This week I visited my old graduate school, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I took my two graduate students on a trip through campus visiting all my old haunts… Papa Del’s, Loomis Lab, the Etc., Dairy Queen, and so on. That was fun. The purpose of the trip, however, was work and much of it was spent at the NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) building.
The picture at right is some high tech art from the ground floor. The little circuit boards on the underside of the board wake up periodically (or they would if the display were functioning) and scan for reflective surfaces (i.e. bald people or people with white hair). When they find something reflective, they all coordinate and point lights at the target. Why? Art needs no reason.