Computer Vision News - December 2021

48 Women in Computer Vision an engineer because I wanted to see the science applied to real applications. Again, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go too technical. I had this internal intention to work on something that would benefit society, humanity, and people. I was not sure what this was exactly until I came across a video on the news about robotic surgery. It was completely unknown in Greece at the time. It was many, many years ago. I found this very exciting at the time. It seemed really important and also sci-fi! [ laughs ] That was a very important stimulus for me. When I graduated from the National Technical University of Athens, I decided that I would leave Greece. I finally felt like I could pursue this dream. Until that point, it just sounded like a crazy dream: this field did not exist in Greece at all, and there were no jobs. Sometimes dreams come true! That’s true! Then I moved to Imperial. I did a PhD. Then I found myself at Harvard, which was another super crazy dream.  Why did you decide to go to Hamlyn in the UK and why did you decide to go to Harvard in the US? Mymaindrivefor ImperialCollegeLondonat the Hamlyn Centre was to work on medical robotics. At the time, there were not many groups working on this specific subject. From my research back then, I concluded that the Hamlyn Centre was probably the best one in the field, so I contacted Professor Guang-Zhong Yang. I explained my background and research interests, went through a technical evaluation and eventually got admitted. I was assigned a project, which was not in robotics but medical imaging instead. Although this was not my initial goal, I found the project particularly exciting. I was delighted to do that! Who was your supervisor? Prof. Guang-Zhong Yung along with Duncan Gillies later. I kind of went with the flow. During this journey, I discovered a lot of interesting aspects and interesting sub- fields of biomedical engineering and computingthat Ididn’tknowabout. Imperial College London and London, in general, is a very stimulating environment. I consider myself super lucky to have spent five and a half years there. Then Harvard came along very smoothly, I would say. Then the post- doc at Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School came along very smoothly, I would say. I didn’t spend a lot of time preparing an application or completing exams. Apparently, my research project overlapped with the research focus of the CHAI group at BCH/HMS, the Cardiac Surgery Department. The PI of this group Until that point, it just sounded like a crazy dream