ImagingRIT - oh wait, I mean ImagineRIT

Am I the only person so accustomed to typing "Imaging" that I can't spell "Imagine" anymore? Maybe? Oh well.

Unless you live under a rock, you probably know that ImagineRIT was Saturday!!! (And hopefully, if you live in Rochester, you were there - and if not, WHY THE HECK NOT?!?!) Seeing as how this was the 5th year for the event, everyone should hopefully know what it is by now so that I don't have to get in to a whole bunch of background. Basically ImagineRIT is like one great big huge sci-tech-art fair open house with all kinds of exhibits, most of them student projects, on display, all free and open to the public. And there is food and music and live entertainment... It is kind of a big deal, and if you didn't know this already, then you should probably just leave my blog right now because you must be lost. 

Blue sky, sun light... Hey wait, what's that? Why, it's a weather balloon with cameras strapped to it!

Anyways, the best of RIT was on display, the weather was beautiful, and let's face it I was there, so there's no wonder we had a record 35,000 attendees!!! If you have ever been to Imagine then you know how big and overwhelming it is, so I am not even going to try to summarize in a blog post. But, you can see some of the day's happenings as they happened over on the CIS Twitter feed as well as my own twitter (which you may have noticed suddenly come into existence just a few days ago), since I was busy running around all day keeping them both updated. I tried to hit up as many of the CIS-related booths as possible and tweet pictures of them (one example being the weather balloon above), so don't let all my walking and effort go to waste - check it out! 

So much Imaging Science going on in this picture.
Craniofacial Phenotyper structured light face scanner - built by imsci FRESHMEN.

Social media butterfly was just one of the hats I wore on Saturday, as well as auxiliary freshman support/booth greeter, traveling CIS rep, alumni relations person, summer internship coordinator lady, recruiter, nerd in last place, and general pal to the gazillion friends and colleagues past and present that I ran into throughout the day. Which, while I'm on the topic, holy crap I had no idea how many people I know!!! Spend almost 10 years at RIT as a student, alumnus, and staff person, and you'd be surprised how many people you are connected with. I ran into old friends, new colleagues, kids I had just presented to the day before (!!!!!), interns from last year, interns for this year, other intern applicants, accepted students for fall, Staff Council members, senior administrators.... the list goes on and on. Things really got ridiculous when even my dad was getting spotted by people he used to work with (he's been retired about 8 years). The whole day was non stop, "Hey!!!! How ya doin?!" Who needs reunions anymore? It was awesome.

Obligatory picture proving I was there.
Also a fair illustration of the most excellent coincidental coordination of my purple chunk of hair with the shirts designed by the freshmen. holla

Some major highlights of my day included:

• Having a conversation with some of the Greece Apollo kids on twitter (It's working!!!)
• Seeing said Greece Apollo kids actually come visit!
• ImSci swag machine
• Meeting/catching up with students' parents (no wonder so many of them are so awesome)
• Catching up with Steve Schultz & family (and getting a head start on recruiting the next generation of Imaging Scientists) 
• Seeing all the amazing exhibits across campus - one of my favs was the under the sea balloon world, even though it was kinda silly. It was way cool.
• Strolling around campus with my parents!
• & finding my brother's brick on the Legacy Walk, which was just installed last Thursday.

Some lowlights:

• Photo Tech Science stealing imsci thunder and making things uber confusing in the process (sorry to be uncooperative, but this really was upsetting to me, sorry)
• Finding a poster that basically rips off one I already made??!? THEY EVEN USE THE SAME FONT.
• Strollers. SO. MANY. STROLLERS.
• Losing my voice again, aw man! And I had just finally gotten it back!

But those lowlights hardly count, I merely posted them here for posterity.

Oh man, ImagineRIT was so awesome!!! Even just thinking back to it to write this post is getting me all excited again. Good thing I have next year to look forward to. Hope you'll be joining us May 4, 2013! (The awesomeness of this blog post is enough to convince you you want to go, right?)