One does not simply close the Reading Room

Hey so it's actually been a while since I outlined that big bad to-do list, which of course is still getting longer despite the items on it that actually get completed.  One of those omnipresent items is coordinating and overseeing the development of an IFE video produced by RIT Production Services (known to most as ETC, but that "isn't their name anymore"). For the past couple weeks I have struggled to establish a shooting schedule for 11(!) undergrad student interviews over two afternoons. As you can imagine, this is no small feat, as not only are students' schedules unpredictable but college students aren't the best at reading/responding to e-mails. And then even once it's all scheduled, you have to keep your fingers crossed that everyone actually shows up when they are supposed to, and is wearing what they are supposed to (no pure black/white, or saturated colors, or patterns), and bothered to comb their hair that day. I honestly don't know why anyone dreams of being in video production, but I guess that just goes to show why it isn't for me (and how they can charge so much for it). 

Well anyways, I am happy to say that everything actually seemingly went very smoothly. I wasn't present for most (read: any) of the shooting, but I have been told that everyone showed up when they were supposed to (or arranged it among themselves that they be there at one of the allotted time slots), and I've heard that some of the interviews were really, really, REALLY good. For once, scheduling and communication did NOT break down, and maybe I can actually take some of the credit for successfully organizing it all. But I can't brag too much really, because the real work was done by the film crew, the students, and of course Joe who had to do all the interviewing of all 11 students. 

I felt bad that shooting was scheduled for the last two days before break, although that was strategic because theoretically students wouldn't be super busy, pre-break tests would be completed, the Reading Room (the chosen shooting location) shouldn't be in strong demand, and things overall should be generally quiet. Well, some of these things were true: obviously we were able to get scheduling to work out, without complaints of being too busy; and there weren't any tests left that were demanding students' attention. But although things were generally quiet, the building was still lively enough to interfere with the shooting - what with people making noise in the hallway, using the hand blowers in the bathroom, etc. And, it turns out students were getting majorly offended that they couldn't use the Reading Room - "They can't take the Reading Room away from us!" "How dare they monopolize the Reading Room!" "What is THIS?!" And then the ultimate passive aggressive maneuver - anonymously leaving a sign on the closed door:

Know your meme

Although I am really annoyed by the sense of entitlement displayed by our spoiled rotten students (I can call them that because I was once one of these students that thought I was entitled to 24 hour ownership of the Reading Room), I have to really give credit to whoever left that, because I thought it was hilarious.

Anyways, I brought in homemade cookies as a show of appreciation for the film crew and students that had to be here, since I figured most of them probably would have blown off early for break (like so many of the students in Imaging Science Fundamentals did) if it were not for the shooting. But it turns out no one even touched them, so I'll just enjoy my amazingly delicious cookies by myself, thankyouverymuch. And with this perfectly baked up splendor of butter and sugar, I bid you HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

Extra Extra! Fall Imaging Connection Now Available!

The Fall (September/October/November) issue of the CIS newsletter Imaging Connection is now available. While the newsletter is geared towards alumni, there are topics of interest in there for a general audience, as well. This newsletter, as well as previous issues, can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/CISnewsletter

The fall issue features:

• Intern Program Parnterships
• CIS Imaging Bash
• Achievements & Recognitions
• Past Receptions & Upcoming Events
• Alumni Spotlight on: Robert Loce
• Send us your card!

...and more!

I'm [not really] ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille

You may recall that last quarter I was invited to present for the Imaging Science Fundamentals class. Well, I must have done a pretty decent job, because I was invited to do it again this quarter! Unfortunately, I have been a little ill for a few days, so I was concerned that I would have to bail - but I came in to work anyways and luckily I pulled through. (I've actually been running a fever, which would have been cool to see with the thermal camera - but my Advil hadn't worn off enough I guess, because I didn't appear to be burning up - boo.)

This being the last day before winter break, my audience was pretty light - many students only have one class on Fridays, and when it's an elective, they'll choose to blow off early to go home for break. I expected this to be the case, though, so my feelings weren't hurt. Even so, the presentation went well despite the small audience and overall desperate anticipation of leaving for two weeks off from school. Embarrassingly enough, video was captured of the presentation so that students who weren't present could view it online at their leisure - which means you can, too. I have to admit, I haven't watched very much of it - I love presenting, but when I see myself played back, I think I'm such a dweeb and wonder why anyone would listen to the stupid random things I say. Plus, everyone knows the camera adds at least 15 lbs. So, if you watch it, let me know if I do anything super embarrassing, okay? Then maybe I can convince someone to nonchalantly edit it out...

Now I just have to hope that someone other than me utilizes this stuff.

In accordance with updating/creating a bunch of promotional materials lately, I have updated the corresponding page on the CIS website: http://www.cis.rit.edu/materials. There is now so much to share that I have explicitly broken it up into undergraduate, graduate, and general CIS. The graduate materials includes the new brochure AND (fanfare please) a new slideshow that I have put together about CIS and our graduate programs! The slideshow is actually based on the one I made for the information session back in October, with some slight modifications. Although it was created to be an automatic slideshow that would play on a computer at an info table, it also works pretty well as a general online overview. (The only problem is, the slides about research groups are lacking a little context without there being someone there to explain them.)

You may have noticed in bright red writing that a new undergraduate digital booklet is coming, too (and it's about time!). I actually have it mostly done, it is just waiting for approval before going live. Look for it in January!

HF-L 'n me, we're like peas 'n carrots

Today I meet with a prospective student that was actually in one of the classes I presented to at HF-L just about a month ago. He was actually so taken by my presentation that he had e-mailed me THAT DAY before school even let out. Originally he was asking about the intern program, but unfortunately since he is a senior he is ineligible. So instead I offered for him to come and sit in on the freshmen class, which he enthusiastically accepted! 

First I met with him for a bit to learn more about his interests and gauge whether Imaging Science would be a good fit for him - which it definitely seems like it would be, and I think he would be an asset to the program. We has great to get to know and it was fun just to chat with him. Best part is, he was very enthusiastic about RIT - in fact, it sounded like he may have already applied. So today was perhaps just a formality? Either way, I'm glad he stopped in because I enjoyed meeting with him. After a while I dropped him off to the freshmen class, where I've heard he contributed and really got into the project. Hopefully we'll see him here as a freshman in the fall!

And, apparently my charm was really on that day at HF-L - I've been told there is at least one other student from those classes applying to Imaging Science, woo hoo! He was even one of the more quiet kids, who I actually made come up and do silly things for the camera, much to his embarrassment  Sometimes that makes kids really hate me, but it just goes to show that sometimes even the slightest interaction can have a huge positive impact. 

