Stopover at Google Boston

I gave a talk over at Google Boston yesterday, which is now actually located in Cambridge, in the building above the Kendall Square Legal Seafood [5 Cambridge Center]. It's new digs -- they've pretty much just moved in -- and the place had the look of still being put all together, in terms of decorations and all. It did look like a typical Google building -- very open cubicles, lots of conference rooms of various sizes, a game room, a lounge, a colorful cafeteria, etc. I talked about the Hiring Problem; they were going to record my talk and put it on YouTube, but nobody checked the camera battery before the talk, and it and the backup weren't charged. So I get to avoid for another day the issue of having my talks on YouTube. (The good: anyone can see your talk; the bad: anyone can see your talk.)

Although there's not "research" there per se, they're trying to build up a connection to Harvard, having speakers from EECS and other disciplines (economics, law, etc.) come by and give talks. I'm hoping they'll eventually put some research people there; it would be a nice addition to the soon-to-open Microsoft Cambridge lab. [Note to Big Tech companies -- research labs or lablets in Cambridge/the Boston area should be a no-brainer. If you want access to good students early in their careers, there are lots of good students around here...]