Stanford AI Lab Retreat (wow, nerdy!)

The last few weeks have been fairly exciting! I had a chance to redesign my project for the Batzoglou lab, and I am really starting to feel more at home in the group. We went to the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab retreat, where I got a chance to bond with the new group! It was quite nice!

My dad was in town over the weekend, before the retreat. We had a good time going to the city, and walking around in the fisherman’s wharf. We also moseyed over to Ghirardelli square where I bought a bracelet, and Ryan bought a couple of amazing pictures from a photographer. They are great pictures from around the San Francisco area. Our moving company that brought our San Diego storage unit up to the bay area has been withholding our framed pictures that we had around our apartment in San Diego! It’s pretty upsetting because our walls are pretty bare because we do not have these pictures, and there are so many amazing places for them! I hope we get them soon, some of them were gorgeous creations like the one on the right that Ryan has taken! He’s a great photographer!

On Monday I dropped my father off at the airport, and went to San Francisco to have lunch with Beth. She goes to San Francisco State University, in the MBA program. It is quite insane! I was impressed when Stanford had a shopping mall, but SFSU’s MBA program where Beth attends classes is actually IN a mall. The Westfield shopping mall in Union Square has a huge Bloomingdales, a 6-story Nordstrom, a Furla store, and, oh yes, a whole floor of classrooms and computer labs for SFSU MBA students! It is absolutely insane. I have noticed some fundamental differences between southern California and the bay area. Movie theatres are sparse, and when they do exist they have a crazy amount of concessions (including pastries, food, and ice cream), which is NOT common in SoCal. There are very few chicken restaurants, such as California Chicken Cafe and KookooRoo and no Pinkberry ice cream stores (which I must say is a very recent addiction for me). I was hoping to open one of these, but it seems that with a 4 month waitlist to even receive information about a franchise, there must already be one in the works in the bay area. And finally, major universities must have shopping malls to prove true prowess!

On Wednesday I had lunch with Alex, Andreas and George (the latter are from the Batzoglou lab). I realize that I have become close enough with Alex, David and Noah to be able to talk about just about anything, however I need to learn how to ease my way in with other people. I think I am far too forward for some people, so hopefully we can find a good middle ground! I headed out to Monterey that evening, for the SAIL retreat. It is in a hotel RIGHT on the beach (see picture of Marina and Eugen), and although it was rainy and not great weather, I could hear the ocean when not in my room! We headed out to a bar at the Cannery, which is a historic region in the area. It was not a particularly classy place, which made it hilarious, and a prime target for the next evening.

During the talks at the retreat I heard some really fascinating stuff! I have not had much exposure to AI, so it was really interesting to me. Talks ranged from autonomous cars to linguistics, and some amazing robotics. Am I in the wrong field? At nights we went out to this bar in downtown Monterey (in the old Cannery). It was interesting to say the least. I've never been to a bar where bartenders drink more than their customers (Cory on the left shared his pitcher, don't worry)! They were taking shot after shot and eventually whipped out this blow up doll, and did some highly inappropriate stuff with it, after flashing their assets to the crowd. Isn't Monterey supposed to be super classy?

This guy is passed out, sitting up, holding a pen... There was also a guy who had his hand up against a dartboard while his friend threw darts at the wall.

We also had a planned entertainment portion of the evening! It was great! Tom (from Serafim's lab) did some amazing yoyo tricks, and there was a game similar to the newlywed game, except it was a student-advisor situation. The best part was that Serafim and Sam won! The runners up were Andrew Ng and his student Rion Snow, for whatever reason people were rooting against them, even though Rion had some great answers. They both agreed that if Rion were a vegetable, he would be a coffee bean! We also had a keynote, Jorge Cham (below), who is the creator of the PhDComics strip. It inspired the following comic strip...notice the little caption in the corner!

Later that evening we headed back to the bar with a much larger group of people. I think we pretty much filled up the whole bar! There were a few other people there, but it was Thursday night. We played a game called hands, the same one as at the retreat, but later we played this ridiculously weird game where you go around a circle counting off to 15. Every time you arrive at 15, the last person gets to change a number to any word, for example, the number 5 was changed to obecron pur C I 8 (or something along those lines, it's from Futurama). Although no one could remember that word, and eventually we started making up our own. One guy started saying "Oh my god, CIA!" With a really freaked out look on his face, it was hilarious. Abe Bassan, from Gill's lab, could not get one number right, and somehow he always had to say it! At one point he would just crack up instead of trying!

All in all it was GREAT retreat! It was in an amazing location with a GREAT view! The keynote was unforgettable. He went over many of his comic strips, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. The science is completely amazing, and I'm so glad to have gained more exposure in the AI field, I have really had none up until this point. I even got excited about it! The food wasn't half bad (notice the HUGE sandwich Andreas made)! Unfortunately since it has been something like 20 years since the last retreat, I'm not sure I can rely on it happening in the future. The Genetics Department seems to have the ultimate retreat, maybe I can get on the guest list somehow? Or just join Gavin Sherlock's lab. He has some amazing ideas!

On Saturday, after I got back, Noah had his annual Beer Olympics, followed by slip-n-slide activities as seen on the left. I was dead tired from my 3 day retreat (that seems counter-intuitive) and needed some rest, so Ryan and I slept most of the morning, and showed up late. It was also raining, which was completely unfortunate.

I watched the events, but missed the best one! We used to have a similar event at UCSD, minus the beer of course. It involves two (or more) teams, who are lined up on one side of the field, with a broomstick on the other end. You run across, pick up the broomstick, spin around like 10 times, and then run back across. Of course, the back across part is the tricky part. Now, in the Beer Olympics you are suffering from impaired balance in the first place (since this is not the first event). Noah had some great videos of people running into the house. At least it wasn't the street.

This was the one event I did get to see.

Most people were soaking wet, but it did not stop the festivities. At one point a Fire Engine drove by, and they honked and waved. A lot of people seemed interested. (What is Noah doing?!)

I think they need more beer!

Ryan and I went out to Rudy's with them later that night, a local, pretty sketchy bar, that is not necessarily my favorite. Saiqa had never been, but we decided to have a drink, and they were so ridiculously strong. We decided it was in order to impair our judgment so we wouldn't be so aware of our surroundings. Noah's roommate's girlfriend, Claire, told people she was getting married, a ploy to get free drinks. From the sounds of it, it worked pretty well. His friend Mark had also bought her a balloon animal with a flashing light in it...It was pretty strange. But apparently this kid that makes it is trying to make money to go to college! I guess he's been on the news.

So tomorrow I start RECOMB! I'm excited to see all these UCSD folks again!!!!