Tag Archives: Europe

Wonders of Malta and Google Street View to enrich Malta’s digital profile

The reasons people travel haven’t changed much over the years. But how we look for information, about where we’ll go or what the local customs are has increasingly moved online. Google Trends tells us that the majority of tourism-related search queries are general--things like hotels or transportation options. But in Malta, called the “Gem of the Mediterranean,” as much as 43% of total tourism-related queries are focused on cultural attractions, historical sights, and famous buildings.

This kind of demand for information doesn’t just help Malta’s visitors find what they’re looking for--it has become a concrete opportunity for local tourism businesses and for cultural institutions to grow their audiences online.

There’s more. According to a soon-to-be-released report “The Impact of Online Content on European Tourism” carried out by Oxford Economics for Google in Southern European countries, clear and accessible online information can power growth in local economies. This in turn leads to new job creation and further GDP growth. This is particularly true and relevant for countries like Malta where tourism remains a significantly important economic sector, accounting for up 26% of the national GDP.

With this in mind we worked with Heritage Malta to create the “Wonders of Malta” project on Google Arts & Culture. This is a unique collection offering viewers from across the world the opportunity to experience the most spectacular collection of Maltese treasures all in one place, at g.co/wondersofmalta.

From your smartphone or PC you can now walk across the Ġgantija Temples, the oldest, free-standing monument in the world, or immerse yourself in the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, considered one of world’s most important prehistoric monuments. In a few taps on your smartphone you can move to Valletta and visit the National Museum of Archaeology and its rich collections. The Wonders of Malta project is made of more than 600 new assets, including photos, videos and other documents, 13 super-high resolution “gigapixel” images, more than 35 new exhibits, as well as 28 cardboard tours that will guide users through the diversity and richness of the Maltese culture.

That’s not all. After driving more than 2,500 kilometres across all of Malta and Gozo and taking thousands of 360 degree pictures of many locations, starting today we are also making Street View available in Malta. Users can get an immersive look at the maltese natural landscape, cultural and historic sites, including heritage and touristic attractions, from Valletta to St. Julian’s and Victoria as well as many others, through panoramic street-level images.  Organisations and businesses can also benefit from the Street View technology. The street-level imagery of the location in fact can help them promote and increase awareness of their business - whether it’s a restaurant, hotel, local attraction or any other point of interest.
Street View Malta
Street View in Malta

Whether you’re a student looking to improve your digital skills, or a visitor interested in knowing more about Malta, with the help of Google technologies and platform and the great contents provided by our partners we believe we are contributing positively not only to Malta’s digital profile but to the further development of its cultural and economic life. 

Wonders of Malta and Google Street View to enrich Malta’s digital profile

The reasons people travel haven’t changed much over the years. But how we look for information, about where we’ll go or what the local customs are has increasingly moved online. Google Trends tells us that the majority of tourism-related search queries are general--things like hotels or transportation options. But in Malta, called the “Gem of the Mediterranean,” as much as 43% of total tourism-related queries are focused on cultural attractions, historical sights, and famous buildings.

This kind of demand for information doesn’t just help Malta’s visitors find what they’re looking for--it has become a concrete opportunity for local tourism businesses and for cultural institutions to grow their audiences online.

There’s more. According to a soon-to-be-released report “The Impact of Online Content on European Tourism” carried out by Oxford Economics for Google in Southern European countries, clear and accessible online information can power growth in local economies. This in turn leads to new job creation and further GDP growth. This is particularly true and relevant for countries like Malta where tourism remains a significantly important economic sector, accounting for up 26% of the national GDP.

With this in mind we worked with Heritage Malta to create the “Wonders of Malta” project on Google Arts & Culture. This is a unique collection offering viewers from across the world the opportunity to experience the most spectacular collection of Maltese treasures all in one place, at g.co/wondersofmalta.


