'Tis the season to snowball

You may or may not be aware of some changes that have happened in CIS in the past 6 months. The Munsell Color Science Lab, previously housed under the umbrella of CIS, has split off and become their own lab that reports directly to the College of Science dean. In many ways, things have simultaneously changed while staying exactly the same. But anyways, functionally this meant that some of my promotional materials were now inaccurate, most notably the back panels on the brochures that include language about offering degrees in Color Science. I did not make any immediate updates at the time of the change, but now that my supply of 9-month-old undergraduate brochures is running low, it is time to make any edits before ordering more.

What started out as a seemingly simple update has since evolved into a rather significant (at least in terms of effort, if not appearance) revamp. After updating the language about CIS and switching out the HDR image on the cover, I also cleaned up some wording here and there, changed the "Features of a large university" bullet points, and updated/removed/added some logos of companies who hire Imaging Scientists. In addition to the content updates, I changed some formatting, most notably changing the ">" arrows to ▶ , decreasing font sizes, and increasing spacing. Lastly, it was suggested that I update the color scheme to more closely reflect the new website we will have soon, which makes a lot of sense. It was a little complicated to figure out what colors to use, how to make it all fit together while remaining distinguishable, and, most importantly, how to make it look good. Although that was tricky, I am happy to say that the result is most definitely an improvement - Check it out! 

Meanwhile, since the point of the brochure is to whet someone's appetite enough to go check out the full online information booklet/slideshow, it became clear that that would need modification, too (not to mention that the new semester curriculum has already changed since I made the slideshow just one year ago, so the class names needed to be fixed). So, first I had to change the slide backgrounds to reflect the new color scheme (and new image that replaces the HDR one), and then I had to go through and change the text formatting to coordinate/be legible. There was a bit of time-consuming trial-and-error involved, but I think the end result is good. Luckily there wasn't a lot of content to change in this one, besides the course names, so that part was pretty simple. 

But of course, nothing is ever that easy - of course the online implementation of the booklet uses JavaScript and exported images of the slides, which all needed replacing. And since I removed a slide, the actual code needed editing as well. What was probably the most annoying part of this process was the fact that I changed my Windows system settings so that PowerPoint exports images at a very high resolution, so after exporting images of all the sides I had to also resize each and every one of them. Thankfully I set up a batch process in Photoshop to do the monkey work for me. After loading the new images and updated code to the server, the new online booklet is off and running. View it here!

ImSci info booklet cover with the new color scheme. Snazzy, eh?

Now all that's left to do (I think...) is update the version on the USB drive we hand out to prospective students. But, of course with that change, I should also update the formatting of the interface to coordinate, which is another whole ball of wax - or, I guess to be more seasonally appropriate, snow. One thing leads to another, to another, to another, and the snowball grows ever bigger...     

CIS New Website SPOILERS

Since I last discussed the new CIS website, the designers have been hard at work creating the mockup pages that would represent their proposed look and feel of the new site. I do not envy them at all for this task, as I have been told we are giving them the most complicated, detailed, and extensive website that they have yet had to build, yet we were somewhat vague on how exactly we wanted it to look. As the manager of this whole web redesign project on our end, I got a sneak peek at the new CIS website mockups a couple weeks ago - and whooo eeee are they great!!! Still, they needed a little modification before going before the larger web committee - wait, what committee?

Okay, time out. Shortly after being shown the mockups, it became clear that there were multiple people in CIS that should be at the table when it comes to providing feedback regarding design, navigation, and content. Thus far I have served as the main contact to determine general guidelines, content, layout, and a sitemap, but as we progress in the project my role will shift to overseeing a committee of diverse members that represent our various audiences here in CIS. Which really means: I will still be doing most of the work on our end, while the Wallace Center does the work on their end, but the committee will provide valuable feedback, especially in areas where I am not an expert (research groups, grad programs, etc). So, I assembled a group that includes the Director, Associate Director, Grad Program Coordinator, Ugrad Coordinator, our database manager, a couple students, and a couple other members who I know are deeply involved with students and research to comprise the CIS Web Committee. And once I got our schedules coordinated, I was able to squeeze in a meeting before break to review the updated mockups, which brings us to yesterday -

- THE BIG REVEAL! The whole committee ventured to the Wallace Center to be presented the mockups along with some explanations and descriptions of features. We were shown seven sample pages: 2 examples of the front page layout; the News database; an example news article (complete with tags!); the research landing page; an example research lab page; and two examples illustrating the new way of listing group publications on research pages, which employs both accordions and tabbed pages (pretty impressive, and apparently a new method of display not attempted before, at least not by these designers). There is no actual functioning website yet, these were merely images of layouts meant to represent what the website could look like and what features it will include.

Since I have been in on it all along I mostly stayed in the back and observed everyone else's reactions - and they were all great! The mockups were a smashing success, and the presentation led to some valuable discussions about what was shown and how to proceed. With only very slight additions/modifications, the whole committee gave their blessing - WOO HOO! This is a major step in the overall new website process.

So, what happens next? Basically, I have to keep meeting with the Wallace Center to finalize the site maps and navigation so that they can start building the site for real. As I mentioned before this is a very long process, which I would say at this point we are about half way through. Once that's completed, I will reconvene the committee so that we can make sure all our bases are covered content-wise.

Well the title of this blog post promises spoilers, so I will tease you with this: the new website employs a color scheme of gray tones and orange. The front page contains practically all of the information it currently does, but somehow does it in a really beautiful manner. I realize this isn't a whole lot to go on, so here is a tiny-size, blurred out screen shot of what it looks like:

Sorry, that's the best I can do for now; you'll just have to wait to see more! I have to retain some exclusive benefit for those of us putting in all the work...

"Okay, so there's the RIT website... Now show us your project."

Remember how I was building an undergraduate recruitment webpage for a class project, and then the next project required building upon that page? Well, that next project is now done - and even besides my desire to use my blog to virtually sing through the mountains about the fact that I am all done for this semester (that still feels weird to say), I figure it is appropriate to post a link to the page here since it is, in fact, incredibly relevant. And, with any luck, it will actually go live as part of the CIS website soon! So without further ado...

Bethany's next class project: An expanded look at Imaging Science at RIT

I put a lot of really hard work into trying to make a website that was clean, professional, and presented a lot of information without overwhelming the user. I used JavaScript to create sub-menus that separate each page's information into chunks that are visible only one at a time (I think this is pretty cool and surprisingly sophisticated for what I thought I was capable of). And, I like the overall look and feel. Obviously I'm no professional design team, but I am pretty darn proud of what I've learned and accomplished over a single semester. I hope you like it. (At least my professor does... the title of this post is actually what he said when I presented my project in class!)

As always, if you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to comment!

Introducing the Imaging Hall of Fame Induction Class of 2013

Last night was the Imaging Hall of Fame (cue fanfare)! So, who were this year's honorees? Luckily for you, I've updated our Imaging Hall of Fame webpage to include the etchings and biographies for this year's three honorees: Heilmeier, Ng, and Toepler.

Actually, I've created a new PDF format for the profiles, so that we aren't making new webpage nodes for every inductee; this is partially in preparation for the new website. When I have a chance I will have to go through all the previous inductees and turn their profiles into PDFs, as well... eventually...

