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...

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!

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!

Operation Imaging Connection

My blog has been a little bit quiet lately because most of the items at the top of my to-do list are somewhat long-term and/or require multiple meetings and discussions on the path to completion. One such thing that has made notable progress however is a recent effort to get more alumni, particularly those who graduated from RIT pre-"Imaging Science", more strongly connected with CIS. For those who are not familiar with our history, I'll attempt to give a brief synopsis (from the best of my knowledge and with a bit of help from this website and its appendices):

• 1930's - Photographic Technology is established as a program at RAMI (Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute, later to be renamed RIT in 1944) to respond to local industry demand for trained workers. This program differentiated science-based photography studies from fine art and studio-based studies, which also existed at RAMI. These programs would evolve over the next few decades to address changing trends.
• 1956 - BS in Photographic Science is established.
• 1962 - MS in Photographic Science is established at the urging of the US Air Force.
• 1966-67 - Names of both the BS and MS programs are changed to Photographic Science and Instrumentation.
• ???? - Now stuff gets confusing. Photo Science becomes Imaging Science at some point, and in 1986 CIS is established. Then at some other point, CIS breaks off from the College of Graphic Arts and Photography and becomes its own entity, although degrees continue to be granted out of CGAP (later CIAS) until 1996.
• 1989 - The Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science building is dedicated.
• 1990 - RIT's first PhD program, in Imaging Science, is established.
• 1994 - RIT's College of Graphic Arts and Photography becomes the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences.
• 1996 - CIS joins the College of Science, and Imaging Science degrees are granted now by COS.

...And then I think things are pretty steady from here on to the present day. In case you couldn't tell, finding reliable information on the details of Imaging Science's history is pretty difficult. I think things become especially complicated in the late 80's/early 90's because of the whole - wait, is the coast clear? - CIA scandal (shhh, we won't talk about that here). Anyways...

So, you can probably tell that things are pretty complicated. We have alumni who don't associate with COS. We have alumni who don't even associate with "Imaging Science". And yet, they are all intended to be included as a part of the CIS community. Adding to the complexity is the lack of affinity felt by many alumni; for many decades, RIT just didn't have much spiRIT or connection with its students (for example, I know my in-laws, who are both RIT Alumni, really don't feel connected nor have any desire to be). The RIT Alumni Association as a whole continues to struggle with this, though they have made significant advancements over the past decade or so.

So, what's a poor outreach specialist to do? I have a modest alumni list that I maintain, and they receive the Imaging Connection newsletter seasonally. That list has about 440 alumni on it, whereas CIS has more like 1,500 alumni total. (Actually, my % isn't that bad...) Many e-mail addresses get deactivated, and alumni don't update their contact information with us (despite our simple online form created to do just that). To make matters worse, there are apparently alumni out there who have never been contacted by CIS. Well, obviously, it's time to change that. Enter: Operation Imaging Connection.

Although it is not efficient and not really in RIT's policy to maintain a separate alumni list, CIS does so because we have many alumni that are incredibly sensitive to having their private information shared (not even just for personal reasons, but also considering how many alumni we have in defense and security careers). We have always made it a point to keep our mailing list opt-in, to avoid any possible invasions of privacy. So to keep this going but reach out to a broader alumni base, we've decided to team up with Alumni Relations on a two-prong, try-to-reach-every-CIS-alumnus-ever endeavor. First, we will send an e-mail to every CIS alumnus with an active e-mail address on record; after that, we'll snail mail a physical post card to alumni with mailing addresses who would not have received the e-mail. And then hopefully, we'll be able to more effectively connect with our many alumni from over the decades!

Towards this end, I have created a graphic outlining the benefits of connecting with us. This is planned to be used for both the eblast and the postcard. The eblast should be going out within the next couple of weeks. Enjoy...

Speaking of late... Spring Imaging Connection Newsletter now available!

The latest CIS Imaging Connection Newsletter is hot off the press CPU!

Since the last one was a bit late, this one ended up being late too.... Oops! But I will definitely get things back on track for our next issue, the last one before semesters (dun dun dun). And then... well, I'm not even sure what schedule I'll follow anymore. But there has definitely been more than enough content (especially with these late editions), so I will probably stick to a quarterly schedule even though RIT's terms won't be quarters anymore.

Anyways! Highlights in this issue include: ImagineRIT, Commencement, a feature on the Alumni Admissions Officer volunteer program as I promised after the Boston alumni reception, and... an Imaging Science degree name change?! Check it out!

DC-area Reunion, 7th ed.

Yesterday was the 7th annual Imaging Science DC-area reunion! Typically this is our best attended event, as very many CIS alumni settle in Washington, DC and the surrounding area. Well, except for last year, that is, when we tried to coordinate with SPIE DSS and NO ONE came. The year before that was the mega 24 hour adventure that included a reception that was relatively well attended, but could have been more successful if the venue was actually accessible and not so difficult to find. Previous to that, in 2010 we followed a more traditional approach and had an excellent turnout; so in an attempt to reclaim past glory, we went with the tried-and-true Tysons Corner Marriott for this year. (Which had the extra benefit of beautifully renovated facilities, but the totally bogus addition of paid parking, whaaaaat!)

Greetings from Assoc. Dir. of Alumni Relations for COS, Lauren Sauer, with the welcome table and raffle prizes

Leading up to the event we had around 26 people RSVP, but as is to be expected we had a bunch more alumni show up on the day-of - which is totally okay, except for that it makes us nervous that there won't be enough food (but that rarely ends up being a problem anyways since there is almost always too much food... but even so, TSK TSK for not registering!). The cost of registration covered 1 drink and the heavy hors d'oeurves, which included cheeses, crackers, spinach artichoke dip, and a pita station with all kinds of dips and hummus and olives.

The beau of the ball was without a doubt John Schott, whom we were celebrating for his sort-of-retirement. Part way in to the party Lauren got everyone's attention and showed the Monica video and John's Innovation Hall of Fame video, after which John put down a baby in order to get up to say a few words and update everyone on recent happenings at the Center.

Turns out every shot of Schott is an Action Schott.

Some of the crowd, during John's update.

Overall the event went very well. We ended up having around 40 alumni in attendance, which is great! Even better, graduation years spanned a wide range, so we had a really nice mix of alums. One of the attendees was even a distance learning graduate, so it's fantastic to have them connecting with RIT on a personal level! We also welcomed COS Distinguished Alumnus John Roberts, as well as upcoming summer intern Calvin Salacain. Together we celebrated engagements, weddings, new babies, new houses, recent graduations, and retirements. And a great time was had by all! Hope to see you next year!

PS: More pictures here

HUNT 2013

So this past Saturday was the annual Imaging Science HUNT! (In case you are not familiar, here are some search results to blog posts from last year, including links telling you what the Hunt actually is. No point in repeating myself...).

I was afraid that an All Stars team would not come together this year, as the weekend was looking to be a very busy one for most of us alumni - three of our main players from last year were definitely out for the day-of. But thanks to a lot of bribing and begging, we were able to assemble an alumni PLUS faculty/staff team! ...Though technically we were still an "alumni" team, since all the faculty/staff participants also happen to be alumni.

We had waaaay too much fun this year for me to be able to fit it all into a blog post, so I'll just make a list of some of the highlights:

• Carl dancing in a platypus suit... and saying he liked it
• David Long dropping a Corelle bowl in the lobby to test its claim of being "Break & Chip Resistant" (I wish we had gotten this on camera!!!)
• Ensuing scolding from kid in auditorium for making so much noise outside their "lecture"
• Taking the Huntmasters out to a Red Wings game (always fun)
• Taking faculty out to a happy hour at MacGregors (always fun)
• Making Tesla playing cards for Phil that featured pictures of Tesla cars, Tesla coils, Tesla cards, and of course, the man himself. And Phil and Kevin as the jokers.
• Seeing a member of a longboard skater gang totally wipe out a guy on a bicycle in the Infinity Quad (totally not cool) (sorry we didn't get it on camera despite having 3 on us)
• Stealing the Huntmasters' boat
• Getting caught by the Huntmasters while stealing their boat
• Matt dancing Gangnam Style in front of the RIT PEP band (why oh why did the camera have to not work for this one?!)
• Students actually thinking our trundle wheel was rolling a person down the Quarter Mile
• Students actually thinking our trundle wheel was cool
• Matt pretending to be stuck in the basement for 6 years
• That "Put your number in my phone" bit with me and Maria after discovering Matt in the basement - It is totally improv and unplanned!!!
• And, of course, the rest of the countless silly things we somehow got faculty to do for our video.

That's enough of me talking about it - how about you actually watch the videos and see for yourself? Oh and by the way - did I mention that WE WON!!!!!!

1st Place:  ALL STARS!★  2nd Place: 2nd years 3rd Place:  3rd years 4th Place:  Freshmen Huntmaster Answer Key

This is by far the best Hunt I have ever been witness to! (And definitely not just because we won, of course.) We had a phenomenal turnout, and every team was really good and the videos were hysterical. We also enjoyed extra amusement when sketchily crossing paths with the other teams throughout the day Saturday, which made things even more fun (especially when we tried to lock the Freshmen in their lab, though they didn't seem to take the joke so well). And the third years did an excellent job egging everyone else on with their Hunt-related memes in the Reading Room. My favorite part (always) is having everyone come out of their shells to do some pretty crazy stuff that we normally don't have any excuse to do, and thereby seeing different sides to people that we are normally used to taking seriously. This year's event captured the very spirit of the Hunt better than I've ever seen, and I'm so proud to have been a part of it. All in all, the Hunt is just one of the many reasons why Imaging Science is the best!

Boston Strong

So despite a little uncertainty leading up to our Boston Alumni Reception thanks to current events, "The show must go on," and that it did. Thankfully everyone who had planned to get to Boston arrived safely, including Matt and I who planned to drive in on Saturday (thank goodness we didn't try to have a long weekend and include Friday...).

Our strategy was to actually come in from the north through Essex to enjoy a lunch of fresh lobstah at the famous Woodmans, before heading into Ipswich for a very quick Choate heritage tour (island, bridge, etc - ask me about it sometime) and of course a visit to the Choate Bridge Pub (who NEVER ID's me and doesn't accept credit cards!!! How else do I discreetly get them to notice I'm local royalty?). Our pleasant little day went uneventfully and as planned, and we arrived in our hotel just in time for their nightly wine reception they apparently do (score). We spent the evening wandering and exploring Cambridge, again rather uneventfully (which is a good thing).

On the day of the reception, we strolled across the Charles to the Museum of Science (yes, our hotel was seriously RIGHT THERE, and totally by chance since we Pricelined it) and arrived shortly after opening, which after our recent trip to Dallas we have learned is the absolute BEST time to go anywhere because we beat the crowds. There was supposed to be a portion of the alumni event at the Museum, but it got canceled due to lack of interest (seriously?)... but we wanted to go anyways so we just went on our own. One of my favorite things there is actually in the lobby before you even have to pay, and it is a huge mural that you view through rotating polarizers. It is so beautiful and fascinating and simple and complex all at once... I can't even describe it, so here is some random person's picture of it and a delightfully retro video about the making of it. (At this point you ought to be noticing the background of my blog and noting the similarities...) Of course we saw one of the electricity shows, and one of my favorite exhibits was all about the history of the museum - because anyone who knows me knows that I like old, boring, dusty museums that require reading and quiet thought (instead of these new-fangled interactive entertainment museums that are practically just glorified playgrounds with kids running around and screaming). There was a display in there about polarized light that I thought was very interesting, informative, and effective at explaining a complex subject; so I was sad to think that it's one of the "old fashioned" exhibits now relegated to being a relic meant to illustrate past times (but at least it's on display at all). Sigh, museums can make me so emotional.

Anyways, although I can spend my whole life in a museum, we eventually had to cross back across the Charles to Restaurant dante, which was literally directly across the street from our hotel (I did a lot of planning for this trip, but that was one thing I did not plan out... how lucky. Maybe I should put less effort into planning and just hope for more things to serendipitously turn out perfectly?). We had our own little dedicated lounge area, with huge windows overlooking the river, which was beautiful. All in all, we had three imsci alumni attend, as well as one accepted student (who was also one of last year's interns; and, attended our accepted student open house!) and his parents. I spent most of my time with the accepted student and his parents, who are such a great family. I then introduced the recruit to our current imsci student that was in attendance, as well as the alumnus who arranged for the generous sponsorship of the recruit's internship here at CIS last year. I was very excited to have been able to make those connections, and it appeared from afar that the conversations went very well. I really really hope we get this student, because he is a very well-rounded, outgoing, and intelligent young man that would be a fantastic addition to CIS. We would all benefit from his presence here. And, I think the feeling is mutual; one of his parents told me that,

"The internship last summer was such a positive influence. This school year, he seems more mature, has (almost drastically) improved his academics and became more accountable for his actions and decisions. As a parent,  I am very grateful for this opportunity that was given to him."

What wonderful feedback!! We often hear positive reactions from teachers and from interns themselves, but we rarely hear from the parents. I am so glad we were able to provide this opportunity and that this student was able to benefit so much from it. But I digress!

