Happy Winter Solstice!

Today I updated the alumni directory, did some maintenance on this blog, finished up my annual report input, and checked a few other small items off my to-do list. And with that, I bid farewell for the rest of 2011. Whatever you may celebrate, I wish you safe and joyous holidays, and a happy new year! I leave you with this...

CLICK ME!

See you next year!

Holiday Shenanigans

Now seeing as it is break week around RIT and we are less than one week from Christmas, things are pretty low key around here. So, this post is really just for fun. :-)

Today was the annual College of Science White Elephant party! For those of you not familiar with white elephants, everyone brings a wrapped gift - usually something they already have lying around and don't really want anymore. Anyone who brought a gift takes a number and then as your number is called, you can choose either to take someone else's gift that they have already selected and unwrapped, or you can choose an unopened gift and see what's inside. The best number to have is #1, because not only do you start by unwrapping a gift but at the end you can decide either to keep it or trade with any of the ones opened after yours. Other than that, it's best to get a high number so you're one of the last ones to pick. So, when I got 27, I figured I was in pretty good shape.

When it was my turn to go, there were 4 or 5 unwrapped gifts remaining. I decided to employ a method I learned of last year: take the smallest one. That way, if it's no good, at least it doesn't take up much space. Well it turned out to be two ceramic "handcrafted in China" angels - SO not my thing. (Then again, few things at a White Elephant are anyone's thing.) We all had a good laugh at the gift's expense, though in retrospect I hope I didn't hurt anyone's feelings in case they thought that was a really nice gift they were giving away.

Well I must not have been the only one not enamored with angel tzotchkes, because sure enough no one going after me wanted to cash in on my gift. But after we got through all the numbers, there were still 2 gifts remaining - which doesn't make sense, unless someone brought multiple gifts or someone who brought a gift didn't take a gift. Someone proposed that each of the tables nominate one gift from their table as "ugliest", and whoever was in possession of the two ugliest gifts of all could take the last two gifts. Well, guess who got voted ugliest at their table!

Since I chose a bagged gift for my first one, I went for a boxed gift the second time around. Much laughter and applause ensued as I pulled out....

A COLOR CHANGING FIBER OPTIC PILGRIM TURKEY!!!!!

I'm putting this one in the win column.

PS: I apologize for the poor picture quality on that photo - being an Imaging Scientist and all, I should have known better than to try to use a cell phone camera. But the convenience...

Century Club status! +100

This is my 100th post! Wow!

So the Fall Open House season is officially over after 3 Saturdays in September, October, and November, and then Friday, December 2. However, that hardly spells relief for me! Although the events are over, I have been sending out thank you letters and other various greetings to our Open House attendees (which, by the way, we have had many more than last year). And now that the fall is behind us, many of those prospective students have now been getting back to me with requests for more information and/or tours! This is fantastic, because not only do we have a few dialogues going (while "a few" may seem insignificant to some people, this is a BIG DEAL for a program as small as Imaging Science!) but there has been a really positive response so far. 

I actually just got finished showing around a high school senior who visited RIT's October Open House. So while he already had a pretty good perspective, he wanted to learn more, and I made sure to set up a visit to our freshmen class. First I showed him around the various labs in the building, and then I dropped him off in the class. I also arranged for him to shadow with some of our students after class, and apparently he's decided to tag along with one of them to a physics class this afternoon. It is very exciting to have a prospective student so interested in experiencing what college is really like from a student's perspective, and I'm happy to have been able to be a big part of it. And from the feedback I've gotten so far, it sounds like he has really enjoyed his time with us; so I hope we can welcome him as a student next fall!

"So in terms of your tuition dollars you're never going to find a bargain like this anywhere else on the RIT campus, so thank you all for coming tonight"

Last night was the 2011 Imaging Science Hall of Fame Ceremony, Keynote, and After Party (cue fanfare)! It was finally revealed who this year's inductees were: Alhazen, Thomas Edison, Harry Nyquist, and Felix Nadar. You may be wondering, who are these guys? (Well probably not for Edison.) You're in luck: check out the etchings of our winners and read their citations by visiting our Imaging Hall of Fame webpage that I just updated. You can also view a video of the entire ceremony and keynote at our seminars webpage by scrolling down to December 14 in the calendar and clicking "presentation video" on the right. (Though, the video unfortunately crops out yours truly, doing my best Vanna White impression while unveiling the plaques as the winners were revealed. Oh well, I know you really wanted to see that.)

The only recorded evidence of my Vanna skills.
It looks like Thomas Edison and I are giving each other the stare down.

We had a pretty good turnout for the ceremony and keynote!

The keynote presentation for this year was really interesting (I definitely suggest you check out the video mentioned above), but I had to duck out early to set up for the AFTER PARTAYYY, woooo! This year we celebrated at Lovin' Cup in Park Point, and we had a fantastic turnout - I think we got even more attendees than when we did the after party last year. We had 38 people (undergrads, grad students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the keynote speaker himself) sign in, and there were plenty more people who joined us but didn't actually check in. So: big success! We definitely spilled outside of our little reserved area (not my fault; only 20 people pre-registered as requested, so I told Lovin' Cup 25-30 people...) and munched on a huge variety of tasty appetizers. The party didn't break up until 7:30 or so finally, and even that's mostly because Lovin' Cup needed to free up space for their "12 Beers of Christmas" tasting that was coming up at 8, which I think a few of our folks actually stuck around for. 

Everyone you can see in this picture was part of our party - and there were way more that I couldn't fit in the frame (despite hiding behind that table annoyingly in the foreground).

Overall, it was a great event. I wonder whether I should start planning something for spring so that we start getting together on a seasonal basis?

