Retreating to Lake Arrowhead

I spent two days this week at the ISI/ISD (Intelligent Systems Division) annual retreat, which was held at The Lake Arrowhead Resort in the San Bernardino Mountains, about two hours east of LA. Unfortunately, the weather was awful -- dense fog, rain, and even hail at times. (Did I mention it was foggy? Driving up and down the mountain was extremely challenging because the fog was so thick that you could see only a few inches in front of your car on a relentlessly winding mountain road. Due to the elevation, it was literally driving through the clouds.) Consequently, I didn't explore the area at all, but it is obviously a beautiful place.

The ISI retreat was an incredibly civilized affair. This is in stark contrast to our faculty retreats at the Univ. of Utah, which are a form of torture that should be banned by the Geneva Convention. At Utah, the faculty are sequestered in a local meeting room and subjected to an endless series of mind-numbingly boring and content-free Powerpoint presentations. Except for the occasional mental jolt provided by one faculty member brazenly insulting another, these meetings could induce a coma in an otherwise healthy person. But I digress...

At ISI, the retreat spans two days, and faculty, staff, and students all attend with expenses paid by the institute. The event consists of a series of high-level research presentations, tutorials on specific topics, question & answer sessions with project leaders and the division directors, and social events. The retreat serves many purposes, including educating everyone about the work currently going on throughout the division, exposing students to a wide swath of AI research, encouraging collaborations across research groups, and supporting collegiality and morale. I was impressed ... every institution should do this kind of thing!