It's ALIVE!

Today I presented to a group of Midlakes Middle School 8th graders. Since so many of them already saw me back in January, I decided I would need to switch things up a bit. As it turns out, the Freshmen were supposed to be performing their first live demonstration of their PTM dome for the IS&T (Imaging Science and Technology) student chapter meeting today. BUT, there was a scheduling issue - a luncheon was scheduled until right up until IS&T time in the usual meeting spot, and the freshmen were going to need a good amount of time to get everything set up and test it to make sure it was all working properly. Well, since I already had the Carlson Auditorium booked for my presentation, all we had to do was add some extra time on both ends of my reservation and we could present the dome twice - once for Midlakes, and once for IS&T! Genius.

So here's the thing about the dome: It literally was not operational until last night. So this was kind of a huge deal to get this thing working this morning in front of an audience! It was also no small feat to get the entire device down into the auditorium - it barely fits through doors, is too large to fit on a cart, and is pretty delicate. But, everything went pretty smoothly, save for a few small hiccups. Luckily, everything was operational by the time the students started filling in to the auditorium - aaaaand we're off!

I started off the presentation by telling my usual "about me" story, this time interspersed with a few videos, including: What is Imaging Science?; The Freshmen Imaging Project; History of PTMs; and What are PTMs. From there was a natural segue over to Joe & the Freshmen to briefly discuss what they were about to do, and get the dome fired up. It was awesome!!! There was a webcam showing what was going on inside the dome while lights flashed and the camera shutter opened and closed. After all 23 lights and images fired (yeah!) the data was all assembled. This step was not without some minor setbacks, but they were all easily overcome. Luckily, Joe has really good entertainment skills with the kids - asking questions, poking fun, and encouraging applause. And, what do you know - the whole thing worked!!!! Once the finished PTM was displayed and animated, the crowd rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation. (Okay, Joe told them to - but still!) It was a major accomplishment and very thrilling to see the dome actually operating. The 8th graders may not have quite realized the magnitude of this accomplishment, but nonetheless I think they enjoyed the presentation (and probably also appreciated the fact that we really were doing it on the fly).

I'll have some pictures from today's event posted next week! GO FRESHMEN!

They say smells and memory are strongly linked

Random observation: On warm, humid days like today, Building 76 smells exactly the same as it did when I first walked in here as an intern 10 years ago. (Which is not to say it's smelly - it just smells like summer.) <3

Have I ever mentioned I have the best job ever?

This morning I got a special delivery!

Talk about a warm fuzzy!

My Midlakes friends sent me another token of their appreciation! Gee how did they guess I would like a big pink fuzzy pillow?? Thank you so much, girls (+ families)!!! You are too much - I had just as much fun showing you around as you had visiting! :-)

Variety was the name of the game this week! (Every week?)

Fresh off Sunday's alumni reception, I'm already knee deep in helping put together another reception for this coming Tuesday in Orlando to correspond with the SPIE conference happening there next week. CIS has a number of professors, students, and alumni attending and presenting, so we thought it would be a good idea to have a happy hour-type celebration to go along with it. Unfortunately, being only 1 week after the DC reception posed some difficulty in planning. Hopefully everything will come together in time before Tuesday... I'm confident a group of people will get together and have a good time, no matter what the attendance numbers turn out to be.

As this was break week for local schools, we had a number of visits this week from potential students. Campus had a funny dynamic, as RIT itself was rather quiet and a lot of people took vacation, yet we were all abuzz with campus tours and potential future students. I had an accepted student visit on Thursday who was very engaged and enthusiastic, and seemed to take quite a liking to the freshmen class. I hope that she chooses to join us this fall! I also had a potential transfer student visit on Thursday whom I enjoy meeting with. She's really not sure what she wants to do (which actually makes her a great fit for Imaging Science), but I'm pretty sure her future will involve Imaging in some capacity, whether it be major, minor, or masters. Yay!

I have also been busy starting to organize next year's seminar series. Part of the responsibilities of the series are actually going to someone else for next year, but I want to make sure all the materials and spreadsheets I pass along are clear and concise so that the transition can be as smooth as possible. I am nearly finished assembling everything, but I don't think that will get finished until Monday.

