For some unknown reason, I always get thrown in such situations. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I was deployed to Edmonton, Alberta on one day's notice.
My task in Edmonton is to give two lectures and host a recruiting event at University of Alberta. That gave me two days to prepare for these 3 events. Fortunately, I've meet and interacted with the host professor before, so I wasn't going into UofA blind.
First talk was geared towards graduate students and professors - though more people, even some folks who've graduated in past years, showed up than expected. "Real World" Compilers. It was very well received. One professor even commented that I should remove the quotes around Real World, because some 'techniques' I discussed are used in the real world and will never be found in the 'toy research compilers'. I wasn't the one to make fun of research compilers. XD They totally found it interesting how production environment can add more constraints and challenges.
Second talk was a lecture to a 4th year Computer Engineering class. Think ECE 314/475 level. I was talking about System Z and hardware/software interactions. It was so weird seeing these young kids in the seats. I was a little rushed on time in this talk. I thought I had an hour, but apparently, I only have 50 minutes. So I had to simplify some of my explanations to keep the talk at 45 minutes with some time for questions afterwards. In the end, the people with whom I spoke really enjoyed the lecture, though it's hard to tell with some of the other members of the audience. lol. Apparently I went over some concepts that they hadn't covered yet (early in the semester still). The professor assured me it was perfectly fine, since when he does cover it, he can tell them that this stuff you guys are learning is really used in the computers out there!
After the talk, some students came up and started handing me their resumes. jeez. I haven't even hosted the recruiting session yet. A few came up and said they recognized me from some conferences in past years. I was like, wow, I totally don't remember meeting them...sigh.
My voice was starting to crack after giving the two talks in 3 hours. "Now you know what it's like to be a professor!!! I get so drained after teaching two classes that I just go home." I totally feel ya buddy.
Interesting conversations with some professors and grad students afterwards. One professor was describing his 3.5 year old child learning to skate. The kid had big ambitions - envisioning himself performing all the great hockey moves he watches on TV. This was his first time skating. As his father watched him stumble and tumble, he became worried about how his kid was feeling - probably "man, this is a lot harder than it looks!". Anyway, after the lesson, his son was super excited that he was able to stand on his skates without falling now! The professor remarked... this is so much like research! You aim high, but will settle for anything. :)
As you might imagine, in this area of work, we have to keep abreast with the latest techniques and theories. We work closely with research and academia in order to address the challenges we face. It's not so much as research-oriented, but because in many cases, we are dealing with the problems that no one has ever addressed before, we are forced to become innovative ourselves. Members of my team typically publishes several academic papers a year.