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The odds are that if you found this blog you are familiar with me and my upcoming trip.
For those of you who don't know me, or for those members of the Deuling family who never pay attention to the details of such things (come on Kathy you know I am talking about you) let me give you a little bit of background. I am an associate professor of computer science (manged to receive tenure and promotion this year!) at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, IA. While that doesn't normally lend itself to a lot of international travel, this particular trip is a unique experience. I will be departing on Thursday, May 10th for 28 days of travel including two and half weeks in Russia, a half week in Northern Italy, and nearly a week in Germany.
UNI has a sister school in St. Petersburg Russia (the Russian State Pedagogical University of Herzen) and they co-host a conference there every May (this will be the tenth annual Conference on Higher Education). I have been asked to talk at the conference about my work with recommender systems, GIS systems (Geographic Information Systems), and the interface design process we have been going through this year in blending the two sytems. After that, I will visit with colleagues around both St. Petersburg and a school in Moscow.
In the process of working on the vacation planning system, I started communicating with a colleague in northern Italy (Bolzano to be exact) who does some very cool things with travel recommendations - something I have been very interested in incorporating into my research. In the process of communicating with him I got myself invited (Or did I invite myself. I don't recall.) to stop in Italy and meet with him, his students, and his colleagues at the company he helped found. When I told the grad school dean that it would only cost her a cheap plane ticket and a couple nights of hotel to duck down to Northern Italy on my way home from Russia, she quickly ponied up the money to make it happen. I will finish it off with a few days with my cousin Kris Salo and her family in Wiesbaden Germany making for a nice trip for me (although my pregnant wife is now regretting giving me permission to go for that long. She isn't looking forward to staying home as the only adult in a house with two active kids for 28 days).
Anyway, THAT is the short introduction to my trip. I hope that as a computer scientist I will manage to get frequent enough internet access on this trip to post updates every couple of days so that not only can my fantastic wife and two beautiful girls know what I am up to, but so can others who might find themselves curious!
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Kathy
non-member comment
yes I knew you were talking about me
isn't the fact that I know your my cousin and our moms were sisters enough???? jeeze the pressure you put on me! Truthfully, I know your a dad and THATS your most important job. Travel safely will look forward to your photos!