From your smartphone or PC you can now walk across the Ġgantija Temples, the oldest, free-standing monument in the world, or immerse yourself in the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, considered one of world’s most important prehistoric monuments. In a few taps on your smartphone you can move to Valletta and visit the National Museum of Archaeology and its rich collections. The Wonders of Malta project is made of more than 600 new assets, including photos, videos and other documents, 13 super-high resolution “gigapixel” images, more than 35 new exhibits, as well as 28 cardboard tours that will guide users through the diversity and richness of the Maltese culture.

That’s not all. After driving more than 2,500 kilometres across all of Malta and Gozo and taking thousands of 360 degree pictures of many locations, starting today we are also making Street View available in Malta. Users can get an immersive look at the maltese natural landscape, cultural and historic sites, including heritage and touristic attractions, from Valletta to St. Julian’s and Victoria as well as many others, through panoramic street-level images.  Organisations and businesses can also benefit from the Street View technology. The street-level imagery of the location in fact can help them promote and increase awareness of their business - whether it’s a restaurant, hotel, local attraction or any other point of interest.

Street View Malta
Street View in Malta

Whether you’re a student looking to improve your digital skills, or a visitor interested in knowing more about Malta, with the help of Google technologies and platform and the great contents provided by our partners we believe we are contributing positively not only to Malta’s digital profile but to the further development of its cultural and economic life. 

English county council saves millions switching to G Suite and Chromebooks

A day in the life of an employee at Northumberland County Council in northern England involves everything from running schools, repairing roads or literally putting out fires. It’s work that never stops and that stretches across a rural area the size of Greater London with 330,000 citizens and three million sheep.

Two years ago, the Northumberland IT team started to notice strain in their service infrastructure which connects 380 locations across the region, and recent budget cuts made that system feel increasingly unworkable.

"We had a very big legacy setup that was costing us a fortune in licensing and devices,” says Neil Arnold, Chief Information Officer at Northumberland County Council. “We decided to bring people together in a central hub to make teams more agile."

Creating G Suite champions

After evaluation, Arnold and his team chose G Suite for its functionality and flexibility. The team relied on Netpremacy, a Google Cloud partner, to train 300 staff members to educate colleagues on how to use G Suite. Within months, 5,500 corporate users and 11,500 schools users had been set up with G Suite accounts. “Without the support of Netpremacy, we wouldn't have been able to implement as rapidly as we did,” says Arnold. “They recognised the cultural challenges. There was skepticism at first, but users really took the tools to heart when they could see the benefits.”

From different locations across the region, staff began working collaboratively on Docs and Sheets and inviting others to join. The team saved money by switching to Chromebooks and Arnold and his colleagues started using Hangouts to join meetings to stay synced on daily work.

Even firefighters, who were reluctant to try out Hangouts at first, started using it regularly. “Firefighters now use Hangouts at the scene of fires to communicate with central command, monitor the fire, and decide how many vehicles they need,” says Arnold. “The chief fire officer doesn't have to get in his car and drive out to the scene to help — he can do it all from wherever he is.”

Firefighters use Hangouts at the scene of fires to communicate to central command, so the chief fire officer doesn't have to drive to the scene. Neil Arnold CIO, Northumberland County Council

Saving big by going cloud-first

Arnold expects switching to Chromebooks will help Northumberland County Council save close to £2.5 million on licensing and hardware, without sacrificing data security since Chromebooks have multiple protection layers.

The next step for Arnold and his team is to bring G Suite to the classroom. “We've got a lot of schools using Google Classroom successfully,” he says, “and we want to roll G Suite out to more schools. It’ll be a big efficiency for them, because many have small file servers on site, that they manage themselves or pay a third-party to manage. Drive will help them decommission that.”

Meanwhile, outdated exchange and file servers are being closed down across the council as data is seamlessly transferred to Google Cloud. The new central office for the county is set to open in 2019, and Arnold does not plan to have a datacenter at the new building: “That footprint’s going to reduce over the next three years to virtually nothing.” 

