MOTIVATION AND DESCRIPTION

Computer vision is the science and technology of making machines that see. It is concerned with the theory, design and implementation of algorithms that can automatically process visual data to recognize objects, track and recover their shape and spatial layout.

The twelfth edition of the International Computer Vision Summer School aims to provide both an objective and clear overview and an in-depth analysis of the state-of-the-art research in Computer Vision. The last decade has seen a revolution in the theory and application of computer vision and machine learning. In this edition, we look at the emerging Computer Vision topics after Deep Learning revolution.

The courses will be delivered by world renowned experts in the field, from both academia and industry, and will cover both theoretical and practical aspects of real Computer Vision problems as well as examples of their successful commercialisation.

The school aims to provide a stimulating opportunity for young researchers and Ph.D. students. The participants will benefit from direct interaction and discussions with world leaders in Computer Vision. Participants will also have the possibility to present the results of their research, and to interact with their scientific peers, in a friendly and constructive environment.

ICVSS was awarded the IEEE PAMI Mark Everingham Prize (2017).

LIST OF SPEAKERS

• Daniel Cremers, Technische Universität München, DE
• Larry Davis, University of Maryland, USA
• Andrew Davison, Imperial College London, UK
• James J. DiCarlo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
• Tom Drummond, Monash University, AU
• Paolo Favaro, University of Bern, CH
• Chelsea Finn, UC Berkeley, USA
• Georgia Gkioxari, Facebook, USA
• Georg Klein, Microsoft, USA
• Hugo Larochelle, Google Brain and Université de Sherbrooke, CA
• Victor Lempitsky, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, RU
• Andrew Rabinovich, Magic Leap, USA
• Stefano Soatto, Amazon and University of California Los Angeles, USA
• Josh Tenenbaum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
• Antonio Torralba, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and IBM, USA
• Carl Vondrick, Columbia University and Google Research, USA

Courses details are available here

SPECIAL SESSION – Industry meets Student

In addition to the academic programme, we are organizing a special session to allow students to meet and learn about the opportunities and activities at the world leading research laboratories and companies which are exploiting computer vision.

Industrial Panel

• Aquifi, US
• AWS, Amazon, US
• Element AI, CA
• Facebook Research, US
• Intel Movidius, US
• Magic Leap, US
• Meta, US
• NVIDIA, US
• OSRAM Corporate Technology, DE
• PTC – Vuforia, US
• Qualcomm, US
• Rakuten, JP
• STMicroelectronics, IT
• Toshiba Research Europe, UK
• Toyota Europe Motor, BE
• Univrses, SE

SCHOOL DIRECTORS

• Roberto Cipolla, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Sebastiano Battiato, University of Catania, Italy
• Giovanni Maria Farinella, University of Catania, Italy

SCHOOL APPLICATION

The school will be open to about 100 qualified, motivated and pre-selected candidates.

Master Students, Ph. D. students, Post-Docs, young researchers (both academic and industrial), senior researchers (both academic and industrial) or academic/industrial professionals are encouraged to apply (a confirmation email will be sent to you). Each student is strongly encouraged to submit also a reference letter (Reference letter Module) by email (icvss@dmi.unict.it) to the attention of Prof. Battiato Sebastiano and Dr. Giovanni Maria Farinella.

The expected school fee will be in the order of €525 for Master and Phd students, €750 for other academic positions and €960 for all the others. The fee will include all course materials, coffee breaks, bus service from Catania Airport to School Location and viceversa, WiFi Internet Connection, a guided tour, a social dinner, a party on the beach, a folkloristic exhibition and bus service from School Location to Catania, Siracusa and Taormina at the end of the school.

Applications to attend ICVSS 2018 should be received before 31 March 2018. Applicants will receive notification of acceptance by 15 April 2018.

Late registration can be done with an extra payment of €150.

POSTER SUBMISSION

Accepted students may submit a poster to present their research activity. The poster should be submitted before 31 May 2018. Suitable space will be reserved to students for showing their posters. The electronic version of the posters will also be available from the ICVSS web site.

More information about the submission procedure is available here.

SCHOLARSHIP

A scholarship of €525 will be awarded to the best PhD student attending the school. The decision will be made by the school committee at the time of the school, taking into account candidates’ CVs, poster and oral presentation. All PhD students attending the school will be considered for the grant.