I don't even like hockey.

So just to add to the insanity of my to-do list, about 10 days ago it was brought to my attention that some students were asking about going to an Amerks game, and I was asked whether it should be opened up to all of CIS as a chance to get out together. And since I said yes, it became another event for me to have to organize. Why on earth did I say yes??? I wasn't even going to go; I have no interest in hockey games. (Plus I had to write a paper.) 

Anyways, it wasn't all that big of a deal. A few mass e-mails (which I've sent out way too many of this week... I hope people haven't started blocking my e-mail address...), plus some flyers around the building, and we had a nice healthy group of 22 staff and students who wanted to go. It probably helped that CIS was covering part of the cost of the tickets so that seats were only 5 bucks. And by a Christmas miracle, everyone had their payment in before noon on Friday. The Amerks group sales guy was dropping by at lunch (what service!) to take care of the payment and drop off the tickets, and by yet another xmas miracle, everyone picked up their tickets prior to the game. 

Things could not have been going better, and as it turns out, the positive trend continued through the game! Amerks were going to win! Oh, that is, until 10 seconds before the end of the game, when the opponents tied up the game, and then won in a subsequent shootout. Whoops.

Anyways, like I said, I wasn't there, but here are some pics taken by someone who WAS there:

Now that's a motley crew... 

IMSCI REPRESENT

Okay, I guess I'm a little sad I didn't get to go, especially after being the one to organize the whole thing. But either way I still had to write that paper that was due today (which I'm sure I enjoyed even less than watching hockey).

Those times when paper does not translate to digital.

It became apparent that the grad brochure I designed ought to be on the website somehow. But of course this couldn't be as easy as slapping a PDF on our FTP server! As you probably thought when I posted the brochure on my blog in the first place, it is really awkward to look at a tri-fold on a computer. The first things you see are the inside flap, the back, and the front cover - illogical. So I was asked to find a better "flow" for posting online. 

Here is what I ended up with. 

It's still not perfect, but what are you going to do? It's a brochure designed to be printed out and folded into thirds; it just doesn't translate to viewing digitally. But, I did best I could. Hopefully that's okay. I especially hope it's good enough because it took a lot of research and Googling to implement something that would work at all. By the way, why can't Acrobat allow for horizontal scrolling instead of everything always being vertically laid out? That would have saved me a lot of trouble. (And, no, assembling a PDF Portfolio was not going to work.)

Meanwhile, I'm wrapping up the grad programs slideshow, which in comparison will look much better when viewed online (though it still won't be perfect - it is, after all, meant to be a slideshow, not an information booklet). Hopefully this will be completed in the next few days.

2012 Imaging Bash

Tonight was the Imaging Bash! We had a full house for the event, and even had to bring in additional chairs to fit all 50+ people into the Carlson Learning Center. Meanwhile, I took some pictures. And I made a panorama from a few of them:

Snazzy. Anyways, you can see the rest of the pictures I took here.

What is the Imaging Bash, you may ask? For the answer to your question, I direct you to the Imaging Bash website (which I just updated, how convenient!). 

One of these days I'll get it right.

Do you ever have one of those words or word associations where, no matter how hard you try to train yourself to say it the right way, you just keep making the same mistake over and over and over again? And when you know you're about to do it, you pause and try to think it through to make sure you say it correctly - and then you still say it the wrong way? When I was a kid, it was "terrainium" (as opposed to the correct word, terrarium); and nowadays it is "geranium", the flower, when I mean to say "germanium", the element. I know, it's REALLY stupid. And really embarrassing. But at least when a kid points it out to me, I know someone's listening. Maybe I should turn it into a game next time I inevitably screw it up... But really I should just teach myself not to screw it up like some moron who failed chemistry (which I never did; in fact I did quite well, for the record). Make fun of me all you want, but I'm only human. Okie silly dilly dokie-o, I'm an idiot.

Anyways, today I presented to a group of high school students that, as I understand it, were arranged to visit through a Xerox-RCSD (Rochester City School District) partnership developed by one of RIT's trustees. I was expecting thirty 9th grade RCSD students... And what I got was 15 students that were apparently a mixture of School #19 and Albion students ranging in grade level from 8th - 12th, plus a few others who I suspect were teachers or chaperons (but I don't know because none of them introduced themselves to me). Whaaa? So I was pretty clueless about this, which makes things a little complicated from a carefully planned presentation point of view (and makes me look a little stupid), but I was able to adjust okay (I hope). The students were sharp kids that did very well with the thermal camera demo. They willingly interacted, had a lot of great ideas and thoughtful questions, and exhibited strong critical thinking and problem solving skills.

There were more students present than visible in this picture, I promise.

You could see him breathing in and out - see the yellow nostril?

 

Unfortunately, the presentation had to be short. The day was originally planned to go longer, but then transportation times got changed and I was cut from the schedule! Thankfully the scheduling was rearranged so that I was able to present, but the downside was that the presentation could only be 35 minutes. And that is QUICK. Thankfully I got through the best parts of the demo, and most of the information I wanted to present - but I think some parts did suffer a bit from going too quickly. (Like my tendency to rush through and use the wrong words for things...)

All in all, I'd call today's presentation and demo a success, even despite the surprises. It was a great group of students, so I hope I helped inspire them to stay connected with RIT whether it be for camps, internships, a college education, or otherwise. I certainly appreciate the opportunity to have been a part of their visit to RIT!

Announcing: 7th Annual Imaging Hall of Fame

Time to rev up the promotion machine for the 7th annual Imaging Hall of Fame ceremony and keynote... Task #1: make poster. Check!

Where are they now: CIS Intern Edition

So that huge to-do list I mentioned recently (actually it was quite a while ago now I suppose) has continued to grow... In the past week, a new item appeared and pushed its way to the top. And I am happy to report, it is done! Well, not really done... as it will continue to grow, so it will never really be finished.... But, it is at least ready to go live! 

Introducing... Intern Alumni Stories!

I have been reaching out to past interns to ask about their internship experiences and get updates as to what they are up to now. There are a few stories posted already, and I am expecting to post a few more in the near future. It has been great fun reconnecting with past interns, and it is truly awe-inspiring to witness the positive trajectories their lives are taking. It also gives me warm fuzzies to hear how much they loved the internship program and how it has positively affected their lives. 

