MICCAI 2016 Daily - Thursday

Ralph Anzarouth: How do you like this conference? What did you learn from it that you will bring to MICCAI 2017 ? Simon Duchesne: First of all, my first MICCAI was in 2000. I missed just a few so this is probably my fourteenth or fifteenth MICCAI. I’ve seen it evolve throughout the years. Each year is slightly different from the last. They each have their own flavor. This depends on what papers are being proposed, and the scientific content changes from time to time. Of course, the location and organizing gives it a different twist. From the organization point of view, the first twist here was the change from Istanbul to Athens. I feel the pain of Sebastian and the rest of the crew because I know fully what kind of work it is logistically to have 6 months to move from one city to another. When you actually organize a conference and have to deal with contracts, logistics, hotels, and all of those details, there’s a lot of work. Ralph: What about the technical program? What did you learn as a lesson to take with you next year? Simon: There are certainly new trends. One of the biggest new trends that everyone is talking about is machine learning in general, deep learning in particular. That is certainly a trend that is here, probably to stay. We’ve seen trends come and go at MICCAI, but I think machine learning has been here for a while and will be here. Deep learning is one of the great applications mainly because it has a lot of results. This is certainly a trend that we will favor for next year. Ralph: Are there novelties that you can tell us that will happen next year in Quebec? Simon: There will be novelties in terms of scientific content. It’s hard to know. Of course, it depends. What we can only hope is to have more people. There has been a slight decline in terms of the number of people that came this year compared to last year. That is likely because of the change in venue. We hope to go back to a steady number above 1,000 people. This, of course, brings more papers and more science. Other big things in Quebec City: First of all, we would like to make it a really welcoming environment for everybody. I think Quebec City is a wonderful city for that. The convention center is right in the heart of things. Everything will be walkable. It’s a safe and secure city. Of course, I might be slightly biased, but I think it’s beautiful. There is a lot of talk in the women community, and that’s certainly an aspect that we would like to push. Ralph: Why do you take on yourself the burden of organizing MICCAI? Simon: I’ve been doing events since 2003. I’ve been quite involved. This is probably my eighteenth or nineteenth event. It’s one of the top, CVPR Daily: Thursday MICCAI 2017 24 MICCAI Daily: Thursday Simon Duchesne - General Chair