Welcome!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Chicago. My name is Mayank Lahiri and I'm a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which is about two miles from the conference venue.

I'm also a volunteer at AAAI this year and am hoping to organize some social activities to show you folks around town. Chicago is famous for great eating, blues, jazz and a really big lake. You'll find everything you expect from a big city, as well as open spaces and genuinely friendly people.

Hopefully, we'll get you all some local flavor. I had a few activities in mind involving local blues and jazz, but we're also open to suggestions depending on the general level of interest.

Feel free to e-mail me or post here if you have any questions or suggestions. In the meantime, we have forums up at http://testudo.cs.uic.edu/aaai

- Mayank