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.

🔍 zoom

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.

🔍 zoom

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!