Computer Vision News - May 2022

25 Vision Understanding and Machine Intelligence \ The VISion Understanding and Machine Intelligence (VISUM) Summer School launched a decade ago when Ana completed her PhD and recognized there was a gap in Portugal on computer vision. She spoke to her colleagues at the time, and they came up with the idea of launching a summer school on the topic. “ We wanted to create a different summer school from the others, ” Ana tells us. “ We decided to focus on computer vision andmachine learning. We had a theoretical license, but we also had a practical license, so students could put into practice what they were learning. ” The summer school has evolved each year since then. Now, it includes a computer vision project challenge that runs across the week and an industry day , with company representatives showcasing real- world applications and proposing mini challenges to students. The team changes a little bit each year, with new people bringing new ideas for improving things, which Ana says keeps the event fresh. “ When I started this, I chose to do it with young people because most seniors are in academia, they are professors, and I wanted an environment where students were networking with other students , ” she explains. “ This year, we have Sara and Wilson on our main organizing committee, and I think it’s the best one we’ve done. We have great speakers, a very nice challenge, and a completely different industry day. There’s a real spirit of teamwork throughout the entire event, and I think that’s why we all enjoy it so much. ” Sara adds: “ It’s so rewarding to know that everyone has enjoyed it at the end of the week. That’s the most important thing for us. Also, even though it’s a lot of work, it’s important that we enjoy it too! As Ana said, we have a great team and spirit! ” Wilson agrees: