By the way...

You may have noticed a lack of updates for the past while. Unfortunately my blog and I have gone on an indefinite hiatus. Even so, this site will live on so that you may enjoy looking back through the years.

For now.

Maybe someday we'll get the band back together.

Playing catsup

Well our new Intersession - oh, wait, I mean, "Tiger Term™" -  has proven to be even quieter than I expected. That being the case, I have been able to check a bunch of things off my to-do list (and there was much rejoicing - yaaaaay). Among other things, I've sent in a proposal to a conference, made some headway with the designers of the new website, created a log detailing pretty much every outreach event that has taken place since I started this position (boy am I glad that I've been keeping up this blog), and finally finished backfilling the microgrants webpage.

Thankfully I got a little help with the microgrants from the student assistants in the main office, who I tasked with compiling title and PI information, converting all the files to PDF, and renaming and organizing the files according to a standardized directory structure. As with many projects, though, getting help is both a blessing and a burden. Although it saved me a notable amount of effort, the work was not quite done to my specifications; I already had to go back and ask for revisions once, and after that I kind of gave up and decided it would probably just be faster to finish it myself. So, adding everything to the webpage was partnered with confirming and updating nearly every entry. To top that off, as I mentioned before, organization was very poor to begin with. Many reports are missing (were they ever provided?), files were sorted into incorrect directories, some proposals and reports were not correctly associated, et cetera. Because of these issues, I still can't even be sure that this webpage is 100% exhaustive and accurate. But, it uses everything I've been provided, so I guess that means I'm finally done.

...Sort of. I still don't have thumbnails representing each awarded grant. Maybe I'll be able to task one of the new students in the main office with that (I originally asked the previous students to - twice). Though, I wonder how necessary that truly is? It may not add enough to the page aesthetically to make up for the amount of effort required.

Check out the webpage as it currently stands and let me know what you think.

Interns, Ready! On your mark... Get set...

GO! The 2014 Summer Intern application cycle has begun!

...Okay, so it was supposed to begin yesterday. But with "Blizzard 2014" closing RIT yesterday, I wasn't able to get it posted. Hopefully that hasn't caused too much of an inconvenience...

Anyway,

Get your application instructions here!

And now, I wait to see how my new online application works in practice... and how much things change (or don't?) in light of the changes to the program this year. Magic 8 Ball on my desk says:

Uh-oh. 

Good thing I'm not superstitious.

It's (pretty much) all the same to you

Who knew that my last post about snowballing would be so prophetic, what with last Thursday's 18" of snow and the impending "Blizzard of 2014" predicted for tonight and tomorrow. Nonetheless, I've been working (how nice and quiet it has been!) and have managed to complete the updates I mentioned previously to our USB drives.

Just like last time, this is all kinds of zoomed out to fit here as an image.

The most obvious change is the update to the new color scheme that incorporates varying shades of gray, and then also the updated digital booklet cover. Besides those changes, this probably looks almost identical to before - however, I actually completely rebuilt this whole menu. 

You may ask why I bothered to make significant behind-the-scenes changes, when essentially it appears like only simple updates occurred. There are a few reasons. For one, I built this menu before the class I took last quarter, which you may recall involved building websites. With that increased knowledge under my belt, I could see a lot of ways in which the html and css code could be improved so as to be more robust while also being simpler and more efficient. Secondly, there was room for improvement in terms of functionality: previously, the backgrounds behind the text were clickable, but the text itself was not. While there were several ways to fix this, all of them relatively simple, I did not truly know a good way to do it until now. So, I rebuilt the page from the ground up by hand; and although the changes may not be apparent to anyone else, I know it is overall a much better product. Plus, there will surely be more updates in the future, and this new clean code will be much easier to modify.

With all that, plus a straight forward replacement of the updated digital booklet itself, the USB is now ready to go in its new and improved state. 

'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...