During the reception I did have a chance to slip in some conversations with our alumni. Most of the chats were casual, but one action item that came out of our conversations was to promote alumni involvement in the RIT Alumni Admissions Volunteer program..... Duh! Why did I only just think of this now?! RIT already has a fantastic program set up that involves alumni in college fairs, hometown receptions, and other various recruitment events organized by RIT. Since it is coordinated by the Admissions office, they can leverage all of their nationwide contacts, regional staff, and extensive resources. I've worked with them on this before and have represented CIS at these events on multiple occasions, but for some reason it only just dawned on me to have our alumni from all around get in on the action, too. Plus then I won't have to travel, nor will I have to plan and coordinate events of our own. It seems so painfully obvious now that we should tap into our talented alumni across the US for these admissions programs, rather than me doing everything or reinventing the wheel for events of our own. SMH! So, moving forward, I will include upcoming dates of Alumni Admissions events in the Imaging Connection newsletter, and I will make an addition to the CIS Ambassadors website about how to get involved.

All in all, the reception turned out great! I know we have many more than 3 Boston-area alumni, though - so hopefully the next time we make it out that way, we will have more people join us ;-) Thanks, Boston!

Extra Extra! Winter Imaging Connection Now Available!

The Winter/Early Spring (December/January/February/March) issue of the CIS newsletter Imaging Connection is now available. While the newsletter is geared towards alumni, there are topics of interest in there for a general audience, as well. This newsletter, as well as previous issues, can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/CISnewsletter

The current issue features: 

• CIS @ the RIT Big Shot
• Summer Short Courses
• Intern Program Update
• Achievements & Recognitions
• Past & Future Alumni Events
• Your Stories

...and more! Including this little gem from the archives:

Recognize someone?

"Nice ears"

So you may have noticed things have been a little quiet on here lately; I definitely don't have the number of posts in February as I typically do in a given month. That can partially be blamed on the fact that February is a short month, though the main reason is that I spent a week in Disney World! What! (If you follow me on Twitter, you probably know this already, since I tweeted about Howie Mandel complimenting me on my sparkly Minnie ears. It's a true story.) If you know me at all, you would know that I'm actually not a very big Disney fan (despite this being my second trip there in one year - but that other trip was technically a scouting trip for this trip... trip trip trip) but I was there to be in a wedding at the Grand Floridian resort, and there were several other events planned around it that stretched our trip into a full week. Okay, and I added on a day at the beginning to go to Kennedy Space Center (which was my absolute FAVORITE), and a day at the end to go to Universal Studios. Anyways, I'm not here to talk about my vacation but to give excuses as to my absence, so I move on.

Since returning, my time has been monopolized by all things interns. This Friday is the application due date, and what do you know - the applications are pouring in. As are the e-mails, phone calls, and personal visits... Right now, I basically serve to accept applications, answer questions, and give people directions how to find me. We don't have that many applications as of this moment, but with the amount of communication I've been getting, I expect a lot more to come flooding in in the next 48 hours.

Amongst the chaos, I've also been helping coordinate more shooting for the freshmen class video, planning upcoming alumni events for DC and Boston, prepping for the Big Shot in Texas in less than a month (which a small group of us is participating in this year), wrapping up a new undergraduate promotional brochure, and coordinating with the folks behind Science Exploration Days so that I may participate this year. Sooo, if you don't hear from me for a while.... I'm just a little busy multitasking. And while I'm still dishing out excuses, I might as well admit right now that the winter issue of the Imaging Connection which would normally be out right around now definitely won't be ready in time, or even anytime soon. Oh no! So that's enough blogging out of me; I've got a lot to do and better get to it!

Extra Extra! Fall Imaging Connection Now Available!

The Fall (September/October/November) issue of the CIS newsletter Imaging Connection is now available. While the newsletter is geared towards alumni, there are topics of interest in there for a general audience, as well. This newsletter, as well as previous issues, can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/CISnewsletter

The fall issue features:

• Intern Program Parnterships
• CIS Imaging Bash
• Achievements & Recognitions
• Past Receptions & Upcoming Events
• Alumni Spotlight on: Robert Loce
• Send us your card!

...and more!

Announcing: 7th Annual Imaging Hall of Fame

Time to rev up the promotion machine for the 7th annual Imaging Hall of Fame ceremony and keynote... Task #1: make poster. Check!

Extra, extra! Summer Imaging Connection Now Available!

The latest issue of the CIS Imaging Connection newsletter is hot off the press (or whatever the modern day digital equivalent of that phrase would be). Highlights from the Summer issue include: 

• Summer Interns & REU 2012
• Awards & Recognitions 
• Incoming Class Snapshot
• New IPLER Disaster Response video
• Past Receptions & Upcoming Events 
• And, of course, your quarterly "From the Archives" photograph

Check it out!

