Daily CVPR - Tuesday

I guess it’s getting better. There are more and more opportunities for women. I don’t know if you heard about events specifically for women in computing generally, not necessarily in computer vision. It gives us a lot of opportunities, and of course, the diversity lets women grow and use their skills where they want. CVPR Daily: Can you tell me a story where you really felt the gender difference in the computer vision community? Faezeh: Well, maybe my story is not exactly in computer vision, but it’s women in computing. I used to have my own company back in Iran . So I was the co- founder of a startup. We were a group of friends who recently graduated. Like I said, it wasn’t that easy at the time. We had a lot of difficulties to build our start-up which was in the computer science area. Well, of course, not many male managers would trust us easily. I was involved in marketing as well as development. Because of that, I had a hard time to find customers. It’s just a matter of trust, and they don’t think we can do the work perfectly. CVPR Daily: But when they see that you do, are they surprised? Faezeh: Yes, they are. I learned a lot during that time how to deal with different kinds of people. That was a great experience, but very challenging. CVPR Daily: Can you tell me who was your best teacher? You favorite teacher? Faezeh: I learned different things from different people. As I said I did an internship. I really learned from my managers. I had two managers. It was very inspiring what I learned from them, not necessarily scientifically, but different things in different areas. That was a great experience for me. CVPR Daily: Can you give us an example of the things you learned that you’d like to share with us? Faezeh: His name was Robert. He trusted me easily the first time that he met me. We had a short interview, and he trusted me. He hired me instantly. I didn’t have a long interview with different levels. It was my first serious internship and it boosted my self- confidence a lot. CVPR Daily: Tuesday Women in Computer Vision 11 “ In Iran, I had a hard time to find customers. It’s just a matter of trust, and they don’t think we [women] can do the work perfectly ”