Stay tuned for more interviews! Who knows, maybe one about someone really familiar might show up eventually... (if she ever gets over how incredibly weird and conceited it would feel to post an "interview" with herself )  ;-)

Royal Comets, Representin'

Recently I've had a series of K-12 outreach-related meetings with some RIT heavy hitters in the Office of the Provost. This has been quite exciting, because it means Imaging Science is getting attention at high levels. One general meeting led to a 1-on-1 meeting to go into more specific detail about all of the outreach programs I do, which actually led to a meeting I had today with the daughter of an Assistant Provost! It just so happens that, after we discussed more about the Imaging Science program, the Assistant Provost thought it sounded like something her daughter might be interested in exploring. It turns out that her daughter is a junior in high school and has wide interests in STEM disciplines, which immediately had me thinking: internship! So today the daughter came to visit so as to learn all about what we do here in CIS and what the internship experience is like.

I've got to point out, she has this amazing bright red hair! It is stunning. We had a little mutual admiration there.

Anyways, we had a great meeting, even though it is dead around here since it's break week. We bonded over our hair and how we both went/go to R-H. She told me about some other experiences she's had on campus that she found really interesting, and I told her more about the internship process. We went around to the Vision lab, which actually had someone in it, and got to see the portable eye tracker and its output. Then we ventured upstairs to the Freshmen lab, where Joe actually happened to be, so he joined in the meeting to talk all about the freshmen class. After touring the 2nd floor Freshmen lab (the "Bat Cave"), we called it a day. I invited her to come back and visit anytime, as it would be worthwhile to see CIS when there are more people around, and it would be an especially good experience for her to sit in on the freshmen class. 

According to her mom, she really enjoyed the visit and has been very talkative about all the things we met about. And - and this is a direct quote- "she’s said about five times now how cool and nice you are." Awww! Anyways, I look forward to receiving an internship application from her for next summer! I think it would be a really great experience.

Feels good to get out the ol' green laser pointer again.

This year I have been finding it very difficult to get into classrooms to give presentations about Imaging Science. I think there are a number of factors playing into this: it is a big testing year, plus teachers are being held to increasingly higher standards with evaluations based on student performance. The pressure is on to make every minute of class time count, so who has time to allow for guest speakers? It is my opinion that this is not what is necessarily best for students and their futures, but who am I to say - obviously I have my own reasons for wanting this to be different. Luckily, there are still some big-picture teachers out there who recognize the value in exposing students to different kinds of colleges and careers, so that they can find the appropriate road to success after their time in the K-12 school system is complete.

Our friend Bob (who you may remember from all his invaluable help with the summer interns) invited me to speak to multiple sections of applied, regents, and AP physics students yesterday - all in all, around 125 students! The flip side of being able to see so many classes in one day is that Monday classes are short - only around 40 minutes. So my normal presentation had to be cut down to only include general ImSci information, the thermal camera demo and discussion of applications, and my story of how I became an Imaging Scientist. That's still a ton of information to squeeze into 40 minutes, but I got it to work and came in right on time with every class. Like a boss.

Apparently this student is rather reluctant to come out of her shell normally, so her willing participation in the FLIR demo was a really positive sign. 

Overall I had a great time. The students were very well behaved yet playful, and really got into the thermal camera demos. They exhibited exceptional critical thinking and problem solving, and as usual mouths gaped open when I talked about career placement and starting salaries (which is good - shows they were listening even during the less interactive parts). Before I got back to the office I already had an e-mail from an interested student, and I have since heard that additional students have asked for my contact info. Apparently, everyone is still talking about it, which is awesome. I'm proud to have made such an impression, and grateful for the opportunity to have done so! Bob is convinced that we'll see some applications out of this, either to the intern program or to RIT overall - let's hope he's right ;-)

I have to tell you something... I've been seeing another blog.

It may feel as if this blog has been a little neglected lately. That's kind of true, but not for lack of being busy. Actually, if you need a dose of my blogging you can check out something I wrote for the Staff Council blog about a pressing issue taking place right now at RIT. This particular topic has been dominating Staff Council lately, and has also been requiring a lot out of me thanks to my position as an RSC representative and Executive Committee member. It is difficult because I am very busy otherwise, but it is my duty to perform this service to the institute. In fact, it is incredibly important for all staff to get involved, hence my motivation to write that post. On the plus side, I've already gotten an incredible amount of positive feedback with regards to its message. Unfortunately, as I'm sure is the case for many others,  my to-do list just keeps growing in the meantime... :-\

Come one, come all for the 5th annual Imaging Bash

Submit your images now!

Just like the Scouts always say: Be prepared.

Sometimes, even despite the best planning, things don't go as expected and you really have to be able to improvise. As you can probably guess, today was one of those days. 

One of the researchers in the Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing (DIRS) lab has a connection to a biological imaging class at nearby St. John Fisher college. They were interested in visiting CIS and hearing about other types of imaging and their applications. The plan was to take the class on a short tour of the labs that seem most relevant to the subject of biological imaging; so, the Biomedical and Materials Multimodal Imaging Lab and the Multidisciplinary Vision Research Lab. I offered to coordinate the tour with lab directors, after which the class would hear about our graduate programs from the Graduate Coordinator and then hear more about DIRS lab research. The tour was to kick off at 1:45 and last from 15-30 minutes. Solid.

1:45 comes and goes... then 1:55.... then 2:05.... at which time I went down to the labs to let the speakers I was working with know that the class hadn't shown up yet and we did not know where they were. I made the executive decision to wait 10 more minutes and if they hadn't shown up yet, to forget the tour altogether. One of the lab directors had already given up, which is just as well because sure enough, 2:15 comes and goes still with no word from the class. At 2:30, I gave up.

Well the class must have eventually arrived because right around 4 PM a large group appeared outside my door hoping for a tour. I was in the middle of designing the new online undergrad booklet but agreed to put it aside, and kept my fingers crossed that there would be people around in the labs to present; otherwise, I'd wing it on the fly. Thankfully, there were some people still around in both labs who could describe their particular research in detail, and I was able to fill in any gaps with my own knowledge of what the labs are up to. Phew.

After about 20 minutes their day was over and it was time for the class to leave. Although the trip didn't exactly go as planned, I think everything worked out just fine. The students seemed quite interested in what they were hearing about and got really intrigued by the eye trackers. A number of the students personally thanked me and seemed very grateful. With any luck, some of them will keep Imaging Science in mind for grad school ;-)

Of course you know what remoulade is.

