Ing. Lukáš Krasula, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist at Netflix

Dissertation Thesis: Quality Assessment of Post-Processed Images, 2017
Programme: Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
Branch of study: Radioelectronics
Supervisors: Prof. Ing. Miloš Klíma, CSc. and Prof. Patrick Le Callet (Université de Nantes, France)
Supervisor-specialist: Ing. Karel Fliegel, Ph.D.

 

Where do you currently work and what is the scope of your work?

My current role is Senior Research Scientist for Video Quality Metrics at Netflix, a global video streaming company based in Los Gatos, California. I am a part of the Encoding Team responsible for optimizing the streams for our members’ particular conditions such as momentary internet connection speed or their device. The goal is to deliver the best possible video quality in every viewing scenario. My main focus is on developing the optimization criteria, i.e. algorithms capable of evaluating the perceptual quality in a similar way as human observers would. This involves human visual system modeling, signal processing, statistical data analysis, machine learning, etc.

What has your doctoral studies given you for your current career?

I think I can safely say that if it wasn’t for my doctoral studies, I would not be doing what I am doing. My current work is in many ways a continuation of the research efforts started during my Ph.D. Besides that, I am still gaining a lot from the contacts in the research community I acquired at scientific conferences, during joint research projects, or standardization bodies meetings. Last but not least, doctoral studies were an ideal opportunity to learn how to work both independently and as part of a team, drive a challenging project, present and defend my work, review and assess the work of others, deal with setbacks and constructive feedback, and much more. Some of these skills would be otherwise very difficult to learn as early in one's career and are essential in my current job.

Where have you been during your doctoral studies and where have you been at postdoc?

My Ph.D. was actually a French government-supported joint degree between CTU and Université de Nantes in France. I would, therefore, be spending half of my time each year in Prague and the other half in Nantes. There were also many other opportunities to travel to international conferences, summer schools, short-term scientific exchanges, research consortiums, or standardization body meetings. I also had a chance to spend 3 months at the University of Bangor in the lab of Dr. Rafal Mantiuk who is currently a Reader in Graphics and Displays at the University of Cambridge. My post-doc was again in Nantes, however, the project was financed by Netflix so I also had a chance to spend some time at my current workplace.

Za obsah odpovídá: RNDr. Patrik Mottl, Ph.D.