Daily CVPR - Monday

CVPR Daily: : Can I ask if it was difficult for you as a woman to enter the field and to advance there? Maryam: Yes, there were several challenges. The main issue is that this field is dominated by men so you need to work maybe two or three times harder than men to be successful… but I think I am quite successful so far anyway! CVPR Daily: Can I ask you a story which illustrates what you just told me? What happened that wouldn’t have happened to a man? Maryam: I don’t have any specific story, but for example, now I am the only female faculty in my department. When I was a PhD student, I was the only female PhD student. It is a bit challenging, but I don’t remember any specific story. CVPR Daily: : Can I ask you who was your favorite teacher? Maryam: My favorite teacher, actually, was Ahad Tavakoli, my professor in the electrical engineering department in Teheran University. His expertise was vegetation extraction from radar images. He was one of my best teachers, so after having him as one of my professors, I started to work with him for my Master’s thesis. For my Master’s thesis I worked on 3D reconstruction from radar images. CVPR Daily: What was the best teaching that you received? Maryam: He was very, very well- organized, and he paid attention to students. Because understanding is one thing, and trying to teach it to a student is another thing. For example, it happened also many times to me that several things are really easy, and I think I understood them, but when I wanted to explain them to other people, it was a little bit challenging. So I liked that my professor, Dr. Ahad Tavakoli, explained everything in a simple way. CVPR Daily: Monday Women in Computer Vision 9 “ The main issue is that this field is dominated by men so you need to work maybe two or three times harder than men to be successful in this field… ”