ECCV 2016 Daily - Friday

not perfect, but when I was in university in China, I wasn’t afraid of speaking English with other people. The interview involved a lot of English which I was pretty comfortable with, but a lot of students got super nervous. I received awards for my English skills. Looking back, I don’t think I was that good, but in China, I was pretty confident. ECCV Daily: Knowing Swedish was not a requirement? Cheng: No, it’s not. I also checked that out, and Swedish people speak the best English as a non-English speaking country. ECCV Daily: You felt confident because you met the requirements, and logically you thought that your chances were very high. Is this why you felt confident? It was confidence based on logic. Cheng: Exactly. I have my opinion, and I had evidence to support that. I had confidence in myself, and reasons for it. ECCV Daily: How long after that decision did you go to Sweden? Cheng: It was 3 months later. It was pretty fast. ECCV Daily: What was it like when you arrived in Sweden? Cheng: When I arrived, it was summer, and there is no night. I thought, wow, now I have so much time to do so many things. There were so many involved students and lots of student activities. I made a lot of friends from all over the world. Before I went abroad, I thought foreigners were different. The first thing I realized is we’re really all human. ECCV Daily: Did you feel the same openness among men and women toward you? Cheng: In general, yes, but there are a couple of situations. There were some reactions when I got the PhD position where people didn’t know why I got the position and they didn’t. I think that’s jealousy. They think that maybe it’s the recruitment process or maybe it’s because they want to hire more female PhD students. But it’s not true! I am that good! ECCV Daily: How do you react to this? 14 ECCV Daily: Fr iday Women in Computer Vision