Computer Vision News - January 2018

Computer Vision News 25 Raquel Urtasun for the beginning of their careers. At the same time, I also hope that I can teach them how to interact with peers in a way that is respectful and where everybody has a place. One of your students told me that you are the teacher she learned from the most. Was there a time when you were really impressed by a student? [ surprised ] My students are brilliant. They surprised me many, many times. I’m very proud of each one of them. I think as long as they grow as researchers and as people as well, that’s what is really important to me. It’s not really about my success. It’s really about their success and how they can see their progression. A friend of yours told me once that she’s much happier when a student’s paper gets accepted than when her own is. Can you relate to that? [ both laugh ] Yes! It is a satisfaction. Sometimes papers are not the end goal. They’re a way to show what you have done in a particular point in time. Students’ progress is more important. Yes, but seven papers with your name were accepted at ICCV2017. That must be saying something about the quality of your work. Numbers don’t matter. It’s not about the number of papers that you write. If you write one paper where people remember what you did, then you have succeeded. That’s what you should aim for. These days, students try to make the deadline, and there are so many deadlines with so much stress. That’s just the problem. I think it’s much more important to try to do one fundamental thing that will really put you on the map. Now it’s hard to do that. You cannot always put all of your eggs in a single basket because that’s very risky. You have to strike a balance between the two things. What do you miss the most about Spain, while living in Canada? Food! [ we both laugh ] Well, I have lots of friends still there. What I think I miss the most is when I was living in Spain, I was young and having a good time. That’s not the case anymore. It has nothing to do with Spain per se. Why did you put so much on your shoulders and sacrifice all that? When your work is the same thing as your passion, then it’s really, really nice. It’s really rewarding, but at the same time it’s dangerous. Sometimes you just forget about the rest of the things in life. In my case, I still try to strike a balance between my personal life and my work. You can argue whether I succeed or not! [ laughs ] But I try my best. It’s true that I spend an uncomfortable number of hours in the lab. I always tell my students that I expect everything from them, but I give them everything as well. If I gave you back two hours a day for the last ten years, what would you do with all that time? I would probably start a new research project! [ both laugh ] If you didn’t become a researcher, what would you have done? I love sports and I’m actually pretty good at it. Which position did you play in basketball? I was a shooter, particularly a 3-point Guest “ An uncomfortable number of hours in the lab… ”