It sounds to me like an operation intended to employ some skilled engineers in order to keep them away from working on Google's competitors. I don't see a lot of outreach or organisational support, but maybe it is there and my cursory glance just hasn't turned any up.

It looks like they're doing the Google equivalent of Microsoft Research - which as far as I can tell revolves around hoping something cool comes of the projects, but mostly just trying to keep their competitors from getting top talent.