“I've been working in IT for over 30 years and this has been one of the most successful and satisfying projects I've ever been involved in,” says Arnold. “We’ve achieved more than we expected and using G Suite has been a tremendous catalyst for change.”

English county council saves millions switching to G Suite and Chromebooks

A day in the life of an employee at Northumberland County Council in northern England involves everything from running schools, repairing roads or literally putting out fires. It’s work that never stops and that stretches across a rural area the size of Greater London with 330,000 citizens and three million sheep.

Two years ago, the Northumberland IT team started to notice strain in their service infrastructure which connects 380 locations across the region, and recent budget cuts made that system feel increasingly unworkable.

"We had a very big legacy setup that was costing us a fortune in licensing and devices,” says Neil Arnold, Chief Information Officer at Northumberland County Council. “We decided to bring people together in a central hub to make teams more agile."

Creating G Suite champions

After evaluation, Arnold and his team chose G Suite for its functionality and flexibility. The team relied on Netpremacy, a Google Cloud partner, to train 300 staff members to educate colleagues on how to use G Suite. Within months, 5,500 corporate users and 11,500 schools users had been set up with G Suite accounts. “Without the support of Netpremacy, we wouldn't have been able to implement as rapidly as we did,” says Arnold. “They recognised the cultural challenges. There was skepticism at first, but users really took the tools to heart when they could see the benefits.”

From different locations across the region, staff began working collaboratively on Docs and Sheets and inviting others to join. The team saved money by switching to Chromebooks and Arnold and his colleagues started using Hangouts to join meetings to stay synced on daily work.

Even firefighters, who were reluctant to try out Hangouts at first, started using it regularly. “Firefighters now use Hangouts at the scene of fires to communicate with central command, monitor the fire, and decide how many vehicles they need,” says Arnold. “The chief fire officer doesn't have to get in his car and drive out to the scene to help — he can do it all from wherever he is.”

Firefighters use Hangouts at the scene of fires to communicate to central command, so the chief fire officer doesn't have to drive to the scene. Neil Arnold
CIO, Northumberland County Council

Saving big by going cloud-first

Arnold expects switching to Chromebooks will help Northumberland County Council save close to £2.5 million on licensing and hardware, without sacrificing data security since Chromebooks have multiple protection layers.

The next step for Arnold and his team is to bring G Suite to the classroom. “We've got a lot of schools using Google Classroom successfully,” he says, “and we want to roll G Suite out to more schools. It’ll be a big efficiency for them, because many have small file servers on site, that they manage themselves or pay a third-party to manage. Drive will help them decommission that.”

Meanwhile, outdated exchange and file servers are being closed down across the council as data is seamlessly transferred to Google Cloud. The new central office for the county is set to open in 2019, and Arnold does not plan to have a datacenter at the new building: “That footprint’s going to reduce over the next three years to virtually nothing.” 

“I've been working in IT for over 30 years and this has been one of the most successful and satisfying projects I've ever been involved in,” says Arnold. “We’ve achieved more than we expected and using G Suite has been a tremendous catalyst for change.”

Celebrating five years of Campus, a home for startups

We’re big believers in the power of startups to fuel progress and build businesses that make a positive impact—on individuals, communities and economies. But most great startups don’t go it alone: A supportive community is critical to their success. That’s why five years ago, we opened the doors of Campus London and Campus Tel Aviv, our first spaces for entrepreneurs to learn, share, connect and collaborate.

Since then, Google for Entrepreneurs has gone on to open four more Campuses in Seoul, Madrid, Warsaw, São Paulo—and Campus now has 200,000+ members globally. While each location customizes trainings and events to reflect the needs of their city, they have a few key things in common: Anyone can join as a member, host an event for the benefit of local entrepreneurs, or attend educational sessions, all for free. And all of our Campus communities are made of people who see problems as opportunities and then take action to fix them. Founders in Campuses are working to improve the health of older generations with apps like KareInn, foster interaction between governments with citizens with Nama, and help babies and parents sleep better with a smart device called Whisbear. 

