Tag Archives: WomenTechmakers

GDE Women’s History Month Feature: Gema Parreño Piqueras, AI/ML GDE

Posted by Justyna Politanska-Pyszko – Program Manager, Google Developer Experts

For Women's History Month, we're shining a spotlight on Gema Parreño Piqueras, an AI/ML Google Developer Expert (GDE) from Madrid, Spain. GDEs are recognized by Google for their outstanding technical expertise and passion for sharing knowledge.
Gema Parreño Piqueras, AI/ML GDE, Madrid, Spain
Gema Parreño Piqueras, AI/ML GDE, Madrid, Spain

Gema's dedication to the GDE program makes her a true leader within the Google Developers community, and her work in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning pushes the boundaries of Google's technological capabilities.

Gema is a force to be reckoned with in the world of data science. As a data scientist at Izertis and a GDE, she's not only making significant contributions to the field of AI/ML but also blazing a trail for women in tech. Her unique background in architecture and her passion for problem-solving led her to an impressive career in AI/ML and development of her extraordinary project – helping NASA track asteroids! Learn more about her projects incorporating AI:

NASA Project: Deep Asteroid

Gema's architectural skills proved invaluable when she turned her attention to AI. In 2016, she created the program Deep Asteroid for NASA's International Space Apps Challenge. This innovative program assists scientists in detecting, tracking, and classifying asteroids, potentially protecting our planet from future threats.

Journey to AI/ML

Intrigued by the potential of AI, Gema embarked on a journey that merged her architectural background with cutting-edge technology. Her experience with 3D modeling translated seamlessly into the world of machine learning, giving her a fresh perspective. Over the past seven years, she's overcome challenges and established herself as a true expert.

As a Google Developer Expert, Gema has found a vibrant community that has fueled her growth. She has attended numerous GDE events throughout Europe and had the opportunity to collaborate with Google teams. This experience was instrumental in the development of Deep Asteroid, demonstrating the power of community and access to advanced technology.

Gema’s advice for women aspiring to enter the field is simple and powerful: "Don't be afraid to experiment, fail, and learn from those failures. Persistence and a willingness to dive into the unknown are what will set you apart." Gema encourages women to find supportive communities, like the GDE program, where they can network, learn, and grow.

You can find Gema on LinkedIn, GitHub and X (formerly known as twitter).


The Google Developer Experts (GDE) program is a global network of highly experienced technology experts, influencers, and thought leaders who actively support developers, companies, and tech communities by speaking at events and publishing content.

AAPI Heritage Month: How Web GDE Vickie Li views the importance of diversity

Posted by Kevin Hernandez, Developer Relations Community Manager

For AAPI Heritage Month, we are celebrating Vickie Li, Web GDE

Head shot of Vickie Li, smiling


Vickie Li, Web GDE, is a Senior Security Engineer at Instacart where she works on a range of security tasks such as bug bounty reports and building internal security tooling. Although she went to school with the goal of becoming a developer, she discovered computer systems and started working on bug bounties as a way of exploring the security industry. From there, her interest in security blossomed and eventually inspired her to blog about security. As Vickie started to become more involved in blogging and sharing what she’s working on or learning, she started to realize that she really enjoyed the sense of community - both in the developer and AAPI communities.


AAPI community support and progress

To Vickie, diversity is important and necessary to inspire the next generation of tech professionals. Having role models that look like you serve as a way to show young professionals or students what is possible. Vickie shares, “For me, being a young Asian woman, it has been difficult to find role models that I can relate to. When I see people like myself excelling in the community, I am motivated to keep pursuing a tech career.” Just recently, Vickie attended a Women Techmakers event at I/O ‘23 where she felt inspired and was able to relate with the speakers who shared a lot of her same characteristics. This made Vickie feel a sense of solidarity and she says, "Meeting other women of AAPI heritage at I/O made me feel less alone on this tech journey. Having this community that I can relate to is helping me chart my career path."

Over the years, Vickie has noticed the tech industry making more of a conscious effort to celebrate and empower different cultures. Her company, for example, has their own way of celebrating AAPI heritage and they have employee groups that are devoted to helping Asian employees feel included and celebrated. This extends beyond the AAPI community and Vickie explains, "Actively recognizing the importance of diversity within the tech industry benefits everyone. Having a foundation of respect and open mindedness encourages innovation and inspires more people to pursue developer careers."


