ShortStory_Lily

Softwear developer Lily Zheng was originally a math major in college but switched to computerscience after taking a robotics class during her junior year, “I had to write a program to make arobot play with legos, and I absolutely LOVED IT,” she says. Lily, who is originally from Wuhan, China, went on to study graphics and computer vision, including facial recognition technology. She uses some of those skills today, in her role at Google, “When people ask me exactly what Ido,” she says, “I explain that writing code is simply creating a set of commands for a machineto execute.”

In addition to digital technology, Lily’s other obsession is... shoes. “I have more statement shoes than basic shoes,” she says with a smile, “including too many that I only wear around my apartment!” Lily’s current favorites are a pair of Balenciaga over-the-knee purple sock boots, but admits (with a big laugh) that she doesn’t have many occasions to wear them. “It’s all about experimentation,” she says of her style, which reflects back to her Instagram handle @StyleInBeta. “In computer speak,” Lily says, “beta means end testing and fixing the bugs.”