AAAI 2015 Winter Conference - A Month Left

One month left till the AAAI 2015 Conference.

Holy crap, I just got my plane ticket for this.

It’s happening.

do the Bender dance…

I’ll be acting as a volunteer for the conference (it’s the first winter conference, too, apparently) and was therefore lucky enough to get a $200 scholarship and a complimentary registration ($450, in my case) to attend.$200 is very little to cover travel and hotel costs, but seeing as I have no serious research experience in the field yet, I’d say I’m still fine with it. Especially considering these registration costs for a student AAAI member like myself…

Student AAAI Member (Registration Fees)

• Early: $450
• Late: $550
• Onsite: $600

I mean, HOLY CRAP! My bank account would cry if it had to deal with such costs on top of flight and travel.Hotel costs, even with the special conference rate, will be ~$1087 out of my pocket. And then flight costs ended up being ~$358. And then of course, there are other expenses to consider such as food and possible incurring extra travel costs. Either way, it’s probably going to cost me roughly $1.5K not including the $200 scholarship they gave me. Ah, well. Hopefully, it’ll be worth it! See lovely flight details below.

I’ll take the very back window seat please, thanks.Thankfully, with a scholarship I got from the VSGC, I’ll be able to pay off the majority of these conference fees. Whew. In the end, I’ll be shelling out only $300 for it all, which isn’t terrible. Glad I’m selling so much crap on eBay, I’ll tell you that.I will say though that I don’t feel I really have a lot of information yet in terms of scheduling.I mean, I just know the basics as of right now…

AAAI–15 Program Overview

Sunday, January 25‍

• 9 am to 12:30 pm - Workshop 1 (will be missing this one 😭)
• 2 pm to 6 pm - Workshop 2 registered for Human-in-the-loop Planning and decision support

Monday, January 26‍

• Robocup 9 am to 1 pm - Workshop 1 registered
• MP1 - 2 to 3:45 pm - Workshop 2 registered for AI and Technological Unemployment‍
• MP2 - 4:15 to 6 pm - Workshop 3 registered for Voting rules for AI

Tuesday, January 27

• AAAI–15 Opening Ceremony and Awards (8:30 AM)
• AAAI–15/IAAI–15 Invited Talks
• AAAI–15/IAAI–15 Technical Program
• Competitions/Exhibits
• AAAI–15 Robotics Events
• Shakey Celebration (??)
• AAAI–15 Poster Reception (Evening)

Wednesday, January 28

• Women’s Mentoring Breakfast (7:15 AM)
• AAAI–15/IAAI–15 Invited Talks
• AAAI–15/IAAI–15 Technical Program
• Competitions/Exhibits
• AAAI–15 Robotics Events
• AAAI–15 Poster Reception (Evening)
• Fun and Games Night (Evening)

Thursday, January 29

• AAAI–15/IAAI–15 Invited Talks
• AAAI–15/IAAI–15 Technical Program
• Competitions/Exhibits
• AAAI–15 Robotics Events
• AAAI–15 Poster Reception (Evening)
• Video Competition Awards

Friday, January 30

• And I’m off in the morning!

Any-whoozies, should be fun overall. I’ll be rooming alone, unfortunately, since my roommate request didn’t end successfully but hopefully I’ll meet some friendly fellow volunteers!^ I made a banner for the conference out of sheer excitement!