Intern applicants have all been notified of their status! We've already had 1 applicant who was accepted drop out, meaning we got to dip into the alternate pool. I actually love it when that happens! The accepted applicants are now letting us know whether or not they accept their positions, and it's a lot of fun to see their excited responses come back. This is going to be a fun summer, I can sense it already.

Oh yeah - I've been nominated for a Staff Recognition Award :-). So another thing I'm working on is an essay I need to submit to Staff Council about myself.

The Hunt is tomorrow!!!! (What is the Hunt?) Oh, and Kurt no longer has dreads. He got them shaved today for charity - Joe and I observed. And far in the distance, I thought I heard a melancholy trumpet playing Taps...

DC Adventure Part VI: Show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I wanna go to bed

After the alumni reception wound down, we all piled into the Mazda and made our way back up to Baltimore. And I finally got to take a nap, yay! So obviously I don't have much to offer about this leg of the trip, though Joe says I must have been in deep REM sleep because Kurt and Nadya were making a lot of noise and I somehow slept through it all. I think there was something about assigning class superlatives, or something.

We ate dinner with Nadya's family at this Mediterranean tapas place called Kali's Mezze. Nadya had been talking this place up allllll day, and it definitely lived up to my expectations! Tapas style eateries are my favorite kind of restaurants anyways, because it's impossible for me to ever make up my mind and I love sharing. And Nadya's family was really friendly and very willing to share, so much so that I practically felt a part of their family (which was awesome). I must have sampled at least 7 things off the menu, AND had dessert. AND I finished Kurt's pistachio custard dessert too, haha.

Besides the good food, there was lots of good conversation. We had an interesting discussion about airport scanners; and Nadya's opinion, while controversial, reminded me very much of myself when I was her age. (Okay just saying something like that makes me sound like I'm really old and fancy myself some kind of wise person - which I am not and do not - but it was just funny to me.) Nadya's family was a lot of fun - and some of them will be coming up for ImagineRIT, too!

We parted ways with Nadya's fam to make our trip back to the airport and home. Nothing too eventful happened for the rest of the evening, though I did find an awesome ghost sticker on the side of a trash can and took it (it peeled off easily enough...). We sat around the airport watching YouTube videos of SNL sketches and Don Hertzfeldt cartoons until taking off for our return flight, which was another smooth and on time trip (believe it or not). We landed right around 10:40 PM, thus concluding my 20 hour DC Adventure day.

The end! Thanks to everyone who made the trip possible and memorable!  
Everybody dance! Life is good!

DC Adventure Part V: Now it's time to party and we'll party hard (party hard)

Having arrived 45 minutes late, the party was already in full swing when we arrived. After getting to have a few initial hellos, we broke in with some general announcements. Last year we had formal presentations, but we decided that this year would be more casual: simply announce some headlines, introduce the freshmen, and suggest speaking to us personally if more detail was desired. I had an iPad set up with a slideshow of pictures, mostly ones of the freshmen class but also some other images mixed in there of old conferences, current outreach, annual report images, and so on. Conversation flowed freely and everyone had a great time catching up. We also had hors d'oeurves and a cash bar available, though I chose not to partake as I was very much full from breakfast with Kurt's family and also very much looking forward to a tapas dinner with Nadya's family.

All in all, another successful alumni reception! We all had a great time (minus that whole getting lost part), and hope that everyone who joined us had fun as well. See below for some pictures from the festivities. (There are many more posted on the CIS Facebook page.)

Mix 'n mingle

Me, new parents Kyle and Courtney with 8 day old future alumna Claire, and Tiffany.
As usual, my hair upsets the whole color balance of the photo... I did what I could to fix it up.

Old meets new: Freshman Kurt speaks with class of '66 alum Richard.

Still to come - Part VI: Nadya would rather blow up than have everyone get their privacy invaded...

DC Adventure Part IV: We Get LOST

Next should come the actual "business" part of our day: The 5th Annual DC/Maryland/Virginia CIS Alumni Reception! A little confused over where our starting destination was, it seemed smart to use the GPS on my phone to get us to the reception venue, Clyde's of Tyson's Corner. After some fiddling around and waiting for accurate triangulation, we were on our way on a < 3 mile trip that was predicted to take over 12 minutes. Eh?