Advice for AAPI developers

Vickie encourages developers to find a relatable mentor to learn from and a mentor that has a shared experience. This allows you to learn from someone who has excelled in the space and have someone that you can personally look up to. She talks about her own personal experience by saying, “One of my earlier mentors in college wasn’t in the tech space but was of an Asian background. Because of that cultural understanding, he was able to help me navigate through a lot of my career difficulties, while also understanding my cultural upbringing and the nuances that may bring.” Vickie goes on to say, “It doesn't just apply to AAPI Heritage impact - it can also apply to if you're a woman, for example. Finding a woman role model to mentor you to help you navigate the tricky parts of the industry.”

Through the Google Developer Expert program, Vickie has seen people just like her excel in their careers and share their experiences through events such as Google I/O. Vickie has been able to meet people with shared experiences and similar backgrounds that show her what is possible in her own career.

You can find Vickie online on her personal site.


The Google Developer Experts (GDE) program is a global network of highly experienced technology experts, influencers, and thought leaders who actively support developers, companies, and tech communities by speaking at events and publishing content.

GDE Women’s History Month Feature: Jigyasa Grover, Machine Learning

Posted by Kevin Hernandez, Developer Relations Community Manager

For Women’s History Month, we are celebrating Jigyasa Grover, ML GDE.

Photo of Jigyasa Grover, holding a cup of coffee, smiling
Jigyasa Grover, ML GDE, Senior ML Engineer, Twitter

Jigyasa Grover is a 10x award winner in AI and open source, a published book author in machine learning, and was most recently named one of the 50 most powerful women in technology to follow for 2023. Jigyasa has always been inspired by technology – with her father being a computer scientist for the government of India and playing with a toy laptop as a child. Google has also played an integral role in her career by providing resources and community every step of the way: from early in her university days through Google Summer of Code to today, where she is a Senior ML Engineer at Twitter and leverages the Women Techmakers and Google Developer Experts programs to connect with other developers and pay it forward through programs like Google Code-In.

Getting involved in the developer community

Things started rolling for Jigyasa in her first year at university when she discovered Pharo at the library, where she spent a lot of her time. As she started to dive deeper into Pharo, she read more and more about the open source community and eventually started reaching out to members of the community online. This led her to discover Google Summer of Code, an open source internship, where she was selected to participate as one of the youngest developers. After a successful stint in the program, Jigyasa was invited to participate again the following year, which proved to be a pivotal moment in her academic career. Up to this point, Jigyasa was working primarily on mobile and web app development. “The second year, the project that I was working on was more focused on building web scrapers, machine learning, NLP chatbots, and so on. That was my introduction to the world of machine learning which got me intrigued”, Jigyasa says. After this experience she started taking more courses related to machine learning, watched talks, worked on more machine learning projects, and interned at the National Research Council of Canada and then the Institute Research and Development in France. These experiences helped shape her career vision and she knew that machine learning would be her field of expertise.

Finding community through Google

Up until college, Jigyasa had always gone to all-girls schools so when she first got to engineering school, it was an eye-opening experience for her. She reflects, “I felt like a minority coming from a place where I was surrounded by girls all the time. That's when I started Googling different organizations and found organizations like Women Who Code, Women Techmakers, and Google Developer Groups.” These organizations exposed her to mentorship, resources, and events, and more. One such event was Google I/O, where she was invited to attend online. Many developer events reminded her of the lack of women's representation in the developer community. This inspired her to commit to the saying, "be the change you want to see in the world." Jigyasa would go on to pursue speaking opportunities at tech events and inspire other women developers with her passion and support.

After university, Jigyasa discovered the GDE program and the strong community the program offers. Jigyasa adds, “I think one of the most meaningful parts of the program is the community. I like how different Google programs cater to different kinds of audiences. For example, when I became a GDE, I was a part of the wider developer community but also connected with developers in my field of expertise - machine learning.” Jigyasa appreciates being able to interact with people in her field and is motivated by being surrounded by like-minded people. She has even been a guest on another GDE’s YouTube channel and was also given a chance to connect with Laurence Moroney, Lead AI Advocate at Google, who wrote the foreword for her book. Jigyasa credits Google developer programs for developing her career and expertise, “All of these programs have brought me great opportunities. Summer of Code, Google Developers Groups, Women Techmakers, and now GDE. All these programs have been so important in my journey and I'm forever grateful to them.”

Inspiration and advice

As an award winner and influencer in technology, Jigyasa is a role model for other women and is committed to helping women developers in their careers. She says, “It has definitely been a journey. From being involved in these communities, giving talks in numerous countries and cities. It's just been a domino effect.” In addition to speaking events, Jigyasa has published content, mentored through Google programs and has even designed curriculums at local colleges in the Bay Area.

