Like most college campuses, Stanford University is a beautiful place in autumn. I was fortunate to spend a number of years there, first as a computer science graduate student and then as a research scientist, working for Professor John McCarthy, who is best known for his work on artificial intelligence. My first office there looked out over The Oval, a large park-lawn at the top of the main drive onto campus. On sunny afternoons (i.e., most), the students would set-up volleyball nets, beckoning us out of the computer labs and into the fresh air.
I was back on campus Wednesday night. The fall air was cool and crisp — for California — as I walked through The Oval, past the chapel, to Skilling Auditorium. I was excited to be back, but a little bit nervous, too. I had been invited to be a guest speaker for the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar and it had been a while since I had faced a room full of students.
The students and others were very knowledgeable about technology in general and even search specifically. They were enthusiastic about entrepreneurship and asked interesting and engaging questions. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, a smaller group of students took me out to dinner to keep chatting. Undergraduates and graduate students alike, they were an impressive bunch, and we talked about everything from engineering to politics.
The ETL Seminar series is a very neat idea and I am grateful to have been asked to participate. If you’re interested, my talk and Q&A is available on the program’s website here.
