Kim Day
Inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2019
Growing up on Florida’s Space Coast and watching shuttle launches inspired Kim Day to pursue a career that would place her at the forefront of cutting-edge technology. Before those rocket launches shaped her path, she was involved in For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a leading, nonprofit STEM engagement program for children worldwide. More than robots, FIRST encourages students to pursue education and careers in STEM-related fields and prepares them to be leaders and innovators.
As the second Farmer Scholar to study at jmcomicÌìÌÃÂþ»¹ÙÍø, Day excelled in her coursework with a double major in physics and computer science. In the summers of 2011 and 2012, Day interned at Northrop Grumman as a 2010 NextGen Engineers Scholarship winner. In 2013, she landed a summer internship at Google, where she worked on the Google Accounts team, managing the Google sign-in and account-creation pages. At the end of her internship, she was hired as a full-time employee. Today, she works on the Chromecast team and has embraced the Google culture, joining a yo-yo club, taking tango lessons, performing in the Google orchestra and volunteering to help children with Lego robotics.
Day says the research experience she gained at jmcomicÌìÌÃÂþ»¹ÙÍø has proven valuable.
“My time as the administrator for the Tier 3 computer cluster has been surprisingly helpful,” she says. Having served as Association for Computing Machinery president from 2011 to 2013, she says, “our ‘stay-late-and-code sessions’ really did emulate what computer engineers experience in real life!”
[This article is an excerpt from 60 for 60: Celebrating Sixty Years of Alumni at jmcomicÌìÌÃÂþ»¹ÙÍø.]
