Computer Vision News - March 2018

32 Also, I was very encouraged at home because both of my parents have a scientific background. I also liked other things. I liked languages. Even within the STEM field, I was curious about biology. I was curious about math or physics. That was a really hard choice, but I ended up choosing computer science for better or for worse. Once I was in my degree, things happened more naturally. Another difficult moment was by the end of my postdoc when I had to choose if I wanted to become a professor now or if I wanted to join the industry. That was also a difficult question to answer. I wasn’t ready to answer that by the end of my first year of the postdoc, but in the second year of the postdoc, I understood that I wanted to explore new opportunities that I hadn’t considered before. When I started understanding that, that’s when I started to think about new possibilities. That’s how I ended up at Facebook as a researcher. Do you have any dreams now for your career? That is a very good question. I don’t think that I’m the kind of person that has a specific long-term dream, in a sense. Of course, I set milestones that I want to accomplish. When I was doing research, I wanted to get my PhD. Then I did that. Then I wanted to become a professor. I wanted to become a researcher in industry. I’d like to see AI have an impact on society. It could change our lives. I think we’re already on the way. It can help doctors. It’s actually getting to the point where we can talk about personalized medicine that is supported by an AI system, or personalized education. That would also be really nice. Seeing these kind of changes in our society, that is something that is driving me. I don’t feel it as my own specific goal, but that as a community, we should work towards this direction. What is your next milestone? I started working at Facebook just very recently. I’m starting to understand how things work. I’m starting to build collaborations. When I was a postdoc working at the university, professors are usually busy. You end up very quickly as one of the most experienced persons in a team. Something that I’m really looking forward to now is building collaborations with my peers. You had the opportunity to make so many choices. Do you feel lucky? Definitely, I always believe that . If I am a researcher at Facebook today, it’s Adriana Romero Women in Science Computer Vision News