Computer Vision News - December 2016

CVN: You have ideas also regarding what people say about women in science. Zoya: I do not personally draw attention to myself as a woman in computer science. I call myself a computer scientist, and I happen to be a woman. I prefer not to put the woman first and foremost. In doing that, I push myself to achieve and represent myself as a scientist. CVN: You seem very confident. Isn’t there a bad day when you hear something that you didn’t want to hear? How do you get over it? Zoya: I don’t think my responses are any different than my male colleagues’. As I said, what I think I have is some kind of energy with which I can potentially compensate for the lack of confidence. When it’s time to give a talk somewhere, of course, I am worried. At the same time, I’m so energized. I’m very positively charged emotionally and it compensates for any lack of confidence. If I do feel excited about something, I will be able to communicate that concept. Over time, I’ve been able to focus more about that excitement. Since I want to carry this message across, then nothing else matters. CVN: I’d like to talk about your experience with many cultures. You were born in one country, raised in another country, and now you study in another country. What was it like for you to come from Russia? What did it mean for you to come to Canada at such an early age? How did that help you? Or was it an obstacle for you? Zoya: It connects a slightly different idea, which is that when I traveled and lived in Russia or Israel, it was during early parts of my life. It’s hard to pin down exactly to what extent it influenced me. It definitely influenced my personality. One of the biggest things about moving so often between countries, or once we were in Canada, moving between schools or neighborhoods, was the ability to be constantly surrounded by different people. It has shaped me into the person I am today. I have an ability to communicate with people of all different experience levels and backgrounds. It’s very important to me. I try to always surround myself with people from very different fields because I can always learn something from them. This goes back to the piece of paper… I really try to add more dots and connect ideas in my head. Not just ideas, but also thoughts on how the world works and how people think about other things. My cultural backgrounds, but also my choice of friends and social groups, is very much governed by this idea of wanting to understand a whole diversity of viewpoints and individuals. 20 Computer Vision News Women in Computer Vision “ I’m very positively charged emotionally - it compensates for any lack of confidence ” Women in Science “ A whole diversity of viewpoints ”