Latest news with #softwareengineering


New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
They Demanded Democracy. Years Later, They Are Still Paying the Price.
There was the software engineering major who crouched behind umbrellas to dodge rubber bullets. The social worker who marched with other pro-democracy protesters. And the student who handed out leaflets and made speeches. All three had joined the Hong Kong protests that erupted in 2019, hoping for more democracy. Instead, the movement was crushed, and they, like many others, were arrested, sentenced and sent to prison. More than 10,000 people were arrested during the monthslong uprising that began as peaceful mass rallies but grew sometimes violent as the police responded with force. Almost a quarter of those were convicted of crimes that include rioting and national security offenses. China's national security crackdown on Hong Kong, which began five years ago, has quelled protests and effectively outlawed public dissent. Many of the protesters have moved overseas or gone back to their lives. But for those convicted of crimes, moving on has been hard. Some have found themselves shut out from their former careers; others feel stranded as their peers have moved on. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.


Associated Press
23-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Grid Dynamics Announces AI-Powered Engagement Model Enabling Accelerated Business Transformation for Fortune 1000 Enterprises
SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 23, 2025-- Grid Dynamics Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: GDYN) (Grid Dynamics)—a prominent technology consulting and digital services provider specializing in AI, platform and product engineering, and digital engagement services—today announced the launch of an innovative AI-powered engagement model for its software engineering services. This new model is specifically engineered to deliver the next level of agility, quality, and accelerated time-to-market for Fortune 1000 enterprises. Grid Dynamics' innovative approach expands its engagement offerings beyond traditional Fixed Price, Time and Materials, and Capacity-based engagements. Key features include: At the center of the new engagement model is the Grid Dynamics AI Native Development Framework (GAIN Development Framework), which represents a shift from the traditional effort-based development model to an AI & Human collaboration model optimized for global, enterprise-scale delivery. The GAIN Development Framework is lean, with an emphasis on domain specialists, software architects, and experts in emerging technology, while leveraging Grid Dynamics' AI-Enabled Development Platform to automate routine coding and testing tasks. This structure helps ensure that our clients' investments are focused on creative, high-impact engineering that solves their most complex problems. 'We are redefining how software is built,' said Valery Zelixon, SVP of Sales at Grid Dynamics. 'The GAIN Development Framework is not just about automation—it's about unlocking the full potential of engineering teams. By streamlining repetitive tasks and accelerating innovation cycles, we're helping our clients bring high-impact products to market faster, with greater precision and affordable cost. This marks a major shift in how organizations scale technology.' 'The combination of AI-enabled software development and enterprise-scale delivery creates unprecedented opportunities,' said Leonard Livschitz, CEO of Grid Dynamics. 'And our position at the intersection of innovation and scale, along with our deep AI expertise, enable us to consistently solve complex business challenges and deliver client value at an accelerated pace. We expect this new engagement model to be a significant growth driver as more Fortune 1000 enterprises seek our expertise to harness AI's potential.' Visit this page to learn more. About Grid Dynamics Grid Dynamics (Nasdaq: GDYN) is a leading provider of technology consulting, platform and product engineering, AI, and digital engagement services. Fusing technical vision with business acumen, we solve the most pressing technical challenges and enable positive business outcomes for enterprise companies undergoing business transformation. A key differentiator for Grid Dynamics is our 8 years of experience and leadership in enterprise AI, supported by profound expertise and ongoing investment in data and ML platform engineering, cloud platform and product engineering, IoT and edge computing, and digital engagement services. Founded in 2006, Grid Dynamics is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices across the Americas, Europe, and India. Follow us on LinkedIn. Forward-Looking Statements This communication contains 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are not historical facts, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results of Grid Dynamics to differ materially from those expected and projected. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words 'believes,' 'estimates,' 'anticipates,' 'expects,' 'intends,' 'plans,' 'may,' 'will,' 'potential,' 'projects,' 'predicts,' 'continue,' or 'should,' or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, quotations and statements regarding the expected benefits of our capabilities and our company's future growth including with customers, the AI-Enabled Development Platform, and the Grid Dynamics AI-Native Development Framework. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results. Most of these factors are outside Grid Dynamics' control and are difficult to predict. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to our ability to achieve its expected benefits, the expected performance and functionality of our software offerings, as well as any factors limiting our capabilities, the benefits of our services and products, and our company's growth strategy. Grid Dynamics cautions that the foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. Grid Dynamics cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Grid Dynamics does not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Further information about factors that could materially affect Grid Dynamics, including its results of operations and financial condition, is set forth under the 'Risk Factors' section of Grid Dynamics' annual report on Form 10-K filed February 27, 2025, and in other periodic filings Grid Dynamics makes with the SEC. View source version on CONTACT: Media Contact: Cary Savas +1 (650) 523 5000 [email protected] KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING BUSINESS PROFESSIONAL SERVICES SOFTWARE INTERNET DATA ANALYTICS DATA MANAGEMENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SOURCE: Grid Dynamics Holdings, Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 06/23/2025 09:15 AM/DISC: 06/23/2025 09:14 AM