Anyways, you can also check the seminars website in the next few days for a recording of the entire ceremony and keynote. It is worth a watch, particularly because we had one of the inductees, Dr. Ren Ng, present to accept a duplicate of his plaque which now hangs in the Hall of Fame!

Dr. Ng accepts his Hall of Fame plaque. (Photo by A. Sue Weisler)

This was only the second time we've had an honoree present for their induction (Steve Sasson last year being the other time), so that was pretty exciting. He flew all the way from California to join us! Actually, we are especially lucky that he made it, because of course there had to be a rather significant storm this week to disrupt everybody's travel. Flight cancellations affected both Dr. Ng and our keynote speaker Dr. Koonin; thankfully, they both made it in time for the big event (phew!), though at the expense of their scheduled agendas.

Oh, and another reason to watch the video? Apparently there was a rather comical interruption about half way through the keynote presenation (I unfortunately was not present because I had to leave early in order to set up for the after party). Fun fact #1: did you know the podium in the auditorium has a telephone in it? Neither did we, until it started ringing! Which brings us to fun fact #2: Did you know that whatever is on the podium phone goes out over the auditorium speakers? Once again, neither did we! Joe attempted to pick up the receiver to make the ringing stop, and some robocall came on that apparently related to surveillance - how appropriate, given the keynote presentation all about big data. Then it was apparently impossible to get the phone to actually hang up. Anyway, that's the best I can describe it since I wasn't there, but when the video is posted, fast forward to around 38 min to see it all go down.

Meanwhile, I'm guessing the snow had a negative impact on our audience as well, because both the ceremony and the reception were more lightly attended than we had anticipated. In fact, a bunch of the people who were at the ceremony and registered for the after party did not actually attend. On top of the weather, today was the last class day of the semester - tomorrow is a "reading day" and then finals start on Friday, so that may have impacted people's availability too (particularly students). Thankfully, enough other people arrived at the after party to make up for those who had RSVP'd and did not actually show up, so we still had a relatively sizable crowd of around 30 people (not bad, but not bumpin like last year). Although I was somewhat disappointed by the turnout, we had a great after party. Both Dr. Koonin and Dr. Ng attended, so there were opportunities to talk with them (actually a benefit of a smaller crowd). Dr. Ng was really nice and had some great insight into innovating in the imaging industry, and the roles our students can play in that. (I'm hoping we can get him to be our keynote speaker next year.) And, it's always nice to get out of the office and socialize in a different way with the folks you see every day.

View some pictures from the Hall of Fame ceremony and after party here!

Despite some of the challenges (late promotion; flight cancellations; snowy conditions; new semester schedule), we were still able to pull off a pretty darn excellent Hall of Fame ceremony and after party. I think we can feel proud of how everything went, and confident in our ability to make events such as these go smoothly even in the face of complications. However, the fact that so many complications arose leads me to wonder whether we should think about changing the timing of next year's Hall of Fame. At the very least, I think we should avoid the night before reading day in the future. I think we might also save ourselves some hassle if we avoid winter travel. Some things to think about...

Hey, you never know

Today was the last of RIT's Fall Open Houses. On the whole, our Open House attendance this year has been abysmal - one or two here or there, or none. Granted, the College of Science as a whole has not gotten large numbers, and ImSci never gets a whole lot, but this is really low. On par for the course, we had two signed up for today, and only one showed. Disappointing as that may sound, we were in for a nice surprise - this kid was great!

As it turns out, this student actually participated in the STEP Saturday NOVA Academy that I was a part of this past January. He actually was not in my group, but one of the others; and he thought the presentation my group did on the last day was SO cool, that he became interested in Imaging Science! Whaaaaa! Carl was giving him a tour of the building when I globbed on, and it was clear that this student was really interested. (It didn't hurt that Carl was giving a particularly interesting tour.) After not too long, we had already piqued his interest and answered all his questions. It just so happens that he has actually already applied to RIT for Imaging Science, he is just waiting to hear from Admissions - woo hoo! So, I made sure I supplied him with a tshirt. Another cool thing is that his brother went to RIT for some type of engineering, and has already graduated and gotten a job - nice family connection. So, I think we have a pretty good chance of getting this kid, which would be fantastic because I could tell that he was really into it. Yeah!

Later in the afternoon was the "college fair" (I'm not sure what it's actually called, but it is basically a college fair) where all of RIT's colleges get tables staffed by representatives for each program. This is a new thing for RIT Open Houses this year, taking the place of a second academic program meeting. I think this is a step in the right direction, because it allows undecided students to browse around and look into multiple other majors besides the one they signed up for. This is an important opportunity for Imaging Science, since so few students know about us to sign up for us in the first place. Unfortunately (in my opinion), the fair is organized according to college - so, there may be a student that is perfect for the Imaging Science program, but they're off at the engineering or applied science & technology or computing or arts tables. If it were up to me, I would organize clusters by similar interests rather than by the somewhat-arbitrary college structure that exists for administrative (and political?) purposes - but, that's just me. No need to step up on my soap box right now.

At any rate, this event would be a good opportunity for us - if anyone came. I couldn't believe how few prospective students came through - probably fewer than 25? It was really quite a small number, and of that number the amount that came over to the College of Science could be counted on one hand. Joe started dragging people out of the general no-man's-land in the center of the room to make them sit down and watch our video about the freshmen class (we had a nice little "viewing gallery" set up with a stool and a desk). Faculty/staff were mostly talking to each other to pass the time.

There was one bright spot, though - one prospective student had heard of Imaging Science and wanted to know more. I read from his name tag that he was from Honeoye Falls, so I started asking questions about HF-L, but it turns out he actually goes to R-H - ah, my alma mater! Not only that, but his dad, who happens to work at Xerox, is friends with my parents' neighbors across the street (which is particularly noteworthy because very few people live out there, and the people that do don't exactly socialize; it's rural living, not like neighborhoods). Small world! Anyway, this student was interested in Imaging Science AND physics AND mechanical engineering, so he's trying to figure out how he can best create the ultimate trifecta of the three. I was able to have a nice conversation with him, and gave him one of our brochures and USB drives to keep. Hopefully he ends up connected with us to some degree!

The rest of the time at the "fair" was predictably slow. Towards the end it looked like we were going to get a surge of traffic, but it turned out to be a wave of people looking for the financial aid presentation across the hall (I called that one). Well, at least we got one student to watch the video and I was able to give away a couple brochures. You never know what might come out of it - after all, I got the surprise of having attracted the student from STEP!

And not a moment too soon

I told you to stay tuned, and now here it is: confirmation of our speaker, and an abstract and bio posted on our seminars website! With less than a week to go before the Hall of Fame, I hope this is enough time to promote successfully and get RSVPs on the event page. Thankfully I sent out that link last Wednesday in an effort to get people signed up, even in the absence of any information about our keynote... But with that being the day before Thanksgiving, and people's inherent nature to put things off to the last minute, we don't have too many people signed up yet.

Here's a new teaser that should get people interested, though: one of last year's inductees, Steve Sasson, will be attending, as will one of this year's inductees!!! Who will it be? Well, you'll just have to wait until next Wednesday to find out...

Fall Imaging Connection now available!

The latest issue of the CIS Imaging Connection Newsletter is available! (Finally, I am back on schedule...)

