„Do what you are passionate about!“

FAU President Hornegger welcomes new President’s Welcome Awardees

With the beginning of the new winter semester 2022/23, FAU President Prof. Dr. Hornegger welcomes many new students as well as the new batch of winners of the President’s Welcome Award: In their applications, Andreea Dogaru, Pablo Ochoa de Eribe Delgado und Timotei Ardelean had demonstrated that they are the perfect fit for the mentorship program. As a result, they can now enjoy one year of rent-free living, free language courses and workshops and the mentoring support of the FAU President during their time as doctoral candidates at FAU. In their first meeting, they share with him their plans and ambitions and receive some initial recommendations for their research work.

Pablo is the first to show up at the President’s office on the first floor of the Schloss. Happily, the Madrilenian offers to switch from speaking English to German: “I haven’t spoken in a few months and need to re-train my skills,” he explains. Soon, Timotei and Andreea join the group. The two know each other already, having both studied at the same universities in Romania and Russia for their Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Now, at FAU, they meet again.

In the Senatssaal, Prof. Hornegger opens the meeting with a proper welcome and is curious to learn more about the three awardees: what was the focus of their previous research work in the area of artificial intelligence, what will they work on at FAU, and what goals have they set for their time here.

Andreea: 3D reconstruction and FAU spirit

Andreea is the first to introduce herself: She is from Romania where she gained a lot of practical experience in Computer Vision during her Bachelor’s degree program at Transilvania University of Braşov. She continued to broaden her knowledge in this area as she moved on to Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moskau for her Master’s program, and started connecting research with practical application.

With all of this expertise, she is now ready for her new work topic at the Cognitive Computer Vision Lab led by Prof. Dr. Bernhard Egger: 3D reconstruction, the process of inferring the digital three-dimensional geometric structure of objects. First, this will be done with the help of multiple images (multiview). The final goal is to reconstruct based on single images. „Augmented reality applications, digital mapping or localization – these are typical areas where 3D reconstruction is employed,” the doctoral candidate explains.

After two weeks of being here, she also shares that she is happy to have found FAU and to be part of its scientific community. She is eager to share the FAU spirit and believes in the importance of the university’s and the city’s branding.

Timotei: Easy adaption to FAU

Her compatriot Timotei has been in Erlangen a few weeks longer, since the beginning of September. Located at the Institute for Digital Reality, he is working on Predictive Rendering of objects like wood and stone that are subject to change due to age, weather and wear. Their transformation is visualized digitally. Industrial sectors like the furniture industry but also other design companies would greatly benefit of such prediction.

When asked by the President what goals he has for the next three years, Timotei doesn’t hesitate: “Publishing papers at high-profile conferences.“ As Prof. Hornegger notes that the normal rate of papers being published as a doctoral candidate is two to three, Andreea reveals that Timotei is actually a step ahead: He has already published some of his earlier work at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR).

Timotei tells the group that he initially applied for the same position as Andreea did. However, during the interview process a new opportunity unexpectedly opened as he met HTA professor Tim Weyrich, who is now his doctoral advisor, and who helped Timotei settle into the new team with ease. In general, he explains, getting accustomed to FAU and Erlangen has been very easy for him and he is looking forward to all the things the mentorship program can teach him: “I want to learn more about the values and vision of FAU. What plans does the university have for the future? How can I become a part of what FAU holds in store?”

Pablo: A talent for language and sound

Finally, Pablo introduces himself: The neural engineer has already travelled a lot during his studies – from Spain to Seoul, Zurich and Munich – and enjoys speaking and teaching different languages. That’s why after graduation, he could imagine working at a university as lecturer, sharing his knowledge on the perception of sound and speech intelligibility.

“Before the pandemic, I used to go to Ethiopia to teach English to children and teenagers. I really enjoyed it and it’s not unlikely that I will teach in the future. But right now, I don’t want to look too far ahead. I might end up in industry after all,” he laughs.

Currently, Pablo is focussing on his new scope of work: The examination of the neuronal mechanisms responsible for speech processing using a multi-modal data acquisition approach: What exactly happens in our brain as we perceive language in noisy environments? How does the attentional focus differ in active and passive listening experiences among healthy and hearing impaired populations?

The Spaniard hopes that his findings will benefit the innovation in hearing aids. Maybe novel advanced metrics could even support individual hearing solutions? Because at the end of the day, this is what brings him true fulfilment: Knowing that his scientific work will bring a greater degree of well-being to people.

Passion and hard work – the path to success

As it is the first mentoring session, the FAU President wants to provide some initial words of advice to the researchers. His source of inspiration is his own life experience. For example, as young doctoral candidate or later on as professor, he never thought of becoming the president of a university one day. He is convinced: “If you are too attached to an outcome, you will not find the anticipated success. Instead, making use of the opportunities that presented themselves along my path in the past are part of the reason that I am FAU’s president today.” Of course, hard work and effort were important factors, too: Setting high goals, measuring oneself with competitors, and choosing priorities wisely. But the most important ingredient is passion: “For you to be successful, you have to like what you are doing and enjoy carrying out your work. Do what you are passionate about!”