Georgia Tech

Now I don't normally give a talk a week, but this semester has been crazy busy. This week I visited Georgia Tech and gave a talk in their stochastic seminar. Talks are a bit like snowflakes--too many of them in one place results in a real problem. Just kidding of course, no I mean each talk is unique.

Any time you give a speech, a talk, or any kind of presentation, there's a rhythm in the room. It always helps to have people you know in the audience, and in this case I had several. Prasad Tetali was who had invited me, and has done some great research in analysis of Markov chains. Also there was Henry Matzinger, who got his PhD the same year I did from Cornell OR. It is a small world after all, especially when you're talking about the number of probability doctorates working at major research universities.

Anyway, Henry invited me to dinner that night, and I got to meet his charming wife and catch up on all we've been up to for the last ten years. I also ran into a friend in the CS department while on my way to the student center for breakfast, Eric Vigoda. His work while he was a graduate student under Luby was the first paper I read that got me started in my area, and it was great catching up with him as well.

As a side note, this was my first experience flying Air Tran, and it was very enjoyable. No delays, XM radio in all the seats (which isn't so common in the shuttle flights) and easy online check-in up to 24 hours in advance. Very nice!