Computer Vision News - May 2019

You are not a real Californian, and you were not born in Rochester [ laughs ]. Where do you come from? Yes, true. I am from Turkey. I was born in a town called Elazığ, on the east side of Turkey, and I studied in Ankara at the Middle East Technical University, which is the second top university in Turkey. I got my Bachelor’s Degree in electrical engineering in 2000, and since 2000 I’ve been living in the United States. It’s been a long time. Did you want to be an engineer? Was it your dream as a kid? I was very interested in math and science. Engineering was my first option. I was actually always a top student in my schools. What made you the top student? Yeah, everything was easy for me. I started school younger than my classmates. I was five, and I was reading in elementary school. I loved teaching, even in elementary school. Teachers were letting me teach stuff to my friends in their stead, even through middle school and high school. You choose a career in the industry. For that, you had to quit academia. Was it a difficult choice? No, I wanted to do it because, during my PhD, my advisor was not with me so I had to do my PhD almost alone. He was from Turkey, and he decided to go back to Turkey to work there. I had chosen core advisors in Rochester who could help me do my dissertation, and I was frustrated because I didn’t have much direction. I didn’t want to go forward in academia after I got my degree. If I had the option now, I might undo my postdoc and see if academia was right for me or not. I love the teaching side. I always want to go back. Do you miss teaching? Yes, yes. I teach my kids stuff. Do you want to make them engineers? [ laughs ] No, I just want them to be happy. I don’t want them to worry about competition. What is the main lesson in life that you are teaching them? I want them to find things that they like to do. Whatever it is. So, I try to be an example of our learning-based stuff; you know, kids learn from us. So, if I ski, they try skiing. If I play piano, they do that. They think I work a lot so I think they will also work a lot, but I want them to enjoy friendships as well as academia. What do you miss the most of Turkey? [ laughs ] The desserts! Baklava! Yes! That’s right, baklava [ both laugh ] I don’t like baklava. Don’t you like sweeties? I don’t. My father loves baklava. I also miss my friends and whenever I go to Turkey, I go to my university and 28 Computer Vision News Women in Science Women in Computer Vision