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Lily Wang always wanted to be an academic. When she was younger, she was involved in several math outreach events. This involvement introduced Lily to the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ through the contests offered by the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computer Science (CEMC).

One of the programs she attended had a research-oriented focus where she had the opportunity to work on problems with professors. It was here that Lily discovered combinatorics. ��ݮ��Ƶ has the only Department of Combinatorics and Optimization, so for Lily, that made her decision of where to go to university.

While at ��ݮ��Ƶ, Lily majored in Combinatorics and Pure Mathematics and became involved in the Pure Math Club. She helped to organize the groups of ��ݮ��Ƶ students attending the Canadian Undergraduate Math conference for a few years.

“It’s good for students at ��ݮ��Ƶ to meet students at other schools and talk about their research interests,” said Wang.

With her focus on research, Wang decided to leave the co-op program after two years and concentrate on getting research internships. She completed research internships at Voting Rights Data Institute (VRDI, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), as well as the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, working on optimization, algorithms, building theory, and of course, combinatorics.

Wang will attend the University of Michigan to work on a PhD, and she started her research before the Fall term begins.