On Nurturing Students in the Deep Learning Area

The past few months have been very exciting at PicScout!

Just a few weeks after we started our Software Engineering Project for 50+, we have launched a new initiative, for students this time.

Every graduate who just started working knows there is a gap between the academic world and the real world.
At PicScout, we offer students the possibility to get to know the industry before the end of their studies, through concrete coaching and active participation in the company’s work.
In partnership with the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (IDC), PicScout nurtures students in complex deep learning research area, and invites them to join our Deep Learning Team.

Just this month, Hadas, a 3rd year student in Computer Science at the IDC, joined our algorithm experts to work in our Deep Learning projects.
From data collection to model improvement in the field of face recognition, Hadas will actively participate in various development projects and will benefit from a close coaching by our engineers.

Contributing to the community is a source of great pride among our teams, and we’ll keep updating on our various projects!

PicScout Blog - Engineering, News, Community, computer Science, face recognition, IDC, student

Week 3 of the Software Engineer Training Project: A Participant’s Perspective

The Software Engineer Training Project for 50+ is now in full swing, having recently completed the 3rd of 12-13 sessions. As part of the ongoing coverage of the project, we’d like to share this insight from one of it’s participants:

My name is Avi. I am a participant in the Software Engineer Training Programme organised by PicScout, and I want to share my impressions of the 3 sessions I have participated in so far. I began my career as a software engineer, later I moved into management, and during this period I lost touch with the latest developments in the industry. Although at the start of my career I was a software engineer (and a good one at that!) until the start of the program it sounded pretty unlikely that I’d be able to fill in the gaps in my knowledge in a relatively short time. At the first session I was pleased to discover that it was not just another ‘Course’: During the session we went over material that would normally have a whole course devoted to it. I liked the fact that during each session we touched on important issues and then at home, would practice exercises which cover in more depth what we learnt during the session. I was very impressed with the PicScout staff and their professional and supportive attitude.

The latest session, led by Idan, addressed the subject of writing code tests. Idan led the session clearly and introduced me to a method of running better tests which was better and faster than the method I was familiar with. Questions were answered professionally during the session so it was easy to focus and make progress fast. Every session, the material is scanned and emailed to participants so they can go back over the work at home and over the points that require further research. There’s also a group email account where all questions are answered quickly.

I want to emphasize the very serious attitude of the PicScout team. It’s clear that a lot of time and effort is invested in the sessions. I’m sure that each staff member has time-consuming tasks related to their daily work, and yet they dedicate their time to running this program, and for that I want to say thank you and well done!

For more info about the Software Engineer Training Project, follow this link: http://www.picscout.com/?p=1825. Stay tuned for more updates as the sessions progress!

PicScout Blog - Engineering, community

 

‘Here’s looking at you, 2015’: a toast to the past year

It’s well known in the business world that the end of the year signals a frenzy of company-wide reports, annual reviews, and action plans for the year ahead based on the results of the previous one. Whilst many businesses dread the approach of a new year because of what this procedure might uncover, at PicScout the end of the year is, frankly, a pretty fun time, where we get to pat ourselves on the back, look at reports and say ‘wow!’ several times, go on a company trip (last week we all went to see the latest Star Wars movie), and eat cake to celebrate. So here are 7 things we did in 2015 that we think deserve a public ‘wow’:

  1. We more than doubled our capacity in all operations. We’re pretty pleased about this, and how it reflects the hard work of all of our teams: Sales & Account Management, Operations, License Compliance, R&D, Legal, Finance, HR. In other words, everybody.
  2. We reached 100+ customers! All of our developing, expanding, tweaking and refining, paid off, resulting in a product that drives and influences the market, that we’re proud of, and which makes for a lot of happy customers.
  3. We grew our presence in the editorial sector. 2015 saw the dawn of several new partnerships with prestigious editorial companies, meaning we continue to grow in this arena and learn from some of the best specialists the editorial industry has to offer.
  4. We broke into new markets. It’s important in business to consistently redefine oneself in tune with the changes in the industry. At PicScout redefining ourselves goes deeper than trying on a lot of fun hats (although some of us also like to do that); it’s about doing different things and doing them all very WELL. This year we really invested in developing our range of products including our Analytics, API, and Website Auditing services, making us a consistent all-rounder.
  5. We made technological leaps. The technology industry is arguably the most dynamic, fast-moving, and motivating industry to work in. At PicScout we are ever-conscious of this and our software engineers are making innovations in the field of image detection and visual recognition, putting us at the forefront of one of the fastest-growing, futuristic technological incentives in the world today.
  6. We launched a Training Programme! We’re pretty fanatical about technology here, but also about talented people. These two core interests inspired the Software Engineering Training Project for 50+. Coordinated by Picscout’s own employees, and taking place over 12-13 sessions, the project provides software engineers over or around the age of 50, who have been outside of the industry for a while, with the tools they need in order to re-enter the technology job market. Read more here.

  7. We even had time to enjoy ourselves…quite a lot! ‘Work hard, Play hard’, is a bit of a motto here. We love our jobs but we also like to have a good time (especially when it involves good food). This year, as well as tapping into new markets, growing our customer base and developing our product range, we also went on Saafari, went rafting, ate a LOT of cake, and saw the new Star Wars movie. Not too shabby we think.

 To quote one of the musical greats, 2015 “was a very good year”.

PicScout Blog - Insights for Everyone, Insights for Business, News, End-to-End, Engineering, Visual API

Welcome Aboard to our New Editorial Partners!

We are delighted to announce our new partnership with two more editorial associations making substantial contributions to the media world whose image collections have an industry-wide presence.

Our increasing ventures into the editorial sphere, as highlighted by these recent partnerships, reflect our commitment to diversifying our approach to image license protection by applying our capabilities across various content platforms in order to tackle the issue of license infringement on an ever greater scale.

In addition to our license enforcement services, we are also providing our partners with intelligence about where and how their content is being used online as part of PicScout Analytics, and allowing them to monitor their content across specific sites through our Website Auditing services.

We are looking forward to developing these new partnerships and anticipate further exciting collaborations in the New Year!

Launching the PicScout Training Project for 50+

At PicScout we’re pretty fanatical about technology, but also about talented people. These two core interests inspired the Software Engineering Training Project for 50+ which we are proud to be launching later today at PicScout HQ.

 

The project, coordinated by Picscout’s own employees, is devised with the intention of providing software engineers over or around the age of 50, who have been outside of the industry for a period of time, with the tools they need in order to re-enter the technology job market. The training scheme comprises 12-13 bi-weekly sessions, during which attendees complete a range of exercises under the guidance of PicScout staff members who volunteer their time to organize and run the project.

 

The first session will be run by PicScout software engineer Michelle, and will be kicking off this evening. Look out for our updates and coverage of the event on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/PicScout

https://twitter.com/picscout