Last night there was an OSA lecture at the George Eastman House about Kodak's contribution to Cold War surveillance. Well it just so happens that the third year undergrads were planning a CIS-sponsored outing for the same evening, so I ran the idea past them that we all hit up the talk before heading out to dinner. I know I was interested in attending, and organizing a group to see the talk gave more relevancy to the outing overall. Lo and behold, they agreed! So around 5:30 we gathered in the lobby of Carlson and caravaned over to the Eastman House. (For the record, I got there first by taking a well planned route and driving the appropriate speed limits, despite SOME student's attempt to beat me with the bright idea of taking a "shortcut" and driving like a banshee at unsafe speeds. NOT well played, sir. Not well played. This time you put the STUD in STUpiD - oohhh, I got you there. You know who you are.) (PS> I'm just kidding but the adult in me still must scold you for acting irresponsibly.)

We arrived early enough to - oh wait, stop everything, there's a photo booth.

We arrived early enough to tour the Eastman House and museum (and Sam of course b-lined for the food, which he says was really good). While we really enjoyed browsing around, there seemed to be quite a crowd forming so we made sure to get to the Curtis Theater in time to all get seats together. So many people showed up that it ended up being standing-room-only, and there were people sitting on the floor. 

The lecture began with a Kodak retiree detailing his time as an optical engineer at Kodak after graduating from the U of R Institute of Optics in the 1950's(!). He was actually Kodak's first employee to hold the title of "Optical Engineer". He showed a bunch of old draft drawings for lenses that were used in the Gambit and Gambit-3 reconnaissance satellites, and had old pictures of Kodak's Hawkeye building and labs. It was fascinating to see the "old way" of doing things, before easy computer models or even simple calculators. I really enjoyed seeing this perspective.

This was then followed up by a Corning optical engineer who had voluntarily gone about a quantitative comparison between the Gambit and Gambit-3 systems. He also detailed a bit more about how the systems worked and compared their layouts, and also explained how imagery was actually delivered back to the ground. This, too, was very interesting. Ah, it felt so good to be wearing my science hat again. Meanwhile, this speaker actually graduated from the U of R Institute of Optics a year after my dad, so I wonder whether they knew each other. (I tried discreetly texting my mom, asking her to ask my dad whether he recognized the name; to which I received the response, "He's asleep." Bear in mind, this was about 7:30PM....)

Overall, I thought the talk was fascinating. I'm not too sure the students felt the same way... Then again I'm not sure I would have felt the same way back when I was a student, either. Interesting how things change.

Anyways, after that it was on to the Distillery for - what's that place with all the goofy stuff on their walls and the mozzarella sticks? Oh yeah,

Basically we ate some tasty food, made fun of what was on the TVs (Summer 2012 flashback with Olympic gymnastics and Kobe Bryant in the NBA playoffs - Why?), blew off steam, and took silly pictures, like this gem:

Aww, all my widdle students, all tuckered out.

And with our bellies too full, we called it a night. Sure, I got thanked because I had the credit card - but really the appreciation should go to our awesome students, because it's thanks to them that I have the best job in the world.

No need to alert the authorities, I'm just fine.

So I recognize that I haven't written anything in a while. I have been SUPER busy with a number of in-depth projects running in parallel (hence why none of them have really gotten done enough yet to have blog posts written about them). For example, my to-do list contains (but is not limited to)...

• Develop new undergrad promotional brochure
• Develop new undergrad promotional online booklet
• Develop new graduate promotional online booklet
• Develop banners to mount outside CIS
• Update "About CIS" presentations for general use
• Update lobby slideshow (since the computer FINALLY just got turned on for the first time in months)
• Add a "What the students are saying" section to the IFE webpage
• Help with coordination of a professionally produced IFE video
• Design and coordinate a ████████████ <- Sorry! This project is TOP SECRET.

Plus normal, all-the-time, day-to-day stuff. Right. But despite my ever-growing desktop sticky note of to-dos, I have been able to knock out a few things, most notably a poster for the grad program info sessions that will be taking place next Monday:

And an accompanying e-mail announcement that already started spamming inboxes as of this morning:

Plus the end of last week was busy with homecoming, but Brick City deserves its own post so that will have to wait.

Meanwhile, the new grad brochures that I made just came in, and they look AWWWEESOOOME (if I do say so myself). But as LeVar Burton's trademark phrase went, 

I <3 RR so much.

...so drop by and pick one up to see for yourself. Da-dun DUN!

NEW CIS Graduate Programs Brochure

I think it is FINALLY safe to reveal the outcome of a project I've been working on for a few weeks now - a new graduate programs brochure! It's actually been nearly complete for a while, but hadn't received full approval until, well, about half an hour ago. Check it out:

Fold-over flap, back, and cover

Inside 3 panels

You might think the cover looks a little familiar... It was designed to follow the same themes as the 2011 Annual Report cover. The big rectangle was actually intentionally left blank to allow someone to jot down some notes, and it just so happens to be the same exact width as a business card so it looks very nice to staple or paperclip one right on there.

I've never actually made a graduate brochure before. There were some simple pamphlets already produced before I got here, and a year and a half ago I created postcards, posters, and flyers (which I still have bajillions of hard copies of...). However those materials just weren't cutting it, and didn't really have enough information. I've received requests before to create a brochure like this, so I'm glad it has finally actually happened and am happy with how everything came together. I think it is appealing visually and includes a lot of relevant data. Hopefully this brochure will satisfy some unmet needs.

Coming off of this, I feel momentum to redesign the undergraduate materials as well. I think I can follow a pretty similar theme, but prospective undergraduates are a totally different audience so it will have to be an entirely different pamphlet. It will take quite a bit of effort, and it's a little sad to say goodbye to the materials I made previously, but with the upcoming switch to semesters now is definitely the time for an overhaul. 

I'm at over 2,000 page views!!!!

Just sayin.

Sorry, no, this food is not for sale... What do we look like, a restaurant?

The CIS Welcome / Welcome Back picnic was last night! We had a great turnout and feedback I've received so far has been really positive. Unfortunately the weather was a bit chilly and it was breezy, but the sun held out at least. Food was ready by 5 and we had a huge crowd of empty stomachs eagerly waiting. I could tell that a bunch of them were completely random people, though, which is super annoying to me. I know that's always apt to happen, but it doesn't help that a class let out right when we started serving food, so students that just happened to be leaving the building thought they would step right up and take advantage. Well since it was my job to emcee, I decided to go ahead and use my little soapbox to not-so-inconspicuously call out the offenders with an introduction that went a little something like...

"Welcome to the Center for Imaging Science Fall Picnic! If you followed instructions and did things the way you were supposed to, you donated a can of food in return for the food you will be enjoying tonight, and also received a raffle ticket for which I will begin doing raffles shortly. For those of you who did not do follow instructions, well, you should be very VERY grateful to the Center for Imaging Science who is giving you food for apparently no reason tonight." 

