Dec 20 2008
ArbCamp!
ArbCamp08 was great, thanks to all the organizers, who had to scramble at the last minute to handle a huge turnout by changing the venue. With more than 160 attendees, there was a wide variety of interesting breakout sessions and impromptu discussions.
I enjoyed the parallel programming session led by Jon Cohen – I hadn’t realized that graphics processors were up in the hundreds of cores, and that they can be utilized for scientific computing with the help of Nvidia’s Cuda compiler. Users of this technology were first hand, including Eric Janikowski Jankowski, who agreed that this technology has revolutionized molecular simulation work.
Other sessions of note included a plan to set up a co-working space in the Arcadian Antiques location on Main Street, and a loose discussion of DIY photography. Apparently the disposable digital cameras available at CVS are a good source of image sensors for DIY photography projects like kite photography. Someone has even mounted one inside a volleyball to take pictures on each impact.
The event was, more than anything, a great opportunity to meet some of the interesting people in Ann Arbor, and for people in different disciplines to cross-polinate.
One response so far
Damn Sebastian Janikowski, now everyone sticks that extra ‘i’ in the middle of my last name.