My First Academic Conference

My first paper was published at the International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS). It is one of the leading international conferences in parallel computing and distributed processing, with related work in high-performance computing and computer architecture as well.

In my own informal hierarchy, IPDPS was never going to outrank STOC or FOCS in theoretical computer science, or SC in the hardcore HPC world. But within parallel computing and distributed systems, it was absolutely among the very top conferences.

Getting a paper into IPDPS in the second year of my PhD was a considerable stroke of luck.

My first stop in Chicago was the Trump International Hotel & Tower. Our conference was being held at another hotel nearby, and I briefly considered staying at the Trump for a night. That idea ended exactly as expected: it was too expensive, and I could not afford it.

The university was reimbursing my lodging and meals, subject to a limit whose actual amount I did not know. The limit existed in theory; in practice, someone would simply hint that a price was too high. For reasons I never understood, the regular room rate I found for the conference hotel was extraordinarily expensive that Monday—$600 for one night—while the other nights were a little over $300. I submitted that quote for reimbursement and, sure enough, was told that it was absurdly expensive and that I should find somewhere cheaper. So I stayed at another nearby hotel for the first three nights and at the conference hotel for the final three. In the end, everything was reimbursed successfully.

The conference welcome event included a live musical performance. Once people began chatting, the subject that inevitably came up was Trump.

This was during Trump’s first campaign for the U.S. presidency. The topic was not merely hot; it was, to use the precise technical term, extremely hot. Put a table of strangers together with no obvious subject to discuss, and somehow the conversation would make its way to Trump.

I also saw a meme online at the time. The other candidates were labeled things like “the first woman president” or “the first president born in Canada.” Trump was simply “the last president of the United States.” That one made me laugh far more than it should have.

My English political vocabulary was painfully limited. While everyone else chatted away, I mostly listened and laughed along.

Then it was finally my turn to present my paper at the conference.

And so I came away with one precious photograph of the occasion.