How high performance computing brought Galician to YouTube
I’m Galician, I’m 33 years old and that’s how high-performance computing brought me to YouTube:
Ramos has been doing this for more-than 10 years, before completing the degree in Computer Engineering at the University of La Coruna. He did it with honors: he won the final degree and also the National Award for Excellence in University Academic Performance for the 2008-2009 academic year, in addition to some scholarships.
He completed a master’s degree to continue with his specialty in HPC, to which he also dedicated his doctorate. His thesis focused on how to optimize communications between computers, specifically to make communications between processes running in multi-core processors that are not completely independent more efficient: there are several levels of memory and there are some that they share.
“What this allows is that, instead of communicating through the network, you can do it through memory. The advantage is that communications are faster because you can directly use a memory that is within the same processor, than all they already share that everyone has access to, “explains Ramos. The solution, however, is not perfect: if the processes simultaneously access the same memory at the same time, it cannot serve them all at the same speed. That forces, he adds, to order the communications.
Ramos learned all this during a stay at the Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich (Switzerland). There he completed his postgraduate degree and, after testing teaching, decided to move to the side of the industry. That led him to the ranks of Google to work on infrastructure projects and tool generation “so YouTube developers and developers can do their work faster and better.”
Information technology avoids ruling on the most controversial aspects of the video platform [such as the fine it faces for accusations of collecting personal data from children without the consent of parents or guardians or how its recommendation system works and how to avoid escalation of conspiracy or fake content on YouTube].
Why study computing
What Ramos does talk about is the reasons to opt for computer science. “Fields such as computing contribute to shaping the future of society,” he says. This discipline, he says, allows us to build very different things and work in many areas. His message for those who consider immersing themselves in it: “It is important that the bases – of algorithms, of data structures, of how a computer works on the inside … – are solid”. “Now we tend to move a lot in fashion. Before it was big data , now artificial intelligence … But in computer science what is important today may be obsolete tomorrow. It is a field where everything moves very fast, so it is important a solid base, “he says.
Ramos says that this type of learning is the one that is most easily disregarded: “These are things that people think they will not use tomorrow, which are not necessary on a day-to-day basis. However, having that knowledge is much more easy to build, “he says. “It’s much more useful than learning programming languages,” he adds.
What more reasons are there to study computer science? The figures point to employ-ability: those who study computer science or some engineering are more likely to have a job in the fourth year of finishing their degree, according to the report Job placement of university graduates – 2013-2014 Course of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. The study, published last July, shows how more than 80% of students who finished one of these degrees in the aforementioned course were affiliated with Social Security in 2018.
The engineer warns, of course, that neither Computing nor the rest of CTIM careers are easy, and that is why she underlines the importance of “choosing something you like, and that if you don’t like it, leave it”. Because of the experience of people around you, it is a difficult but important step. Even she had a hard time leaving the academic field to go to the company. A decision he is now glad of. On this, add another tip: “Find mentors and supportive people. People with experience or similar problems that can help you.”
Make information technology visible
That is precisely what motivates Ramos’ work on gender diversity in Google. The effort comes to him from afar: already in 2012, during his postgraduate degree, he received the Google Anita Borg Prize , an international scholarship of 7,000 euros that the technological giant grants every year to three undergraduate and postgraduate students (women) from around the world . Its purpose: to create gender equality in the field of information technology and to encourage women to excel in technology and become active leaders and role models in the field.
The program selects the candidates for their force of impact on diversity, for their demonstrated leadership and for their academic background, something Ramos had shown. He also continued to do so later. In 2015, he organized at the University of La Coruña an event that was a forerunner of what is now the Wisibilízalas initiative : an international competition aimed at primary and secondary schools to break gender stereotypes associated with technology.
His then companion and co-organizer Ana Freire , finalist of Anita Borg, took the idea to the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona to compete to create web pages dedicated to the career of contemporary women working in CTIM fields (acronym for Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), preferably not yet published on Wikipedia, that come from the local environment or even from students with relevant technological projects.
Ramos, for its part, participates in Google’s Women Engineering program organizing events for female students from local universities, as well as workshops, mentoring, etc. to encourage vocations in technology and that their presence – in the faculties, in companies, in management positions – is not a rarity. In her team, without going any further, 12 people in total are just two women: she and the director.
The company’s general statistics are not much better: women represent just over 31% of their workforce in the US. (including non-technical positions) compared to more than 68% of our global workforce, according to the 2019 Annual Diversity Report prepared by Google itself. Among the managerial positions, the gap is even greater: worldwide, women occupy only 26.1% of the leadership positions of the corporation.
Google has a multitude of programs not only to improve gender inclusion but in general the diversity of its workforce. Programs of this type begin to be more common (facade or commitment remains to be seen). “Now luckily there are many more initiatives and visibility on these issues but they are still very necessary,” says Ramos.
In his opinion, there are two key aspects. The first is not to condition adolescents and children to think that because they were born male or female they are good at one thing or another. On the other hand, he believes that it is also important to work on the inclusion of people from minority presence groups that are already working on technology. In Spain, the numbers of women in the ICT sector remain low: almost 20 years ago (in 1999), the presence of women in the sector was 33% and in 2017 it was only slightly higher: 37.4%, according to data from the study Salaries and labor policy in the ICT hypersector 2017-2018 of AMETIC, the employers’ technology.
As estimated by the European Commission , by 2020 there will be 500,000 vacancies of technical profiles not filled in Spain due to lack of professionals. Only 7% of students in the country are studying for a technological career, of which only 28% are women and 20% are engineers. It is not for lack of university students, who represent more than half of the higher education students. AMETIC points out that it is essential to give greater visibility to the different technical options and qualified professionals among the youngest.
Why is it so important to make visible as there is more presence and female vocations in CTIM areas? It’s simple: “It’s much harder for you to imagine yourself dedicating yourself to something or to being able to do it if you don’t see people like you doing it,” says the engineer. “There are those who do not need it: they are the referents, the pioneers. But for the vast majority that support is necessary,” he adds. On this he cites a research by Google and Gallup “that confirms that this type of support and encouragement is really critical.” Among other findings: that students who have been encouraged by a teacher or parent are three times more likely to be interested in learning computer science.
On the other hand, Ramos emphasizes that diversity in a team is fundamental, since “different points of view are needed to obtain the best result and foster creativity.” The engineer considers it important to visualize “the passion of this world and the role of those who do not fit the most classic stereotypes.”
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