The roads and turns we were taking seemed screwy, but Google is never wrong! so we followed. At exactly 1:59 PM, we arrived with perfect timing at the venue. But... where was it? There was nothing to be seen but a leafy thicket. The Google Maps on my phone was even kind enough to switch to a street-view of what was supposed to be Clyde's - but it literally gave me a STREET VIEW. Of CARS. Ooookay.... So we pull over. At this point referencing Joe's printed out map, I typed the exact address of Clyde's into my phone, which then tells us to go in the opposite direction for 3 miles - another 12 (or more) minutes. And why was this different?

After waiting through what seemed like every one of roughly 239507 traffic lights, Google tells us we're there - but we see nothing but SAIC and some retail stores. After a few minutes of ruthless mocking of my navigation skills (which I would like to go on the record as saying are normally very on point), the decision was made to follow Joe's map, instituting a "like we should have in the first place" attitude. Off we go again in the opposite direction when we realize: Joe's map is just a print out of Google Maps, so it's taking us to the same place the GPS in my phone did the first time around. So we end up up by Wolf Trap again, and I reference the Directions tab on Clyde's website; which in its infinite wisdom says the following:

"Construction of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project has made accessibility to Clyde's of Tysons Corner challenging... Please call us for the directions of the day, and we'll also tell you the soup of the day!"

Wait, seriously...? So Nadya calls and gets more directions, this time taking note of significant visual landmarks ("Behind the Men's Wearhouse", for example). Another 12+ minutes in the opposite direction (and a top notch joke that a car rough roading it in the wrong direction within the adjacent construction site was being driven by one of our fellow RIT'ers who was also lost), and we're there. Well, we're behind the Men's Wearhouse, still trying to find our way. But eventually, the Benny Hill music ends and we finally make it - all in all, 45 minutes late to our own party. Oh, brother.

Here's a fun experiment to try when you're bored sometime: In Google Maps, type in "Clyde's of Tyson's Corner" and take note of the location it shows. Now try clicking "Get Directions" and put in a starting address of, for example, Anita's Mexican Food in Vienna. Now take note of where it actually directs you to go.... See, we're not that stupid, after all. Google CAN actually be wrong, sometimes.

Coming up next - Part V: Let's Party!

DC Adventure Part III: Goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo, How 'bout you, you, you

ZOMG WE WENT TO THE ZOO!!!!!!! The end.

We saw pandas, and elephants, and nautiluses, and cuttlefish (changing colors!), and leaf cutter ants, and monkeys, and a sloth bear, and tarantulas, and some other stuff. But not much more than that, because we only had enough time to run around for about an hour before having to ride back to Vienna and get to the alumni reception. But it was totally worth it.

The only disappointing part was a lack of cheesy tourist t-shirts at the gift shop. We were all going to get matching ones and wear them around the zoo together. Alas, it was not meant to be.

My Eat Well Live Well pedometer logged over 10k steps at this point. FACT.

PS, I think the giant panda was really just a giant guy in a panda suit.

Don't miss - Part IV: Wait, you mean Google Maps can be wrong sometimes?

DC Adventure Part II: Casa Bonita Casa Bonita... Da Da Da Da Da

After landing in Baltimore and picking up our rental car (we ended up with a "sporty" [read: ugly] Mazda 5, as they were fresh out of Cadillacs...), we trekked down towards DC to meet up with Kurt's family for brunch. We dined at a Mexican restaurant Anita's, which was fantastic! I am not usually a Mexican-for-breakfast kind of gal (tortilla chips don't really go well with coffee), but my burrito was spectacular. I don't know what necessarily made it a "breakfast" burrito - perhaps only the fact that it had scrambled eggs in it and it came with home fries - but it was one of the best piles of slop rolled up into a flour tortilla and covered in red sauce that I have ever consumed. Home fries left a little something to be desired (I do reside in the home land of garbage plates, after all), but I was too full to eat them anyways. At any rate, that's enough about the food.

It was a lot of fun to meet up with Kurt's mom, dad, and sister and learn more about them. They were all really nice and friendly, and it was interesting to hear about Kurt's mom's career at Aerospace - well, as little as she could tell us about it, since it's pretty much all classified. I think the best part may have been how much Kurt was freaking out that we would be weirded out by his parents - which was completely not the case. I'm not sure what all his anxiety was about because we had a great time. They'll even be coming up for ImagineRIT May 7th!