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A Google engineer's advice to computer science students: Go where the hiring bar is lower and get your foot in the door
Tawfiq Mohammad, a Google software engineer, says the hiring bar is lower for internships than full-time roles. Big Tech companies frequently onboard from their internship programs, he said in an interview with Sajjaad Khader. His advice to secure an internship? Develop skills through projects, seek out referrals, and track your applications. Don't underestimate the potential advantage of a first or second-year program at a Big Tech giant. It could be your foot in the door to a full-time offer. A referral can also help, too. Google software engineer Tawfiq Mohammad interned at the company for two summers before receiving a full-time offer — and he suggests current computer science students try to do the same. "I think one of the most important things I've done in my career, to date, is applying for these first and second year programs," he said in an interview with YouTuber Sajjaad Khader. "Like I said, it's a first and second-year program for computer science students, and the hiring bar is much, much lower. For example, they'll ask like a Leetcode easy instead of a Leetcode medium," he added, referencing the technical interviews. It's no secret that entry-level coders have it rough right now compared to the hiring boom of the pandemic. The tech industry is still feeling the effects of the last few years' waves of layoffs, and the stress of shrinking opportunities is compounded by companies increasingly turning to AI to accomplish tasks human coders once did. To better your chances of clinching an internship, Mohammad said, tailor your résumé and track your applications. "I started tracking my applications for these internships as opposed to just mass applying and just like waiting for whatever comes into my inbox," he said. "So, it was very organized. I would update the status of each application and it would help me a lot to prepare for each interview and for which stage I was at in each interview." To get his internship at Google, Mohammad said he cleared one behavioral interview, followed by two technical screenings. To prepare for the latter, he advises students to learn the pattern of Leetcode questions, rather than focusing on memorizing individual problems. "If you try to memorize it problem by problem, you'll eventually be given a problem that you don't know," he said. "So you just want to master the overarching principles." Mohammad acknowledged that getting a referral from his father's friend, who was already employed at Google, likely helped his chances. If getting a recommendation is within reach, he suggests applicants do what they can to secure one. "I think that really helped me get my foot in the door in the application process," he said. "I got an interview really soon after she submitted the referral. You want to try to separate yourself from everyone as much as you can when you're applying for these internships." And if you just can't seem to get an internship in this brutal job market, try to start learning critical skills on your own time by taking on projects, he added. Then, you'll have more to list on your résumé that could make you a more attractive applicant. "I think the best way to learn these basic computer science fundamentals is really just like doing things on your own," he said. If and when things eventually do work out, Mohammad suggests being as independent as possible. Ask for help when you need it, but the more problems you solve on your own, the more you're likely to learn. "You're smart enough to evaluate whether you're blocked," he said. "And if you're really, really blocked, at a certain point, obviously, then you should ask for help. But try to solve your problems on your own. Just by solving the problems on your own, you'll understand how all the systems fit together, how things run, and eventually you'll start helping people with your expertise." In an earlier interview with BI, Mohammad said interns should try to "learn as much as possible" from their more experienced colleagues. After all, they were likely once in a similar place. "They're really smart, so you want to absorb as much information as you can from them," Mohammad told BI. Read the original article on Business Insider


Fast Company
20-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
How Windsurf turned its AI coding brand into something cool enough to wear
Anshul Ramachandran knew they'd landed on something special when engineers started having opinions about color palettes. 'Probably one of my favorite moments was when we showed other people at the company the brand book for the first time and I heard the audible 'wows' and 'ahs,'' the cofounder and head of product and strategy at Windsurf says. 'If you can get a bunch of engineers in a room to do that about colors and lines, you probably did something that works.' Windsurf, formerly known as Codeium, is an AI-based development environment that was bought last month by Open AI for $3 billion —30 times its valuation. Ramachandran's clients are mainly engineers, and so any redesign needed to speak directly to them. So Windsurf enlisted Vancouver design agency Metalab to create a visual identity that looks more like athletic gear than business software. The result breaks every rule about how tech companies are supposed to look. Back to the human Windsurf builds AI tools for more than a million software engineers, helping them accelerate their coding workflows through what the company calls 'seamless AI collaboration.' But their previous brand identity—a black background with teal accents—felt limiting for a product that was expanding beyond basic code generation. 'There's sort of a very grayscale, kind of boring treatment to a lot of [technology] products,' says Allison Butula, marketing director at Metalab. The standard tech aesthetic had become a liability for a company positioning itself at the intersection of human creativity and machine intelligence. When machines seem to be taking over our world, it makes sense that a brand should work to make technology feel more human. The timing of the redesign aligned with broader changes at Windsurf. The company released the Windsurf Editor in November, which generated such momentum that users began identifying the company by its product name rather than its corporate name. The company officially renamed to Windsurf in April. 'It was a natural time as we were also changing the name of the company,' Ramachandran says. The big creative risk Yash Mittal, lead designer at Windsurf who oversaw the project internally, tells me the team was deliberate about taking creative risks. 