BEST PRESENTATION PRIZE

A selected subset from the submitted posters will be selected by the school committee for short oral presentation. One best presentation prize of €525 will be given to the best presentation selected by the school committee.

READING GROUP (WITH PRIZE!)

During a typical PhD and subsequent research year, students will read probably more than 100 papers. Reading research papers is a skill that can be acquired and that is very different from reading a novel. This session is to introduce students to that skill.

Good ideas have deep roots. Understanding such roots is key to being able to generate new ideas moving forward. The main goal of the Reading Group is to practice ways in which exploration of these roots can be performed. The homework prior to the commencement of the school consists in studying (not just reading) one or more of the references provided by the school commitee, and tracing the ideas as far back as you can.

Detailed instructions will be sent to students after acceptance notification.

ESSAY COMPETITION – The Social Impact of Computer Vision

The essay competition reflects the importance of the social impact of technology onto the “real world”. Computer vision is a scientific research area with profound impact onto our society, ranging from industrial inspection to security technology, medical imaging and autonomous vehicles. It has the potential to create and sustainably scale assistive technology, ameliorating the life of individuals with disabilities and providing tools for the care of an aging population. Our awareness of the potential impact is a standpoint for improving our society.

Participants in the competition are invited to write an essay on the proposed essay topic (above). There are no style guidelines nor “correct answers”. You may propose arguments and original points of view, referring to any scientific source, within your area of investigation and/or your research interest. It is requested that the discussion be scientifically grounded on current technological and research achievements, e.g. start-ups, patents, publications. There is a strict word limit of 1,500 words, excluding citations and footnotes.

The school committee will select best essays based on their judgement and announce the winner at the school on 13 July 2018, awarding her/him with a prize of € 525. The essay competition prizes are sponsored by CVPL and IET.

Deadline for submission is 15 June 2018. Send your submissions in PDF or Word format to icvss@dmi.unict.it before the above-indicated submission deadline. Report on your essay your name, email address and affiliation. All participating essays will be made public on the school web page.

SCHOOL DEADLINES

LOCATION OF ICVSS 2018

ICVSS 2018 will be hosted by Hotel Village Baia Samuele in Punta Sampieri – Scicli (Ragusa), Sicily from 8-14 2018. Sicily is one of the most beautiful islands of the Mediterranean. The island is very rich in archeological sites from various Ancient Civilizations. The sea, weather, food and the wine are excellent.

In particular Punta Sampieri – Scicli (RG) is located in the south east of Sicily in a late Baroque area called Val di Noto. The Val di Noto area is included in the Unesco World Heritage List and includes eight nearby towns: Caltagirone, Militello Val di Catania, Catania, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo, Ragusa and Scicli.

The location of the school rises in the middle of an ample bay delimited on the west from Sampieri and on the east from a cliff, on which is founded an ancient furnace, rare example of industrial archaeology. The Hotel Village “Baia Samuele” stretches in a gentle slant to the beach: 120 thousand square meters delimited from rows of secular cypresses. An ultramodern village with an original architecture, pleasant design and all comforts you can imagine. The frame of plants and flowers, typical of this angle of Sicily, in front of the island of Malta, completes this gilded dream of the Mediterranean.

ACCOMMODATION RESERVATION AT HOTEL VILLAGE BAIA SAMUELE

ICVSS participants will be hosted at Hotel Village Baia Samuele (school location) at very special rates. There are no other accommodation options. ICVSS participants must make reservations for accommodation no later than 10 May 2018, using the accommodation reservation form (Accommodation Reservation Module) to be sent by email directly to Baia Samuele reception (icvss@igrandiviaggi.it). After 10 May 2018 After 10 May 2018 we can no longer guarantee a reservation at the Hotel Village Baia Samuele (hence a place at the Summer School).

The accommodation prices for ICVSS participants are the following:

Reductions for children sleeping in parents room are:

SCHOOL BUS SERVICE

The following bus service will be provided by the school (without charge):

SHUTTLE SERVICE

A shuttle service is available provided by Eraclea Travels Staff :

• Taxi max 4 passengers – about €176
• Mini Bus max 8 passengers – about €209

Reservation can be done directly on site during the school or by email to: info@eracletravels.it.

FLIGHTS TO SICILY AND CAR RENTAL

Useful informations on Flights and Car Rental can be found here. The main rental car companies operate at the airport of Catania.

MAP

Red markers indicate Catania Airport and the School Location.