Yeah, those unrecognized faces definitely had guilty looks on them. Later on into the picnic I got a little more direct with even saying a semi-facetious "Shame on yooouuuuu," but anyways, it's all good I guess... We had way more food than we could possibly eat, anyways.

Unfortunately I barely got enjoy the picnic myself, since I was busy DJing, emceeing, taking pictures, and doing raffles... I had to scarf my food and didn't really get to chat with anyone. I think much of it was the same way with other staff people at CIS... Take a wild guess at who all had to set up, cook, break down, clean up, et cetera... Luckily IS&T is taking on the job of delivering all the donated food to a local food pantry.

BUT ANYWAYS, not to get all downer, because really it was a great picnic. You can see for yourself via the Fall Picnic photo gallery. As for that random picture of me with another girl with fabulously pink everything, that was probably the highlight of the day for me. This girl went walking by, and one of our students said, "Bethany, you should go ask her for a picture together! Here I'll take your camera!" And goofy me thought that was a great idea, so actually I went running after her. After mutual compliments on glorious hairstyles, we got an awesome picture.... And the fact that I actually did such a ridiculous thing prompted the student to admit, "Most people think my suggestions are stupid, but you actually do them. That's why I love you, Bethany." Awwww.

I want to be friends with this girl because clearly she is super awesome. Too bad I didn't even ask what her name was.

It's kind of like being an aunt/uncle, where you get to experience all the joys of having kids, without the actual life sentence of being a parent.

Yesterday afternoon I was invited to do a demo in one of the Imaging Science Fundamentals classes. Usually Joe is the one to do this, but this time around he asked if I wanted to give it a try; and I thought, why not?

Imaging Science Fundamentals is a general overview class that satisfies requirements in other colleges (outside College of Science) for a class + lab credit. So, the makeup of the class is mostly art, business, and IT majors who just need to put in their time and get their credit over with. It turns out that most of them are 3rd and 4th year students who put it off until now... And it's a big class, too - around 70 students! So this was a pretty different audience for me, considering I'm used to middle/high school kids and my main purpose is to encourage interest in science and/or recruit. 

On one hand, I felt more pressure - this is a college course, plus I'm being watched by a professor (who has a PhD from Cornell, I might add!); but on the other hand, I felt less pressure because the purpose was simply to teach, with no expectation that I needed to recruit these students in order to be perceived as successful. The fact that there was a very high chance that the students couldn't care less about what I had to say contributed to both sides of the equation - maybe I could say whatever I wanted, but maybe I'd have a really tough audience (which would be a real challenge considering how interactive I make my presentations).

Well, as it turned out, all my fears were unfounded - PHEW. I did my normal schtick with the FLIR, with the surrounding story of the Mars rovers (which thankfully is relevant again now that Curiosity is out there exploring). Actually this great news story JUST came out about "snow" on Mars, which they were able to identify using spectrometers, so I was able to weave that in nicely as well. The students were very active and engaged, and actually laughed at my stupid jokes and mannerisms, so that was cool. They answered many of my questions, and asked many of their own; and a variety of students contributed thoughtful and meaningful insight. A couple students even stayed after class was over to chat. Overall, I think it went really, really well.

When I was in college I always thought I'd want to be a college professor some day. Then I realized I would have to get all sorts of advanced degrees, and I wasn't so sure anymore (there are many reasons behind this; please don't get the impression that I am lazy or unmotivated). Then I discovered there were years of being a post-doc before you were really a viable candidate for becoming a professor even at the lowest entry level. THEN I found out all that actually goes into being a professor at a university like RIT, like writing grants (bleah) and dealing with a lot of competitiveness, and I was sure that being a professor was something I did NOT want anymore. Which is too bad, because I really enjoy "teaching", and I love the atmosphere in college when [most] everyone is excited to learn and takes class seriously... and today's experience only served to reinforce that. But, I guess that's why I appreciate my job so much and constantly refer to it as the best job in the world - because I do get many opportunities to do what I love and am passionate about.

Extra, extra! Summer Imaging Connection Now Available!

The latest issue of the CIS Imaging Connection newsletter is hot off the press (or whatever the modern day digital equivalent of that phrase would be). Highlights from the Summer issue include: 

• Summer Interns & REU 2012
• Awards & Recognitions 
• Incoming Class Snapshot
• New IPLER Disaster Response video
• Past Receptions & Upcoming Events 
• And, of course, your quarterly "From the Archives" photograph

Check it out!

New year, new looks (plus a SNEAK PEEK at a new t-shirt design!)

I have been hard at work throughout the past week or so with a number of design updates and creations...

The Seminar Series logo got an update with the new CIS dot logo.

And the seminar abstract and bio templates got updated accordingly. They also were modified to follow official RIT color schemes.

Fall picnic flyer is ready to go.

And you may have noticed I updated my blog banner above.

I worked on a few different designs for a new CIS t-shirt....

And ultimately went with a design featuring the CIS dot logo repeating in a Bayer pattern color scheme.
Tshirts will be available in both natural and black and should make their debut next week.

The end!

I missed you, too.

Need I even mention that I have the best job in the world?

Intern Final Moments, Part 3: The Conclusion

Not long into the frustratingly lengthy 25 minute intermission, there was breaking news: the MIA intern was on her way and would arrive, supposedly ready to present, in about 10 minutes. Sure enough, she eventually showed up - but not so much ready to present. I did everything I could to get her mentally prepared (pep talk mode, activate!), and after getting her presentation set up told her she had 5 minutes to relax while I rounded up the audience and other interns from whatever far off places they had wandered away to. She would have 10 minutes to present, which would carry on straight through to the next group of interns scheduled to present, right on time. Ah, relief.

And the presentations carried on - though, despite making it past the major hiccup, my drama was not over. Perhaps I was still just worked up with adrenaline... but faced with another threat to the smooth operation of my event, I found myself quite upset. You see, a person (who shall remain nameless) showed up in time for the intern presentations from his research lab. However, he was apparently only interested in what one of the interns had to say, because he was typing on his laptop during the other interns' presentations. Now, this is a major pet peeve of mine; I think it is extremely rude to be on a laptop while someone is presenting, especially if you are typing (which creates noise and can be very distracting, not to mention discouraging, to the presenter). Not only that, but doing so sets a very bad example; and on top of that, I am very protective of my interns - Many of these kids were presenting for the first time in front of a major audience, especially one so distinguished, and they needed all the support and encouragement they could get. As if that in itself wasn't enough to get my goat, what do you know but a grad student (who shall also remain nameless) walks in, sits down next to noname #1, and starts whispering questions to him! They engage in a full-on whispered conversation of significant length, all while an intern was trying to present on her research. If I were a cartoon, you would have seen my face turn red and steam blowing out of my ears. At the conclusion of their whispered powwow, I shook my head in disappointment and mouthed to the grad student, "NOT. COOL.", to which he tried to whisper some excuse of "he's a hard guy to find, gotta take advantage of every opportunity." I mouthed another "not cool" and added on something like, "that behavior is unacceptable", but it was over at that point. Grrr, even a week later, I am still getting worked up about this. How disrespectful!

