Computer Vision News - July 2020

45 Trevor Darrell when I was an undergraduate. It was there I got my first exposure to a research lab in computer vision. She is still an active faculty member and my colleague at Berkeley. I actually learnt a very blunt message from her, and it was one word: Results! She kept a laser focus on getting things done and getting them done on deadline. It’s a very important message and one that has stuck to me. That sounds very motivating, but also very pressurized! Of course, it wasn’t just about results, but compassion and understanding of the individual and making sure that they have what they need to achieve those results. It’s about keeping your eye on the prize and playing the long game. A focus on results is not just about putting pressure on people. We all have a lot of pressure on us and denying that is not a great strategy for somebody who wants to be a world-class member of any profession. You have to constantly be trying things that are high risk because if you’re not doing things that are high risk, you’re not really doing world class fundamental research. You have to learn not only how to get results, but to overcome the emotional challenges of the fact that to succeed in research requires many, many failures. If every single experiment you run, every single line of code you try succeeds, you’re probably not Berkeley caliber. This is a real problem because most young researchers are not used to ever, in their undergraduate life, having things that don’t work out. What I learned from Ruzena and other mentors over the years is that you have to keep the pressure up, but you also have to understand that while you’re working hard, half of the things are going to work and half of them aren’t going to work. “We have too many papers being published right now and too many papers that are similar.” Former student Angjoo Kanazawa Best of CVPR 2020