Together, startups in Campus communities have created more than 11,000 jobs and raised more than $537 million in funding for entrepreneurs since 2012. Learn more about these founders and the Campuses they call home:
KareInn - Campus London
KareInn is on a mission to change how we care for older generations through real-time activity tracking and care coordination. They got their start in Campus London’s cafe, grew in the coworking space, and later took investment from our resident investment partner, Seedcamp. “The Seedcamp investment happened because we managed to bump into the right people in the [Campus] cafe at the right time," says co-founder Alex Kenney.
Nama - Campus São Paulo

In a challenging political environment, Nama, a machine learning startup, worked with the State of São Paulo to foster interactions with citizens through a chatbot—exchanging more than 7.5 million messages in less than 90 days. Nama is part of Campus São Paulo's Residency program. "Being part of this community in this Google space was instrumental for our growth over the past year," says founder Rodrigo Scotti.

Lyrics Training
Lyrics Training aims to make online language learning fun, with music videos, lyrics and karaoke. “For a small startup like us, having access to such a personal and detailed training by an expert was amazing. Thanks to his [Googler] mentoring, we have increased our monthly revenue by 30 percent and, after two years with no income, finally I’m able to obtain a monthly salary and work full time on my project," says founder Fernando Diaz. 
Finda - Seoul

With only 8 percent of startups founded by women in Korea, Hyemin Lee is an inspiration to many. Already a successful entrepreneur, she's now the cofounder of Finda. While working from Campus Seoul, she hired her first five employees for Finda, raised a $1M Series A round, and with help of Googlers implemented machine learning to her recommendation engine. She also serves as a mentor to women in the community.

SaferVPN - Tel Aviv
SaferVPN, a fast-growing SaaS startup with millions of users, didn’t even have a company name when they first came to Campus Tel Aviv. They participated in Google Developers’ Launchpad, and continued to scale with the support of programs like Campus Exchange: Cyber Security. “When I reflect on where we are today, how far we’ve come, and what it took to get here, I always think of Campus Tel Aviv,” says founder Sagi Gidali. 
Whisbear - Warsaw

New moms Zuzanna Sielicka-Kalczyńska and Julia Sielicka-Jastrzębska wanted to bring newborn babies (and their parents) more peaceful sleep. After years of trial and error, Whisbear was born, a smart soothing device. As participants in Campus for Moms, our baby-friendly startup school, and a two-week immersive startup bootcamp in Silicon Valley,  their new global network is helping them take Whisbear beyond Campus Warsaw.

We’re so proud to support them!

Celebrating five years of Campus, a home for startups

We’re big believers in the power of startups to fuel progress and build businesses that make a positive impact—on individuals, communities and economies. But most great startups don’t go it alone: A supportive community is critical to their success. That’s why five years ago, we opened the doors of Campus London and Campus Tel Aviv, our first spaces for entrepreneurs to learn, share, connect and collaborate.

Since then, Google for Entrepreneurs has gone on to open four more Campuses in Seoul, Madrid, Warsaw, São Paulo—and Campus now has 200,000+ members globally. While each location customizes trainings and events to reflect the needs of their city, they have a few key things in common: Anyone can join as a member, host an event for the benefit of local entrepreneurs, or attend educational sessions, all for free. And all of our Campus communities are made of people who see problems as opportunities and then take action to fix them. Founders in Campuses are working to improve the health of older generations with apps like KareInn, foster interaction between governments with citizens with Nama, and help babies and parents sleep better with a smart device called Whisbear. 

