The Institute - June 2021 - 56

INDUSTRY PROFILE
The Maestro
Behind Google's
Data-Center Design
Luiz André Barroso brought us cloud computing, powerful
search engines, and fast Internet services
BY KATHY PRETZ
GROWING UP IN Rio de Janeiro, Luiz
André Barroso seemed destined to
become a physician. After all, his
grandfather, father, uncle, and aunt
were all health care professionals. But
when he was 8 years old, he decided he
wanted to become an electrical engineer.
" I don't advise anybody to make
career decisions when they are 8 years
old, " Barroso says, laughing. But his
early determination paid off. Today
he is a vice president of engineering
at Google in Mountain View, Calif.
The IEEE senior member credits
his grandfather with inspiring him to
become an engineer. His grandfather's
hobby was radio, and Barroso would
spend hours helping him fix radios and
build microphones and antennas at the
family's cacao farm.
Barroso, who has worked for
Google for nearly 20 years, heads the
office of cross-Google engineering,
responsible for technical roadmaps
that cut across multiple product lines.
The Google Fellow is best known
Employer
Google
Title
Vice president
of engineering
Member grade
Senior member
Alma mater
University of
Southern
California,
Los Angeles
as the designer of the company's data
centers, which house hundreds of
thousands of computer servers and
disk drives. The facilities have brought
us cloud computing, powerful search
engines, and faster Internet services.
For his pioneering work, Barroso
was named the 2020 recipient of
the Eckert-Mauchly Award from
the Association for Computing
Machinery and the IEEE Computer
56
THE INSTITUTE
MONTH 2021
Photo-illustration by Max-o-matic
https://www.barroso.org/ https://www.barroso.org/ https://www.about.google/ https://awards.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/press-releases/2020/june/eckert-mauchly-award-2020.pdf https://www.acm.org/ https://www.acm.org/ http://www.computer.org/

The Institute - June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Institute - June 2021

The Institute - June 2021 - 51
The Institute - June 2021 - 52
The Institute - June 2021 - 53
The Institute - June 2021 - 54
The Institute - June 2021 - 55
The Institute - June 2021 - 56
The Institute - June 2021 - 57
The Institute - June 2021 - 58
The Institute - June 2021 - 59
The Institute - June 2021 - 60
The Institute - June 2021 - 61
The Institute - June 2021 - 62
The Institute - June 2021 - 63
The Institute - June 2021 - 64
The Institute - June 2021 - 65
The Institute - June 2021 - 66
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_march_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_december_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_september_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_june_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_march_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_december2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_september2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_june2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_march2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_december2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_september2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_june2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_march2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_december2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_september2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_june2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_march2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_march2007
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com