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Jun. 10th, 2005 10:39 amYesterday, a good friend of mine, Idris Hsi (pronounced "She" for those not familar with the romanzied version of Chinese names) was offered a job as a Usability Engineer working with the Microsoft Office Product Design Group at the Redmond Campus in Washington (a heartbeat away from Seattle). He starts at the end of August.
Idris was one of the people that essentially helped keep me sane during my initial separation from my wife. And he also helped me see that I can only be responsible for myself and not someone else. While I still have a "knight in shining armor" tendency, its a lot less pronounced and I try not to put more energy into helping someone than they are.
The reason this is an end of an Era is that Idris was the last of the three Directors of the INCITE Lab. INCITE was a virtual lab that was founded by Idris and Heather Richter It was sorta a joke at first and then they realized that they were addressing a real need in the Computing Community of doing interdisciplinary work that involves social aspects of computing science. The lab is composed entirely of students from various disciplines including Software Engineering, Human Computer Interface, Artificial Intelligance, Programming Languages, Operating Systems, Educational and Learning Sciences, Robotics and Graphics.
The numbe of friday nights I have spent in conversation about non-traditional problems in computing, society and personal relationships is equally as valuable if not more so than the many years of formal education that I received at Georgia Tech. I am definitely a better person for having participated in this group and I think that with the three Directors all leaving the University that the spirit of the Lab might finally dissipate.
Heather Richter has accpeted an assistant professor position at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte and will be heaving at the end of June. Idris leaves at the end of August. And I of course left a few months ago.
I do know that several of the traditions that we have started have a good chance of continuing. The hanging milestones is still present in many of the research labs on campus. I know the the "fake" announcements still keep coming. And I know the te Straggler's Thanksgiving will probably move to Charlotte with Heather. Hell, I suspect we can convince Idris to wander back down for Seattle once a year or so as well. And I have always loved a good road trip.
Its great that Idris has a job. He is a brilliant and wonderful person and deserves lots of happiness. And if anyone can show the good folks at Microsoft how to redesign software to be more usable and accessible then its him. (and we have some ideas about their operating system as well)
Idris was one of the people that essentially helped keep me sane during my initial separation from my wife. And he also helped me see that I can only be responsible for myself and not someone else. While I still have a "knight in shining armor" tendency, its a lot less pronounced and I try not to put more energy into helping someone than they are.
The reason this is an end of an Era is that Idris was the last of the three Directors of the INCITE Lab. INCITE was a virtual lab that was founded by Idris and Heather Richter It was sorta a joke at first and then they realized that they were addressing a real need in the Computing Community of doing interdisciplinary work that involves social aspects of computing science. The lab is composed entirely of students from various disciplines including Software Engineering, Human Computer Interface, Artificial Intelligance, Programming Languages, Operating Systems, Educational and Learning Sciences, Robotics and Graphics.
The numbe of friday nights I have spent in conversation about non-traditional problems in computing, society and personal relationships is equally as valuable if not more so than the many years of formal education that I received at Georgia Tech. I am definitely a better person for having participated in this group and I think that with the three Directors all leaving the University that the spirit of the Lab might finally dissipate.
Heather Richter has accpeted an assistant professor position at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte and will be heaving at the end of June. Idris leaves at the end of August. And I of course left a few months ago.
I do know that several of the traditions that we have started have a good chance of continuing. The hanging milestones is still present in many of the research labs on campus. I know the the "fake" announcements still keep coming. And I know the te Straggler's Thanksgiving will probably move to Charlotte with Heather. Hell, I suspect we can convince Idris to wander back down for Seattle once a year or so as well. And I have always loved a good road trip.
Its great that Idris has a job. He is a brilliant and wonderful person and deserves lots of happiness. And if anyone can show the good folks at Microsoft how to redesign software to be more usable and accessible then its him. (and we have some ideas about their operating system as well)
