This week is AAAI in Chicago. AAAI is the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, which after having thought about for a bit sounds kind of strange when compared to things like NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). However, the goal is to promote the research and development of AI, rather than equal rights, etc. So my Advisor, Dr. Ventura (Dan), and three of us from the lab (Rob, Dave, and myself) headed out here. Adam from our lab also came out, but he had to leave at a different time and brought his family along, so we haven't seen him yet.

Anyways, we arrived here this afternoon after leaving Salt Lake around 11. The flight was unexpectedly uneventful. Upon arrival we hopped in a cab and rode into town to the Hyatt Regency hotel where the conference is located. It's a nice hotel with a large conference center attached, but the location leaves something to be desired. It's kind of not in the greatest section of town, and it's far away from downtown proper where all the food/attractions are.

We checked in for the conference and picked up our little bags of assorted stuff and name tags, etc. Then we headed out on the town for some food. We took the hotel's complimentary shuttle into downtown to find Lou Malnati's pizza, which we had received two recommendations for as the best pizza in Chicago. We were pretty hungry by this point so we were ready to eat some good food. We found the place before the dinner rush really set in and were able to be seated immediately. We ordered their recommended Deluxe pizza (thankfully with half without the mushrooms), as well as an appetizer. The appetizer was an assortment tray which was pretty good.

The pizza came and was pretty good. A very different pizza than I would normally eat since it ended up being more like a giant open faced calzone because of all the stuff crammed on top of it. There were 8 slices, making two per person, but I only barely made it through one, and Dan finished off most of the extra one. Then we headed off again to explore the city some. We wandered into Millenium Park where there was a free concert by the local Orchestra, it was packed with at least ~10,000 people on the lawn and surrounding areas. Then we walked by the Buckingham Fountain. I, sadly, have no pictures due to leaving my camera in the hotel. Most of this walking was on a quest to find some local ice-cream or gelato place for dessert. For most of the way back we were thwarted in our designs however.

When we were leaving we had asked the concierge about walking to downtown and he advised to avoid public transportation south of Roosevelt drive after dark. Dark was approaching, but from what we were seeing we figured it couldn't be that bad. Just south of Roosevelt we found an ice cream shop and grabbed dessert for the walk back. Most of the walk was fine, until about 4 blocks from the hotel things started to get a little seedier. So, apparently the whole area is fine except for right around the hotel and conference center, great location Hyatt Regency.

We've also reaffirmed to ourselves that the nicer the hotel is the more they'll try to rip you off. The Days Inn in Rexburg has free wireless internet access, and mini-fridge in the room. The Hyatt Regency has no wireless internet and will charge $10 per day for a wired connection, and no mini fridge, but the room overall looks nicer. Luckily AAAI has free wireless set up on the Conference center, so there's a group of people down here for the internet access, and I imagine this evening ritual will draw larger crowds as the Conference progresses and more people showup when the main sessions begin on Tuesday.

My poster presentation is tomorrow, so that's exciting. I guess I'll need to get up bright and early so that I can be there for the first session of the workshop tomorrow morning at 8. The schedule shows some really neat looking talks throughout the week that should be really interesting to listen to. My volunteer hours are on Wednesday afternoon from 1-6, so that's what I'll have planned then.

That's about all the news I have for now from Chicago.

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