Anyways, from then on the presentations proceeded without any more notable hitches or disruptions, until finally it was all over. PHEW! Well, almost over - we still had one last thing to do before cutting the interns loose.

In past years, once the presentations were over, the interns all just said quick goodbyes and went their separate ways. I always thought this was kind of sad - no final celebration? No after party? Not even a real goodbye? So this year, we decided to host a final pizza lunch for everyone so we could unwind one last time and do a little celebrating. This also worked out well for the conclusion of the Intern Challenges, since we planned the last one to be a video meant to serve as somewhat of a closing credits to the whole summer. Not everyone chose to stick around, but those who did presented paper plate awards to each other, watched the final videos, and enjoyed pizza one last time together as CIS interns. A lot of the videos were really great (and practically tear-enducing), but we had to pick winners and present one intern with the final GRAND PRIZE for all the challenges (congratulations, Henry!!!!!). After that, it was time for goodbyes. Some were reluctant, others were awkward, many were sad... It was a long time before everyone was actually gone. I'm happy to say though that I did get a few hugs. We had a great group this summer, many of which I expect to go on to great things (hopefully here at RIT ;-) )... I hope they keep in touch. I already miss them.

And now we can time warp back to my original post from the last day of the summer intern program 2012, and all is back to how it chronologically should be. Poof.

Intern Final Moments, Part 2: Season Finale Cliffhanger

And now for some recap of the Interns' final day: PRESENTATION DAY. Well, it all comes down to this, folks. The chance to really show what you've accomplished all summer. Needless to say, there were interns that blew us away, and there were interns that... well....

I got in early to make sure everything was set up and ready to go. Of course I was receiving finalized presentations at the very last minute, so it's a good thing I was expecting that and was available before the presentations were slated to begin. We had refreshments (coffee, tea, bagels) in the Fishbowl for any break times in the schedule. In the past, we intermixed interns from all the groups in an attempt to get everyone to stick around all day, but in retrospect that didn't really seem to work and just seemed to irritate people. So this year, we grouped the interns by research lab and didn't schedule any breaks, knowing that not all of the interns would use their full time slots and we would end up with spare time between groups (thus allowing for breaks). The only hard set times were the start times for each of the groups; that way we could avoid the "I showed up for my son/daughter/student/intern's presentation 10 minutes early only to find out it already happened!" frustrations that we have experienced in so many years past. While this all sounds great in theory, well, it didn't exactly work out as planned.

The day of presentations started at 9AM with some opening remarks from me. I've never really had to emcee such a "formal" event, so I was a little more nervous than usual, but it went alright. The MVRL group started us off and moved along at a nice pace. All 4 presentations went very well and received insightful questions from the audience. However, each intern was given 10 minutes to present and 5 minutes for questions, and by the time you get to the third and fourth presentations about visual perception the general questions start to run out. The group ended almost 15 minutes early, which allowed for a nice little break. 

I dismissed the audience and welcomed them to enjoy some refreshments in the Fishbowl, and the entire auditorium cleared out. But this first break pretty much signaled the start of the DRAMA. Our intern that I attempted to console out of a meltdown the day before had sports practice in the morning which included taking team pictures... I honestly wondered whether she was going to show up at all. As of break time, she was still MIA and no one had even heard from her - and her research group was up next. Considering the rigidity of the schedule, there wasn't a whole lot that we could do to cover, and we certainly could not rearrange which group presented next. What seemed the best idea was to rearrange the order of the presentations within the group, which would hopefully buy enough time until her arrival. So as the audience filed back in from their break, I had to explain away a slight change in the printed program, and keep moving forward.

Well, to make matters worse, the other two interns from this lab not only ran short on their presentations, but had very few questions asked of them... So they were done after about 20 minutes in to their cumulative allotted time of 45 minutes for the entire lab - and their compatriot was still AWOL. So I dismissed the audience once again, apologizing for the fact that it was time for yet another break, this time for possibly upwards of 25 minutes (!). The mass sense of irritation was impossible to ignore. Since I was a main organizer for the day, and emcee of the event, this was absolutely mortifying. Insult was added to injury when a couple voices from the crowd yelled, "Press on!!!" and I was forced to make excuses in front of the entire audience, making us look even more disorganized. What was most frustrating about this particular happening was that the voices both originated from people from within CIS - people who should have known why the schedule was set up the way that it was, and why we could not simply move up the other presentations for theirs or anyone else's convenience. Why would you throw one of your own co-workers under the bus like that? Not to mention it was rude to yell out in that manner. Obviously I'm being a little over-sensitive, but it really added more tension to the day which could have been easily avoided.

Who invited them?

Up next: Did our AWOL intern ever show up??! Was the next break really going to be a completely useless 25 minutes?! You'll have to stay tuned to find out.

Big fish in a big pond

So after writing my last post (which may be one of my favorites, I've decided), I went out for what was supposed to be a little stroll so I could stretch my legs and enjoy the beautiful day outside (about 20º cooler than my move-in day, which if you'll recall was TEN YEARS AGO wah). Campus was abuzz with activity but at the same time seemed very quiet, probably because all the bumpin is really going on on the residential side. Sure enough as I got down towards the res halls I could hear the bass, smell the grills, and spot the pole sit, but instead of heading right into the belly of the beast I chickened out (probably because I didn't want to feel out of place, what with how OLD I am) and veered off the quarter mile down past the field house, and started heading back towards CIS. 

Turns out this detour was rather serendipitous - as I passed the ice rink I looked ahead and thought I recognized one of our incoming students with his mom. Sure enough, they had already spotted me (go figure, I mean, pink hair is so hard to spot from long distances) and were waving. HOW, out of the THOUSANDS of freshmen and their family on campus today, do I happen to run into one of our 15 freshmen? It turns out they had actually been looking for me, and were disappointed to find I was out of my office - and then just so happened to take the same walkway (not the main one) as I, so it ended up working out perfectly. 

