Confession time!
I am the one who made the decision to provide only cash bar but not drink tickets for the I3D 2015 banquet. The official reason is budget balance, but the personal reason is that alcohol is a bad thing and should not be encouraged.
March 25, 2015
Kowtow
If you are a university professor and you boast on social networks about sending your students to other schools for higher degrees, you are essentially acknowledging that you (and your school) are not as good.
Pedro turning into a werewolf
This is yet another vivid dream I had earlier this morning.
I was waiting in line for I3D electronic theater with Pedro, chatting with other folks happily.
All of a sudden, he bent over the floor and started to vomit.
His bones deformed, with nails were protruding out of his fingers.
One of the two bear-like eastern European guys standing around us bit off Pedro’s right index finger tip, and that settled him down.
The eastern European guy told me that my bite would not help, implying I am a vampire.
March 16, 2015
PhD student recruiting
On behalf of the HKU CS department, I would like to invite top students all over the world to apply our PhD program for academic year 2016-17.
HKU is a top ranked university conducting world class research and teaching. It is located at the heart of Hong Kong Island, aka the downtown area.
Hong Kong’s diverse culture, liberal policy, and vibrant economy offer unique life styles and career opportunities.
March 7, 2015
Why living forever is probably a bad idea
Even if under optimal physical, mental, and social status:
. It will eventually become very boring.
. One cannot participate in evolution and thus becomes inferior (barring technology like dynamic genetic splicing).
. If the universe eventually ends it will drag you down to some unknown horrible state.
Reincarnation, or some form of jumping between different intelligent species, seems much more fun.
🙂
March 5, 2015
About being a general/conference (co)chair
Here is my experience of being a general/conference co-chair for I3D, a small but prominent venue in graphics, games, and HCI, in 2015.
What
A general chair is like the head of a conference organizing committee, which consists of other members such as paper/program chair, industry chair, poster/demo chair, publicity chair, local chair, etc.
You start by picking the venue/hotel and committee members (including your co-chair), working with them before/during/after the conference, and making sure everything runs smoothly with nothing falling through the cracks.
Your goal is to maximize attendance satisfaction while staying within the financial budget.
Why
Someone asked me to do this a while back; I like I3D and want to experience conference organization.
How
Picking good people to work with, including hotel managers and committee members, will make your tasks much easier and pleasant.
Learn from the past chairs. Follow what they have done well and improve the rest. Then you should be fine.
The budget is the trickiest part in my experience. The sponsoring organization (e.g. ACM) usually prefers not running into deficit, which unfortunately may appear unavoidable as the incomes (registration fees and corporate donations) do not completely roll in until near the conference start, at which point all major expenses are already decided.
Fortunately things turned out well this year and we ended with a small budget surplus.
About being an industry (co)chair
Here is my experience for being an industry co-chair for I3D, a small but prominent venue in graphics, games, and HCI, in 2011 and 2012.
What
The industry chair is a member of the conference organizing committee, with two main responsibilities: getting corporate donation, and organizing industry talks/panel.
Why
I said yes to someone who asked me to do this in 2011 because I like I3D and want to try conference organization. This also paves the way for being a general/conference chair and a paper/program chair.
How
Attracting funding and speakers depends on the visibility/relevance of the venue and your personal connection to the industry.
With a good venue and sufficient personal connection, it should not be too hard or too time consuming to be a good industry chair. Just be relentless in begging money and inviting speakers.