After brunching we had a few hours to kill before the alumni reception, and someone had the ingenious idea to visit the national zoo! It was a beautiful day weather wise, and the Smithsonians are all free - so why not?

Up next - Part III: OMG Joe Pow is taking us to the zoo - This is the BEST. DAY. EVER!

DC Adventure Part I: I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Yesterday was potentially one of the longest days of my life! But it was fantastic. A long day makes for a long blog post, so I'm dividing it up into segments, this being part 1 of (probably) 6. Meanwhile, have I ever mentioned that I have the best job ever?

April 17, 2011 marked the 5th annual DC Alumni Gathering for CIS. Last year I planned a personal trip around this event, but this year I was going to follow in Joe's footsteps and just fly in for the day and back out that night. This is a great concept, except for the fact that the only flights we could get were departing Rochester at 6AM and returning at 10:30PM. So that right there is a pretty good indication of how long my day was going to be. Factor in airport timing, and my inability to peacefully sleep in anticipation of a big event, and I was up starting at 2:30AM. Said anticipation also wiped out any hope of napping in the airport or on the plane. But, what do you expect - the day was shaping up to be a big adventure!

My traveling companions consisted of Joe as well as 2 freshmen, Kurt and Nadya. (We had other fellow RIT/CIS'ers on the flight with us, but we parted ways after landing, so I don't include them as "travel companions".) On the flight down, Joe and I somehow managed to score business class seats - BONUS! I have never traveled business class before. It was pretty sweet. Although, the fact that we were traveling in fancy seats the Sunday of spring break for local high schools meant we shared company with some over-privileged teenagers. I am very grateful for AirTran's complimentary XM stations that I could use to drown out the conversations of Jamaica-bound Jersey Shore-esque 16 year olds, but nothing could help the fact that the girl next to me took off her flip flops and was putting her bare feet up on the seat in front of her. Ick - All the comfy expanded leg room in the world couldn't make up for that.

All was well with the flight and we landed about 20 minutes early. Thus concludes Part I!

Footnote: I would like to mention that Joe had doubt about what time I would arrive at the airport. But for the record, I was the first one out of any of the RIT travelers to arrive at the concourse. So TAKE. THAT.

Coming up - Part II: Kurt's dad crosses his arms... Don't touch that dial!

I'd like to thank the Academy, Mom and Dad, the Center for Imaging Science, umm...

So the other big event this week besides Workforce Innovations was the annual slew of summer intern interviews! (*cue fanfare.) For the first 4 days of this week, Joe and I facilitated the whole process (though on Tuesday and Thursday I got the ball rolling, as Joe was teaching). Each day, 6 interviewees, and in some cases their parents, would come in by 3:15. On every day though at least 1 candidate, if not several, were here 15 minutes early! But with the way parking is around here, I can't blame them. Anyhow, an overview session would take place until 3:30 when the interviewees were cut loose to get started. Most candidates were done and out of here by about 4:30 each day. While they were interviewing, the parents could choose to stick around or to roam around campus. Those that stuck around were subjected to my "What Is Imaging Science?" animation, and then could ask us questions. Some parents even got tours of the freshmen lab. All of the interviews seemed to go really well (no crying, at least) and hopefully the parents had a good time, too. It was interesting to meet and interact with so many people. But, I am glad to get those 1.5-2 hours of my day back next week... ;-)

The whole interview process then culminated in today's "Intern Draft"! This is always a fun thing to witness. Head shots of all the interns are posted up and lab leaders get to duke it out over who gets which interns. It is generally a friendly exchange, and everybody walks out with some fantastic interns that should do a great job over the summer.

I love the summer intern program, and obviously owe a lot of myself to it. But every year it stirs up some mixed feelings in me. There are so many bright kids out there, and we only have the capacity to take 14 or 15 of them. So there will be 40 or so applicants that end up disappointed. And typically not for any fault of their own - there are so many factors that go into selecting interns. All of the applicants are fantastic students with great potential. I'd hate for any of them to feel in any way discouraged against Imaging Science or RIT as a result of not making it into the intern program (for example, if they feel miffed). I think some of my bleeding heart tendencies come from the fact I'm a cancer (the crab - if you believe that mumbo jumbo); but I think generally it has to do with how much of myself I owe to the internship experience here. What if there's another Bethany trying to get in... Where would I be today if someone hadn't taken a chance on me 10 years ago???

