CVPR Daily - Monday

can be an issue for some people. But we are in the middle of a pandemic, and many in the community are experiencing personal and professional hardship, so I’m very grateful to everybody – authors, reviewers, area chairs, volunteers, and attendees – for all your hard work under such difficult circumstances. Can you tell us what is new and exciting this year? To accommodate different time zones, we’ve made it easier for everyone to interact asynchronously. You can look at posters, chat with authors, and watch videos at a time that’s convenient for you. We have many invited speakers this year from all over the world. You can watch their videos and attend their live chats with moderated panel discussions. But remember: You can’t do everything. We have more than 7,000 attendees, 1,600 papers, and 83 workshops. I recommend you pick the live chats that you’re most excited about and that are convenient for you, and then participate asynchronously elsewhere. What should students be looking out for? The student experience is critical to CVPR, and we have tried hard this year to create special activities just for you. Look out for our curated sessions, both social as well as with invited mentors. I’m personally really excited to connect with students at the Doctoral Consortium. If you’re looking for job opportunities, we have a wide range of sponsors you can connect with, including some who have joined us for the first time. Most importantly, make space for serendipitous interactions. Many of our best collaborations, best ideas, and most interesting friendships come from giving ourselves the opportunity to see the positive side of some unscheduled interaction. It’s very hard to do that in a virtual conference, but in some ways it’s even more important, so try to seek out those opportunities where you can. Many people will be attending CVPR for the first or second time and will only ever have had the virtual experience. They may feel they are missing out on something … 10 DAILY CVPR Monday A Word of Welcome... Rahul, we are back again at CVPR, but things are still very different. Do you have a word of welcome for the community? Welcome everyone to CVPR 2021! I’m very sorry that I’m not able to interact in person with you all this year. Many of us look forward to CVPR as a space where we can catch up with international colleagues that we don’t get to see very often. Personally, I love to talk to PhD students at their poster sessions and demos. I know that the virtual format, despite our best efforts, isn’t quite the same, and Zoom fatigue Rahul Sukthankar