See the rest of the pictures from last night here.

Brostache, Fu Manchu, Handlebar... Mustaches are definitely making a comeback.

I spent both last Friday and today presenting to students at Palmyra Macedon High School! On Friday I presented to a chemistry class and a math applications class; and today I presented to three chemistry classes (plus some other math students who were allowed to sit in if they wished). This amounted to close to 90 students overall or so, of various grade levels but mostly sophomores and juniors. Pal Mac has block scheduling, which is AWESOME because it gives us so much time to really get into it! So, I started off with a retrospective of Imaging over the past 100 or so years for some background, and then segued into the Mars Rover related multispectral imaging talk. This, of course, included a demonstration with the FLIR thermal camera....

Home Alone?

After going through some applications of thermal imaging, more educational examples of multi/hyperspectral imaging, and solving the Mars blueberries mystery, I shared my own story of how I became an Imaging Scientist. This naturally includes all kinds of information about our summer internship program, and it seems that there were quite a few interested students! Many of them even came and spoke with me after class for more information, though some of them were sophomores so they'll have to wait another year before they are qualified.

One of the greatest things about block scheduling is that it leaves us with time at the end when the students can get their picture taken in front of the camera and have it printed out for them to keep (with an Imaging Science sticker on the back, of course; which also went over so well, there were even students asking for additional platypus stickers!). These students were very excited and really got into having their thermal images taken, even using props and ice in their pictures:

Uh-oh, looks like I may have a new BEST MUSTACHE EVER winner. Check out those handlebars!

A couple of my favorite pictures from the day, now proudly displayed on my office bulletin board.

And, it wasn't just the students getting excited over getting their pictures taken - I took a group photo of the whole science department with the FLIR, and they said they're going to use it for this year's yearbook! Even one of the teachers used ice to draw on a mustache. I forgot to print out a copy, so I'm hoping they'll email one to me so I can post it here.

All in all, it has been a fantastic couple of days. The students at Pal Mac really impressed me with their welcoming attitudes and willingness to participate. There were a number of sharp students who were really on the ball with questions and answers, and many more who you could see had their interest sparked. I hope to be able to continue to partner with Pal Mac in the future, because it is always a very positive experience when I go out there. Here's hoping I inspired some kids to pursue a future in science!

Just what I needed today

Today I received a surprise big envelope in the mail. Inside was a book of thank you notes from one of the classes at MLK Elementary in Utica! 

The letters are all hand written following traditional formalities - how often do you see that anymore? They are very heart warming, and many of them have cute mistakes or silly statements.

I hope Meraly is just referring to the big spark, not that she actually got shocked!!

See? I told you they loved it when I crossed my eyes.

There are 23 of them in all, and they are a hoot. I love it! Thank you, Mrs. Karam's class!!!

And this is why it's called "Imaging Connection"

The latest Imaging Connection newsletter just went out! While the newsletter is geared towards alumni, there are topics of interest in there for a general audience, as well. This quarter's topics include building renovations, the Archimedes Palimpsest exhibit in Baltimore, highlights from past alumni events, announcements for events to come, and more. This newsletter, as well as previous issues, can be viewed here. 

I've even already received several positive responses from alumni! Yeah! I love it when alumni reconnect.

Drumroll, please

So I've been hard at work this week getting everything organized for the Imaging Science Hall of Fame (cue fanfare)! And now that all the details are finalized, promotions are underway. Here are the posters I've put together and plastered all over our webpage, Facebook page, email, and within CIS itself:

If you want to know more, just click on those posters to view a larger size, and/or click on the link up above. Oh, and by the way - you should join us! You can Register Here.

A tale of resurrection

Once upon a time, the College of Science at RIT had an Alumni Advisory Board made up of faculty and staff from each COS department. Unfortunately, the person from RIT Alumni Relations who spearheaded the group got a promotion elsewhere on campus, and the board kind of... died. Well, our new COS AR director has stepped up and resurrected the Alumni Advisory Board, hooray! Today was our first meeting anew, so much of it was spent catching up on current practices and re-establishing ourselves. But, despite the infancy of our re-birth, we have definitely got some momentum going already. So, you can expect to hear much more on this subject in the future! 

And they lived happily ever after, The End.

Outreach can happen anywhere

My passion to spread the good word about Imaging Science isn't just confined to classroom visits and materials development; in fact I am always looking for creative and unexpected ways to promote Imaging Science, and often find ways to do it outside of the normal scope of my job. This often spills over into my personal life, where I'll have opportunities to tell people about Imaging Science at cocktail parties, networking events, social mixers, and even when I go ice skating. Another personal outlet is Facebook, where I happened to see a posting by the Democrat and Chronicle's Young Professionals page asking for volunteers to have their Facebook Timelines featured (the Timeline is a new way of presenting your FB profile, which I happened to take the steps to enable before they start rolling it out for everyone). This seemed like another opportunity to get Imaging Science out there, and you never know where you might spark someone's interest! - Especially for something like Imaging Science, where it seems a lot of people find us through some random and unexpected connection.

A sneak peek into my personal Facebook identity... Recognize the banner?

Unfortunately, the size of the browser that the author of the article was using cut off "RIT Center for Imaging Science" from my profile info, so I made sure to get CIS featured in my caption. The text I had supplied was originally edited in such a way that my all-important wording was removed, so I actually worked with the author to make sure I got my CIS plug in - after all, the whole reason I was putting myself out there was to also get Imaging Science out there. Apparently he doesn't normally do favors like that, so I'm very grateful he was willing to work with me.

So who knows whether anything will come of it, but it's always worth a try! You can check out the whole article and read my full caption by going here.