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!

Go ahead - Make: my day

One new thing I have been working on for a while is actually an advertisement. This is somewhat new territory for me, because although I have done plenty of promotional materials, I have never put together an advertisement intended to go out to the masses via broadcast media. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, I'm not sure that CIS has ever done this before. Nonetheless, I have been tasked with putting together an advertisement for Make: magazine that focuses on the undergraduate program in Imaging Science. (We wanted to do one for Popular Science, too, but the price was SO expensive, like tens of thousands of dollars expensive, it just wasn't justifiable.) After many drafts and revisions, I can now reveal the final product:

Watch for it in the Fall issue of Make:, Volume 36, focusing on 3D - hitting newsstands October 22!

Meanwhile, putting together this ad made me realize that our /tellmemore portal was due for a major overhaul. There aren't many promotional materials out there that point to it at this point, it isn't even linked in the CIS website anymore, and the content was starting to look a little dated. However, it would still be a useful site to use in the ad since it has Google Analytics embedded and tracking tools associated with it that will allow me to analyze the effectiveness of the advertisement. So, I gave the page an overhaul to be more in line with the look and feel of the advertisement. It doesn't function as much as it used to, but it doesn't really have to, especially since I updated the ugrad Prospective Students pages; all we're really using it for is tracking purposes. Nonetheless, I made it eye catching and slightly interactive (just utilizing rollovers). Check it out!

A magical trip to Mees

Well today is off to a slow start... Why? Because last night was our field trip to Mees Observatory!!! We decided to essentially repeat last year's trip because it went so swimmingly, though we did make a couple changes. Instead of going to Sticky Lips ahead of time (since that was a bit of a boondoggle...) we ordered trays of BBQ and headed down to Mendon Ponds Park to eat.

Oddly enough, these interns are not big eaters, so we had way too much food.

Just look at how spread out we were - the whole place was ours!

This gave us much better control over both timing and budget, though with all the beautiful room to roam I did notice that us old fogies didn't get to bond with the interns as much as we did last year. But that hardly matters, because the interns got to chill with each other, and we're the outsiders anyways. Which, by the way, there were fewer of this year - we did not have additional REU or summer students with us this time, or even Joe or Maria, just the interns. I did bring Matt along again this year though, and since we told other people they could join at the observatory if they provided their own transportation, in fairness we drove separately. This also helped with the logistics of transporting all the food, but it did mean we were cut off [blissfully?] from all the action on the bus.

Anyways, the ever-enjoyable scenic drive down to the observatory didn't seem nearly as long this year, since being at Mendon Ponds actually already got us a decent portion of the way there. That, and this year we actually got to stop at the Gannett House first! (Another benefit of reining in how much time was devoted to dinner.)

On the patio of the Gannett mansion, overlooking Canandaigua Lake

While there, we got an introduction to the observatory, and took a (fun) astronomy pop quiz.

This year we had two presenters/guides from ASRAS (Astronomy Section, Rochester Academy of Science), Larry and Karen. They were fantastically entertaining, and their passion for science and astronomy was inspiring! During the slideshow and Astronomy quiz in the house, the sky grew dark, and - believe it or not - cleared up! Clouds and rain were forecasted all night long, but as luck would have it, the conditions were perfect for some star (and shooting star!) gazing. So we grabbed flashlights and trekked up the hill to Mees. (Well, the interns did; Matt and I drove up, as did Roger who joined us at the house.)

Obligatory group picture - only took roughly 34734 tries...

And what a beautiful evening it was - we purposefully planned for the trip to take place during the peak of the Perseid meteor showers, and they delivered! If you stared at a patch of sky for only a few minutes, sure enough a shooting star would eventually fly by. It was breathtaking! Meanwhile, using the telescope we observed a number of astronomical phenomena, including a binary star, a globular cluster (my favorite), and the Ring Nebula.

Oh, sure, my flash was useless when I was trying to take the group picture - some Imaging Scientist I am - but step inside where it's supposed to be dark and it accidentally goes off. Sorry, night vision.

