Before heading to the US...
So I have been the Chair of the AUDF now for a few
months and the other day I actually saw the fruits of our most beneficial
program. I had dinner on Tuesday evening with the folks we are sending to WWDC
(developer.apple.com) and I have to say I was impressed.
As many people know I lack navigation skills. I also
lack the ability to drive well. Owen McKerrow and I went to Sydney the other
evening to have dinner at the HardRock cafe but we just didn't know where we
were going. The solution to this was.... Get a map. Except our map was not on
paper - it was in the form of Neil Gray. We convinced Neil to be our map. In
return we would drive him to the
city...
Dinner was good - expensive but
good.
I met the students who's
application we assessed a few months ago. The students seemed very excited. For
some e.g. Zac Cohan it was there first time overseas. For others it was a real
treat to be going to WWDC. The students had varied interest. One was excited in
lightweight kernel platform e.g. L4, another was interested in compiler
techniques and tools and another was interested in searching techniques in
specific domains.
My point is simple.
They seem to like what they do and I (no we - the AUC) are hoping that this will
spur some great innovations!
I have
become a true academic. I can now remember seemingly useless facts (not to say
this is something we do). At dinner it became obvious I remembered the
applications and so I recanted why this was so...
All in all it was a good night. Owen
got to listen to me rant and rave and it just goes on and on. So one more day to
go before I go..
On other news. One
word 'hectic'. I will write about this later.
Posted: Thu - August 3, 2006 at 11:38 PM