IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV) 2025

Conference Location: Tucson, Arizona, USA

Conference Dates: February 28 - March 4, 2025

Conference Focus: WACV is a premier international computer vision event focusing on practical applications and innovative algorithms in computer vision. The conference solicits high-quality, original submissions describing research in computer vision, with a particular emphasis on systems and applications.

Conference Key Areas:

The conference addresses various computer vision topics such as

- 3D computer vision

- Image recognition and understanding

- Machine learning architectures for vision

- Video recognition and understanding

It also addresses covers a wide range of application areas, including:

- Agriculture

- Autonomous driving

- Biomedical and healthcare

- Environmental monitoring

- Robotics

- Virtual and augmented reality

Sachin Verma's (MoST ph.d. candidate) experience :

Presenting our work, *"SegDesicNet: ..."*, at WACV 2025 was an exhilarating experience. In this work, I introduced a novel approach to data domain adaptation by bridging the gap between artificial neural networks and human brain-inspired modeling while incorporating the Earth's spherical geometry into my semantic segmentation model. This integration enhances the model with elements of explainable AI, improving interpretability and alignment with real-world spatial structures.

WACV is a premier venue for computer vision research, attracting top researchers from institutions like Google Brain, Meta, Stanford, and NVIDIA. The conference is highly competitive, with two rounds of submissions. I was fortunate to be accepted in Round 1, which saw 1,381 valid paper submissions, with only 167 accepted—an acceptance rate of just ~12%. Notably, WACV ranks 5th in computer vision and 9th as one of the most desirable venues for research submissions.

Engaging with some of the best minds in the field was truly inspiring. I had the opportunity to discuss cutting-edge challenges with researchers from major tech companies and leading institutions, many working on problems closely related to our research. These conversations led to insightful feedback and exciting possibilities for future collaboration. In particular, our discussions on scaling Gaussian Splats with geospatial AI for 3D reconstruction opened up promising new directions.

Beyond the technical takeaways, the atmosphere at WACV was electrifying—being surrounded by brilliant researchers, exchanging ideas, and witnessing the future of computer vision made this an unforgettable experience. This was also my second conference presentation—the first being at *NetZero*—and that experience played a crucial role in preparing me for WACV.

One of the most rewarding aspects was the unwavering support from both of my professors, Gabriel and Frank. Even amidst their busy schedules, they provided invaluable guidance, ensuring that our work reached its full potential. I am deeply grateful for their mentorship and encouragement. A huge thank you to the entire MoST research team for their support in making this possible!

The Mobility Lab MoST (MobilitetsLab Stor-Trondheim) of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is organizing a workshop with Cluster 8 (Information and Communication Technologies) of NECTAR (Network of European Communications and Transportation Academic Researchers). The meeting will take place in Trondheim, Norway (01-02 September 2025). It will discuss the topic of: “The development and deployment digital infrastructure: organization and sharing data ecosystems such as digital twins.”

This meeting will bring together researchers from different disciplines and countries in a friendly environment to debate recent developments in the study of building data ecosystems enabling and facilitating data sharing as well as the use and combination of such data with models to develop digital twins capable of providing integral operational and tactical decision information to improve the usage of the physical world.

Submitting an Abstract

Colleagues interested in presenting a paper are kindly invited to send an extended abstract of a maximum of 250 words by email to Mahgol Afshari (mahgol.afshari@ntnu.no) and Agnar Johansen (a.johansen@ntnu.no) by 15 May 2025 at the latest. Please indicate the title, author(s), affiliations, corresponding contact, and three keywords. A maximum of three bibliographic references is allowed.

The MoST Team Presents at ProjMAN 2024

In November 2024, the MoST (Mobilitetslab Stor-Trondheim) team participated in the ProjMAN International Conference on Project Management, held in Madeira, Portugal. Representing the team, Aashish Adhikari, a PhD candidate at NTNU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, presented his research titled "Actors in Participatory Mobility Planning in Trondheim."

The presentation highlighted the critical role of participatory approaches in shaping sustainable urban mobility planning. Drawing insights from the MoST Living Lab in Trondheim, the research emphasized how key actors—state, market, community, and third-sector stakeholders—contribute to collaborative mobility planning processes. Using Trondheim’s MoST Living Lab as a participatory action research setting, the research applied the Multi-Actor Perspective (MaP) framework to understand how these actors contribute to mobility planning by integrating diverse goals, knowledge, and resources.

Participating in ProjMAN 2024 was a rewarding experience. The conference allowed the MoST team to exchange knowledge with researchers and professionals tackling similar challenges worldwide.

