Official Google Canada Blog: April 2021

Applications are now open for the first Google Cloud Accelerator Canada

Friday, April 30, 2021

Applications are now open for Canada’s first accelerator, entirely dedicated to cloud-native technology startups. We’re inviting up to twelve Canadian startups to participate in an intensive 10-week virtual bootcamp to prepare them for their next phase of growth.

The past year has shown us the critical role cloud technologies play, for businesses, governments, nonprofits and consumers. Throughout the pandemic, cloud technologies helped organizations across the globe navigate uncertainty -- from healthcare systems shifting care models, government agencies looking to serve communities and ward off economic hardships, consumer goods and media companies adapting to dramatic shifts in consumer behaviour, and others supporting remote workforces while maintaining business continuity and uptime of their mission-critical systems.

Think about grocery click and collect. In the early days of the pandemic, getting a grocery click and collect slot was similar to trying to purchase seats for a Toronto Raptors playoff game, or snag tickets to a Hamilton performance on Broadway. As online traffic for grocery skyrocketed, grocery stores across the country needed a way to meet the demand. Our own Google Cloud team quickly worked with Loblaws to create a dedicated task force with its digital technology team to pack and fulfill orders faster so they could meet the growing demand.

Today, we’re excited to announce that applications are open for the first-ever Google Cloud Accelerator Canada. This 10-week virtual accelerator program is designed to bring the best of Google's programs, products, people and technology to startups doing interesting work in the cloud. In addition to cloud mentorship and technical project support, the accelerator also includes deep dives and workshops focused on product design, customer acquisition and leadership development for startup founders and leaders.

The accelerator program is best suited for funded, revenue generating startups who have a minimum of five employees and are well-positioned for their next phase of growth. In order to ensure Google can provide meaningful value, startups should aim to leverage either Cloud or AI/ML technologies in their product, service, or operations or show an interest in leveraging these technologies in the future. The inaugural Google Cloud Accelerator Canada cohort will kick off in July 2021 and run for 10 weeks. The first cohort will consist of 8-12 innovative cloud-native technology startups in Canada.

If your startup is leveraging the cloud to drive growth and innovation, make sure you apply for Canada’s first Google Cloud Accelerator by May 28, 2021 - we’re excited to hear from you.

Posted by Ashley Francisco Head of Startup Developer Ecosystem, Google Canada

Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

Thursday, April 15, 2021

For the past 15 years, billions of people have turned to Google Earth to explore our planet from endless vantage points. You might have peeked at Mount Everest or flown through your hometown. Since launching Google Earth, we've focused on creating a 3D replica of the world that reflects our planet in magnificent detail with features that both entertain and empower everyone to create positive change.

In the biggest update to Google Earth since 2017, you can now see our planet in an entirely new dimension — time. With Timelapse in Google Earth, 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years have been compiled into an interactive 4D experience. Now anyone can watch time unfold and witness nearly four decades of planetary change.

Our planet has seen rapid environmental change in the past half-century — more than any other point in human history. Many of us have experienced these changes in our own communities; I myself was among the thousands of Californians evacuated from their homes during the state’s wildfires last year. For other people, the effects of climate change feel abstract and far away, like melting ice caps and receding glaciers. With Timelapse in Google Earth, we have a clearer picture of our changing planet right at our fingertips — one that shows not just problems but also solutions, as well as mesmerizingly beautiful natural phenomena that unfold over decades.

To explore Timelapse in Google Earth, go to g.co/Timelapse — you can use the handy search bar to choose any place on the planet where you want to see time in motion.

Or open Google Earth and click on the ship’s wheel to find Timelapse in our storytelling platform, Voyager, to see interactive guided tours. We’ve also uploaded more than 800 Timelapse videos in both 2D and 3D for public use at g.co/TimelapseVideos. You can select any video you want as a ready-to-use MP4 video or sit back and watch the videos on YouTube. From governments and researchers to publishers, teachers and advocates, we’re excited to see how people will use Timelapse in Google Earth to shine a light on our planet.

See the difference the Suruí people have made through their protection of the Amazon rainforest they call home in Rondônia, Brazil.

Watch agriculture take shape in the middle of a desert in Al Jowf, Saudi Arabia.

Follow the expansion of Las Vegas, Nevada.

See what’s changed in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

Understand the causes of Earth’s change We worked with experts at Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab to create the technology behind Timelapse, and we worked with them again to make sense of what we were seeing.

As we looked at what was happening, five themes emerged: forest change, urban growth, warming temperatures, sources of energy, and our world’s fragile beauty. Google Earth takes you on a guided tour of each topic to better understand them.

Timelapse in Google Earth shows the rapid change on our planet in context through five thematic stories, for example the retreat of the Columbia Glacier in Alaska.

Putting time on Earth in the palm of our hand Making a planet-sized timelapse video required a significant amount of what we call “pixel crunching” in Earth Engine, Google's cloud platform for geospatial analysis. To add animated Timelapse imagery to Google Earth, we gathered more than 24 million satellite images from 1984 to 2020, representing quadrillions of pixels. It took more than two million processing hours across thousands of machines in Google Cloud to compile 20 petabytes of satellite imagery into a single 4.4 terapixel-sized video mosaic — that’s the equivalent of 530,000 videos in 4K resolution! And all this computing was done inside our carbon-neutral, 100% renewable energy-matched data centers, which are part of our commitments to help build a carbon-free future.

