MICCAI 2018 Daily - Wednesday

6 Wednesday Daniel Rueckert we don’t quite foresee. Otherwise, you would effectively do, almost like, contract research. In academia, I think one of the things we need to be able to do is go down a path which isn’t really predictable at the beginning. With whom or in which environment do you feel the most at ease? In the lecture hall with your students? In the lab with your research? With the industry? In the hospital? Personally, I think working with the students is the easiest. Even though we have a big lab, we have a very friendly, open atmosphere. The students talk a lot to each other. They also talk a lot with me. I really enjoy the interaction. I find working with the industry probably the most challenging because it’s quite often that our goals are not fully aligned. Sometimes I find this not so easy. I find, working with physicians, they are very easily on the same wavelength. They really understand the problems you are working with. They do not always, but those who understand this, I find them very easy to work with. I am very fortunate to have a number of clinical colleagues who do that and so they’re great people to work with. Do they also inspire you by telling you what they need and suggesting directions? Yes, they do. They really come and pose open questions. Those who I work very closely with also understand why these open questions might be interesting from a computer science, computer vision, or medical imaging point of view, not only from the clinical point of view. That’s quite important that they understand. They have a very important problem to solve, but they also see that there are very interesting engineering challenges in the way of solving this. These are the best clinical collaborators. When a student comes to ask you advice on their career, do you tell them to go into research or industry, or do you think that each one should follow their own path and be advised in a different way? I firmly believe that each one should have a different piece of advice because there are so many different individuals. Also, the students have very different interests. Some of them, when we talk about their career, they clearly say, “ I would like to do an academic career .” Many of them also say, “ I would like to do it, but I’m not sure if I could do it .” Then, I try to give them some feedback on what might be the best choice for them. Others also have a very clear view that they want to go into industry. Sometimes I support them. Sometimes I try to convince them to consider the behavior. So you have a custom approach. No general approach. Yes, and I think I’ve now had over 45 Ph.D. students graduate. They are all very different. There is no one size fits all. I guess the one thing I would tell every student that I talk to is (especially when they try to decide between an academic career and the industry) that they really should follow what they want to do with their heart. If they really enjoy the freedom of the academic side of life, then they should at least consider it. At least, in the UK, we are relatively poorly paid compared to industry, but it’s a worthwhile experience because you’re really your own