Winter workshop, Gainesville (day 1)

After a rather long flight, I arrived in Gainesville for this special Winter workshop. We indeed had to wait for hours in Paris to get defrosted and then the ride to Atlanta is terribly lengthy (esp. after I realised that all one’s files arXived for the trip were on my “other” computer… and that the book intended for the trip still stood under the X’ mas tree…!) I just managed to read a book for review, rewrite my slides and watch two movies, plus the last part of one I had started on my way back from India…

Anyway, here I am, back in Gainesville, a few years after my last visit, quite glad to meet again with old friends while terribly missing George Casella. The conference is actually dedicated to his memory. The schedule is well-done, once again giving speakers plenty of times and participants plenty of breaks, along with a superb conference room with tables and plugs. I listened to and enjoy all of them, but the one that did not overlap with the latest workshop at ICERM was Dawn Woodard’s, with a challenging data analysis problem about ambulance routes in Toronto. I clearly was not the only one finding this problem interesting and coming up with (mostly hair-brained!) alternatives. (Another apex of the day was to find a 2007 Beaune premier cru at a very reasonable price in a local store!)