We chatted excitedly for a bit, and then before you know it, along came ANOTHER parent of one of our freshmen - so he joined the conversation. And then ANOTHER freshman showed up - and then HIS mom appeared and joined. As if this didn't seem to be beating the odds enough, to top it all off along came another seemingly random guy, who as it turned out was actually the parent of the roommate of the first freshman I bumped into, and had already heard all about the pink haired girl. And this all happened during my random 2:15PM stroll off the beaten path...Again, I ask, how? It just goes to show how huge and how tiny RIT can be all at the same time. Pretty awesome.

Photographic evidence of the random rendezvous outside Ritter.

Anyways, we all had a great chat about RIT, Rochester, Charlotte and the LDR Char Pit, and local cuisine, as well as how excited the freshmen are to be here and how much they love it already. (I also remember parts of the conversation that included, "We really didn't want to like RIT, but then we came here and we knew it was the one!" - quote of the day right there. Oh, and it also included a few "Thank you"s, for the record.) The air is ripe will all kinds of excitement and anticipation for the new school year, and I can't help but be really excited for all of our incoming and returning students. Even if they do make me feel old.

And with today's freshmen move-in, it hits me: I'm OLD.

10 years ago I was a freshman moving into RIT, and now I feel really weird because if I think of the students who would have been moving in 10 years before I did, they would have been high school class of 1992 and those people are obviously OLD. So now that means that obviously I am OLD in the eyes of these freshmen. But instead of moving in as a freshmen during super old things like the height of grunge, the last year of having both the summer and winter Olympics, and using Windows 3.1 as the premier operating system, I came to RIT during things that seem pretty old to today's college freshmen like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera actually being popular, the emergence of MP3 players and the first iPod, and, well, the aftermath of 9/11, which really dominated all else at the time. When I was a freshman we all used AIM and livejournal and DC++ and played PS2 and wasted time with Homestar Runner... Now it's all Facebook/Twitter/txting and iPads and YouTube. TVs still had tubes and I'm pretty sure I brought a VCR with me; my dorm had a land line phone; my roommate used a desktop tower, NOT a laptop; and Zip drives were where it was at for high capacity storage (we didn't have thumb drives until I was a junior or senior, and man were they pricey). OMG... I'm OLD!!!!!! :*(****

My dorm room on move-in day... Just check out those state-of-the-art electronics.
My printer still used a serial port, and I had to install an ethernet jack card in my laptop. However, I did have a fancy brand new technology called a cordless optical mouse.

Meanwhile, a funny thing happened today on the way to the forum (better known as Facebook):

I love when randomly perfect juxtapositions appear in my newsfeed.

Intern Final Moments, Part 1: Wake up call!!!

By now my beloved summer interns have been gone for a couple days, so the dust is settling and I finally have the time and energy to recap our final days together. It felt like about 4 days worth of work happened in those last two days, hence why I haven't had a chance to sit down and put it all into words, and why I felt so drained until now. This is going to take a few blog posts, so I'll begin with Part 1...

The entire day Thursday was spent going through dry runs of everyone's final presentations. We encouraged all of the interns to be there the whole time so that they might benefit from hearing some of the advice and constructive criticism doled out to their peers. While this seemed like a good idea to us veterans used to these sorts of abuse, it came as a shock to many of the interns who were suddenly facing a hard reality that, oh crap, this is going to be taken seriously! I don't know why that came as such a surprise... You have been performing research on a college campus all summer, like you think you're not going to be held to some responsibilities that come with that? Many of the interns seem to forget that we're not merely giving them our work to do and paying them for it out of the kindness of our hearts... The point of the whole program is to give them real experience and to learn important lessons. This summer is meant to be a time of growth and learning, not just about Imaging Science but learning about performing real research, dealing with 40 hour/week schedules, behaving like an adult, working in teams, experiencing the rigor of college, and most importantly, learning more about themselves. I know several of our interns get that, but there are also times that it becomes blatantly obvious that many of them don't. And to me, the argument of "I'm only a high school intern" does not cut it, because you were chosen for this program because you represent some of the best of the best, and let's face it, in one year you'll be going off to college where this level of work will be regularly expected of you...

Anyways, I got off on a bit of a tangent there, sorry about that. Long story short, most of the interns were shocked and scared (check out their blogs, and you'll see). One intern had a straight up meltdown just from seeing how the other interns did and what feedback resulted (that was a fun new experience for me to try and make better...). Honestly, though, the feedback was NOT that harsh. Graphs were mislabeled or missing units or poorly scaled, data were included that didn't support any hypotheses or illustrate any points, works were not cited, images were not viewable, conclusions and/or background information were omitted... And this doesn't even cover powerpoint basics like, "Don't use too much text," or, "Don't read aloud what your slide says," or even, "Check your grammar"... Overall, really, it was a mess. Out of the 13 who practiced, I think there were only 3 or so that didn't receive any of the tougher constructive criticism (in fact they were practically in another league - those that did well hit it right out of the park). I know it hurts, but, sorry. None of what was said was overly harsh or undeserved. Now I think we must have some understanding for how Simon Cowell must feel (though I think he lacks any sympathy whatsoever).

Anyways, that was my entire afternoon right up until quittin time, except (much like the interns who then had lots of edits to make on their presentations) I had several hours worth of more work to do before the final presentations, which I ended up doing all night at home. Not to mention I was receiving last minute edited powerpoints all night long. Got to rally to make it to the finish line...

In retrospect, despite our constant reminders to work on their final presentations, it seems that most of the interns had to really struggle to get through their dry runs, and then had a lot of work to scramble around doing at the last minute before the final day. Part of me feels bad, and thinks that we should do more along the way - maybe do a half-way mini presentation, or require that stages of presentations be submitted every couple of weeks to ensure everyone is making progress. But at the same time, I don't feel any sympathy - we told them all summer long what to expect, plus we made initial presentations due a week ahead of time, so really there's no excuse. Background data and scope slides can be completed within 1 or 2 weeks of starting; experimental, weeks 3 and 4; data, weeks 5 and 6; and conclusions and future work can be put together in the final week leading up to the presentation. 

I suppose that we could lay out deadlines that require those parts be completed according to that schedule, but I don't really want to hold the interns' hands like that. They are on the verge of becoming college students, and they should be given more responsibilities and higher expectations. Scheduling and time management are important parts of that and things they need to learn how to do themselves without a recipe. But I could probably be convinced to change the dry runs to Wednesday next year, so that the interns have another day to make their edits instead of scrambling at the 11th hour (though on the other side of that coin, they should have been better prepared for the dry runs to begin with, and not needed that much extra time). I might also put some consideration into mid-way mini presentations, since that simultaneously presents an opportunity for the interns to learn more about what's going on in each other's labs.... Although that's yet another thing we encouraged them to do on their own all summer long, too.

