My kind of motivation

One of the greats things about being a grad student (besides late night meetings, strange schedules, and exams... ha!) is the prospect of travel. It's the hope of visiting strange lands, tasting new foods, and experiencing different cultures. For me, travel is a great motivator. I love the adventure.

A few times a year we submit research papers to various conferences. In the last weeks before the conference deadline, we start pulling all-nighters and living on caffeine to get it all done in time. It can be a little bit painful at times, but the reward for the hard work is worth it! A few months later after all the papers are reviewed, we are all glued to our email awaiting the verdict. If the paper gets accepted, then we get to attend the conference and see whatever exciting location it happens to be in. All on your tax dollars, thank you very much. So far, I've had all-expenses-paid trips to South Korea (and China on the way), Canada, Taiwan, Italy, and various cities in the US.

Today, we were discussing a new paper to write to submit to ICRA, the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, keyword international. It switches between the US and Europe/Asia every other year. (The trick is to submit papers to the foreign ones!) After our research meeting, I quickly typed "icra 2007" into Google. Guess where it is going to be! (drumroll...) ITALY! It is going to be held in Rome! If that doesn't give you motivation to work hard, I don't know what will.