Maya Hristakeva, an international student from Bulgaria studying at Simpson College, recently found herself face-to-face with the big wigs at one of the world’s largest Internet search companies.

That meeting, which was part of the Google Workshop for Women Engineers that Hristakeva was selected to attend, would be an unnerving experience for most people. But for Hristakeva, a senior majoring in computer science and economics with a minor in mathematics, the interview was a learning experience.

“It showed me how much I know and what level I’m at in my life right now,” said Hristakeva. “It was a very valuable experience.”

Hristakeva hopes to have a career as an engineer someday, so attending the workshop was an important step in her development. She was one of only 200 women out of 800 nationwide selected to attend the workshop in California in January.

Lydia Sinapova, associate professor of computer science at Simpson College and Hristakeva’s supervisor, said Hristakeva’s acceptance to the Google Workshop for Women Engineers was a great opportunity for her, and for the school, which will learn from Hristakeva’s experiences at the workshop.

“She has done so much good work, she’s smart and hardworking,” said Sinapova. “It raises the level of the school and motivates others.”

Hristakeva rubbed elbows with recruiters and engineers who could answer questions about her future in engineering. She attended workshops on Internet searches and the future of the open source — subjects the average person just wouldn’t understand. She attended panel discussions about the future of computer science.

She also toured Google headquarters — a place she describes as virtually futuristic with no walls or cubicles and where the founder of the company sits at a desk in the corner of a huge room among his employees.

“It’s an amazing company,” she said.

With the high competition in the business of computers and computer science, it makes sense for companies like Google to take care of their employees, and that is what Hristakeva discovered while attending the workshop.

“An interesting thing to me was that you can spend 20 percent of your time, which is a day a week, working on a project of your own,” said Hristakeva.

She said Google employees have spent their time developing new computer programs to advance their personal and professional development.

“There are always ideas floating around,” she said. “There is always some innovative period and they let employees explore.”

In addition to personal time and flexible schedules, Hristakeva said Google offers employees free meals, free beverages and snacks throughout the day, and free massages.

“They reward employees. It’s amazing the things they do to keep employees happy,” said Hristakeva.

Hristakeva also met a lot of people her own age who are interested in the advancement of computer science.

“It was amazing to be surrounded by so many people,” she said. “You could connect to them on a computer science level — on a geeky level.”

Hristakeva said those interested in computer science are not a bunch of geeks, but have other interests, like politics. She said it was also nice to spend so much time with like-minded women.

Hristakeva is currently doing an internship as a Web developer for Holmes Murphy and Associates insurance company in West Des Moines, but she wants to try to do something new and more challenging, so she’s interested in working for a place like Google.

“Now is the time to explore. When I get a certain age, I’ll probably choose security, but now I’d like to see what’s out there.”

In addition to being selected for the Google Workshop for Women Engineers, Hristakeva serves as an undergraduate assistant in the computer science department and has also been awarded a Maytag Innovation Award for student and faculty research.  The project, titled “Using Data Mining and Machine Learning Algorithms for Analysis and Prediction of College Students’ Success,” was approved by the Iowa College Foundation to receive the Maytag research grant.

 

Written by Emily A. Roush

Emily A. Roush is the news services manager and public relations specialist for Simpson College.