As far as we know, Timelapse in Google Earth is the largest video on the planet, of our planet. And creating it required out-of-this-world collaboration. This work was possible because of the U.S. government and European Union’s commitments to open and accessible data. Not to mention their herculean efforts to launch rockets, rovers, satellites and astronauts into space in the spirit of knowledge and exploration. Timelapse in Google Earth simply wouldn’t have been possible without NASA and the United States Geological Survey’s Landsat program, the world’s first (and longest-running) civilian Earth observation program, and the European Union’s Copernicus program with its Sentinel satellites.

An inside look at Google Earth. With mountains, valleys, buildings and more, Timelapse videos are draped over our planet using advanced 3D graphics rendering techniques. At any given moment, the correct videos for your location, view angle and zoom-level are seamlessly stitched together on the fly to compose Timelapse in Google Earth, updated as you pan, zoom and explore.

24 million satellite images from 1984 to 2020 were analyzed, and we identified and removed artifacts in the imagery, like clouds. We then computed a single representative pixel for every location on the planet, and for every year from 1984-2020 to produce our global, cloud-free Timelapse experience.

Timelapse also reveals beautiful natural geologic processes, such as the beach sands of Cape Cod slowly shifting south. This footprint of time is captured in our featured locations collection, “Mesmerizing Changes.”

What will you do with Timelapse? We invite anyone to take Timelapse into their own hands and share it with others — whether you’re marveling at changing coastlines, following the growth of megacities, or tracking deforestation. Timelapse in Google Earth is about zooming out to assess the health and well-being of our only home, and is a tool that can educate and inspire action.

Visual evidence can cut to the core of the debate in a way that words cannot and communicate complex issues to everyone. Take for example the work of Liza Goldberg who plans to use Timelapse imagery to teach climate change. Or the 2020 award-winning documentary “Nature Now” that uses satellite imagery to show humanity’s growing footprint on the planet.

Timelapse for the next decade to come In collaboration with our partners, we’ll update Google Earth annually with new Timelapse imagery throughout the next decade. We hope that this perspective of the planet will ground debates, encourage discovery and shift perspectives about some of our most pressing global issues.
Posted by Rebecca Moore, Director, Google Earth, Earth Engine & Outreach

Celebrating Canadian Googlers: Meet Natasha Walji

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Editor's Note: To celebrate Google Canada’s 20th Anniversary, we're profiling some of the powerful, dynamic and creative Canadians at Google.

How would you describe your job at a dinner party to people who don't work in tech? Was there something or someone specific that pushed you toward your career in tech? He sounds like an amazing mentor! What was your experience like when you studied computer science, were there a lot of women exploring it? One of the amazing things about Google, is that we’re encouraged to go beyond our role with 20 percent projects. Can you tell us about what this looks like for you? Absolutely! Giving back is something that I’m very passionate about. I’ve been serving the community for over 20 years. It’s always been a big part of my life, which was in large part because of my family history of service and because of the mentor that I had in high school. After I got better at math, he shared something very profound with me one day, he said: ‘I want you to think about how you are going to use your education and knowledge to serve others.’ This really resonated and gave me a strong sense of purpose and inspiration from a young age. So when I joined Google, I knew I had found my soulmate company because Google has an incredible impact on serving the world through accessible information; it also continues to inspire me 10+ years later because I lead impactful work fueling our economy and also have the chance to give back to the community.

Google encourages us to explore projects outside of our specific function — this is the famous “20-percent time” concept of our company's innovation culture. Currently, I spend a percentage of my time as the Executive Sponsor for volunteering projects in Canada. I’m really passionate about this, and when COVID-19 started to impact the Canadian economy, a small group of Googlers started to think about who’s helping the organizations that help Canada’s most vulnerable people. The need was greater than before and with the help of 120+ Googler volunteers across our Canadian offices, we hit the ground running and created an infrastructure to support nonprofits during the pandemic through Google for Nonprofits. Many Canadian nonprofits were unaware of free tools, resources, and free Google Ads that are available through this program, so we’ve been focused on getting them setup to tap into these benefits.

One of the things that I love about the people I work with is that Googlers are helpful, willing to give back, and always raising their hands to get involved.

What advice would you give to women pursuing a career in technology?
Stay curious and be open to what technology can bring, experiment and don’t be afraid to try new things! Technology has the potential to solve many world problems at scale and representation matters.

For me, I didn’t always know what my career would look like. I firmly believe that my mentor changed this for me and helped me understand the possibilities. I would encourage women and young girls to seek mentorship, surround yourself with people that support and inspire you.

When you speak about your work and the tech industry, you light up, you can see there’s a lot of passion, what do you love most about working in tech? So many things! Technology is not only fun, but it can also be used to solve so many problems, it’s endless. The skills you learn in tech are transferable, no matter what you do — this is why I think exploring STEM at a young age is really valuable.

I always tell young adults, if you can’t major in computer science at least minor in it. All industries are being transformed by technology, so it’s an important set of skills to have in your tool box for the future.

Official Canada Blog

Applications are now open for the first Google Cloud Accelerator Canada

Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

Celebrating Canadian Googlers: Meet Natasha Walji

Labels

Archive

Feed