Highlights in this issue include:

• New CIS Faculty 
• Xerox 75th Anniversary 
• First Annual ImSci Immersion 
• ROAR Day 
• Our latest video about the Freshmen class

...and more! Check it out!

Meanwhile, I'm hoping to someday soon update the formatting to be true HTML and CSS (thanks to all my newly acquired official skills learned in the class I'm taking this semester). Hopefully the intersession will allow me a chance to develop a refreshed look in time for the winter edition!

Save the Date: 8th Annual Imaging Hall of Fame

I realize this is a bit late for a Save the Date, but nonetheless: Announcing....

So, why the delay? Well, I promise you it's not me being lazy (after all, how hard is it to simply update the poster I use every year?). The secret truth is, we're not sure whether our scheduled keynote speaker is actually going to make it or not. I had been waiting to put out posters due to lack of keynote presentation info, but at this point, I needed to get SOMETHING out there - so I made a Save the Date announcement that will just have to hold us over until we get the rest of the information we normally use for promotions. So for now, mark your calendar on December 11th (back to our regular schedule of the last seminar of the calendar year), and stay tuned!

And presenting my sidekick, Sr. Laboratory Engineer Matt!

Today was Palmyra-Macedon's 8-9-10 Career Day, and what made this event different for me was that I got to share the stage with my husband (and fellow Imaging Scientist) Matt! The format of the day was to have professionals present in groupings of similar careers. Imaging Science is so unique, however, that there wasn't really going to be anyone for me to share the spotlight with - which would have been okay, actually, but I thought it might be fun and more interesting if I upped the ante a little. I asked Matt whether he would be willing to go and talk about his job as a Sr. Lab Engineer at the UR Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and although he was a little nervous, he agreed. (I knew he'd do just fine, though - he talks about LLE all the time!)

I made us a Powerpoint presentation that we polished up last night but we also brought along the FLIR to add in a little interactive component (boy was it nice to have someone there to help me carry equipment!). We were given access to the classroom computer which allowed us to present our Powerpoint using the Smartboard, but we brought a separate projector for the FLIR (which was good thinking, because we wouldn't have been able to connect it up to the classroom projector). I wish I had remembered from my past presentations at Pal-Mac that their outlets are a little lacking (ah, yes, now I remember - I had several surge strips daisy chained together last time - sshhhhh), but we made do with what we had.

Our Powerpoint was basically an overview of Imaging Science, with our intertwined stories of how we got into it and what our experiences have been, what our subsequent careers are, and concluding with a brief demo of the FLIR. It was going to be tricky though, because the sessions were only 40 minutes, and that's a lot of material to cover. I was especially unsure what to expect since I was sharing presenting duties for the first time, and Matt admits he doesn't have a lot of practice. Still, I knew that no matter what, we'd be fine.

It's a good thing I went in with such confidence, because what do you know but our presentation froze half way through the first session. I was more glad than ever that we bothered to lug in and set up the FLIR, because while Matt fixed the classroom computer I started the demo. Although in the end it meant that our presentation was interrupted, and we didn't get to finish it, it was useful for me to see how the overall flow was impacted by breaking up the presentation with the FLIR. Despite our awkward flubs, the students were good sports and were well engaged (especially with the FLIR, of course). We did get the presentation back up and running, but like I said, we didn't have time to go over the remainder of it in as much detail as we had intended.

For session two, we sped up our delivery of the Powerpoint to make up for time constraints. Even so, we definitely hit our groove after having gotten the first one out of the way. Our presentation had a nice back-and-forth with the two of us, and told a nice story (if I do say so myself). Matt did a really great job presenting and I was proud to share with him. However, I think it was a disadvantage to put the FLIR off until the end. Just as the students were loosening up with us, our time was suddenly over. It even worked out perfectly that the student I picked to go in front of the camera because he was wearing glasses, was also wearing a knit cap, which threw the other students off on a red herring. Ha-HA! Although we got through all of our presentation and were able to spend a few minutes with the camera, ultimately we ran out of time.

It's nice that we only had two sessions, because even after that I am totally exhausted. Though, more opportunities would have been welcome too, especially since Matt and I were getting our routine down. Overall, I think it went really well. The students were all really well behaved (even without other adult supervision present! Impressive!), attentive, and engaged. I even had a number of them come up to me after it was time to leave to make sure they got brochures to take home. In the end, I'm very happy with how the event went, and I would definitely do it again (and hopefully convince Matt to join me again, too).

I would change the flow of the presentation, though - I would probably change the order to be ImSci overview, career info, FLIR demo, and then the rest of our backstories. I had thought about doing it that way (especially because I normally put the demo in the middle, for loosening-up reasons stated previously), but because of the career-focus (whereas my presentations are usually more science-lesson oriented) I decided to do something a little different. Now I know better, but even so I think things went really well and I'm glad I tried it the way I did. Here's hoping we get to do this again in the future so I can put my lessons learned to good use!

I wish I had a corresponding image for today - especially because Matt was up there with me - but unfortunately we were too busy (either presenting, or fixing the computer) and there weren't teachers in the room with us, so we didn't get any pictures :-(

Being a scientist is all about experimentation, right?

You may recall that when I posted about my efforts to redesign the summer intern application, I vaguely mentioned that there would have to be some changes to the program moving forward in order for it to continue. Well, I am happy to say that my work towards a new application was not done in vain, as the program will continue next year. However, in 2014, all intern positions will be unpaid.

Yes, that's right - unpaid. I'm sure this will not be a popular change. I'll readily admit that the opportunity to receive a salary definitely influenced my interest back when I applied to be an intern. This internship was my first job, my first responsibility, my first time clock, my first income. It was a major turning point in my life that influenced my entire education and career path. And I'm not alone in that.

Be that as it may, our current situation simply does not afford the luxury of monetary compensation this year. RIT is undergoing cost containment, and budgets are tight. Labs can't help support the program with anything more than the work involved with taking in an intern. Industry sponsorship was waned to a point where we can only cover the costs of a single intern - and for the past few years, we have around 14 interns per cohort. When you consider that the price of a single intern is around $3,000 (including administrative costs), times fourteen, that is a significant investment. Granted, if we get even just one student enrolling in Imaging Science as a result of their experience in the intern program (and for the past few years we've been getting more than one), the return on investment easily makes it all worth it. But, to be perfectly honest - we just can't do it on our own anymore.

So, for 2014, we'll be asking interns to volunteer their time. This isn't to say they won't still be rewarded for all their hard work. Even though they won't get a salary, they will still get to work in real research labs, interact with college students and professors, gain significant skills and experience, participate in professional development activities, go on field trips, and meet students from other schools who have similar interests. We'll also provide interns with letters of recommendation, and we're still looking into the possibility of offering some additional form of compensation (though I'm unsure at this point what form that may take). These are all pretty significant benefits, especially in a world where competition among applicants, be it for college or for jobs, is ever-increasing.

Overall I feel pretty conflicted about the whole thing. I am afraid that we will miss out on some really good students. But then again, there are a lot of really good students. Just look at the massive applicant pool we had last year - there are way more deserving students out there than we have positions to accommodate them. Not to mention, the demand was getting out of control to handle. I suppose a few fewer applications wouldn't be such a bad thing... Also, there are still so many benefits to participating even without money. I would hope that if a student is passionate about getting this kind of experience, that they could overlook the lack of salary. Maybe this will automatically filter out those students who were looking at our internship as an opportunity to score some cash while beefing up their resume to go elsewhere, and we'll only get those who are genuinely interested in being here. But let's get real for a minute - there are a lot of people feeling strapped for cash, and it may not be realistic to expect that they could devote 40 hours a week to us when they could be spending that time making bank.

