ICCV Daily 2019 - Thursday

18 Women in C. Vision DA I L Y Is there anything about you that we don’t know that we should? Going back to the New Jersey point, success cases in research, but people rarely talk about the harder parts of research. It’s a full emotional journey, and you need to embrace that. another thing that I like about New Jersey, which might be more applicable to the east coast, is that there’s a certain level of grit. Because you’re in smaller spaces, you need to rub up against other people. The weather is not always nice, whereas my friends from the west coast have a more relaxed attitude because it’s always going to be sunny. I always liked that the east coast personalities have a level of grit. Also, one thing I wish I had known earlier is that a PhD is really not a linear trajectory. You’re paid to fail. That’s really the beauty of it. In no other job are you allowed to fail. It can be hard to deal with failure. Often times, it’s very easy for us to see success cases in research, but people rarely talk about the harder parts of research. It’s a full emotional journey, and you need to embrace that. Considering your younger siblings in computer science, what would you tell them that you have learned looking back on your own experience? It’s unlikely that my siblings are going to go into research. Because computer science is such a hot topic, I would encourage them to pursue problems that are interesting and meaningful, not necessarily the ones that make the most money or the jobs that are most stable. One of my friends that I reconnected with here is doing a nonprofit with satellite imagery to identify coffee fields and try to make them more sustainable. I thought that was wonderful, but you have to search out those types of opportunities. "You’re paid to fail. That’s really the beauty of it."