Stay tuned - Intern Final Moments, Part 2 is up next...

Great, now I have that "Bittersweet Symphony" song stuck in my head.

I haven't written in a while because most of my time has been dominated by wrapping up everything with the summer intern program and getting all the interns ready for their final presentations - which were today. Everybody presented individually, so we had 3.5 hours worth of presentations (for which I was mistress of ceremonies), followed by a pizza lunch and viewing of videos submitted for the final Challenge (for which I was also "MC"). So... to say I'm exhausted is putting it lightly. I just don't have it in me to write a detailed blog entry yet... In the meantime, I've auto-edited and uploaded all of the pictures I took from today - so they will have to tell the stories for me until I have the energy to put into words all that happened yesterday and today (TGIF, because I probably need the whole weekend to recharge): Summer Intern Final Presentations

And, I'll share interns Christina and Henry's entries for the final challenge (a video summarizing the summer). They somewhat help to explain the bittersweet joy I feel now that our 7 weeks are over:

And for a real tear-jerker (by the end)...

 

:*/ 

Life lesson #254: Some setups just aren't really conducive.

Today I hosted a group of eleven 6-to-9 year olds from the Rochester Christian Daycare. You are probably thinking, "WHAT! Was she crazy?!" Yes, yes I was.

I won't get into detail about how this day came to be or what my mental state was throughout the planning process... Let's just say I was embarking on some charity work, and besides it's in everyone's best interests to get kids excited about opportunities in higher education (even if they ARE way too young to understand what that even means and will never remember that one awesome day they spent at the Center for Imaging Science at RIT*). Every little bit counts, right? Anything that can be done to keep kids on the right track to a successful future should have every effort made to come to fruition. And, I'll try anything once. And so, I agreed to give these kids a fun day.

*Then again, maybe they will. One of the kids is already convinced she is going to Nazareth for college - reason being, she saw a stage production of Frog & Toad there and really liked it. (Admittedly, I have always loved Frog and Toad, too - so I can understand her logic.)

Luckily, I had a lot of help today - I can always count on Bob to be there (thank goodness), and I promised a free lunch to any interns who had some spare time and were willing to assist (and 4 of them actually fell for it!

Don't they look excited? Buck up, gals!

...j/k! THANK YOU Cassie, Olivia, Kaila, and Sadie!!!!!). 

We started off with a color spinners activity, where the kids could color in wedges on a circle cut out of a paper plate. We adults would then tape them to a cardboard disc and punch holes in the disc to thread through some string. The kids could then hold either end of the string and wind up the spinner to see how the colors combine as the string unwinds and the disc spins.  

I wove in some lessons about color: how color works, how we perceive it, how colors combine, etc. Listening to me talk wasn't as much fun as doing the actual spinning, though, so we moved on to the next activity.

For the "Colors Change Appearance" activity, the kids started out by drawing either a red or a green square on a piece of paper. They then had to stare at it for 1 whole minute, after which they would look away to a white piece of paper and tell me what they could see.

No, they're not sleeping - they are starting intently. The only periods of complete silence we got all day.

We recorded their observations, and then the kids with red squares switched with the kids who had green squares, and we repeated the experiment. This whole process was pretty interesting - some kids were very, very slow at coloring and had to have their drawings be JUST RIGHT. Other kids could not sit still long enough to stare at a square for 60 seconds. Other kids could sit still but stared directly at me and not at their square. And then once the minute was up and they were looking at the white sheet, they whined about not being able to see anything... and when I told them it was because they didn't stare at the square, they vehemently denied it, even though I watched them and knew they weren't following directions. Ah, the joys of working with children. Anyways, eventually we figured out that staring at green makes you see red, and vice versa, and I taught the kids about opposites and complementary colors. We had another color appearance activity that we tried which involved drawing three squares of the same color and then drawing squares of other colors around them, but the kids were getting antsy and not really following along anymore so we decided to get ready to go for lunch. 

The kids were teamed up in pairs and each pair was given a single-use camera that they were encouraged to take pictures with. And with that, we were off to lunch.

Taking pictures in the quad.

The kids were LOVING the cameras.

Howdy, neighb- hey wait, how did Jeff and Bo get there?

Lunchin' in Global Village.

A rare moment with all the kids actually sitting down.

A picture with everyone in front of the fountain, and then it's off for the mini campus tour!

I've never seen this many people interested in the Global Collaboration Grid.

Even something as simple as walking across a bridge is exciting when the average age is 7.

On the other hand, clean rooms are exciting at any age.

We were going to take a picture with the Formula car, but the kids couldn't keep their hands off it, so we took the picture from outside instead.

Apparently the kids needed some time to work off some excess energy, so they started running laps around the Infinity Loop. Then they needed refreshment.

After we got back from our little outdoor adventure, it was time to get started on the camera disassembly. Each of the pairs of kids was given an adult to work with to do all the dangerous stuff, as I led them through the procedure. This was pretty slow going, but it was worth it for the exciting part:

The kids had a great time with this, and had a lot of fun playing with all the parts of the camera once it was safe to do so. Most of the kids even wanted to take the parts home to play with further, which is cool.

With limited time left, we had to squeeze in play time with the FLIR. The daycare instructor had mentioned ice cream as a treat earlier in the day so after lunch I went into Crossroads and bought some, knowing it would double as a fun experiment with the FLIR.

Doesn't ice cream look delicious in the thermal infrared?

The kids had a BLAST drawing on themselves with ice.

The garbage bag trick is always a fun one. Here she was holding up fingers for us to count.

And the good ol' glass trick. OooOoOoOoo

The kids practically had a riot during this exercise, they loved it so much. There was screaming and hysterical laughter for a good 15 minutes straight - I can only imagine what the folks in the nearby offices were thinking (if any of you are reading this: I am SO sorry.). Each of the kids then got their picture taken and printed out for them to take home with them. The FLIR was definitely a great high point to end the day on, and all the kids left excited and happy. Especially excited.

All in all, this was a good day - The kids obviously had a lot of fun, and hopefully they even learned a little something. I heard some of the kids exclaiming that they would definitely be coming to RIT for college - we'll see whether they really follow through, in only about a decade or so ;-). As for me, I am ending my day with a headache and a heavy sigh of relief... Am I glad I did it? Yes. Will I do something like this again? Probably not (sorry!). Has this taught me how to say "no" to events that don't really jive well with what we do here? Hopefully. Will I ever have children of my own? Remains to be seen...

For a dose of honesty you won't get anywhere else: 
Cassie's blog from today
Kaila's blog from today