One could argue that this is unfair, while another could argue that we're under no obligation to offer the program at all. I think it is pretty easy to see both sides of the issue, but I find it extremely difficult to sort out my feelings about it all, especially because the program has had such an impact on me personally. But I suppose when it comes down to it, it really doesn't matter what I feel, because the bottom line is that we don't have a choice. I guess we'll just have to see how it all plays out.

The results are in! How loud did we ROAR?

Remember the exciting presumed-success that was ROAR Day 2013? Well, the numbers are in - and I can indeed confirm that ROAR Day was a huge success for our Microgrant, Major Impact Challenge!!!

• ROAR Day student, faculty and staff gifts/pledges to the CIS Student Microgrants Fund totaled over $3,000
• Based on the ROAR Day matching gift for student, faculty and staff gifts (offered by the team of five administrators who matched gifts $5-$50), the fund will receive an additional $1,780
• 35 Faculty/Staff participated, which is over 50%, thereby reaching our participation goal and earning Stefi's personal match! (We also had 16 students participate!)
• To date, the total potential money raised for the fund, including gifts/pledges, both matching gift challenges, and Stefi's match, amounts to $9,324!

This is incredibly exciting!!! But we aren't off the hook yet - the challenge still isn't over. We still have some room to maximize Stefi's match limit of $5,000 before the Challenge ends in February. But, at least we already have two major successes under our belt: faculty/staff participation, and a huge surge of generosity benefiting our student microgrant program! No matter what the final tally, we are already winners. Yeah!

Has it really been three months already?

It's hard to believe, but it's that time again! 

Our second Staff Council Block 6 Block Party is set for one week from today. Unfortunately I won't be there until 5, since I have class :-( Even so, come on out to blow off steam and enjoy some fall treats!

Finally, a student willing to build a CIS website for their project.

PSYCH - that "student" is me! Right now I am in a class provided by RIT's IT department all about web technologies. For our second assignment, we had to build a multi-page website with certain criteria (menus, etc) from scratch using HTML and CSS. I chose to build a site about the imsci undergraduate program aimed specifically at prospective students and their parents. This is both something I am very familiar with and something I have an actual professional need for, so it seemed like a good choice. Although we have a lot of web content that can be used by prospective students to learn more about Imaging Science, we don't necessarily have anything right now specifically written for that audience with an explicitly clear navigation path; rather, much of our content skirts a line between current and prospective students. I even have print material for prospective students that isn't necessarily available online. So, I thought it would be a good idea to take a stab at creating a very segment-specific website. After all, if it ended up being redundant in CIS's eyes, there's nothing saying we have to use it, but it will fulfill my project either way.

So anyways, without further ado, here is the "finished" page I am submitted for my project. I welcome any input you have (please leave in comments)! Please bear in mind, although this is "complete" in terms of project requirements, this is not a page I would go live with quite yet. I would add more images, some more pages, and probably a secondary menu - but, that's for our next project. We were told that Project 3 actually builds upon Project 2, so I wanted to make sure that I wasn't too exhaustive so that I still have something left to do. With that in mind, suggestions are very welcome!

Bethany's class project: Imaging Science at RIT

Let's hope this goes better than the healthcare.gov launch...

As a follow-up to my planning for a new intern application, I have made quite a bit of progress on getting the process online. First and foremost, I developed an online application using Google Forms to take the place of the applicant information sheet and short answer questions. I have also put together a checklist with instructions on what materials are required and how they should be submitted.

I think these are pretty solid, but I also expect there will be some hitches. For instance, we are requiring that all e-mailed components (essay, lab report, recommendation letters) be in PDF format. I would not be surprised at all if that causes some issues, as I'm sure some applicants will disregard that requirement or perhaps won't have access to software that can create PDFs (which is a lame excuse, because there are most certainly free resources available, not to mention libraries). I am also not 100% confident with the Google Form; although I think it is set up very well (if I do say so myself), there could be some unforeseen technical difficulties, or perhaps applicants will want to save their progress along the way so that they may come back to it later (this is not currently an option).

But for every potential hiccup I think of, I can think of multiple solutions, so I should hope that our applicants can figure it out for themselves. After all, independence and problem solving skills are critical to being successful in the intern program; so if an applicant can't even figure out the application, that doesn't bode well for their chances of survival here anyway (sorry to be so blunt). Still, I expect I'll receive phone calls from confused/concerned/overinvolved parents, which I will do my best to address.

Speaking of addressing concerns, this past year's application due date met with some anxiety since it was the Friday after students returned from February break. If they hadn't already asked their schools and teachers for transcripts and letters of recommendation, they were finding it difficult to get them submitted on time. Naturally, my initial reaction is, "Applications have been available for nearly 2 months - you should have started before February Break," but that doesn't get me anywhere in the Nice department. (Note, this due date was set in reaction to 2012's due date being a week earlier and too close to February break; so apparently if it isn't one excuse for procrastinating, it's another.) So, this year I made the due date even ANOTHER week later, and we'll see how that goes. I may learn that there's just no pleasing anybody, but with any hope this later due date will cut down on frantic phone calls.

Anyways, all of this work on the intern program application has caused a new concern to arise: how CIS will even be able to support the program next year. I can't say too much about this yet as we have yet to discuss it in detail or organize a plan on how to proceed... I can only say that there will be some changes coming to how we offer the internship program. Stay tuned...

Meanwhile, if you have any helpful feedback on the new application form and checklist, please comment! Perhaps there are some glaring issues I have overlooked, or some wording is confusing. Constructive criticism is welcome!

Happy Anniversary, Xerography!

It was just brought to our attention that Tuesday marks the 75th anniversary of Chester F. Carlson's invention of xerography! (Hello, why wasn't anyone paying attention? We are the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science...) Anyways, better late than never, I quickly made up a banner that will hang in the building:

Also, we were able to get DVDs of locally-produced documentaries about Chester F. Carlson and Xerox, so we will be showing one of them during our normal seminar time slot:

It's not much, but at least we are doing something to celebrate the anniversary of this momentous breakthrough!

Turn on, tune in

Right around a year and a half ago I took control of the screen downstairs in the lobby so that it would display a slideshow of various CIS media - videos, announcements, seminars, important dates, etc. Over that time I have added content and kept it up to date, but it was becoming an arduous process since the method to remotely take control of the desktop was clunky and laggy. Content was updated more slowly than it should have been, and seminar announcements went the wayside. Well, I am happy to announce that thanks to some really serious help from Carl and Phil Salvaggio, we now have a new and improved kiosk!

Actually, I suppose the user experience will be more or less exactly the same. But my process for uploading content has now greatly improved, so the display will now include more timely information, as well as the return of important dates and seminar announcements (so long as the speakers actually send me their info... but that's another story.). I'll have to get back into the groove of remembering to add new content, but expect to see some good (new!) stuff to start appearing on the screen at any time. Don't just walk by assuming it's the same old things you've seen before!

Look who's back... Important Dates!