Aashish expressed his gratitude to his supervisors, Agnar Johansen, co-authors Savis Gohari and Mahgol Afshari, and the MoST project for their support. He also thanked the ProjMAN organizing team for hosting such an insightful and well-organized event.

The MoST team looks forward to continuing its mission of advancing participatory and sustainable urban mobility solutions. Stay tuned for more updates on our progress!

The visit of Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS)

On 24 October, the MoST team was in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, visiting the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS). It was an excellent meeting with Daniël Scheerooren. We learned a lot about this institute and the exciting projects they work on, and we shared our experiences about MoST (Mobility Lab Greater Trondheim). Thanks to Daniel for having us.

For 10 years, AMS has created urban impact in collaboration with their most important academic partners (TU Delft, Wageningen University and Research and MIT) and the city of Amsterdam. They decided to tell their unique story in The Playbook, which they launched at their 10 year celebration.
In The Playbook, they identify the seven building blocks for creating meaningful change in cities and document their evolution from a visionary concept to a globally recognized hub so others can learn from their journey.

Skopje, North Macedonia

9th CONFERENCE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH ON REAL ESTATE-Cirre 2024

October 10-11, 2024

What will future mobility be like in Trondheim?

How do you create more sustainable transport and mobility solutions in growing cities?

How do Trøndelag County Council and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) work together to develop future-oriented, sustainable urban mobility solutions?

These were the main topics for a Tekna seminar that was held last week at the Adolf Øien building NTNU.

There have been interesting presentations by PhD candidates, project manager and general manager of MoST, in addition to a very nice presentation about which projects TRFK has related to electrification and technology.

You can read more about the event here:

After a year of preliminary work, the trial project “gravefrie fortau” (dig-free pavements), a collaboration between Trondheim Municipality and researchers under the MoST umbrella, has begun with work on evaluation, a process that will last for at least one year. Implementation of the measure is planned for the transition between September and October, when three streets will get a new “dig-free” pavement: walking-space reallocated from the road using movable barriers. The project will be evaluated in several ways, of which two facets are carried out by MoST PhD candidate Jarvis Suslowicz (NNTU, IAP). Jarvis has worked recently with collection of video data in all three streets, in order to gain an overview of traffic volume, behaviour and movement, which will be compared with new video data once the measure is in place. This allows us to understand if people use the new ‘pavement’ as intended, and if traffic increases on neighbouring streets as a result of the one-way regulation necessary to create space for walking. In addition, a survey has been sent out to residents in the trial neighbourhoods, to find out more about people’s travel habits and attitudes towards the project. The survey will be followed up in 2025.

News from Workpackage 1:

NTNU (Helge Hillnhütter) has contributed to a policy document together with WHO, UNECE, UITP and various other organisations. The policy document shall promote the relevance of walking in the context of public transport. Published here:

https://unece.org/info/publications/pub/390416

Helge Hillnhütter has contributed to seminars and conferences with posts about walking:

• Trondheim municipality, seminar for the development of Nyhavna
• VCÖ, Verkehrsclub Österreich (digital, approx. 350 participants)
• National congress on mobility on foot, Austria (physical, approx. 250 participants)
• German Institute of Urban Affairs, Berlin (digital, approx. 450 participants)
• Engineers without borders, NTNU Trondheim (in person, approx. 50 participants)
• Interreg Danube region, Austria, post for participants in an EU project "active mobility to access public transport"

Submitted article: "Can street experiments support the mobility transition?" Local perspectives on participatory, ad hoc, affordable transformations in public space" Written in a team with Julia Jarass.

The 17th NECTAR Conference took place in Brussels, Belgium, 3 – 5 July 2024. The NECTAR conference was organized by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and hosted on its campus. The focus of the conference was on how transport and communications research can support the different roles stakeholders take in transport planning:
Stakeholder involvement in transport: Who, why, how and with what impact?

We were honoured to present MoST project in this conference under Cluster 4 (Urban Mobility Transitions): The role of urban mobility transitions in sustainable futures

First European PhD and Postdoc symposium on delivering the future of infrastructure management

Hold the Date

First European PhD and Postdoc symposium on delivering the future of iinfrastructure management

How can Europe safeguard its transport infrastructure capabilities while fostering economic growth and an inclusive society?

Date: April 15^th– 17^th2024

Location: Dublin (Venue TBC)

Porto, Portugal 

ProjMAN - International Conference on Project MANagement

November 08-10, 2023

Belgrade, Serbia

8th CONFERENCE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH ON REAL ESTATE-Cirre 2023

October 19-20, 2023

MoST - Norwegian Public Roads Administration seminar

October 2023

Big data-Workshop March 2023

Presentations from the Big data Workshop

March 21, 2023