Faculty-Student Thanksgiving!

Notice the *genius* in sneaking in SymSys references by putting a brain on the turkey.

Week 9 finds students and faculty alike buried under office hours, final projects, and essays. In the depths of this dreary time – in fact, on a Tuesday – 32 members of the SymSys community, including faculty members, postdocs, and students, gathered together for the newly revised 2020 Annual Symbolic Systems Society Faculty-Student Thanksgiving! 

Usually, this event is an opportunity for harried students and faculty to stuff themselves full with Thanksgiving food while casually chatting with those around them. But in the age of Zoom, the SymSys Society board thought hard about somewhat recreating spontaneous, casual vibes virtually. We essentially ended up doing a 6-part concurrent coffee chat. Although we’re always looking to improve our virtual events, we have been excited to hear how fun and free-flowing our Thanksgiving conversations this year were. Through our event, we were able to give people not just a breather from end-of-quarter tasks, but also to connect with each other on a casual, cozier level.

Thank you so much for everyone who came, and special thanks to the faculty who were able to make it: Todd Davies, Rosa Cao, Chelsea Finn, Mike Frank, Dan Lassiter, and Chris Potts!