Oh, and I also acquired one of those hanging wall files, which I hope to mount so that I may leave some Imaging Science brochures inside for the taking. You never know when someone might stop to watch the kiosk, get really interested in Imaging Science, and wish they had more information they could take with them...

Update on the new CIS website

It's been nearly three months since I mentioned updating the CIS website. So, what's the progress?

I wrapped up drafting the document mentioned in that previous post, which I sent along to The Wallace Center with a request for a timeline and budget estimate. By the start of August, the project was approved!!! This is huge news, as a new website has been a long time coming, and it was not necessarily an easy sell. And there was much rejoicing - yaaaaay!

From there it was time for me to start developing a full site map that detailed every page that was to be built. Around a month ago I had a webpage created that basically dumped all of the node numbers and page titles for every page on the CIS website - of which there are over 1200 - into a table. I imported this table into an Excel document and have been going through each page.... one by one.... determining what the page content is, whether it is still relevant, and how it would fit into a new structure. A fair amount (about half) of the 1,200 pages are news entries, events, and seminars, which will more or less be a straightforward port to the new site. There are a bunch of pages with content that would be more appropriate as a viewable/downloadable PDF rather than a webpage, which both saves work (having to transfer over) and creates work (having to convert all these things to PDF) - but that will come later. A few pages can be archived, while a handful of others should be downright eliminated. After thumbing through each one of the 1,200 pages, I have ended up with a list of ~90 that will actually comprise the new website.

I have incorporated these 90-ish pages into the requirements and expectations document as a full sitemap, organized into several menu categories. However, this overall layout will still need to be reviewed page-by-page with the web designers so that they can determine how the structure of the site will play out, and also what the layout of each page will be. They also may suggest to rearrange/combine/eliminate some pages or categories, which I'm totally fine with since they're the professionals. This will be a very, very long process - probably months-long. (I'm ready.)

In the meantime, from the site map we will pick five pages for initial design mockups. Before those can be done, though, we need to hone in on design preferences (general color scheme, layout, etc), which is where we are at right now! Additionally, we need to have a meeting that includes the new designers as well as the folks here who are familiar with the current database setups, so that we can determine how the new website will incorporate all of our ultra-important databases. This, I think, will be one of the most challenging aspects of the overall project... but perhaps I just think that because I am not too familiar with database management. (Note to future self reading this: look into database classes.)

So, what happens from here? After we meet to discuss the databases, the design preferences, and do an initial run-through of the sitemap, the five mockups will be created by the design team. I can't wait to see what they have in store for us!

Summer Imaging Connection Now Available!

Staying true to this four-week-behind holding pattern I seem to be stuck in, the Summer Imaging Connection newsletter is now finally available. Highlights in this issue include:

• Our NEW video about the Innovative Freshmen Experience class!
• Interns 2013
• Student Conference Presentations
• Alumni Giving Back

...and more. Check it out!

Predictably insert Katy Perry ROAR lyrics here

Today was ROAR (Raise Our Annual Responses) Day! I mentioned ROAR day just a few days ago when I posted about our Microgrant, Major Impact Challenge. Well, today was the BIG day when we could triple our impact!  

Good for one free ice cream cone! YEAH!

I decided this morning that I could even raise the stakes by offering a free CIS SWAG item to anyone who showed me proof that they donated to the Microgrants fund. Little did I expect that this would mean my day would be all-consumed by ROAR Day. But, that's okay, because it was fun to see so much spiRIT going around!

I gathered up some troops and we made our pledges right after the table outside CIS in the Unity Quad opened. I was very happy to see that they even had their own flyer for the Microgrant challenge prominently on display! As a gift for pledging we received small clip-on reflective blinking lights with "RIT" printed on them, so we turned them on and wore them as we used our stickers to get our free small ice cream cones from Ben & Jerrys (mm-mm!). I can certainly say that we were... attention-getting...

I should note, this all feels pretty funny for me, considering how incredibly anti-school spirit I have been for most of my life. This dissent lessened while I was in college since I actually loved RIT and took great pride in being here, but they didn't have spirit events when I was a student! I've tried participating in some events since I've been back as staff (eg Tiger Walk), but suffice it to say, I'm still no cheerleader.

Anyways, the rest of my available day ended up being devoted to ROAR Day, between getting the word out, helping people with pledge forms, handing out SWAG, et cetera, and then I had Staff Council and class. So note for next year: Do not expect to get anything else done on ROAR Day.

It's too soon to tell yet what kind of participation we got, but I do know I had about 25 people collect their CIS swag, so that's a pretty good indicator! (Especially assuming that there are probably people out there who did donate but don't care about getting a free bottle opener branded with the CIS logo.) I was especially pleased to see how many students participated, it was awesome!

Meanwhile, the icing on the cake came at the end of the day when I was CC'd on the following email:

MVRL'rs
Congratulations! A total of 21 students, staff, and faculty from the Multidisciplinary Vision Research Lab participated in the MVRL challenge, raising over $1,200 that will be doubled again by matches from Stefi Baum and the RIT administration.
The students exceeded their goal, donating $138, which the MVRL staff and faculty matched 2:1 for $276. With the directors' 2:1 match, the MVRL's total contribution was $1,242.00  After matches from Stefi and the administration, the students' contribution will grow to over $3,700!
Thanks to all who participated,
   Anne, Andy, and Jeff

WHOA! I did not even know that MVRL issued their own challenge in addition to Stefi's AND to RIT's! How cool is that?!? I am so impressed with how MVRL embraced the challenge, and their efforts resulted in a major positive impact for the Microgrant fund. What a shining example of ROAR Day spiRIT!

I do know that overall, RIT exceeded its ROAR Day goal early this afternoon. From what I can tell, this was also a very successful ROAR Day for CIS. I can't wait to see the final numbers!

Announcing: The CIS Microgrant, Major Impact Challenge

For my first time ever, I have been involved with the planning and support of a fundraising campaign. Over the past couple months, we have been working with RIT Development to develop a campaign the raise money for the CIS Microgrants program. In the past, microgrants were funded mostly by donations from Kodak. For obvious reasons (unless you have really been living under a rock), that funding has since run out; so in order to continue fostering cutting edge research performed by students, CIS has had to look for other sources of funding. Towards that end, we have developed an internal campaign whose main goal is to maximize faculty and staff participation: so long as 50% of faculty and staff donate some amount, Stefi will match all raised funds, up to $5,000. The hope is that by challenging Stefi to pony up some cash out of her own pocket, more faculty/staff will want to participate. We also hope that students will participate, too. Then, later on, we will take the campaign out to external collaborators and alumni - but it is imperative that we first demonstrate how committed we are to our own cause (hence why it is starting out as an internal campaign).

I mentioned last week that the Fall Picnic was supposed to include the kickoff for the campaign, but unfortunately that momentum got a bit muddled because of the fast-approaching ROAR day at RIT. Our hope is to have as many people as possible donate to the microgrant fund on ROAR day, since their impact can potentially be tripled. For any amount donated between $5 and $50, RIT upper administration will match it; and then if we get the 50% faculty/staff participation, Stefi will match donations as well. Hopefully we can get a lot of people participating on Thursday so that things will snowball!