Together, startups in Campus communities have created more than 11,000 jobs and raised more than $537 million in funding for entrepreneurs since 2012. Learn more about these founders and the Campuses they call home:
  • KareInn - Campus London
    KareInn is on a mission to change how we care for older generations through real-time activity tracking and care coordination. They got their start in Campus London’s cafe, grew in the coworking space, and later took investment from our resident investment partner, Seedcamp. “The Seedcamp investment happened because we managed to bump into the right people in the [Campus] cafe at the right time," says co-founder Alex Kenney.
  • Nama - Campus São Paulo

    In a challenging political environment, Nama, a machine learning startup, worked with the State of São Paulo to foster interactions with citizens through a chatbot—exchanging more than 7.5 million messages in less than 90 days. Nama is part of Campus São Paulo's Residency program. "Being part of this community in this Google space was instrumental for our growth over the past year," says founder Rodrigo Scotti.

  • Lyrics Training
    Lyrics Training aims to make online language learning fun, with music videos, lyrics and karaoke. “For a small startup like us, having access to such a personal and detailed training by an expert was amazing. Thanks to his [Googler] mentoring, we have increased our monthly revenue by 30 percent and, after two years with no income, finally I’m able to obtain a monthly salary and work full time on my project," says founder Fernando Diaz. 
  • Finda - Seoul

    With only 8 percent of startups founded by women in Korea, Hyemin Lee is an inspiration to many. Already a successful entrepreneur, she's now the cofounder of Finda. While working from Campus Seoul, she hired her first five employees for Finda, raised a $1M Series A round, and with help of Googlers implemented machine learning to her recommendation engine. She also serves as a mentor to women in the community.

  • SaferVPN - Tel Aviv
    SaferVPN, a fast-growing SaaS startup with millions of users, didn’t even have a company name when they first came to Campus Tel Aviv. They participated in Google Developers’ Launchpad, and continued to scale with the support of programs like Campus Exchange: Cyber Security. “When I reflect on where we are today, how far we’ve come, and what it took to get here, I always think of Campus Tel Aviv,” says founder Sagi Gidali. 
  • Whisbear - Warsaw

    New moms Zuzanna Sielicka-Kalczyńska and Julia Sielicka-Jastrzębska wanted to bring newborn babies (and their parents) more peaceful sleep. After years of trial and error, Whisbear was born, a smart soothing device. As participants in Campus for Moms, our baby-friendly startup school, and a two-week immersive startup bootcamp in Silicon Valley,  their new global network is helping them take Whisbear beyond Campus Warsaw.

We’re so proud to support them!

Connecting the best CEE startups with European VC funds at Campus Warsaw

Central and Eastern Europe is rich with technical talent and a growing number of globally-minded startups, yet it is a fragmented region of over 150 million people, living in more than a dozen countries. When startups start to gain traction and think about scaling internationally, they face a problem on how to raise VC funds.  At the same time, global venture capital funds are searching for young companies to invest in, but often are unable to travel extensively across the CEE region.  

 Last  week Campus Warsaw, a Google space for entrepreneurs, hosted the first-ever CEE All Stars event to connect 40 of the region’s most promising startups together with 25 venture capital firms, making it the biggest fundraising event of its kind in all of Central and Eastern Europe.

Campus Warsaw’s mission is to connect the region’s entrepreneurs to global startup ecosystem and  directly support entrepreneurs with programs at every stage of the lifecycle.

When we launched 18 months ago, coworking hubs from Poland, Estonia, Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania and more CEE countries met to discuss how a network could support startups from the entire region. In the months that followed, we brought together startup hubs, accelerators, and early-stage venture capital firms to create a much-needed community--and conceived CEE All Stars as our flagship Community event.

CEE All Stars 3
Entrepreneurs and investors at CEE All Stars at Campus Warsaw

Each startup at CEE All Stars had the opportunity to briefly present its idea and business model to potential investors during pitching sessions, followed by individual 1:1 meetings: “During the 2 day intensive event, I was able to have 16 meetings with VCs, something I usually make in a year on my own” said one of the founders present at the event.

