Lisa Li on Vision, Computer Science, and Culture

This week we spoke with Lisa Li, who is a Ph.D. student at the College of Optics as University of Arizona. She completed her MSc at Newcastle University, where her thesis, title ‘Colour constancy modelling with a biologically-inspired neural network structure’ was jointly done between the Computer Science and Neuroscience departments, under advisers Prof. Marcus Kaiser and Prof. Anya Hurlbert. Lisa briefly discussed her past work at Newcastle. Additionally, she comments about the cultural differences she witnessed between graduate schools, and some of the unique experiences she has encountered as a woman in the sciences. Lisa Li shed light on a fascinating field of science which we all have intuitively experienced and provides valuable insight on how to navigate a career in the sciences! As always, we thank our guest Lisa Li and we eagerly look forward to our listeners comments! References: 1) Dr. Marcus Kaiser Dynamic Connectome Lab: https://www.dynamic-connectome.org/ 2) Dr. Anya Hurlbert Academic Profile: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/staff/profile/anyahurlbert.html#background 3) Cell Q&A with Dr. Hurlbert and Matt Ridley 4) Introduction to Neural Networks: https://www.explainthatstuff.com/introduction-to-neural-networks.html 5) Youtube video on Neural Networks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvQwE2OhL8I 6) Neural networks and back propagation explained in a simple way: https://medium.com/datathings/neural-networks-and-backpropagation-explained-in-a-simple-way-f540a3611f5e 7) National Geographic’s ‘The Dress’ : https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/science/blue-or-white-dress-why-we-see-colours-differently.aspx 8) What #theDress reveals about the role of illumination priors in color perception and color constancy :https://eprint.ncl.ac.uk/file_store/production/242764/A390CDB3-9ADA-442C-96FB-7877D8745520.pdf 9) Guggenheim’s Piet Modrian Profile: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/3014