To help promote both the Challenge and ROAR Day, I made up a quick poster detailing the challenge:

I know it's wordy (just like this blog post...), but there wasn't really any way to explain it in fewer words. This campaign is also the reason I teased a while ago about why I was asked to update the microgrants webpage. 

Anyways, that's the main gist of the Challenge. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what to expect. Some people expect it to do very well, while some people don't expect it will go successfully at all. I have witnessed a lot of mixed reactions... It is very difficult to ask people to give during a time when so many of us feel stretched so thin already. I certainly hope that the campaign goes well, not because of my involvement or the hard work I've had to put into it, but because I don't want to see the microgrants program suffer. We have been lucky to be able to offer such a special program for our students, and I would hate to see it be diminished in any capacity; there already wasn't enough funding to award every great idea that was submitted, and it would be a shame for the program to have even fewer resources. At the same time, I feel incredibly awkward working on the campaign and trying to encourage my fellow staff and faculty to participate... I am more than happy and proud to sing the praises of CIS and encourage students to come here and alumni to reconnect, but soliciting donations is definitely outside of my comfort zone. I also hope that this doesn't damage all the work I've done over the past 4 years trying to convince alumni that I am only asking for connections and involvement, not money. Thankfully I haven't been asked to put the "hard sell" on anyone, but I can't help but feel nervous about how my involvement might reflect on my position and the promises I have made. At least my work has essentially been behind-the-scenes, and really, it's not like this is some kind of dirty work - we are trying to do something very positive here! But you never know how some people might react. I guess all I can do is keep thinking positively, do my part, and ROAR loudly on Thursday... 

CIS Fall Picnic 2013

Yesterday was the annual CIS Fall Welcome Back picnic! It seems like each year we try something a little different. A few years ago, we did an Imaging Bash-style event. Then we returned to a more laid back cookout event out in front of the building. Even that started to get a little stale (and difficult logistically since we didn't have tables or chairs), so we changed things up a bit this year and went off campus to nearby Black Creek Park. Apparently, many years ago (even before I ever got here), the picnic was always held off campus. Everybody - and I mean everybody, according to legend - went, had a great time, knew each other's names, played all sorts of games, and morale was at an all-time high. It didn't really seem to me like the last couple picnics fostered the same kind of environment... In fact, they didn't even feel like the picnics I remember as a student (oh no, am I really old enough to be reminiscing about "the good ol' days"?). So, taking things off campus was our first step towards rekindling the spirit that used to thrive.

Meanwhile, there were some grand ideas of also incorporating some sort of a field day/homecoming vibe, with teams and partners and competition and multiple events. Unfortunately, that was way too much for just li'l ol' me to organize on my own, so without any support this never really got off the ground. Phooey. Maybe another time...

Anyways, despite the change in venue, other traditions remained the same: cookout food, raffles, the trusty old PA system, and volleyball. However, now we had the benefits of expansive green lawns, places to explore, and tables and chairs! Also, we really lucked out with the weather (as it seems we almost always do) as it was a gorgeous day. I'm not sure which of these factors, or maybe it was all of them together, contributed to the overall success of the picnic; but we had upwards of 70 people in attendance, which is the most I have ever witnessed in my (million-or-so) years of being connected with CIS!

Does it get much more perfect than this?

My roles in the event were to help with the organizing, make announcements over the PA, control music, and raffle off some swag. Sounds easy enough, but this still took a surprising amount of preparation leading up to the picnic itself, and there was a fair amount of setup (and later, takedown) involved. Thankfully other people took on the responsibilities of the food and the volleyball net. Meanwhile, I may have gone a little overboard on the swag...

What was I thinking? There was enough swag there for every other person to walk out with something.

There was so much stuff to raffle off that I spent basically the entire allotted time of 4-6PM on the PA reading off ticket numbers, many of which no one claimed because they didn't actually bring their ticket, or they weren't listening, or they just didn't care. Sigh. This was one of those, "Why do I bother?" moments. It was exhausting (not to mention it prevented me from being able to eat, or chat, or participate in volleyball or kan jam). Anyways, I did things a little differently this time by having a bag full of paper slips that represented each item, so that when a winner was picked they randomly selected a prize. Seems like a lot of extra work, but it takes any blame off me when someone gets a prize they're not so excited about, so it was worth it for me. If I do any raffles next time I'll probably do them the same way. (Notice how I put that "if" in there?)

Oh yeah, and there was one other new thing for this year: the kickoff to our new microgrants campaign that I teased previously - or, well, sort of. The picnic was going to be the kickoff, but then just before Stefi was going to make the announcement, our RIT Development officer told us about ROAR day, during which all contributions between $5 and $50 are matched by five of RIT's upper administration. So... Stefi ended up announcing the campaign, but telling people not to actually pledge anything for another week, so the whole kickoff ended up being a lot less climactic than anticipated. Nonetheless, it is a secret no more: introducing, the CIS Microgrant, Major Impact Challenge. Actually, I suppose I'll tell you more about it some other time, since this post is already awfully long winded, and we don't want anyone participating yet, anyways. So... stay tuned, I guess.

At any rate, the picnic ended up being a smashing success overall. Some other highlights include Sue Chan and Roger Easton playing volleyball (have you ever seen Roger when he's had too much sugar?), running jokes about some students trying to play volleyball, and some children who ended up being better than pretty much all of us at volleyball. Also, two of this year's summer interns came, ate with the students, and joined in the games too, which was awesome!!!! Oh, and let's not forget Jeff Pelz running around the parking lot dodging moving cars and eventually driving off in his Mini. We didn't end up packing up the volleyball net until close to 8PM, and only because it was getting dark... I think that's a good indicator of how well everything went.

See more pictures (including some amusing raffle wins) here: https://picasaweb.google.com/RITImagingScience/CISWelcomeBackPicnic2013#

Paper applications are soooo 2000

Now that I've had sufficient time to cool off after this year's batch of interns, it's never too soon to start thinking about preparing for next year. Because of the dramatic increase in applications this past year, it became painfully apparent that we need to update our application procedure to streamline the process.

First and foremost, we need to make as much of the application electronic as possible. When processing the applications currently, it is very time consuming to take their written-out information and type it into our database. If even just their personal and contact information were digitized so that that data could be easily copied and pasted, that would be a significant improvement.

Once the applicants are all entered into the system records, each application is reviewed by the selection committee. Having everything online and accessible by multiple reviewers at once would be advantageous, as you're no longer relying on passing paper around. So, it would be best to also have the short-answer questions, essay, and letters of recommendation sent to us electronically.

Under the current process, once the 24 applicants selected to interview are identified, their complete application packages are scanned one at a time to PDF and sent to the lab directors that will be conducting the interviews, This task is surprisingly tedious and time consuming, as there are staples to remove, combinations of single- and double-sided pages, etc. So to have everything electronic and eliminate this step completely would definitely be an improvement.

One thing we will not be able to handle electronically is official transcripts, so we will still have to scan those individually and match them up with their corresponding applicant. I don't think there is any way around this, but at least we would presumably only have one piece of physical mail for each applicant, as opposed to the 2, 3, 4, 5, sometimes more pieces we collect currently (depending on whether the applicant includes everything at once, or in pieces over time).