CEE All Stars 2
Entrepreneurs and investors at CEE All Stars at Campus Warsaw

While the startups at CEE All Stars come from the same region, they are quite a diversified group across different industries and different stages of business.

  • We hosted startups launched five years ago (such as Latvian Sellfy) and five months ago (Estonian Shipitwise);

  • Those who have already experienced a great success on the market (e.g. PublishDrive, an e-book publisher that has just been chosen for LaunchPad Accelerator program, or Funderful, which provides services to universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Berkeley) and those who have just reached profitability.

  • They represent a wide range of industries from fintech (Czech BudgetBakers or Lithuanian Welltrado) or health (Estonian SoterAnalytics) to travel (Polish BeforeYouGo or Czech ClaimAir) and culture (Lithuanian Bescouted or Polish Flowbox).

  • Some pitched cutting-edge technology, e.g. Wolf3D, which creates truly realistic avatars to represent people in VR, or iGreet, using Augmented Reality to produce cards that provoke increased emotional experience.

What they all have in common is courage, a passion for innovation and hunger for international success.

We were blown away by the talent, and hope that in a few years’ time, when startups present at Campus Warsaw this week look back, they will consider CEE All Stars as a milestone in the development of their business. We also look forward to replicating this type of fundraising event together with other regional coworking hubs. CEE All Stars hosted by Campus Warsaw may be the first of its kind--but we have a feeling it won’t be the last.

Connecting the best CEE startups with European VC funds at Campus Warsaw

Central and Eastern Europe is rich with technical talent and a growing number of globally-minded startups, yet it is a fragmented region of over 150 million people, living in more than a dozen countries. When startups start to gain traction and think about scaling internationally, they face a problem on how to raise VC funds.  At the same time, global venture capital funds are searching for young companies to invest in, but often are unable to travel extensively across the CEE region.  

 Last  week Campus Warsaw, a Google space for entrepreneurs, hosted the first-ever CEE All Stars event to connect 40 of the region’s most promising startups together with 25 venture capital firms, making it the biggest fundraising event of its kind in all of Central and Eastern Europe.

Campus Warsaw’s mission is to connect the region’s entrepreneurs to global startup ecosystem and  directly support entrepreneurs with programs at every stage of the lifecycle.

When we launched 18 months ago, coworking hubs from Poland, Estonia, Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania and more CEE countries met to discuss how a network could support startups from the entire region. In the months that followed, we brought together startup hubs, accelerators, and early-stage venture capital firms to create a much-needed community--and conceived CEE All Stars as our flagship Community event.

CEE All Stars 3
Entrepreneurs and investors at CEE All Stars at Campus Warsaw

Each startup at CEE All Stars had the opportunity to briefly present its idea and business model to potential investors during pitching sessions, followed by individual 1:1 meetings: “During the 2 day intensive event, I was able to have 16 meetings with VCs, something I usually make in a year on my own” said one of the founders present at the event.

CEE All Stars 2
Entrepreneurs and investors at CEE All Stars at Campus Warsaw

While the startups at CEE All Stars come from the same region, they are quite a diversified group across different industries and different stages of business.

  • We hosted startups launched five years ago (such as Latvian Sellfy) and five months ago (Estonian Shipitwise);

  • Those who have already experienced a great success on the market (e.g. PublishDrive, an e-book publisher that has just been chosen for LaunchPad Accelerator program, or Funderful, which provides services to universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Berkeley) and those who have just reached profitability.

  • They represent a wide range of industries from fintech (Czech BudgetBakers or Lithuanian Welltrado) or health (Estonian SoterAnalytics) to travel (Polish BeforeYouGo or Czech ClaimAir) and culture (Lithuanian Bescouted or Polish Flowbox).

  • Some pitched cutting-edge technology, e.g. Wolf3D, which creates truly realistic avatars to represent people in VR, or iGreet, using Augmented Reality to produce cards that provoke increased emotional experience.