Jigyasa urges other women developers to pursue opportunities for development and connection. Jigyasa has accomplished a lot in her career by reaching out to her communities and by saying yes to challenging opportunities. She is committed to supporting more women in their developer journey and driving representation in the field of machine learning.

You can find Jigyasa on LinkedIn, Twitter, or her personal site.

The Google Developer Experts (GDE) program is a global network of highly experienced technology experts, influencers, and thought leaders who actively support developers, companies, and tech communities by speaking at events and publishing content.

A conversation with Hebe He, a developer from Guangzhou

Posted by Brian Shen, Program Manager, Google Developers

Google Developer Groups are one of the largest community networks of developers in the world. Every group has an organizer that helps curate events based on the interests of their local developer community.

As we continue to explore how different Google Developer Groups build their communities, we interviewed Hebe He, an organizer of Google Developer Group Guangzhou in China. Learn more about how she is building the developer scene in China, thinking up new events for her community, and more below.

Hebe He, an organizer of Google Developer Group Guangzhou in China.

Hebe He, an organizer of Google Developer Group Guangzhou in China.

Tell us about yourself.

I am Hebe from China and I'm a native of Guangzhou. I'm the organizer of GDG Guangzhou, as well as an ambassador for Women Techmakers (WTM). I work at one of China's new electric-vehicle brands, where I'm responsible for the intelligent business operation of the Internet of Vehicles. I'm relatively outgoing and active, so I really like to deal with different people, whether it's at work or in other activities.

How did you learn about Google Developer Groups?

In 2014, I participated in GDG Guangzhou DevFest for the first time by coincidence and met the founder of GDG Guangzhou. Afterward, I joined the founder's company and volunteered at many GDG programs. In 2017, I officially became an organizer after the existing organizers recognized my ability and desire to contribute more to the GDG Guangzhou community.

Tell us more about Guangzhou and the developer community there.

Our community members are talented, passionate, and amazing. I see all kinds of possibilities in them. They're always excited for every event we hold, keep a fanatical attitude toward Google's technological innovation, and are particularly interested in Android, Kotlin, and Flutter.

What are events like in your community?

We highly value feedback from event participants, who are interested in a wide range of topics. For this reason, we generally use 15% of every event to cover non-technical topics, such as entrepreneurship, business management, and careers. For more comprehensive activities, such as DevFest, we increase the amount of non-technical content to roughly 30%.

What is your Google Developer Group focused on right now?

We devote most of our energy to improving the quality of activities. We try to add more elements to the event to strengthen the interaction of participants in hopes of improving the feedback mechanism and gaining more valuable suggestions for future event optimization. We also try to improve the quality of guests and themes, and pay more attention to event details, such as event announcements, registration, and check-in.

What’s your favorite community memory from a Google Developer Group event?

The memory that touches me the most is the construction of WTM Guangzhou. From the first event with only 80 developers to the audience of more than 500 people in recent years, it represents the recognition of, and support for, our events. There are many people who come to participate every year; some are actively encouraging their friends to participate and others are even urging us to hold events. They feel honored to be invited to our events and their enthusiasm endured during the pandemic.

What's next for you and your Google Developer Group?

There's still lots of room to grow in our community. We hope that we can continue to develop a Google Developer Group that reflects the best of Guangzhou. We also hope to find better ways to accumulate the experience shared by speakers and the value of community users.

If you want to grow your career and coding knowledge with people like Hebe He, join a Google Developer Group near you.

Empowering Women Techmakers Around the World Through Localization

Posted by Marisa Pareti, on behalf of Women Techmakers

Women Techmakers creates visibility, community and resources for women in technology by hosting events, offering free training and piloting new initiatives with different groups and partners around the world. Earlier this year, we launched Women Techmakers in 60 Seconds, a YouTube series where we explain advanced technical topics in one minute or less.

Today, we’re excited to announce our partnership with the GDS Global Localization Program to expand the accessibility and reach of our content. Together, our teams will work to create a diverse user experience by reducing language and cultural barriers. Localization goes beyond translation. While references in the US might not be popular concepts in other countries, our passionate partners ensure they sound natural to people around the world.

We’re proud to produce a series that reaches, inspires, and educates the Google Developer Community all over the world. Every other Wednesday, we’ll publish a new episode discussing topics like APIs, Virtual Machines, and more. In the comments below the video, we’ll include additional resources for you to explore if you want a deeper dive into the video’s theme. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. If you’re interested in learning more and getting involved with Women Techmakers, check out our website and sign up to become a member.