So, where does this leave us? In the current application, we provide:

• Cover letter
• Research group descriptions
• Application checklist
• Applicant information - to be filled out and returned with application
• Short answer questions - to be filled out and returned with application

And then we have additional required materials:

• 1 page essay
• Copy of a lab report
• Official transcript
• 2 letters of recommendation

What I plan to do is replace the application package with a website that contains application instructions, including:

• A link to the cover letter and group descriptions 
• A link to download the application checklist (for personal use)
• Instructions on how to:
• Complete an online submission form (replacing the applicant information and short answer questions)
• Email the 1-page essay and lab report
• Have letters of recommendation sent via e-mail
• Have schools mail an official transcript

It will also be explicitly state NOT to ask for confirmation that all materials have been received - if letters or transcripts are missing, applicants will be notified; and if any other materials are missing, applications will not be considered. Although I won't say this on the website, I hope to send out notification emails that the initial submission forms have been received... but it all depends on the volume to applications I receive. If I get as many as I did last year, there's no way I can address every applicant individually like that.

I think that this new process covers all the current bases while making the overall process more efficient. I also hope that this will help cut down on the number of last-minute submissions we receive (though I doubt there is any real solution for that... But at least I won't have lost parents wandering around campus looking to hand-deliver written applications to me). The only real way to find out is to try it, and address any problems as they surface. If you have any thoughts, please feel free to share in the comments! 

Now it's time to get to work creating the online forms and writing clear instructions... Hopefully I can find a decent free online tool that will support my planned approach.

How does it happen that even though I moved, and building thermostats were turned up, I am still sitting in a 68º office?

So you may have heard that I moved! My old office, CAR-2111, and the adjacent office are being removed to expand the lab behind them. As such, I had to be relocated (as have many other people in Carlson for one reason or another. There has been much shuffling about lately). I am now located in CAR-2255, and now after a week I think I can safely say I am all settled in to my new digs.

Welcome to my new home.
Strangely enough, it has come out very similar to my last one.

Check out this sweet panorama I made. Hey hey hey

It has been quite a process to get everything moved over and settled into my new space. I helped install shelves, haul furniture, remove one of my desks (I'm down to 1 now, but at least my chair fits under this one), and even stayed until after 8PM one night to try to get things organized. That may sound crazy, but I am so busy right now that I don't have a lot of daytime to devote to moving, and I was determined to have one space in my life clean and tidy (since I am concurrently building a new house and packing up my current one).

Anyways, you may have noticed that my blog has been really quiet. Through all this chaos it has been difficult to keep up. But rest assured, I have like 8 draft posts in the queue that will be published soon, and then you'll be up to date with all the happenings of my August and early September, of which there have been many. (At least this isn't as bad as that other blog I just linked to, which is perpetually two months behind.) Keep an eye out, since some backdated posts are about to start sneaking in behind this one! - I mean - no, I wrote those weeks ago, you just must have somehow missed them. Or, maybe you're reading this later and I've already gotten all caught up... Whatever.

Some major effort for micro grants

So it turns out the CIS website had some webpage about microgrants that I didn't even know existed. Even once I knew it existed, I had no idea what was going on with it or what its purpose was. Well, I got introduced to it recently because, in preparation for something we'll be unveiling soon (spoiler alert: it's a campaign of some sort), we'll be wanting to feature our microgrant program, and that current page was not going to cut it. It was formatted poorly, had no introduction or explanation, no updates; in fact, it didn't actually have the functionality that was originally intended. So, even though most major website updates are on hold until we get that new website I teased created, it has been my task recently to create a more functional and user-friendly page about our microgrants.

Originally, the page was intended to have all of the awarded microgrants listed by title, with PI and advisor (if applicable) names, a thumbnail image, and links to the associated proposal and any updates. It was the hope that the website content would be maintained by the PIs; as in, they would be in charge of uploading images, updates, and any other related information. I'm not sure what happened, but the page didn't come out that way, so I was asked if I could make the page more functional and able to facilitate easy updating. My first thought was to utilize some sort of wiki for each of the projects, as that would allow for PIs to do their own uploading (thus taking the burden off of me or anyone else). Well, this is still a good idea moving forward, but that wasn't going to help with cataloging what's already done. So, the burden is on us (me + some helpers, I hope!!!) to get everything from the past 8 or so years posted online and appropriately linked.

So far I have been able to reorganize the existing abstracts that were online (and upload them as PDF instead of them existing on their own pages), which were all from this past year. Beyond that, I've simply added placeholders for what will eventually be filled in. This included creating a logo that can stand in for image thumbnails until real ones are added. Creating this page was as much a proof of concept, if anything, as I needed to get something together to see whether it would meet the original requirements. Anyways, you can check out the work in progress here: http://www.cis.rit.edu/micro-grants

It turns out the page as designed is a go, so now everything needs to get organized and linked in. This is a major task... Even getting this far was not at all trivial. Formatting seems to be wildly inconsistent, and not all of the files I have been provided are organized. Add on to that that I have no prior experience with the microgrants program (in fact I really know diddly squat about it) and this was all needlessly complicated. I may have to enlist some help to get this underway because it has already been really time consuming and that was only for abstracts and only for one year. There are hundreds of other files that need converting to PDF; the overall listing that includes titles, PI names, and advisors for all previously awarded microgrants needs to be created; and all those files need to be opened up and searched to find accompanying images for thumbnails. EEK. It would be one thing if this was the only thing on my plate, but this is only one of several major projects I am waist-deep in in the moment. Needless to say, I am feeling a little overwhelmed in general...

Warm Fuzzy x 1000

Today I received a very special letter in the mail from one of this year's summer interns:

What can I possibly say??? I am humbled and honored.

Product Knowledge 2013, featuring a sneak peek at new ImSci recruitment materials!

Today was our annual Product Knowledge meeting with Undergraduate Admissions! A meeting takes place each year where representatives from Undergraduate Admissions assemble to hear more about academic programs, what types of students we are looking for, what interesting stories they can highlight to prospective students, et cetera. Typically these meetings are college-wide, but since we have always had to spend so much time explaining just what Imaging Science is, it made sense for us to break off and have our own session. Last year was the first time we tried that and it went very well, so this year we followed a similar agenda.

Everyone got together in the freshmen lab where we started off by discussing what Imaging Science is and how Admissions currently markets it. I then unveiled a new recruitment tool I have been developing this summer: USB drives! In the past, I would send prospective students and inquiries a folder containing multiple documents about Imaging Science: a booklet, a lenticular postcard, FAQ, a comparison chart, etc. These folders and materials were getting increasingly expensive to produce, and they did not even have long shelf lives since information gets updated so quickly. You may recall that this same issue brought about the development of a new online information booklet to replace the printed version. In addition to this, more and more of our recruitment materials are video-based. So, what better way to disseminate digital information than with some kind of computer peripheral?

CDs and DVDs are a thing of the past (some computers and laptops don't even come with drives anymore!) so the obvious answer was to go with USB drives. I had received one from RIT before that was actually integrated into a silicone wristband, so that seemed pretty cool. We got 4GB drives because, even though that's much more storage than our materials require, perhaps the recipient will actually use and appreciate it. We got our logo printed on them, so even if someone decides, "meh, who cares about this stuff that came on this drive, I'm going to delete it so I can use this for whatever I want," at least our logo is still there as a reminder.

Pretty snazzy, huh?

