Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 23:29:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Elly Jones <elly1@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Jason Togyer <jt3y@cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Gates Center thoughts? (for SCS alumni magazine)

On Thu, 1 Oct 2009, Jason Togyer wrote:

> Dear Elly:

Hi Jason!

> I saw your name on a list of Cisco scholarship winners, and I thought you might be good for a
> quote! :-)
> 
> I'm working on a story for The Link about the Gates & Hillman centers, and I'm wondering what
> undergrads think of it.

Hm. I can't speak for the undergrad population in general, I'm afraid.

> * What do you like so far?

I like the 15-412 lab (which is 6111). The room is a lot nicer than the one we used to have, and
having natural light (admittedly second-hand from the office next door, but still!) makes it feel a
lot happier. Furthermore, the whiteboard walls are fantastic (our whiteboard wall is actually fogged
glass, which is really neat). Also, the whole building is generally shiny and new, which is a step up
over Wean :).

> * What do you dislike?

The layout of the building is really confusing sometimes. The rooms in the 5200 hallway of Gates are
numbered in seemingly-random order. For fun, try finding room 5203 sometime. Also, I really wish the
bridge to Purnell was open; not having it makes getting to Gates annoyingly tedious. In general,
finding a room can be pretty unpleasant unless you've been there before, which is a downgrade from
Wean's boring but functional design.

I wish the clusters were open. If the bridge and the clusters were open, I'd hold office hours in
Gates instead of Wean.

> * What's your favorite spot?

The lounge on the 6th floor. I have heard that this is known as a "collaborative commons", but
'lounge' is what people actually say. It gets great sunlight and is a fantastic place to read.

> * What's the most unusual thing you've noticed?

The helix is somewhat baffling to me, since it seems like a pretty inefficient way of getting people
between floors. Also, being able to see into the room you want to get to and having six panes of
glass between you and there is a novel experience.

As one of my friends put it rather pithily, "It's a lot like Vista - there are a lot of windows
preventing you from getting you where you want to go today." That's probably not the kind of quote
you wanted, though :).

> (Also --- since you're a senior --- are you TA'ing any classes in Gates? If so -- what do you think
> of the classrooms?)

I'm afraid not. My "office" is in one of the Wean clusters.

> You can answer via email, or I could meet you someplace, or you can stop in my office --- 5013,
> near the helix.
> 
> You don't have to think too hard ... and if you don't want to comment, well, that's OK, too. (But I
> hope you have SOMETHING to say!)
> 
> Thanks for your help --- I thought doing this was easier just stopping people at random in the
> hallways. :-)
> 
> Best,
> Jason Togyer (HS'96)
> SCS Dean's Office
> -- 
> 
> Jason Togyer (HS'96)
> Managing Editor, The Link
> School of Computer Science
> Carnegie Mellon University
> Gates Center 5013
> 412-268-8721
> 
> Visit us online: http://link.cs.cmu.edu
> 
> Find us on Facebook!: http://tinyurl.com/linkscs

-- Elly