
Google Brain Residency Program – 7 months in and looking ahead - stablemap
https://research.googleblog.com/2017/01/google-brain-residency-program-7-months_5.html
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hardmaru
One of the things I like about the residency program, and google brain in
general, is the openness of the research environment.

For example, it is easy for us to release open source code related our
research, and in fact we are even encouraged to do so.

Some of us even continue to write personal blogs about machine learning
research work done in the program.

In addition to open source projects such as tensorflow, people on the team
also contribute and develop other open source libraries such as pybullet,
rather than using proprietary, closed-source physics libraries.

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zhiyuan
Hey long time lurker and first time commenter here. May I ask if you could
ping you for a few tips on my application. Right now I am finishing up a
master's in robotics (mix of computer science and electrical engineering) at
an Ivy league university (also did my undergrad here). I have previous
research experience implementing (from scratch) and training convolutional
neural nets. Right now I'm doing researching in natural language processing
but not with RNNs.

This program sounds very competitive and I would love to get in, so any help
is greatly appreciated!

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ben_mann
Summary: Google Brain team hired a bunch of 1-year residents to do research
with them. They've published 21 papers already and are loving it. Apply for
next year here: g.co/brainresidency

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seanmcdirmid
A resident sounds very much like a post doc in the academic world.

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closed
This made me wonder how well they pay, but there is no mention of money
anywhere, which maybe makes it _more_ academic than a post-doc :o.

application page:

[https://www.google.com/about/careers/jobs#!t=jo&jid=/google/...](https://www.google.com/about/careers/jobs#!t=jo&jid=/google/the-
google-brain-residency-2017-program-1600-amphitheatre-pkwy-mountain-view-
ca-159360005&)

~~~
gpm
They came to do a recruitment talk at my university. Per the spokesperson,
they pay exactly the same as any other introductory job at google (so a hell
of a lot more than academia).

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cinjon
Hi there! I'm Cinjon, a current resident in the Google Brain Residency. Feel
free to ask any Qs and I'll answer them.

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Birkeland
What does Google look for in applicants for this program? I have an
undergraduate pure math degree and an undergraduate publication in
mathematics.

My aim is to complete a PhD in CS. I'm currently taking CS coursework before I
apply to programs (making up the difference from my math degree). My goal is
to do research in machine learning and this program piques my interest. Wonder
if someone like myself would qualify... looks potentially tailored/or
preferred for those already in PhD programs.

~~~
cinjon
I think that's a great background for the program and matches a bunch of the
current residents. You should definitely apply. I suspect it will only make
your later PhD experience better.

~~~
cinjon
You should just apply. The people you're trying to impress are researchers and
engineers, and they have a long history evaluating folks who have proven their
merit outside of academia.

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bronxbomber92
For the residents that quit jobs in industry to do this program, what's next
for them? How many residents are converting to permanent employees?

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cinjon
The current group doesn't end until at least June and so, except for those who
just applied to grad schools, we're all continuing to do more awesome research
here rather than starting to solidify what comes next.

That being said, this is an unparalleled experience in the field and a
phenomenal road to travel regardless of what we decide to do afterward.

~~~
bronxbomber92
But as someone who has industry experience, what are the advantages of
applying for the residency program over a normal perm position within Google
Brain? The Residency program allows you to focus more on research than
engineering I suppose?

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aeontech
This really makes me think Google is in some aspects the Xerox PARC labs of
our generation... is any other company doing this kind of research investment?

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yareally
Volkswagen, Samsung, Intel and Microsoft[1] all spend more on R&D than Google
does[2] and put that funding into a wide variety of areas just as Google does.

There's also non-profit research think tanks like Battelle[3]

[1] [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research](https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/research)

[2]
[http://web.archive.org/web/20160329190202/http://www.strateg...](http://web.archive.org/web/20160329190202/http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/global/home/what-
we-think/innovation1000/top-innovators-spenders)

[3] [http://www.battelle.org/](http://www.battelle.org/)

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PunchTornado
Yeah, but if they have results like google they really manage to keep them
secret.

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markeroon
MS research has historically been fantastic in computer vision.

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automatwon
_The wide array of topics studied by residents reflects the diversity of the
residents themselves — some come to the program as new graduates with degrees
ranging from BAs to Ph.Ds in computer science to physics and mathematics to
biology and neuroscience, while other residents come with years of industry
experience under their belts_

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gauMah
"Brain residents will spend the first two weeks of the program going through
the Google Orientation sessions interlaced with introductory deep learning
classes"

It would be great if, Google can make these two week introductory courses
available for everyone.

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cinjon
The wonderful Chris Olah teaches this, and in some ways he is by making them
available through distill.pub. Check it out!

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ilaksh
Why aren't any of these geniuses working on AGI? Such as applying some of
these NN advancements to agents in diverse 3d virtual environments attempting
varied/gradually increasingly complex tasks and learning based on low-level
(grounded) sensory inputs?

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cinjon
They are. The pace of research is not limited to six months.

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bobsgame
I really want to work on this!

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JedDDD
Thanks for taking time to answer questions. Can you please elaborate a little
about the interviewing process?

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eva1984
Wonder how research this is, what if people are looking for more engineering
oriented experience?

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ma2rten
If you are looking for an engineering oriented experience you should apply for
a full time Software Engineer or Intern position.

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eva1984
Already a fulltime Engineer myself, I guess what I am looking at can be more
phrased as applied machine learning, to solve production related problems.
This is somewhat different than a regular engineering role though.

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dgacmu
We have a few programs for this. As I mentioned above, the ML ninjas program
is like an internal engineering nfocused residency for existing SWEs. There's
also a huge amount of internal training courses to get up to speed on machine
learning. There are, however, options for existing employees. (step 1: apply
for job.)

