Lavish, college-sponsored balls make up an age-old component of the Oxford social tradition. The oldest, richest colleges take it in turns to hold the Commemoration ball each summer. Many others hold their smaller events in the spring, showing off their grounds in Oxford’s most seasonable weather. Wolfson takes a bit of a different approach, and throws an annual Winter ball. This avoids competition with other colleges’ events, and livens up the social scene during what can otherwise be a dull spot on the calendar.
One perennial challenge of these balls is a ticketing system. Because tickets are relatively expensive, and food and drink inside the event are included, ball organizers face a challenge preventing people trying to “crash” the ball. This has lead to a bit of a cat-and-mouse game between ball organizers and those who would rather not pay. After simple tickets were forged, intricate wristbands were distributed in advance. As material science students began to duplicate those, individually numbered tickets were given out in before the event and traded for wristbands on the night, with the tickets marked on a master list with each exchange. While this method proved effective, it was frustrating for the hundreds of ballgoers in the queue waiting for one master list to be consulted for every entry.
For Wolfson’s 2011 ball, I was asked to create a unified ticketing system that would allow ticket purchase and tracking as well as a parallelizable entry system on the night. I was able to come up with an online sales system that integrated with Google Spreadsheets for easy manual modifications. An integrated ticketing system allowed any worker at the door to turn their phone into an effective ticket scanner. Read on for the full details.
This year’s Novice Rowing Season at Oxford has now wound down. I had the amazing opportunity to cox and coach a group of fantastic novice women. They were always ready to train, and ramped up to 8 or more sessions per week long before their big regattas. And the training paid off: on the river each morning, other college crews looked on in confusion, wondering whether the Wolfson boat gliding past was a novice or senior boat. During the regattas, razor-sharp tapping and smooth rollups intimidated the competition. The crew wound up winning Nephthys Regatta (and, in age-old rowing tradition, threw me in the river to celebrate), and went further than any crew in living Wolfson history in Christ Church Regatta, besting some strong opponents along the way.
These pictures are from Nephthys Regatta, courtesy Susan Graham and Laurie Nevay. Click for a few more!
For Bonfire Night this year, Wolfson College had not only its fantastic annual fireworks display, but also marked the groundbreaking for its new academic wing. On its completion, the wing should provide for much more communal academic work within the college, leading to collaboration of students and fellows between departments.
I watched the fireworks from a 2nd floor balcony, and was able to snap a few pictures of the college as it is rarely displayed.
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In preparation for the Wolfson Winter Ball this year, some friends and I wandered Oxford taking pictures. The initial thought was that some could be made into posters and hung as backdrops to make the college bar and other areas feel a bit more festive. In the end, we made other decoration plans, but a few of the photos are here!
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Last week, a friend from the States came to visit Oxford. As she hadn’t been to the UK before, we explored the local sights: Oxford city and colleges; the city of Bath, home to hot spring baths from the Roman period; Blenheim Palace, a stately home that was the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill; and of course London, where we visited the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Greenwich Royal Observatory, and the Royal College of Surgeons’ Hunterian Museum.
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Each summer, one of the local non-university boat clubs, City of Oxford Rowing Club, hosts the Oxford City Royal Regatta. The regatta is a favorite of Oxford graduate students (most undergraduates are still away for the summer) and also attracts boat clubs from across the UK.
This year, Wolfson entered two men’s fours in the Saturday morning events. Both crews had unlucky draws and fell to their respective division winners in the first round. The two fours combined into an eight for lunchtime sprints and afternoon races. Our afternoon luck was better: we reached the finals of the sprints and managed to win the 1000m IM3 8+ event outright. The Wolfson ladies also fared well: their 8+ won the sprint event, and their 4+ made it to the finals.
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This weekend, I went to visit a friend in Paris. I’d never been to the city before, and took the time to see quite a few obligatory tourist sites: the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, etc. Between visiting landmarks and exploring the Parisian streets, the weekend was one of sidewalk cafés and chance meetings of new friends.
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Over the summer, informal Wolfson rowing crews enter external regattas as a fun way to keep our skills and fitness up over the off-season. Our latest was the Henley Town and Visitors’ Regatta, rowed on the same stretch of river as the famous Henley Royal Regatta. Wolfson entered a men’s IV, a women’s IV, and a women’s VIII. My crew rowed a good race but fell to a IV from Auriol Kensington Rowing Club, London. The women’s IV fared a bit better, winning their first race but then losing their rudder in the division finals.
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This weekend, I took the train out to visit Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon with some friends from Wolfson. On Saturday we explored Warwick Castle. Unlike most of Britain’s castles, Warwick has been partly turned theme park, with costumed actors, concession stands, bird-of-prey and trebuchet demonstrations, scripted jousting shows, and stuffed “plague rats” for children to practice throwing through a window.
On Sunday, we visited Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. This time around, I admit we forewent Shakespeare-related activities to explore the town and markets and enjoy the lovely weather on the river.
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Last week was the International Computer Vision Summer School in Sicily, Italy. Summer schools are relatively common in the UK/Europe postgrad world, where academic-year classroom work often isn’t part of the PhD course. Summer schools like the ICVSS serve as a combination review, survey, and conference, connecting the dots between basic principles and current research through lectures and workshops, as well as giving students the chance to compare notes on their own projects through posters and discussion.
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