After ISIT I went to visit the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Washington. I was invited up there by Maya Gupta, who told me about a little company she started called Artifact Puzzles.

On the research end of things, I learned a lot about the the learning problems her group is working on and their applications to color reproduction. I also got a chance to chat with Maryam Fazel about rank minimization problems, Marina Meilă about machine learning and distance models for rankings (e.g. the Fligner-Verducci model), and David Thorsley about self-assembling systems and consensus problems. All in all I learned a lot!

On the social side I got to hang out with friends in Seattle and UW and hiked for an afternoon at Mt. Ranier. Photos are on Picasa!