Cool town, evening in the city

Last night was the CIS Summer in the City alumni event! We had a very healthy crowd of 25 or so alumni, faculty, staff, and students join us for an evening downtown at Tapas 177. It was a great mix of people, about half of which I haven't previously met, so it was a great time getting to know folks while sharing some really tasty food. My favorite part was hearing old stories of pranks students used to play on their not-so-nice landlords back in the 60's when RIT was still located downtown. And a good time was had by all! Some pictures below...

Our private indoor space

Our semi-private outdoor space

The spread!!!

I'M DROOLING

Good times, good times.

The rest of the pictures are located here.

Hot town, summer in the city

Today I made a flyer for our upcoming happy hour event on August 1. The event is only two weeks away and no one has signed up yet! Hopefully with these posted around the building and on Facebook we'll get some registrations...

Extra, extra! Spring Imaging Connection Now Available!

The latest issue of the CIS Imaging Connection newsletter is hot off the press (or whatever the modern day digital equivalent of that phrase would be). Highlights from the Spring issue include: 

• Commencement 2012 
• Awards & Recognitions 
• ImagineRIT Recap 
• Freshman Imaging Project 
• Past Receptions & Upcoming Events 
• Venus Transit at the RIT Observatory

Check it out!

ImagingRIT - oh wait, I mean ImagineRIT

Am I the only person so accustomed to typing "Imaging" that I can't spell "Imagine" anymore? Maybe? Oh well.

Unless you live under a rock, you probably know that ImagineRIT was Saturday!!! (And hopefully, if you live in Rochester, you were there - and if not, WHY THE HECK NOT?!?!) Seeing as how this was the 5th year for the event, everyone should hopefully know what it is by now so that I don't have to get in to a whole bunch of background. Basically ImagineRIT is like one great big huge sci-tech-art fair open house with all kinds of exhibits, most of them student projects, on display, all free and open to the public. And there is food and music and live entertainment... It is kind of a big deal, and if you didn't know this already, then you should probably just leave my blog right now because you must be lost. 

Blue sky, sun light... Hey wait, what's that? Why, it's a weather balloon with cameras strapped to it!

Anyways, the best of RIT was on display, the weather was beautiful, and let's face it I was there, so there's no wonder we had a record 35,000 attendees!!! If you have ever been to Imagine then you know how big and overwhelming it is, so I am not even going to try to summarize in a blog post. But, you can see some of the day's happenings as they happened over on the CIS Twitter feed as well as my own twitter (which you may have noticed suddenly come into existence just a few days ago), since I was busy running around all day keeping them both updated. I tried to hit up as many of the CIS-related booths as possible and tweet pictures of them (one example being the weather balloon above), so don't let all my walking and effort go to waste - check it out! 

So much Imaging Science going on in this picture.
Craniofacial Phenotyper structured light face scanner - built by imsci FRESHMEN.

Social media butterfly was just one of the hats I wore on Saturday, as well as auxiliary freshman support/booth greeter, traveling CIS rep, alumni relations person, summer internship coordinator lady, recruiter, nerd in last place, and general pal to the gazillion friends and colleagues past and present that I ran into throughout the day. Which, while I'm on the topic, holy crap I had no idea how many people I know!!! Spend almost 10 years at RIT as a student, alumnus, and staff person, and you'd be surprised how many people you are connected with. I ran into old friends, new colleagues, kids I had just presented to the day before (!!!!!), interns from last year, interns for this year, other intern applicants, accepted students for fall, Staff Council members, senior administrators.... the list goes on and on. Things really got ridiculous when even my dad was getting spotted by people he used to work with (he's been retired about 8 years). The whole day was non stop, "Hey!!!! How ya doin?!" Who needs reunions anymore? It was awesome.

Obligatory picture proving I was there.
Also a fair illustration of the most excellent coincidental coordination of my purple chunk of hair with the shirts designed by the freshmen. holla

Some major highlights of my day included:

• Having a conversation with some of the Greece Apollo kids on twitter (It's working!!!)
• Seeing said Greece Apollo kids actually come visit!
• ImSci swag machine
• Meeting/catching up with students' parents (no wonder so many of them are so awesome)
• Catching up with Steve Schultz & family (and getting a head start on recruiting the next generation of Imaging Scientists) 
• Seeing all the amazing exhibits across campus - one of my favs was the under the sea balloon world, even though it was kinda silly. It was way cool.
• Strolling around campus with my parents!
• & finding my brother's brick on the Legacy Walk, which was just installed last Thursday.