Anyways, I'll let some of the interns sum it all up for me:

"Keep in mind I’m from Washington DC which has a lot of light pollution so I only get to see the Big Dipper on a good night. I was flabbergasted by the millions of stars out there. ... So anyways I was on the deck of the observatory and there was a meteor shower in its peak at the time. Occasionally you would hear the joyous “LOOK OVER THERE!!!!!” From the other interns who spotted meteorite"

"Our tours guides were very nice, giving us the history of the Observatory and testing our knowledge of stars and galaxies. The forecast was not great, but we got very lucky and the sky ended up being clear. We looked at double stars, the Ring Nebula, and other amazing things. I thought that the Ring Nebula was the coolest, it looked like a smoke ring floating through space. Last night was also the peak of the Perseid meteors and we were able to see some from on top of the Observatory. The sky was so clear of clouds and light pollution that you could faintly see the Milky Way. It was an amazing experience."

"Once it got dark, we headed up to the observatory and had the chance to see, close up, some cool astronomical oddities (my favorite was the globular cluster) through the telescope.  But just stargazing with the naked eye was equally impressive that night, as it was clear (clear enough to see the Milky Way dimly), and there was a meteor shower going on.  I find myself very lucky to have had the chance to see a few shooting stars and, if you want to see them, there should be more entering our atmosphere tonight.  All things included, it was a very enjoyable evening."

Check out more Intern reactions at their blogs.

To cap off the night, Larry gave us a printout of an NPR blog that coincidentally just came out and does a really fantastic job of putting things into perspective. I highly suggest you follow that link and give it a read.

All in all, another spectacular and awe-inspiriting Mees field trip for everyone involved. What an absolute pleasure to be a part of this! #bestjobever Oh and PS, I <3 space.

It isn't every day you get to lunch with a NASA scientist.

So you may have noticed a decrease in blog posts about interns compared to last year. This isn't an indication of my level of involvement with the interns, but rather of the smoothness of operation this year. For one, as I mentioned before we have done away with the Intern Challenges - although they were fun, they took a lot of work to develop and execute, and we got mixed reactions in the evaluations at the end of last summer. This is a bit of a bummer, though, because I had fun connecting with the interns in a different way, and I know some of this year's interns who read last year's blogs have been asking whether we would be doing any this summer :-(. Also, some things that were experiments previously are simply part of the routine this year - first day scavenger hunts were fun as always, we'll be having another Bring your Friend to Work Day (this Friday.... unfortunately I will be on vacation for it), weekly cookouts are a breeze, and we will once again feature dinner and a visit to Mees Observatory for a field trip this year. On top of all that, we have got a really great group this year that is exceptionally well behaved and mature (maybe that has something to do with the new ground rules and handbook?), so there is very little drama to report or anything for us to have to worry about or adjust. Wow, summertime and the living is easy!

For all that is old hat, there were additional new things brainstormed at the intern mini-retreat besides the handbooks and newly established milestones. One of these was to offer some professional development during lunch, particularly lunch discussions with imaging scientists who work in the field (especially since some lunchtime professional development outside of ImSci is already offered via the Summer Movie Series). Well, today we tried our first one - and with an alumnus, no less!

David Bretz is an MS Imaging Science alum who works at NASA's Johnson Space Center (how cool is that?!) and happened to be visiting campus recently. I was introduced to him because he is one of our alum, but I realized during our chat that he would be a perfect speaker for our new professional development lunch idea. Dave graciously accepted my invitation, but was going to be heading back to Texas soon, so we decided to do a Skype session. Bob coordinated the timing, technology, and free pizza, and voila! Our first professional development lunch was a go.

Dave briefly discussed the various research projects he's been a part of, including using images of the space shuttle to assess damage inflicted by space debris. He kept his talk short and sweet so that most of the time could be devoted to questions and answers - and although the interns were a little shy at first, after getting a few questions in they really opened up and started asking a lot of really great questions. Almost all of the interns had at least one inquiry, and as a result they got some great insight into college, careers, and even the relevance of their current projects. Overall, the whole event went fantastically!

Keep an eye on the interns' blogs to see what kind of impact today's session had. I am really proud to have contributed to the creation of this experience for them!

Let's party!

Back in June when we had the first Staff Council meeting after elections, we all got together by block and discussed topics and issues our constituents face. While brainstorming, we came up with the idea of a Block Party, where we could invite our constituents to join us in an informal setting. This would allow us to meet our constituents face to face, could help us keep our fingers on the pulse of what's happening, and might even help recruit staff into joining Staff Council.

Earlier this week the Block 6 representatives all got together to determine the format and timing for our first Block Party. I took on the task of creating an e-mail invitation, which describes what we decided on, and which went out today:

Looks like fun, don't you think? Come on out and join us!