Computer Vision News - December 2016

CVN: You told me a few minutes ago that if I want to impress the memory of people, I have to use certain techniques to make my speech more vivid in their memory. What can you tell us now so that you, Zoya, remain impressed in our memory after this talk? What is the message that you want to leave with us? Zoya: [ laughs ] That is not an easy question! I think a good image to paint in people’s minds that will combine what we’ve talked about is the idea of really big eyes. It’s the idea of keeping your eyes very widely open for curiosity, but also for exploration and noticing more elements around you, anything beyond just the computer screen. CVN: So you want to be the camera of the computer screen with the capabilities and the CPU of your computer? Zoya: [ laughs ] The computer is not quite there yet. Computational processing isn’t quite there yet. I want people to have in mind “big eyes” that see widely and really take in the world around them. Recognize that all the different things you see in the world, the experiences that we have, will affect the way we feel about things. That is something that maybe people take for granted. The moment you walk outside the door, the experiences you have on the street will influence your thinking, your problem solving, and the way that you construct your neural maps. CVN: What if you see something you don’t like? Zoya: It still shapes you. It makes you think about why you don’t like that. It’s not that you don’t have to see everything that you like. You have to be exposed to things you like and don’t like to understand better . It’s going to enrich your mind and the way you are able to think about things. Otherwise you are going to be narrow minded. You don’t want to put a filter on your eyes. You really want those eyes to be open and unconstrained . As a computer scientist, you want to be able to see everything, beyond the monitor of your computer. Computer Vision News Women in Computer Vision 21 Women in Science “ Keeping your eyes very widely open ”