A fruitful summer: inside Visage Technologies’ 2025 internship
Every summer, Visage Technologies opens its doors to students eager to explore the world of computer vision and artificial intelligence. This year, 18 interns joined us for a six-week journey of learning and collaboration, working under the guidance of 11 mentors on 8 research topics.
The 2025 internship program is a great show-and-tell of the core of Visage Technologies: research, innovation, and, of course, (human) connection.
About Visage Technologies
Founded in 2002, Visage Technologies has grown into a global leader in face tracking, face analysis, and computer-vision-based solutions. Its technology powers products in automotive safety, augmented and virtual reality, and beyond.
We take great pride in our technical excellence and in our culture of continuous learning and sharing that knowledge through mentorship. Each year, our internship program gives students the chance to experience what it’s like to work on cutting-edge projects that shape the future.
Mate, one of our 11 mentors, shares his thoughts:
“As much fun as it is to share knowledge with other people, there is an even more important message underneath the original gesture. It’s about fostering a culture of mentorship where, having been mentored yourself, you want to guide others in return. This creates a cycle of support and growth, helping us all to improve.”
The team behind it
Before we dive into this year’s technicalities and experiences, we have to talk about the team that makes this possible every year. The power behind it all is our SIC, short for Student Internship Committee. Preparations for a new season start just a few months after the previous generation receives their diplomas.
What motivates all of us, from SIC members to mentors, to give our best is the overwhelmingly positive feedback we receive from our interns. Not to brag, but in this year’s anonymous feedback survey, 100% of respondents said “Yes” when asked whether they would recommend this internship program to other students.
Learning by doing
Every year, Visage Technologies interns tackle real research problems that contribute directly to the company’s ongoing work. This year’s projects included plenty of interesting topics:
- Light Conditions Robustness Improvement in Skin Tone Estimation by Exploiting Picture Metainformation
- Improve Skin Tone Estimation and Foundation Matching Using Multi-point Sampling and Human Perception-Based Foundation Recommendation
- Towards Better Data Selection: Using Unsupervised Learning Methods to Improve Data Selection
- Real-Time Feasibility of End-to-End Deep Learning Tracking
- Radar Object Detection for Autonomous Driving
- Beyond Camera: Improving Autonomous Vehicle Perception in Adverse Weather Conditions Using Radar-Camera Fusion
- Model Nonlinearity Evaluation for Multiple Object Tracking
- Applying Methods of Explainable AI to CNN Architectures
Each topic had its own challenges and pushed students to go beyond theory and to apply their knowledge to real problems, using, among other technologies, Python, PyTorch, and cutting-edge ML frameworks.
Ivan shared his reasons for applying: “I wanted to experience a real working environment, work on an interesting project, and learn about topics I had little exposure to beforehand.”
“I am very interested in the field, and I wanted to get more experience in it and work on the projects that have real usage in the real world,” shared Mislav.
A day in the life at Visage Technologies
Life as a Visage intern combined structure with independence. Most teams started their mornings with short check-ins to plan the day’s goals and discuss what’s ahead. Next on the list were coding, reading research papers, testing models, and, of course, an occasional game of pool.
| “Every day started with a quick meeting with my mentor, then coding until lunch. It felt like being part of a real research team,” shared Kristijan. | “Meeting other interns, sharing progress, and helping each other was the best part. Even when things didn’t work, we learned together,” added Tara. |
The program also encouraged interns to take initiative, manage their own experiments, and communicate openly about both successes and struggles.
Matija Šantek enjoyed his role as both mentor and colleague: “I loved seeing the interns tackle tough problems with such fresh curiosity, and it was great fun to take a break and challenge them on the billiard table afterwards.”
Facing challenges
Real research comes with uncertainty, and that was one of the biggest lessons this year’s interns learned. Models don’t always converge, data can be messy, and results sometimes refuse to cooperate.
“Getting good results wasn’t easy, but persistence paid off,” said Ivan. “We tried dozens of approaches before something finally worked, and that moment was priceless.”
Mislav reflected on the learning process itself: “I learned how to read advanced research papers and apply them to real problems. It’s one thing to understand the theory, but implementing it is a whole different experience.”
For some, teamwork was both the challenge and the reward: “Dividing the workload between my teammate and me was tricky at first, but we found a rhythm. It taught me how collaboration actually works in practice,” shared Tara.
We also got a glimpse into the mentor’s perspective. “We had diverse approaches and personalities tackling these complex tasks, but seeing their high motivation and shared curiosity truly unified the team”, shares Matija Šantek.
These experiences not only improved the students’ technical skills but also strengthened their resilience, adaptability, and confidence, qualities essential for future engineers and researchers.
“For most of our interns, this is the first touch with the business world. Most of them experience, for the first time, broadly defined tasks with unknown (and unexpected) results. They have daily stand-ups and dynamically decide on what to do next. For some, this is the first time they fail at experiments or get far-from-perfect results. All of this is preparing them for the real-world challenges. Still, all in a friendly environment and with other interns who share this experience. Some of them really looked like friends and not just colleagues by the end,”
shares Petra Bucić, our mentor.
Beyond the code
If there was one thing every intern mentioned, it was the people who supported them. The mentorship structure at Visage Technologies is built on approachability and respect: mentors are not just supervisors, but guides and collaborators.
| “Our mentors were friendly and supportive. They gave us space to experiment but were always there when we needed advice,” said Kristijan. | “I loved the relaxed environment and how everyone was eager to help,” added Ivan. “It never felt intimidating, just inspiring.” |
Beyond technical learning, the company fostered a sense of community. Interns often mentioned small moments that made the experience special: shared lunches, office chess games, or the much-talked-about ‘treasure hunt’ organized for interns, which brought laughter and friendly competition. These details may seem small, but they represent a company culture that values connection and balance as much as technical excellence.
The treasure hunt wasn’t reserved just for interns. The whole office was running around, looking for clues, including Petra Bucić: “Treasure hunt was by far the best teambuilding activity organised inside the office (our annual barbecue and team building are in their separate category, of course). I’ve never read our internal newsletter with such passion. But besides the thrill I got from it, it gave students a good ice breaker topic, and I have a feeling they spent more time together after the hunt.”
Advice for future interns
Every generation of internship students leaves behind a few words of wisdom. This year’s group encouraged next year’s interns to embrace the challenge and enjoy the journey.
| “Learn as much as you can and have fun,” said Mislav. |
| “Take advantage of your mentors – they know a lot and are happy to share,” added Ivan. |
| “Ask questions, stay curious, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes,” concluded Tara. |
| Ivan’s advice (not the same Ivan as two quotes ago) might seem simple, but it is a great summary of what our guiding principle is: “Just try to get better every day. That’s what Visage Technologies is all about.” |
With the internships’ last day approaching, we asked both students and mentors to look back on the past few weeks. Mentors shared that they’d like to mentor again, and many interns would like to continue working in computer vision. Sounds like a win-win!
For Visage Technologies, the program reaffirmed its role not just as a tech company but as an educational hub for future innovators. By combining research with mentorship, the internship continues to inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists.
Join us next summer
The success of the 2025 internship highlights what makes Visage Technologies special: a company where curiosity meets expertise, and where every intern is treated as a valuable member of the team.
If you’re passionate about computer vision, machine learning, or AI research, consider joining us next year. Visit our Internship page to learn more about upcoming opportunities.
At Visage Technologies, we believe that the best way to predict the future is to create it: one project, one idea, and one intern at a time.
