'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!