'At the end of this process, where do we want to be? And we're like, we want to take this big risk. And even if it fails, we're okay with that because we don't want to end up with a brand that looks just like any other tech brand,' he says. Metalab has helped to turn technical products into emotionally resonant brands in the past (including Slack). Jordan Darbishire, brand director at Metalab, anchored the visual identity in a core emotional concept. 'It was the idea of feeling this unlimited potential. So it's all about flow state. It's all about doing your best work and the tool affording you time, which is obviously a very precious resource,' she says. The brand flows indeed. The flat white logomark is a stylized 'W' that makes it look like waves in the ocean. Its smooth thickness variations give it a hand-drawn quality, but at the same time it is precise, recalling an engineer's calligraphy on a blueprint. The variable width typography—how the 'W' letterform grows wider, then thinner, then wider again, creating visual rhythm that suggests energy and movement—'transmits a flow state,' Mittal says. The logomark also visually echoes the wordmark: The W's curves literally repeat the delicate thin ligatures of the brand's typeface, Tomato Grotesk, adding to the repetition and the flow Mittal speaks about. The design process required balancing seemingly contradictory elements, Darbishire says. 'We want to really meld the natural and the technical,' she says. To achieve that, the team created wavelike gradients that guide the eye through compositions while incorporating blueprint elements that communicate technical sophistication, which are at the same time a big contrast to the flat nature of the Windsurf brand and, at the same time, extend its human nature. Surfing UX AI These pretty gradients are a key part of the brand book. Metalab developed a comprehensive gradient system with dotted line language and dash patterns that Windsurf's designers could use to build new shapes and applications. The color palette drew inspiration from actual windsurfing sails. 'A lot of them utilize these bright neon colors so you can see them on the water. It's also sort of the design language of that sport,' Darbishire says. 'It looks like it could be a windsurf, like a windsurfing athletic company. And we really want to lean into that because it's just so unique.' It wasn't the most aggressively sporty option, however. The team explored directions that felt too fashion-forward, too technical, or too vibrant before finding the balance point. 'We arrived at the sweet spot where we were very creative and expressive, but also we communicated our product values extremely clearly,' Mittal notes. The gradients and colors will be an element that permeates the entire UX. Luke Des Cotes, CEO of Metalab, says his company has had 'a front row seat of these kinds of waves in technology—the big boom of crypto companies that all come forward. And now it's been AI companies that have kind of come forward.' Creating a unique brand is key during a gold rush, he adds. 'There is going to be like this real renaissance of value put towards brand as being a core differentiator,' he says. While Windsurf launched its new logo in mid-April, testing market reception before the full brand rollout, the complete rebranding across the site and all materials happens today (a day before International Surf Day). The logo has been a success so far, Ramachandran says. 'Almost all of our customers, especially on the enterprise side, they're like, okay, yeah, that's great. You see the W, I see the wave, I see the flow. It makes a lot of sense.'
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Yahoo
Apple's Visual Intelligence Is Getting Smarter—But It's Still Missing the Feature I Really Want
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. When Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, started talking about the Visual Intelligence feature in iOS 26 at WWDC 2025, I hoped for significant changes beyond its existing ability to tell you information about the places and objects you point your camera at on recent iPhones. Instead, we got the somewhat underwhelming news that Visual Intelligence options would soon be available directly in the iOS screenshot interface. I can't deny that these capabilities are practical (if a bit unexciting). But Visual Intelligence still falls short of Google's Gemini Live and Microsoft's Copilot Vision in that it can't converse with you out loud about what you see. This sort of live interactivity isn't necessarily vital, but it does feel exciting and natural to use. The foundation of Visual Intelligence is solid, but I still want Apple to push things forward in a way that aligns with its measured approach to AI. Like many of iOS's best features, Visual Intelligence is a core part of the OS and works seamlessly with its default apps. That means you don't need to open a separate app and upload an image to have the AI analyze it. And the new ability to access the tool whenever you snap a screenshot certainly extends its usefulness. Related options appear on the screenshot interface along the bottom: Ask, which sends the image out to ChatGPT for analysis, or Search, which keeps scans on-device. With the latter, Visual Intelligence can, for example, look for information about an event and create a calendar entry with all the important details. You can also draw over a part of the image to identify it, such as an article of clothing that catches your eye. Visual Intelligence can recognize it and either search it on Google or take you directly to its product page on a shopping app, such as Etsy. Apple is making an API available to app developers so Visual Intelligence can open dedicated apps when it detects relevant content or products. All that said, I still feel like Visual Intelligence is missing a level of interactivity I can get with other tools. On either my Android phone or iPhone, I can converse back and forth with Copilot Vision or Gemini Live about what I'm looking at via the camera app. When I pointed my phone's camera out a motel window recently, for example, Gemini Live identified the tree in the courtyard as an olive tree. I could then continue to ask related questions, such as where the tree species was native. This ability to point my camera at something and simply chat with an AI about it feels orders of magnitude cooler than anything Visual Intelligence currently does. And more importantly, it feels like something I expect an AI assistant to be able to do. I understand that Apple is prioritizing on-device AI, which isn't yet capable of such feats, but it seems like it should be able to develop a similar feature given how much emphasis it puts on the Private Cloud Compute tech. We can only hope the company catches up with its competitors before their AI tools take an even greater leap ahead.