AU 2023 Day 1

After a great trip to Stanford on Friday, we had some last-minute preparation to do for our AU exhibit at Pier 9 on Saturday morning.

We headed into the office - after having to explain our way through a security cordon along the waterfront due to APEC 2023 - and printed out a bunch of legal waivers for study participants to sign.

It seems APEC will be impacting our SF employees, with the offices being closed during the AU week.Enough people had warned me about craziness at SFO that I ended up at the airport well ahead of my flight to Las Vegas. There was zero congestion at and around the airport but then you never know - better safe than sorry.

Being in the SFO airport brings back a lot of memories of when I used to live in the Bay Area.

As we approached McCarran airport I got my first glimpse of the Sphere.

Driving from the airport to the Palazzo we managed to see the Sphere from quite close: the road network has been severely impacted by the upcoming Grand Prix: at one point we were driving on the circuit itself, which was quite cool.

I managed to get a room in the Palazzo with a great view onto the Sphere, so I started capturing this unique object.

The good thing about jet lag is the fact you can capture sunrises.

The F1 is coming to Vegas on Thursday, and there were plenty of signs of this - beyond the reconfiguration of the Strip.

On Sunday I had a seasonal latte and an Impossible breakfast sandwich before heading to the expo for setup booth #1222, From Steps to Stories.

We ended up waiting for most of the day for power to be turned on at the booth, but we did have other things to do while waiting.

Assembling the data capture helmets was a big part of the job.

People participating in our study will be wandering around the AU Expo wearing a helmet that capture 360-degree and facial videos, complemented by additional sensor data and qualitative data entered via a phone interface.

We were finished much later than we'd anticipated, but eventually we wrapped up.

That evening I managed to capture the Autodesk commercial on the Sphere. Here are a few animations of it.

After a short night I presented my first session - about VASA - during the first conference slot at 8:15am.

Thanks to my old friend Fernando Malard for taking some snaps of me talking. I think it went quite well - I enjoyed it, anyway.

Next was the Day 1 keynote.

I was sat quite near the back for this one.

My co-speaker on Wednesday's class - Pete Storey - was featured prominently on-screen during Jeff Kinder's PDMS segment.

Various other Research projects were highlighted, too, whether regarding Factory_OS or our various AI-related initiatives.

It was great to see Dynamo for Forma launched officially by Amy Bunszel.

When the Expo opened the data visualization display was ready to go.

We had quite a few people visit us at the booth, with the special attraction of a free Autodesk Research-branded hi-viz vest!

I was lucky to snag an invitation to an event at the Sphere in the evening. I was so excited!

Up close you can definitely see the pixels.

After some snacks and drinks - where we chatted with VIP customers in the industrialized construction space - we sat down to the "Postcard from Earth" show.

It was amazing!The only possible complaint I might have about the experience were the logistics to get to the Sphere from the Venetian. Getting back ended up being much simpler.