Participant Testimonials

Mar 18 - Mar 23, 2012

Thank you very much for the great job that was put forward by BIRS to make the workshop such a wonderful experience. I agree that the organizers put together a set of very interesting and stimulating topics. I indeed brought back several ideas that I plan to investigate in the next few months.

Jose Blanchet Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Columbia University

We had a fantastic workshop on Monte Carlo methods. The atmosphere is very conducive to discussions and planting the seeds for new research directions and projects. I am currently working on two ideas. They will however take time before they become publications.

Nando de Freitas Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia

As always, I fully enjoyed the privilege of attending a workshop at BIRS! If you do not mind, here are the links to my reflections on the meeting: http://xianblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/banff-worshop-birs-12w5105-meeting/; http://xianblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/banff-workshop-birs-12w5105-meeting-2/; http://xianblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/banff-workshop-birs-12w5105-meeting-3/; Once again, the organisation was flawless, the facilities beyond the reasonable, the new feature of videotaping the lectures brilliant (I have had several feedbacks from people who were NOT at the workshop), and the atmosphere at the workshop particularly congenial (a. everyone attended a. every talk and there were only two talks that I found superfluous). Incidentally, I took the opportunity of sleepless nights at BIRS to write the following http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.6249; although it is not related to the theme of the workshop.

Christian Robert CEREMADE, Universite Paris-Dauphine