GOOGLE GAME ON...AT SFU

In September 2007, representatives from Google Inc. joined us on the Burnaby campus to indulge our Computing Science and Engineering students with some Google games. These games are highly coveted and many of the puzzles are created by the no.2 Sudoku player in the world. Simon Fraser University is the first Canadian university and the third university in the world that Google chose to bring these games to; the other two being University of California, Berkeley and Stanford.

So, why did Google choose Simon Fraser University over so many other North American universities? "SFU has a strong Computing Science department, and also a strong ACM programming team" said April Yu, Staffing Programs Manager, Google Inc., hence SFU was a natural choice to host a Google event.

"We want to bring the Google culture to schools across North America", said April Yu. Through such events, students enjoy working on interesting problems, interact with people working with Google and get an idea of the company's work culture. Later the same afternoon, Google provided a technical talk to students, giving them an idea of how and what development is done at Google etc.

So, what are Google games? They are a set of different puzzles based on the following categories: Gadgetry, Ordering, Observation, Grid, Logic and Experience. Notice the first letter of each category: G-O-O-G-L-E! These puzzles are tough and require a variety of knowledge and puzzle-solving skills.

The students found the games fun, interesting and "intense", said Shawn Jansepar, ex-vice-president of activities of the Computing Science Student Society (CSSS) and co-chair of Frosh Week. Shawn was instrumental in organizing the Google games at Simon Fraser University.

-Written by Salima Vastani, SFU Computing Science