MICCAI 2016 Daily - Thursday

Aïcha BenTayeb MICCAI Daily: Where do you study, Aïcha? Aïcha BenTayeb: I am a 4 th year PhD student at the medical image analysis lab of the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. MICCAI Daily: You are not really Canadian… Aïcha: No, I am Tunisian. I was born there and did my studies in France, in Paris. I did my master’s degree there, specializing first in biomedical engineering, which was a passion for me back then. Then I decided to start a PhD, when I met my current supervisor and moved to Vancouver. MICCAI Daily: How did you discover your passion for science? Aïcha: When I was a kid I wanted to be a doctor and to be part of the medical profession. I had a teddy bear and used to practice tracheostomy on it: open the throat of my teddy bear and put a straw in it [ laughs ], to save it from cardiac arrest. MICCAI Daily: He certainly needed it. Actually, you saved its life. Aïcha: I probably did, but then I killed it back and did it again. I always wanted to get into medical school, but after high school I went to Prépa (French preparatory school) and I wasn’t sure anymore if I really wanted to be a doctor or to be in the research side of medicine. Prépa was a good way to figure that out and see where this would lead me. That’s when I got introduced to engineering, basically biomedical engineering: I started my engineering school and they had this program for biosciences. MICCAI Daily: Did you feel that school was the right choice for you? Aïcha: I wasn’t sure by then. I only knew that I liked solving problems and learning about problems that I could actually solve. I guess I just CVPR Daily: Thursday Women in Science 12 MICCAI Daily: Thursday