MICCAI 2016 Daily - Thursday

Aïcha: That’s another lesson from PhD: it’s not about the end-result, it’s really about the journey. Because most of the time, you struggle so much to make something working, that at the end, when you get something positive, it’s a slight accomplishment. And you feel proud of that, of growing up. But it is an extremely hard path. You have to keep going. MICCAI Daily: Did you see colleagues of yours giving up? Aïcha: Yes, I have met with people who gave up, during the PhD. They realized that they weren’t driven by the problem. MICCAI Daily: Males or females? Aïcha: I have seen females. MICCAI Daily: Is your stubbornness a social one, by which you do not want to admit a failure in front of others, or a personal one, towards yourself? Aïcha: I am stubborn in so many things in life… [ laughs ] I think I am stubborn for myself: even when I do not understand something, I just keep going until I really get it. While people who gave up did the right choice, evaluating that this is not good for them. MICCAI Daily: Are you never scared? Aïcha: Of course I am scared. But being scared means that there is a challenge and that you are learning a lot. Scare should motivate you more than disable you. MICCAI Daily: Were your challenges mostly caused by people or by technology? Aïcha: I think that even though a PhD is a mostly lonely path, struggling with your own self to try to understand the emotional state you are in, the answer to crisis is professionalism, as my supervisor taught me: step back and rationalize whatever crisis you are at. MICCAI Daily: Where did you learn those shaking off skills? Aïcha: [ laughs ] That’s a funny question, this applies to science and to many other things. You have to step back and look at the situation form a different point of view and it dedrammatizes the situation MICCAI Daily: Have you ever been treated inappropriately as a woman? Aïcha: I haven’t felt much discomfort, but it can be very intimidating to be the single girl in a room or to have very few women around. MICCAI Daily: If I am alone in a room full of women, I call it heaven… [ we both laugh ] here is an asymmetry. Aïcha: Let me tell you: I have never been in situations where I felt discriminated because of my gender; and if I am aggressed, I know how to handle that. I can respond. MICCAI Daily: If you had a daughter or a little sister less strong than you are, how comfortable would you be in putting them in the same settings that you’ve been in? Aïcha: If it was my daughter, I think I’d like her to be confronted to that, because that’s how she’s gonna learn to deal with that kind of situations. CVPR Daily: Thursday Women in Science 15 MICCAI Daily: Thursday