Some lowlights:

• Photo Tech Science stealing imsci thunder and making things uber confusing in the process (sorry to be uncooperative, but this really was upsetting to me, sorry)
• Finding a poster that basically rips off one I already made??!? THEY EVEN USE THE SAME FONT.
• Strollers. SO. MANY. STROLLERS.
• Losing my voice again, aw man! And I had just finally gotten it back!

But those lowlights hardly count, I merely posted them here for posterity.

Oh man, ImagineRIT was so awesome!!! Even just thinking back to it to write this post is getting me all excited again. Good thing I have next year to look forward to. Hope you'll be joining us May 4, 2013! (The awesomeness of this blog post is enough to convince you you want to go, right?)

*Cricket chirp*

Yesterday was our annual trip for the 6th annual DC-area alumni reception. As I mentioned before, this time we planned for it to take place in Baltimore so as to coincide with the SPIE Defense, Security, & Sensing conference that many of our alumni (many of them from DC) attend. You may recall that I also mentioned I was nervous... Turns out those feelings were proven. Well, let's start from the beginning.

• April 17, 2011: Visit DC, get ~40 people in attendance. Some people missed out because they were going to be traveling the next week for SPIE and wanted to spend their last weekend before it at home. 
• April 26, 2011: Host reception in Orlando for SPIE, get ~12 in attendance. Guests include many CIS faculty and students in town for conference.
• Summer 2011: Realize conference is in Baltimore in 2012. Given close proximity of the two alumni events, and the likelihood of DC-area CIS alumni attending SPIE, decide to combine events.
• Winter 2012: Plan Baltimore event. Decide on Sunday afternoon so that DC-area non-conference-goers can still come and not have to deal with traffic. Make event length long enough such that conference attendees just arriving in Baltimore can come. Reserve space down the road from site of conference.
• Spring 2012: Publicize event. Send more personalized invitations when initial registration turns out to be low.
• April 21, 2012: TWO people registered, with a handful of e-mailed maybes.
• April 22, 2012: Travel to Baltimore. Lousy weather makes travel uncomfortable. No one attends.

Wait, did I really just say that? That can't be right, can it?? Well, believe what you see, my friends. Nobody showed up. NOBODY.

It pains me to admit this. It makes us look bad. But I try to keep my blog honest, for better or for worse. This is definitely for worse.

What was it? Was it the timing? Was it the location? Was it the weather? What happened? The planning seemed logical. A number of us were involved, and we all thought it made sense. The drive from DC on a Sunday is 40 minutes - is that really so bad? What does this say about the worth of our annual reception that we put so many resources into? And what about conference attendees - were they not in town yet? What about our own CIS folks who were arriving on an afternoon flight at 1:10PM? We stayed until 4:30 just in case travel was delayed. We ended up giving our food away to the workers at the venue and any other patrons of the restaurant interested in trying something off the catering menu.

It wasn't all bad. I got to spend the day with my boss, one of our students, and our associate director of alumni relations, which was really valuable team building. We visited the aquarium (though it is probably 5th from the top on my list of best aquariums, but I don't want to sound like a TOTAL complainer - it was still good and had cool sharks and rays. But no touch tank? REALLY?). Our student's family made the drive from their home 2 hours away to join us, and they are absolutely wonderful people whom I always enjoy catching up with. The venue was phenomenal, from location to price to food. I almost beat Joe playing darts, and he's got, like, 4 decades of experience on me (not exaggerating at all... okay, maybe a little). So we all actually had a really good time... The only downside was, we didn't have anyone to share it with.

Our little group.
Sidenote: Could I have picked a more awkward position to stand in? Oh well, awkward was the feeling du jour.

Anyways, through a stroke of luck I was able to get onto an earlier flight home (Victory! standby list FTW), which was really good for me since I am still sick and walking around in the rain all day yesterday certainly didn't help. (Yes, I did think to bring an umbrella when I saw the forecast of 100% chance of rain; but since I was wearing a hooded rain coat I let our student use my umbrella.) I got home around 7:30, fell asleep by 8, and finally got a chance to try to sleep this bug off - which seems so simple but felt so incredibly fantastic.

So... Now what? I'm not sure what to do moving forward. Writing this blog entry and admitting my defeat was the first step. Now we are going to have to use this data to rethink our process in the future. But I'm not quite ready to think about that, yet.