Interview with Dr. Jesús Ruiz–Santaquiteria Alegre—Winner of the Electronics 2024 Best Ph.D. Thesis Award

We congratulate Dr. Jesús Ruiz-Santaquiteria Alegre for winning the Electronics 2024 Best Ph.D. Thesis Award with his publication, “Improving the Effectiveness of Automatic Threat Recognition Methods in Video Surveillance Systems”.

Name: Dr. Jesús Ruiz-Santaquiteria Alegre
Affiliation: VISILAB-ETSII, University of Castilla-La Mancha, C/ Altagracia, 50, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain
Research interests: computer vision; deep learning; artificial intelligence

The following is an interview with Dr. Jesús Ruiz-Santaquiteria Alegre:

1. Can you please briefly introduce the scientific research you conducted during your doctoral study?
My doctoral research was focused on the development of deep learning-based methods for threat recognition in video surveillance systems. In particular, I worked on the automatic detection of weapons in video sequences, which is a critical task for ensuring the safety and security of monitored areas. Several architectures and methods were proposed to improve the performance of existing object detection systems, addressing limitations such as undetected weapons or incorrect detections. Additionally, I explored the complementary task of human action recognition in surveillance videos, which is essential for a comprehensive surveillance system.

2. Did you encounter any difficulties in carrying out this research? How did you overcome them?
During my research, I encountered several challenges, including the need for large, annotated datasets for training deep learning models and the complexity of real-time processing in surveillance scenarios. To overcome these challenges, I focused on data augmentation techniques to enhance the diversity of training data and explored lightweight model architectures that could achieve high accuracy while maintaining real-time performance.

3. As an author, what aspects of a journal do you value the most when choosing a journal in which to publish your academic work?
When choosing a journal to publish my academic work in, I value the journal’s reputation, the quality of the peer review process, and the visibility it offers to my research. Additionally, I consider the journal’s focus on my specific field of study and its audience, as well as the speed of publication.

4. Many doctoral students experience pressure to publish papers and worry about delaying graduation. What advice do you have for doctoral students who have not yet graduated?
I understand that many doctoral students feel pressure to publish and worry about graduation timelines. My advice is to focus on the quality of your research rather than the quantity of publications. It's important to take the time to conduct thorough research and produce high-quality work. Additionally, seek guidance from your advisors and peers, and don't hesitate to ask for help when needed.