Women in Machine Learning

Ph.D. candidate Deborah Thomas received a travel fellowship to attend the first Workshop for Women in Machine Learning in October 2006 in San Diego, Calif. During the workshop she presented a poster-paper she co-authored with Schubmehl-Prein Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering Kevin W. Bowyer, Professor Patrick J. Flynn, and Research Assistant Professor Nitesh V. Chawla. The paper, titled “Strategies for Improving Face Recognition in Video Using Machine Learning,” describes a process of selecting diverse images from video clips and employing principal component analysis and clustering methodologies to increase the video’s performance and boost recognition levels. The team then compared their findings using this approach to an existing approach to quantify the results.

Although it is one of the fastest-growing areas of computer science research, the percentage of female researchers in this area is lower than many others in computer science. The workshop offered Thomas and other attendees the chance to interact with female researchers from around the world in the same field. Thomas, a resident of Bangalore, India, said one of the most informative and interesting portions of the workshop was a panel session where students were able to question female faculty members about their experiences in academia and learn from them.