Computer Vision News - March 2019

production). My team focuses more on speech recognition, but I am focused more on the research side: the language modeling. How did you get there? I have always been interested in languages. My background is in writing, so I find languages fascinating. And also, in my time traveling, I realized that language is a big part of any culture, and the language we speak help form who we are. When I came to Stanford, I got super interested in computer science, programming, and NLP. I could combine my love for languages and computer science. Once Amy Bearman told me about the duck syndrome at Stanford , where students are like ducks: on the surface very placid and self-confident, but under the surface they are paddling like mad. Do you know about it? Yeah, it’s pretty common to hear about it. Is it particular for Stanford? I think there’s this certain perception of California that makes it worse. I feel like people here are very outgoing, healthy, and have a very positive look on life, which is great, but it also creates a pressure to do well and be happy all of the time. I live in this amazing place with amazing weather, like 300 days of sunshine. When somebody asks me, “ How are you doing? ”, the only correct answer is to say, “ Oh, I’m doing great! ” because, how can you not? So I just feel like if I’m not happy, what’s wrong with me? Why am I not happy in such a perfect place? And you have to pretend to be happy, and I think that leads to the duck syndrome. So tell me something about California. What do you like there which is better than Vietnam? Woah [laughs]. I think the weather is nice. Have you been to Vietnam? No, but I’m going there in a few months. You will have to give me tips. Well, it is very humid. I expect to be there in October. You are likely going to sweat a lot. In California, it’s never really too hot or really too cold. Even in the winter, you can still have sun, go out, and play sports. The air quality is really nice, and there’s a blue sky. When I went back to Vietnam the last time the sky seemed to be foggy because of the pollution. Tell me something nice about Vietnam that we don’t know. There are definitely more human interactions, personal interactions. I think it’s great that everyone here is really motivated, and I am also motivated talking to them. I also feel like I have to live up to all of these Pauline Luc 25 Computer Vision News Chip Huyen Women in Science “… the language we speak helps form who we are!” photo: Dan Taylor/Heisenberg Media