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 ;-)