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!