1. Welcome to Ohio State and to Computer Science & Engineering Neelam Soundarajan

2. What should I talk about?... How great OSU is... How great the CSE Dept. is... How wonderful Columbus is...... But I am no good at that sort of thing... and you probably won't believe me anyway! So, instead: I am going to talk about some weird and spooky things about OSU! Welcome New CSE Grad Students!

3. 3 What is with this building?... Some Weird Things... Aren't those pillars a bit too short?? When are they going to finish it? What happened to interior walls? And what is all that marble on the outside walls? Welcome New CSE Grad Students! It is supposed to be like this! This is the school of architecture... the pillars are representations of Greek architecture or something... The open spaces are for exhibitions of student work... There are no walls because students do all their design work in a collaborative way in an open area with everyone seeing everyone else's work Sort of like computing companies where people work on their development in an open area and everyone sees everyone else's work Wander around the building... you will start liking it!

4. 4 This building, Orton Hall, looks normal... Some Spooky Things :-) But rumor has it that it is haunted! It is actually the Geological Sciences building... with a small museum in it And the ghost you (thought?) you saw is a pre-historic skeleton that is part of the museum... really nice place; go visit it! Welcome New CSE Grad Students!

5. 5 The Mirror Lake is a pleasant place to walk around when you can't take any more homeworks or projects or exams... And a Calm Place... On the west end of South Oval (just south of Orton Hall) Closed for renovations now but should open soon Welcome New CSE Grad Students!

6. 6 In the rest of the orientation, you will hear a lot of important and useful info; pay attention! For example: Prof. Agrawal will talk about the requirements for the MS and PhD Prof. Fosler will talk about academic misconduct issues... in the past, students have gotten in serious trouble for not paying attention to this... That was light-hearted but... Welcome New CSE Grad Students!

7. 7 Go "CSE Buckeyes" but... what the heck is a "buckeye" ?? I was going to finish with... Welcome New CSE Grad Students!

8. 8 A Buckeye is a... Welcome New CSE Grad Students! A tree that is local to Ohio A nut from the buckeye tree Brutus Buckeye, the OSU team mascot OSU fans All of you!

9. 9 So... Welcome New CSE Grad Students! Go CSE Buckeyes!