What they all have in common is courage, a passion for innovation and hunger for international success.

We were blown away by the talent, and hope that in a few years’ time, when startups present at Campus Warsaw this week look back, they will consider CEE All Stars as a milestone in the development of their business. We also look forward to replicating this type of fundraising event together with other regional coworking hubs. CEE All Stars hosted by Campus Warsaw may be the first of its kind--but we have a feeling it won’t be the last.

Exploring with Udacity: how four lucky Android scholars experienced Google I/O

Last November, with Udacity and Bertelsmann, we announced a new scholarship program for 10,000 EU Android developers to learn new skills. But due to an overwhelming response, we ended up awarding a whopping 13,500 scholarships.Through a Google-certified Udacity course, we embarked on a journey to help these young developers pursue their dreams and make most of what internet has to offer them.

Some of these developers come from families or communities that told them that “tech is not for girls.” Some had the courage to quit their jobs at 30 for an internship that brought them closer to their goal of becoming Android developers. Others couldn’t imagine themselves embracing a new career path right away but knew developer skills could be important regardless. What united them all was the desire to learn, and to open new doors to opportunities for the future.

Udacity Medium Screenshot
A fragment from Android scholar George’s story on Medium. George was awarded the Android Beginners scholarship.  

Four lucky young people that benefited from the scholarship program and have shown an amazing level of commitment were selected to attend Google I/O 2017—Amanda from London, U.K., Jacub from Wroclaw, Poland, Stefanie  from Vienna, Austria, and Bart from Warsaw, Poland. And through #MyIOwithUdacity we got to tag along.

We started by getting to know them better—observing their excitement as they packed for California, the surprise on their faces at so many great developers under one tent, and to watch how inspired they were by the I/O presenters and their fellow attendees.

Each day we went along for the ride, watching their photos & videos from the heart of the I/O action.

Udacity tweet 1
Udacity tweet 2
Udacity tweet 3
Udacity tweet 4
Udacity tweet 5
Udacity tweet 6

The Google I/O Adventure was just one of many opportunities for the thousands of European scholarship recipients we’re so proud of across the region. We’re committed to championing these scholars long-term and to opening new doors for the European developer community.

Exploring with Udacity: how four lucky Android scholars experienced Google I/O

Last November, with Udacity and Bertelsmann, we announced a new scholarship program for 10,000 EU Android developers to learn new skills. But due to an overwhelming response, we ended up awarding a whopping 13,500 scholarships.Through a Google-certified Udacity course, we embarked on a journey to help these young developers pursue their dreams and make most of what internet has to offer them.

Some of these developers come from families or communities that told them that “tech is not for girls.” Some had the courage to quit their jobs at 30 for an internship that brought them closer to their goal of becoming Android developers. Others couldn’t imagine themselves embracing a new career path right away but knew developer skills could be important regardless. What united them all was the desire to learn, and to open new doors to opportunities for the future.

Udacity Medium Screenshot
A fragment from Android scholar George’s story on Medium. George was awarded the Android Beginners scholarship.  

Four lucky young people that benefited from the scholarship program and have shown an amazing level of commitment were selected to attend Google I/O 2017—Amanda from London, U.K., Jacub from Wroclaw, Poland, Stefanie  from Vienna, Austria, and Bart from Warsaw, Poland. And through #MyIOwithUdacity we got to tag along.

We started by getting to know them better—observing their excitement as they packed for California, the surprise on their faces at so many great developers under one tent, and to watch how inspired they were by the I/O presenters and their fellow attendees.

Each day we went along for the ride, watching their photos & videos from the heart of the I/O action.

Udacity tweet 1
Udacity tweet 2
Udacity tweet 3
Udacity tweet 4
Udacity tweet 5
Udacity tweet 6

The Google I/O Adventure was just one of many opportunities for the thousands of European scholarship recipients we’re so proud of across the region. We’re committed to championing these scholars long-term and to opening new doors for the European developer community.