Computer Vision News - January 2017

want to do it with a biomechanical model. We found intuitive ways of doing that: if you do lung screening for example, this is where you would need to compensate for this type of motion. Slotted into the scanning process, it should give a better picture of the patient. I’ve been working a lot in cancer imaging, although I’m branching out a bit. The road to translation is very hard. You can get enthusiastic, but what is the next step? There is a commercial route, but also the clinical acceptance is important. You started to talk about the initiatives for women in science. I know some women who are very enthusiastic about that and others who are quite critical. What’s your take? It’s interesting because some women who are not that supportive are quite often women who had it very hard. They felt that they put up the fight on their own. They think other people should do it the same way. I don’t think that has to be the case. I think there could be a friendly network for mentorship and other things. My main issue with having too few women is that it starts so early in the pathway that it’s very hard to intervene at such a late stage. It starts earlier than university. You don’t have enough women studying computer science. Computer science is in a terrible situation. This is where we should be expanding and getting all of the talent that there is. Getting girls interested in computer science and math when they are much younger is hard. As early as nursery or primary school, they are put into different drawers. You have different toys for boys and for girls, and that is so hard to intervene with at the nursery or primary school. These things just take generations. I’ve tried to do it in a bit more balanced way with my two daughters. I’m very pleased that they love computers and math. Maybe not programming just yet, though one of them took part in a robotics challenge once. I would need more time to get them to do it more, but I always told them that it is a very viable career option. I will make sure that they don’t drop these subjects in school and that they will keep their options open at least. I don’t force them into doing natural sciences in the end: it’s up to them to choose, but I don’t want them to stop too early. What toys did you give them when they were younger? They had the whole range because I think you need the whole range. They had dolls, but no Barbie dolls . I put my foot down on certain things. They had wooden blocks, rail tracks and Legos as myself and my husband had as kids. We sort of replicated our childhoods a little bit. We gave them more educational toys, but also more organic toys made of wood and cloth rather than plastic. They were not overly keen about that honestly [ laughs ], but I think they were at least exposed to everything. 24 Computer Vision News Women in Computer Vision Women in Science “ They had dolls, but no Barbie dolls. I put my foot down on certain things ”