Instead of simply copying and pasting a bunch of files onto the drives, I thought it would be a good idea to create some kind of visually appealing navigation to lead the prospective student through the materials. To achieve this, I created local webpages (they are viewed in a browser, but only use files contained on the USB drive, so no network connection is required) that have pictures, links, and descriptions for each of the files contained on the drive. (Actually, there is a landing page that mimics the new tellmemore page before the page I just described, to act as a mini-intro.) The page is represented as a file with the name "Start Here!", and all other files on the drive are hidden.

So the idea is this: a prospective student plugs in the drive and double clicks "Start Here!" This opens up a page with the tellmemore images that directs them to "Click Here to start your adventure", after which they see the contents page:

Note, this is all kinds of zoomed out to fit here as an image.

They then click through the various materials contained on the drive to get more information about Imaging Science! Ta da!

This whole presentation seemed to go over very well, though I couldn't actually show the Freshmen Innovation at CIS video since it hasn't been completed yet; right now I just have a placeholder there. We did have the rough cut of the faculty version of the video available to show, but it's not really the correct video for prospective students; we just showed it to familiarize everyone with the freshmen class. Regardless, everyone seemed pretty impressed with the USB drives (if I do say so myself).

Anyways, later in the meeting we pulled in a bunch of freshmen who happened to be out in the hall to talk about their experiences so far and what got them into Imaging Science in the first place. This was very useful for the admissions counselors, as it helped provide a profile of the type of student we're looking for and what motivates them to want to get involved in a program such as Imaging Science.

After a few questions and answers, we headed down to the Bat Cave (the undergrad research lab) to take a look around and discuss various student projects taking place. And after that, we called it a day. By the end it really seemed like the Admissions group had a good understanding of what Imaging Science is and what type of student thrives in this program, so hopefully when they go out on recruiting trips they will be able to send some prospective students our way! It is a great feeling to know what we can work together to achieve our common goals.

ZOMG semesters!

Wait, what do you mean, classes start today? But it's still August! Welcome to semesters, RIT.

No rest for the weary, I suppose, because immediately following the conclusion of the 2013 intern program on Friday we are now facing the start of classes AND the very first attempt at a new "Imaging Science Immersion" program for imsci grad students. I guess the idea is, instead of taking their typical classes on the first few days, all grad students are participating in an Imaging Science bootcamp to provide some perspective and try to get everyone on the same page. At least that's my understanding of it, as I have been surprisingly un-involved in the whole thing since I was busy with the interns right up until now. Basically the extent of my involvement was helping print out nametags for the event today, the "Imaging Science Immersion Reception". I really had no clue what this was, but apparently everybody - and I mean everybody- from CIS faculty/staff-wise was going, so I figured I should probably be there.

The reception was in the nearby Vignelli Center and featured hors d'oeurves and beer/wine.

I suppose the point of it was to be a socialization opportunity for the new graduate students to get to know each other and folks from the Center better. While I always enjoy an opportunity to kick back with some CIS-ers and chat about things non-work-related, I must admit I wasn't really feeling this event and did not stick around for too long. I am frankly too exhausted still from the excitement of the culmination of the intern program, and anyways we have the annual fall picnic coming up in a few weeks which will serve basically the same purpose, don't you think? Sorry, please forgive my crankiness, I am just trying to come to terms with the fact that summer is basically over and I don't have a chance to rejuvenate.

Oh and, I start taking a class tomorrow - my  first semester course ever! I have no idea what to expect and am not really sure I'm ready for the extra workload. But it's not like I can put off taking more classes until February (man, semesters are long!), so off to class I shall go. In August. Man, this feels weird.

Intern Final Presentations 2013

Well, today marks another successful conclusion for the CIS Summer Internship program. This is now my 4th intern-last-day as RIT staff, and each year it seems history repeats itself: interns get here to much excitement, things level off for a while there in the middle, and then everything ramps up to culminate in this big final presentation day - after which everything is suddenly over and everyone leaves, still full of adrenaline plus the added shock and disbelief that it's all over. One thing that will change this year, though: next week, despite the absence of 14 high schoolers running around, my quiet cool down is no more, thanks to RIT's new semester system!!! Boooo. So I'm still hopped up on adrenaline at the moment, and things are unlikely to change what with classes starting so suddenly on Monday. But anyways, this post is supposed to be about the interns' swan song!

I know that every year I say our group of interns tops the last, but I can honestly say that this year, we had by far the best overall group of presentations I have ever witnessed. (I suppose yesterday's dry run was a good indication that this would be the case.) What can I say about the whole thing - the presentations were great, everything went smoothly (even the break that Joe very adamantly told me to take out, but I didn't - and I'm glad I didn't), no one was disruptive, and we even ended a little bit early which allowed the interns some time to show their families around. The only flub was that I forgot to introduce myself at the beginning (what a typical Bethany thing to do), and I suppose there was some slight unrest at the very start when the projector resolution and the video recording did not want to play nice. Which reminds me - we recorded the presentations this year! You can get to them via the interns website, and then you'll understand why I'm so proud of our interns. (You can also get pictures of the presentations here.)

We provided lunch again like last year, as a last little celebration for the group. It was funny, a few of us went to all the effort to rearrange the furniture in the Fishbowl into clusters of tables, which the interns just took all apart so they could make one big table for them all to sit at. It was nice to see that they had all formed such a tight bond, which was also apparent with all the hugs and loud "GOODBYE!"s that accompanied each departure. I made sure to get a quick final group picture with everyone:

Yes, even including Robert - who let us take his picture, for once!

As usual, now that it's all over, it's hard to say goodbye. I'll miss you, 2013 interns! Best of luck to you all.

NAILED IT

Today being the second-to-last day of the 2013 summer internship (wait, how did that happen?!), we did our final presentations dry run. This year we did them in the morning (whereas we used to do them in the afternoon), which allowed time for any changes to be made based on any feedback. However, as it turns out, not many interns have much work to have to do, because a lot of them aced their dry run! (Or at least came really close.) There were no crashes-and-burns or meltdowns like last year - in fact it was quite the opposite. And not only was I impressed by the quality of the presentations, but the interns also were very involved in each other's presentations and gave lots of valuable feedback. Wow. I can tell from today that we are in really good shape for tomorrow, which I don't think is a total comfort I have enjoyed before (and definitely not last year). I can rest easy tonight!

I think a lot of this success and time management can be attributed to the milestones we established this summer. By having due dates and group critiques of titles, abstracts, and presentation outlines, the interns were given more feedback than in the past, not to mention the looming final presentations were kept on the front burner. I know that last year I struggled with how to develop this concept so as to not hold the interns' hands, but I think that we miraculously managed to strike an appropriate balance on our first try. Yeah! We'll definitely want to continue this format next year, based on how well it has worked.

Meanwhile, this year I put a little extra work into the presentation programs. Instead of a single handout that only lists presentation titles, presenters, their labs, and their schools, I put together a whole booklet that also contains the project abstracts (in addition to all that other information), as well as some information on the intern program itself.

I thought this might serve multiple purposes: it provides extra information on the presentations; it is somewhat of a promotion piece for CIS; and it could kind of be a keepsake for the interns and their parents (I know it sounds lame, but that is totally the kind of thing I would have kept when I was an intern). You can view the whole thing online here.

Well, wish us luck tomorrow - though, I don't think we actually need it this time!