You win some, you lose some

So yesterday was the Youth Workforce Innovations Conference 2011. This is one of those events that is actually a huge amount of work, because we are also part of the project planning on top of doing the presentation on the day-of. So in preparation I had to secure 14(!) volunteers to help guide groups of students from one destination to the next. Each department is typically responsible for 5-7 volunteers, but we were also covering one of the other presentations as well as helping over a third one who was unable to secure volunteers. As you may guess, in a program as small as Imaging Science, it can be quite difficult to secure so many willing student volunteers. So, I bribed them with Dibellas. It worked, and I got all 14 that I needed. I then had to organize them all and assign them start and end points, and for each of them create signs and corresponding maps so they would all know where they were going. It was a lot of work, but so far as I know all of the walking around campus went smoothly, so I think all that preparation paid off.

The presentations themselves were pretty much what I expected. We only got 9 students attending the first session, and more like 20 in the second. I actually preferred the first session greatly - maybe it was the timing, maybe it was the number of kids, maybe it was the caliber of the kids who had us as their first choice. Either way, my first presentation was a fabulous success, while on my second one I struggled. I actually had to call out a couple of girls several times over for talking through my presentation, which I have no patience for. They ended up getting split up by one of the teacher chaperons, and were not very happy after that. It will be interesting to see how the post-conference evaluations come out, especially because we have instituted a new online survey. We can't even be sure how much of a response rate we'll get, or whether the kids might be confused by what turned out to be a rather complicated process to fill out the correct surveys.

Workforce Innovations is always such an interesting event, because the dynamics of the audience can be pretty variable and unpredictable. In most settings, I present to a classroom, or an auditorium, or similar type assembly; in these cases, most of the kids will know and be used to each other. But for Workforce Innovations, there are around 10 kids from each school district total, who may or may not be friends, and who may or may not even be in the same sessions. So my audience is typically comprised of various kids who know maybe 1 or 2 other people with them, but often times are on their own. I remember attending events like that in high school, and I hated being without friends. It made me incredibly uncomfortable and unhappy to participate. So is it any wonder that I typically have difficulty getting this particular crowd to pay attention and/or want to participate interactively? I've come to accept and even expect it, but it is still a challenge.

I guess I was right?

So last Friday, 4/8 was the second Accepted Student Open House. After the first one I predicted that the next would be smoother since we then had one under our belts. In some respects I was right; in others, not so much.

Smoother: Ordering the pizza. They remembered last week's order and were very cooperative in placing this one, even though it was much larger (25 sheet pizzas!). Brandani's is awesome.

Not so much: Pizza was about 25 minutes late. They called to warn they would be about 10 minutes behind, but after about 20 minutes departments started getting very nervous about their lunches. Well what do you want me to do about it? Luckily once the pizzas finally arrived they were very efficiently whisked off to the starving attendees. I'm curious to know how much of an impact this minor slip up really had on the whole day.

Smoother: Dismissal from the field house. This went very well this week. Also, no fire drill.

Not so much: The presentation itself in the field house! I don't know what it was, but for some reason the crowd was dead. I have never heard so little laughter at the Perpetual Motion jellied-toast-on-a-kitty cartoon. Could it be that the excitement from the fire drill last week actually got that crowd perked up, while without it everyone was very ho-hum this time around? We were very happy to see our student's video profile featured this week (WOOOO REPRESENT!), so much so that we cheered - and then everyone turned in their seats to stare at us. The silence was deafening. . .
 

I propose we get some students, glee clubs, cheerleaders, ANYBODY to act excited and infuse some energy in there! I'll offer myself up.

All in all though, it was another successful open house. Imaging Science had 6 (SIX!!!!!) attendees! I think that might be the most Imaging Science has ever had for an open house, at least for the past decade. All of the students were really great and would make fantastic additions to the program this fall.

