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Found

Far Above Cayuga’s Wat~1

## [Cornell gets $25 million grant to build William H. Gates Hall, launching new home for computing and information science](http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan06/GatesCIS.ws.html)

> The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded $25 million to Cornell University to support the construction of the signature building for a planned information campus that will bring together the several units of the university’s Faculty of Computing and Information Science (CIS).

> The new building, to house the Department of Computer Science and elements of the Information Science Program, will be named William H. Gates Hall. The Committee on Alumni Affairs and Development of the Cornell Board of Trustees approved the building’s name at its meeting in New York City, Jan. 20.

> According to Kenneth Birman, professor of computer science and chair of the CIS building committee, the information campus project is still in the feasibility study stage. Gates Hall is estimated at 100,000 square feet and projected to cost about $50 million. Expanded construction beyond the signature building is planned, based on support from Cornell and additional donors. When completed, the information campus will be a complex of linked buildings integrated with a variety of green spaces and common spaces designed to involve students and provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.

> About a dozen possible locations are being evaluated, Birman said. The proposal for the project calls for the information campus to be strategically located in proximity to the Colleges of Engineering and Arts and Sciences, the Life Sciences Technology Building and other key academic partners.

> Gates Hall will house a lecture hall, faculty offices, classrooms, laboratories, student project spaces and conference rooms. The building will make innovative use of technology to foster collaboration both on and off campus, and it will include facilities specifically designed for CIS researchers whose primary offices might be elsewhere on the campus. As in Duffield Hall and the Life Sciences Technology Building, which is under construction, there will be formal and informal meeting spaces to foster “intellectual collisions” and cross-pollination.

I love that “intellectual collisions” is in quotes while cross-pollination is not. Also, I can’t wait to see where the hell they find 100,000 square feet of space on campus.

End alumni griping!

(thanks to Dad for the link)

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Enjoyed

So It Begins

Today, I realized what is going to be the toughest non-essential decision of the semester: which teacher on Tuesday/Thursday is funnier?

Professor Mosse, who teaches CS414, is a very wacky Brazilian type, who cracks one joke every 3 minutes. Even his bad jokes are good.

On the other hand, Michael Spivey, who teaches COG 101, made a very strong leap for the lead today. In the past, his only truly wacky trait was using a sword as a pointer for his slides. But while explaining “combinational explosions” with regards to logic (lots of variables = huge truth tables), he said “Now while I don’t have any video of a combinational explosion, I do have video of a combine explosion”. He then proceeded to play (I Am Not Making This Up) a 90 second clip of him playing Carmageddon 2 and smashing other cars, people, and then finally, the combine car in the game. Such creative use of video games, let alone Carma 2, is amazing.

I’m contemplating setting up a subpage for tracking all their wacky exploits this semester. It will be a tough call, I’m sure.

Categories
Narrated

Room Evaluation

This morning, I stopped into Sheldon Court to get my keys and check out my room. Here are the pros and cons that I have discovered.

Pros:

  • Great location – and you really don’t here the street noise unless the window is open.
  • Friendly staff
  • Good quality chairs, bookshelves (huge!), and lights (the room is actually FULLY ILLUMINATED! Someone notify West Campus!)
  • Some interesting storage space spots.

Cons:

  • It’s small.
  • It’s really small.
  • It’s smaller than ANY ROOM I HAVE LIVED IN TO DATE. Take the room Neil was in last year, make it longer and bit wider, and that’s our room. It seems like about half the size of the room I was in last year.
  • The beds are bunked and I have no idea how we’re going to unbunk them
    and still have room to live.

This is going to take some very creative redecorating.