Held between 7-9 September, our first IPCV Alumni Workshop was attended by over 70 participants from 22 countries. In addition to professional presentations, alumni meeting and social activities, the graduation ceremony of our IPCV International Master's program and the international opening ceremony for the academic year 2022-2023 also formed an integral part of the program.
We looked forward to the first alumni gathering of our graduate students of Image Processing and Computer Vision with great anticipation. The aim of the event was to bring together researchers, students and alumni of the three consortial universities of the study program (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, the Autonomous University of Madrid and the University of Bordeaux), to provide a forum to meet with one another, to present and discuss their latest achievements and challenges in the field of Image Processing and Computer Vision.
The workshop coincided with the Welcome Week of first year students, who were also invited to join all programs of the workshop, to get a first impression of what the IPCV program and community is all about.
The workshop consisted of four sessions, each being introduced by a keynote lecture given by a professor of one of the three universities, followed by presentations of our alumni students of different cohorts. The sessions covered various areas of deep learning in object and document processing, video and image sequence processing, processing and understanding imagery from urban and natural environments, and medical image processing.
On Thursday, the President of the IPCV Alumni Association hosted a meeting for former students, to find new ways and means of further cooperation within the scope of the Association. A lot of interesting ideas were shared and discussed during the meeting, which will hopefully be further developed in the near future.
One of the highlights of the program was the graduation ceremony. Besides this year's graduates, the 2020 cohort also received their diplomas from the three consortial universities, since their graduation ceremony had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. On behalf of the students, our Egyptian graduate Nour Mohamed Abdelhamed Mohamed thanked the three partner universities for all the professional skills and knowledge they had provided to students. He emphasized that the IPCV program was not just about mastering computer vision, but more about personal growth, which also included travelling, getting along with other cultures, learning new languages, and even getting to know themselves better. In the following International Opening Ceremony, György Cserey, Dean of Pázmány ITK warmly welcomed international students starting their studies at our Faculty.
One of the main aims of the Alumni Workshop was to have students and faculty members of the IPCV program meet in person, to further strengthen the IPCV community, and to expand this community across all cohorts. In addition to the professional content, social activities were also offered.
On Wednesday evening, participants were able to explore the Castle District of Buda by setting out on an urban challenge. Thursday's graduation ceremony was crowned by a dinner cruise on the river Danube. Professors, students and alumni of the IPCV program were able to enjoy the stunning evening panorama of Budapest while socializing with one another.
The Workshop and the international Welcome Week was rounded off with a day trip to Visegrád, the medieval royal seat of Hungary. The visit to the citadel was followed by lunch. Participants were amused by the summer bobsleigh ride as well as the relaxed group discussions in the afternoon.
The success of the workshop is noticeable from the preliminary feedbacks of the participants, who are looking forward to other IPCV alumni events in the future.
