvement in advancing ML research and education.

Google Workspace is enhancing team collaboration through the use of webhooks in Google Chat, allowing asynchronous notifications to be delivered directly into chat spaces, which were formerly known as Rooms. Unlike traditional Chatbots that require synchronous interaction via the Google Chat API, webhooks facilitate communication from non-bot applications, enabling seamless integration of external system updates into themed chat spaces such as Sales Support or Customer Service. A practical implementation within Google is the "Google Workspace Updates bot" (informally known as the Wexbot), which uses a Google Apps Script to parse the RSS feed from the Google Workspace Updates blog and post summaries of new feature releases directly into the G Workspace Community Chat room. This setup allows members to stay informed about the latest updates without leaving the chat, enhancing collaboration and information flow. Created by Justin Wexler, this solution leverages Apps Script triggers to operate efficiently and requires minimal maintenance, providing significant user value. The project is publicly accessible on GitHub, allowing others to implement similar webhook-based notifications in their own Google Chat environments.

Diana Rodríguez, a Google Developer Expert (GDE) in Maps, Web, Cloud, and Firebase, has dedicated 20 years to the tech industry, focusing on community involvement and creating accessible content. As the first female Venezuelan GDE, she leverages her skills as a full-stack developer and self-taught programmer to engage in public speaking, workshops, and articles, emphasizing transparency and openness. Her journey with Google Maps began in 2016 with an app addressing institutional violence in Argentina, and she continues to utilize the platform for delivery services, taking advantage of features like Plus Codes to enhance location services in remote areas. Diana's active participation in the developer community includes organizing GDG events and giving virtual talks globally, while her current projects involve open-source tech initiatives like ScoutX, an app for diabetes management, and exploring geolocation tracking for remote hikers using LoRaWan technology. She anticipates further advancements with the Google Maps Platform, particularly with the Places API and customizable Cloud-based map styling, and aspires to lead a team making impactful technological discoveries to aid others.

Google announced the deprecation of the JavaScript-based Google Platform Library for web apps, set to be fully retired on March 31, 2023, as part of an effort to enhance user security and streamline sign-in methods. This change affects web apps that use the Google Sign-In JavaScript library, requiring them to migrate to the new Sign In With Google client library, which consolidates multiple identity offerings under Google Identity Services. The migration encompasses both authentication and authorization flows, and it does not impact Android or iOS native app SDKs or services directly calling Google's OAuth2 or OpenID. The new JavaScript library aims to provide a consistent, secure, and low-friction user sign-in experience, improving visibility and trust. Users and developers are encouraged to visit Google's developer site and use community resources like Stack Overflow for assistance, as well as to provide feedback via email.

In a blog post by Wesley Chun, Google Cloud's Developer Advocate, the focus is on an optional migration process for developers using Google Cloud's serverless platforms. The post details migrating a sample application from Cloud NDB to Cloud Datastore to streamline client libraries for better code reuse and robustness. While Cloud NDB serves as an intermediary for Python 2 App Engine developers transitioning to Python 3, the post suggests that both App Engine and non-App Engine developers eventually adopt Cloud Datastore's native client library for improved stability and compatibility. The migration, demonstrated through videos and codelabs, is part of the Serverless Migration Station series, which aims to assist developers in modernizing their applications. The blog post emphasizes that the change is optional unless developers find compelling features in Cloud Datastore that are not accessible through their current library. Upcoming modules will cover further advancements, including Cloud Firestore and the containerization of apps for Cloud Run, providing comprehensive resources for developers looking to modernize their applications.

Google has introduced a new suite of Identity APIs called Google Identity Services, which consolidates multiple identity offerings into one SDK to enhance online security and simplify user authentication. This service includes the "Sign in with Google" button and a new feature called "One Tap," which allows for low-friction authentication using secure tokens instead of passwords. One Tap provides a seamless user experience by allowing users to sign in or sign up without being redirected to a landing page, thus maintaining their navigation flow. The new services are designed to increase user sign-ups and logins while providing robust protection against online threats like click-jacking and pixel tracking. These solutions aim to alleviate support burdens by reducing duplicate and fraudulent accounts and offering an improved user interface that elevates trust and security. Google reports that early adopters like Reddit and Pinterest have seen significant improvements in user engagement and conversion rates. Developers can implement these services with minimal effort by accessing technical documentation and community support through Google's developer resources.

In August 2021, Patricia Correa, Director of Global Developer Marketing at Google, announced the finalists for the annual Indie Games Festival, which supports small game studios on Google Play. The festival, held virtually this year, features game developers from Europe, Japan, and South Korea, showcasing creative entries such as Beat Workers from France, Bird Alone from the UK, and Angel Saga from South Korea. The virtual format allows attendees to explore games, meet developers, and witness the announcement of winners, fostering engagement in the indie gaming community. Additionally, the event highlights the Indie Games Accelerator program, aimed at nurturing upcoming developers, with details set to be revealed at the European Festival.