And Bethany breathes a huge sigh of relief that it's all over. Being so involved in the planning and coordination of open house was a huge task that was by no means easy to take on. I think the biggest difficulty I had with it was that I already have an active role to play in open house for my current position, one that I then couldn't devote myself to since I was also responsible for so many other things. I was pretty upset that I spent 45 minutes running around Gosnell and waiting for pizzas when I should have been spending time with the prospective students and families that I have been trying to build connections with. How goofy does it look that I've been contacting them through phone, email, and even personalized cards (with goodies!), and then can't even be there to talk to them when they visit? Well, at least I know they really liked the cards... Oh, and they love the platypus, too.

On The Ladder

I've been featured in the Democrat and Chronicle's "On the Ladder" series! See the full article on the D&C website.

CARLOS ORTIZ staff photographer

On The Ladder: Bethany Choate

When Bethany Choate was a junior at Rush-Henrietta high school, she landed a paid internship at the Rochester Institute of Technology and was hooked on doing hands-on research in the field of imaging science.

Today, Choate, 26, is the senior associate for outreach and communications for the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science at RIT.

"The cross-disciplinary aspect of the program really spoke to me. I knew I liked science and math but had no idea what I wanted to do with that passion, so to find a field with so much variety was perfect," said Choate, who is currently working on a master's degree in professional studies.

Choate lives in Rochester with her husband, Matthew Heimbueger, who also happens to have a bachelor's in imaging science. Very creative hobbies balance both of their very technical careers. Choate figure skates, Heimbueger is a drummer, and both can be found on dance floors around town.

We caught up with Choate to learn about her hopes for the future of science in our country, how her hair color helped her land a job and what advice she might have for other young professionals. Keep Reading...

Bye Bye, Beaker

If you've walked through the lobby of Carlson 76 anytime in the past 5 years or so, you've probably noticed the monitor that aimlessly displays a screen saver of a bunch of seemingly random people's pictures (and 1 or 2 in there of the popular Muppet Beaker) - or maybe you've never taken note of it, since it was indeed so seemingly aimless. If you ever actually fingered the little touch pad below, you may have seen the CIS website - though more likely you probably saw an error, or the monitor froze, or some other disappointing catastrophe took place. Well, aimless broken screen saver no more! Our little screen now displays a slide show of useful information with some eye candy mixed in. Announcements for the weekly seminars and special events like career fairs and ImagineRIT are interspersed with high speed videos of lighters igniting and balloons popping, as well as some Imaging Science Quickies thrown in there. It's a meager start, but at least it's something! And, the content is continuing to expand (feel free to send stuff along to me).

Not to say there isn't still the occasional freeze from time to time... But at least it freezes on something other than, "Network Error"...

That weather was just like my Accepted Student Open House 9 years ago.

Last Friday was the first RIT Accepted Student Open House for 2011! This event was the culmination of a lot of effort and hard work from many of us around the College of Science. The COS Dean's Office has been short staffed for a little while now so many of us have had to step in to help fill the void. I took the lead on a number of open house logistics, and I think it's fair to say that has dominated my time lately! Thankfully the outcomes of my responsibilities came together very well thanks to all of that preparation and planning (and help from others, too!).

Not that the day was not slip-up free; but hey, nobody's perfect. There is an interesting situation this year because of the new College of Health Sciences and Technology. It hasn't technically split from COS yet, but it will by the fall; so it seemed to make sense to treat CHST as a separate entity for open house. Things actually came together very well, especially considering that CHST doesn't have its own administrative structure or budget yet. However, at the institute level this approach definitely made things complicated when it came to dismissal from the field house to respective departments. I was able to help round up the troops though, and everything seemed to work out fine. All this after someone pulled the fire alarm in the field house - April Fools?

CIS had two prospective students attending, both very bright and great fits for the department. We had a fabulous time welcoming them and hopefully they had fun, too. They also brought parents along who were a pleasure to meet. I definitely strongly hope to see them both here in the fall!

Preparing and executing this open house has been exhausting (my Eat Well Live Well  Challenge pedometer tallied an average of 18,000 steps each for Thursday and Friday, when our daily goal is 10,000). And I get to do it all again this Friday, for an even bigger crowd! Luckily things should go a little more easily now that I've got 1 under my belt... Right?