Attending IJCAI in South Korea: A Journey of Research, Culture, and Connection
Attending the IJCAI (International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence) was a significant step in my research journey. Here’s why I decided to make the trip to Jeju Island, South Korea, and how the experience unfolded.
Why I Decided to Attend IJCAI: Winning Best Paper Award at RecSys and IJCAI Invitation
Last year, Professor Craig Macdonald and I submitted our paper, “gSASRec: Reducing Overconfidence in Sequential Recommendation Trained with Negative Sampling,” to the ACM RecSys 2023 conference. We were thrilled when it won the “Best Paper Award” at RecSys, recognizing the impact of our work. Later, IJCAI reached out, inviting us to submit an extended version for their special track featuring the best papers from other AI-related conferences.
Interestingly, 2023 was a great year for researchers at the University of Glasgow, with both the SIGIR and RecSys best papers authored or co-authored by Glasgow faculty, including the reproducibility paper, “The Information Retrieval Experiment Platform,” by Sean MacAvaney and his collaborators from Germany. Given this streak of recognition, I felt even more motivated to represent Glasgow’s research community at IJCAI.
Facing the Challenge of Getting There
This year, IJCAI was held on Jeju Island, South Korea, which presented a bit of a logistical challenge. Jeju is far from Glasgow, and with limited budget remaining after attending other conferences like RecSys in Singapore and WSDM in Mérida, Mexico, I had to get creative with funding.
I applied for a travel grant from the IJCAI organizers, who graciously covered my conference registration. The Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) also supported part of the travel expenses, and with help from my supervisor covering the rest, I was set to go. I’m incredibly grateful for their support.
The Journey to Jeju
Finding a good flight was tricky, as most routes required an inconvenient airport change in Seoul. Eventually, I found a route with two connections: Glasgow-Gatwick, Gatwick-Shanghai, and Shanghai-Jeju. Despite a short connection time at Gatwick and a delayed flight, I barely made it on time. Fortunately, I was upgraded to business class, turning what could have been a stressful trip into a more relaxing experience. The long-haul flight to Shanghai felt much smoother with a seat that converted into a bed and great food onboard.
Arriving in Jeju
The beauty of Jeju Island struck me immediately upon arrival. The lush green landscapes, waterfalls, and volcanic hills were unlike any place I’d seen before. The hot and humid weather was a bit of a surprise, especially coming from Glasgow’s cooler climate—it felt like stepping into a steam room! And while Jeju is a popular tourist spot, it seemed to attract mostly Japanese and Chinese visitors, so I encountered a few language barriers. This added a new dimension to the adventure, especially when ordering food or navigating local spots.
Highlights of the IJCAI Conference
IJCAI was a longer event than others I’ve attended, with three days of workshops followed by four main conference days. I was joined for part of the time by two other group members, Richard and Lubingzhi, who presented their work on FinRecSys and FinNLP. As they left, I stayed on and continued networking and attending sessions.
One of the standout sessions for me was a tutorial by Cohere.AI titled “Demystifying RL for Large Language Models: A Training Paradigm Shift?” The presenters offered insights into how reinforcement learning can streamline the training of large language models. I also attended a “Diversity Lunch,” which provided a great platform to connect with both senior and junior researchers, helping foster new connections across research areas.
IJCAI brought together a vast array of topics, from NLP and computer vision to reinforcement learning, giving me the chance to explore the AI landscape beyond my usual work in IR and recommendation systems. I met many fascinating people, shared my research, and came away inspired by the range of ideas being explored in AI.
The Journey Home
My return journey was similar (Jeju-Shanghai-Gatwick-Glasgow), although this time, no business class upgrade! I had an 11-hour layover in Shanghai, and though I’d initially planned to explore the city, the extreme heat (35-40 degrees Celsius) and a week of humid weather left me too tired. Thankfully, the airport was quiet, and I managed to find a spot to rest before continuing home.
Arriving back, I felt a renewed sense of accomplishment but was glad to be reunited with my family. Seven days of a conference can be exhausting, even when it’s as enriching as IJCAI.
A Memorable Experience
In the end, attending IJCAI was a fantastic experience, both professionally and personally. Visiting South Korea and engaging with the broader AI community reminded me how rewarding it is to step beyond our comfort zones and share knowledge with people across fields. I’m thankful for the chance to represent Glasgow and bring our research to a global audience. And while the trip required effort and support from many, it was an opportunity that I’m truly glad I pursued.