Computer Vision News - September 2020

or in the engineering organization, anybody can come up with an idea and grow it. That’s always been specific to Google. But I think each team is managed very differently by their own manager. Well, in one of my next interviews, I'm going to ask your team! [ both laugh ] You have been in the United States for many years, maybe 20 years? I will say 19. I was quite close: very soon it will be 20! You have worked in many major companies, and they’re very different from one another. One is a software company, one is a hardware company, and one is a government organization: Google, NEC, and NASA. Tell us what is different between these three big organizations. I actually find a lot of similarities, especially in our field. I have always done research or a mix of research and development. They have all been very open to research and research ideas. There is a slight difference, but it’s mostly in how the company is structured, as to how exactly they productionize things. For example, with NASA/JPL, you are going to develop your research in different stages, and that’s like the technical readiness. The more ready it is, the more it is ready for flight. In all cases, in the departments I have worked in, they have been very supportive about research, and they differ only very little. The people there have been quite amazing. I think you are the third Bulgarian woman that I have interviewed, after Tsvetelina Ikonomova and Adriana Kovashka. Tell me something about Bulgaria that we don't know. [ laughs ] Bulgaria is very strong in science. It ‘exports’ a very large number of graduate students. [ both laugh ] This is good and bad at the same time. And many of my coworkers are Bulgarians as well. This is what they call the brain drain, right? [ laughs ] Some of them leave and go to Japan, Australia, US, and other places, but the situation is improving, and also a lot of people stay. Then, they build their own business, or they continue 2 Women in Computer Vision 64 Best of ECCV 2020