23 Computer Vision News How is it to work there? It was the university where I studied, so I like it a lot. I think it’s stimulating. I feel lucky to work with a lot of students who are very smart and who want to learn. Yes, I like the teaching aspect there a lot in terms of connection with the students, and I find a lot of stimulus with them. What about the connection with the hometown, with Napoli? Okay, I like Naples a lot. The food, the weather. The people… The people. What I like is the atmosphere you can feel there. I think that everyone who has been to Napoli knows that. There is the famous saying: ‘See Napoli and die!’ [laughs] Yeah, yeah, you’re right. It is translated into most languages that I ever heard of. Why did they choose Napoli for that? I think that Napoli is full of art, full of history, and probably not everybody knows that. Let’s say something about WACV, because you are General Chair. Tell us something about it. It is the biggest WACV ever. Yes, we are very, very happy about that. It’s a really great success with so many submissions compared to previous years. 2,000 submissions. It’s great. There was a lot of interest from people who wanted to come, as well as workshops and tutorials. It was hard work, but it was worth it. What was the most challenging part of this whole organization? At least from my perspective, it was not a single part; it was the whole. [laughs] Everything needed supervision. The General Chair supervises everything, so it’s not that you are doing all the work. There were great people in the organization who were doing everything, and you needed to make sure everything was done. It was really a lot. I didn’t find one single, specific topic that was more challenging, but it was the whole. You started working in this community when you were one of very few women, right? Now, I can tell that there are much more. How have you found the progression? Even at WACV, we have two keynote speakers who are women. I think this is really increasing a lot - slowly because probably this starts from when you’re a child. I noticed even in my class at university that I have very few girls. This year, I had mostly males in my class, but I think it’s something that should start from education – trying to stimulate girls to study maths and coding. I think they would be great! Read 100 FASCINATING interviews with Women in Computer Vision! Luisa Verdoliva BEST OF WACV 2024
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