ECCV 2016 Daily - Thursday

Amy: That’s a good question. I’d say probably Fei-Fei’s incredible organizational skills. She actually runs the Stanford AI lab, not just the computer vision lab. She is responsible for a lot of higher level decisions, obtaining grant money, attracting the students, and acquiring faculty. That kind of work is less visible than all of the papers that you put out, but it’s incredibly important to the lab. I think that’s one of the reasons her lab has become so successful and is in the news so often. She has an ability to attract fantastic people and shape the image of the lab. ECCV Daily: Why do you want that skill? Amy: I’m not sure what my career holds for me, but if I was ever to end up running my own lab, that would be very important to me. I think that applies for running any kind of team. It applies for careers outside of research as well. ECCV Daily: You told me that you have not decided what will come next in your career. Does that scare you or are you comfortable with it? Amy: It’s mostly just exciting because there are so many different options. I guess I’m a little nervous because I’ll have to make a decision soon. I thought I was going to have to make a decision at the end of last year. Then I did a one year Master’s so I deferred that decision a little bit. I was hoping to use this year to test drive a PhD. I’m not really nervous, mostly just excited for the future. ECCV Daily: Do you feel unprepared to make that decision? Amy: I think being at ECCV, which is my first conference, definitely helps a little bit. Although, it’s kind of throwing things into chaos again. Basically, everyone that I’ve met here has told me to do a PhD. I’m speaking to a biased audience because they come from academia. ECCV Daily: What is your dream in your career, 20 or 30 years from now? Amy: I guess I don’t have a clear, particular role that I see for myself. I would definitely love to run my own team whether that’s within an academic context, in a corporate context, or in a startup. I want to be in charge of some aspect of a company or a research institution. ECCV Daily: Is it because you have positive role models of people who run a team of which you are a member? Amy: It’s partly that, but I’ve always just thought of myself as a leader. I think I have other skills outside of programing and Computer Science that I would like to use in my future. ECCV Daily: Do you love what you do? Amy: Yes, I do actually. I’ve had a fantastic time at Stanford so far, so much so that I decided to do another year at least. I hope that it continues in the future. Women in Computer Vision 21 ECCV Daily: Thursday “Everyone that I’ve met here has told me to do a PhD. I’m speaking to a biased audience because they come from academia”