Urban League Summer Camp: Day 5

Today was my last day of involvement with the Urban League Summer Camp! *tear!

We started the session by watching the video I made last night and going through the powerpoint slides I was asked to prepare. The groups then took a half hour or so to finalize their parts of the presentations. Team Thursday actually had prepared slides that they brought on a thumb drive and added in to the presentation, so they were able to kick their feet up and relax. I was really proud to see that they had taken initiative like that. Meanwhile, Team Tuesday had done a bunch of research and collected imagery, they just had to put it into the slides, so that was impressive too. 

Putting on the final touches.

Team Wednesday did a dry run of the 3-D demo, and it all went swimmingly. Team Monday kind of cruised and figured they were ready, but their lack of preparation and organization compared to the other groups would become apparent in the presentation (but it still wasn't BAD, by any means). 

1:45 came around, and it was time to present. I was hoping a larger crowd would have gathered to watch, but the kids took it seriously nonetheless and put on a great show:

Jordin emceed.

Captivated audience

Watching the video

Presenting on 3-D head scans. They even went into detail about colors and wavelengths and how you could integrate IR as well.

I tried to capture video of the presentation, but we had a number of technical difficulties, not to mention that room is way too dark (with no illumination on the speaker) to be able to capture anything that actually looks decent. Oh well.

Overall, the campers did a FANTASTIC job. They totally exceeded my expectations and definitely showcased themselves and how much they learned. It was clear to me as well as the visitors who came for the presentation that the kids had a really great time and really learned a lot - what more can you ask for? At the end of the presentations when it was time to go, the kids told me they were going to miss me and a few of them even gave me hugs! I gave them all lenticular postcards with my e-mail address on them; I hope they keep in touch, because I'm going to miss them too.

Urban League Summer Camp: Day 4

Well it's after 9PM and I'm still at CIS.... YIKES. Don't you ever question my dedication to this job.

Okay, threats aside... Why am I so busy, anyways? Today was the second-to-last day for my portion of the Urban League Summer Camp 2012, which means that tomorrow is presentation day, so I've been busy getting everything ready for the kids to assemble tomorrow. It may sound like I'm doing all the work but I promise I'm not... Let's rewind and start over from the beginning of today.

We started out with looking at all of the anaglyphs that were created yesterday. We decided which ones looked good and which didn't seem to work, and what some of the causes for them not to look good might be. More often than not, the red and cyan pictures were too far apart from one another, so we weren't able to resolve them into a single image without giving ourselves headaches. I showed the flower example, and at first everyone thought it looked good - until I pointed out that the flowers in front perspective-wise were actually showing as in the back depth-wise. One sharp student noticed that if you switched the 3-D glasses (so, left eye looks out cyan instead of red), it seemed  to correct itself. Huzzah! I then showed the corrected image I made, where I fixed the left/right red/cyan perspectives, which garnered many oohs and aahs. Yeah, that was pretty cool.

Before we knew it, Nadya had arrived to give her presentation and demo on LiDAR (in keeping with the 3-D theme). She presented on her summer research measuring plants grown under differing soil/compost/worm power conditions and described how LiDAR works and what it's used for. Jan also went over the concepts of reflectivity curves briefly, and how the LiDAR system uses near-IR laser pulses to measure the distances of objects 360º around it. Then, the group from DIRS gave a demo with the LiDAR system:

 

After a little processing, we had a chance to view the 3-D point cloud that was measured:

Whoa! It was super cool to be able to enter through the point cloud door and move around through the entire room, including looking up at the ceiling and up into the recessed lights. The detail on the faces of the kids in the front was really amazing, too. Needless to say, this really got their attention, and we had so much fun with the first one that we did a second scan (this time with the lights off, so that we could try recording in digital cameras to see whether the CCDs would be able to detect the laser):

This time there were some technical difficulties getting the data processed, so in the mean time I was able to revisit the 3-D analgyphs and show the kids the two that have just been received from the new Mars Rover, Curiosity. It was really cool to see how actually relevant data and exercises like that are, and let's be honest, anything involving the Mars rovers is always awesome. I was happy to hear that pretty much all the kids were following the news of Curiosity (even with the Olympics going on, YES!), but some of them were not convinced that it was really on Mars - so I went through a few slides of one of my normal presentations about the "Mars blueberries" and how spectral sensing can be used to identify materials on the surfaces of other planets. The talk really held the kids' attention, too, which just goes to show how cool Mars is.

The end of my little tangent talk coincided perfectly with the data processing wrapping up, so then we had a chance to look at the second LiDAR point cloud:

And with that we gave Nadya et al a big round of applause and many thanks for showing us all their cool technologies. The LiDAR definitely went over really well!

After that we didn't have a whole lot of time left to get started on planning for tomorrow's presentation, so it was really time to hustle. I explained what the plan was for tomorrow: we'll have about an hour to prepare, and then will start the presentation around 1:45. I also made it clear that I will NOT be the one giving the presentation - after all, I've been doing all the work all week! This time it will be their turn. After some initial chaos, I was proud to see things naturally settle and start progressing with minimal suggestion from me. A few natural leaders stepped up: one student asked right away if she could be emcee tomorrow because she knows she's good at it, which I thought was an excellent idea; and two others were eager to help organize into groups and take control of the whiteboard. Everyone decided they wanted to divide up according to the days of the week, so there would be 4 groups (to represent Monday - Thursday). Once the groups were determined, they had about 10 minutes to strategize about how they wanted to proceed with the presentation. I promised to have the truths/misconceptions video clips assembled for tomorrow, and also reminded everyone that I had pictures and videos from all of the days to help support their presentations. The groups got right down to business with planning, my role being facilitator. 

With a few minutes left in the session, I asked the leader from each of the groups to share with everyone what their plan is:

• Monday's group plans to first ask the audience: "What is Imaging Science?" This will be followed by my video, after which they will explain what Imaging Science is and use the platypus as an example. 
• Tuesday's group is planning to explain much of the theory behind 3-D head scanners and how they work, and will show videos of themselves getting scanned. 
• Wednesday's group is going to do a demo where they will create an anaglyph in real time (what a great idea!!!!), and then will go through the existing images and also explain the example of the flowers. 
• Thursday's group plans to show the Mars images and describe all the LiDAR excitement from today, using the videos above. 

I know at least one of the groups said they might throw a rap in there too for fun, which would be awesome. I think these are all really good ideas - I am excited to see it all come together tomorrow! I am really proud of this group and confident that they will pull off a fantastic presentation. They did a wonderful job today - I admit, I will miss them next week...

And that brings me to where I am now - almost 10PM, holy cow! I spent hours getting the video all made (which if you recall, the slides and format for the video were chosen by the kids on Tuesday), and then got started on the Powerpoint slides that were requested by each of the groups while the video exported. And then I wrote this blog post, which you can guess took a while. I really wish I could post the video I made here - it is hilarious (sound effects FTW), but like I said the other day, a bunch of people didn't want to be online, so I shall respect their wishes. Anyways it really is too late, so I am getting out of here. I predicted this morning that I would be there until 10PM, but I didn't really expect to be so accurate...

Urban League Summer Camp: Day 3

The next chapter in our 3-D journey today was... How to make your own 3-D Anaglyphs! We started out by viewing a few examples from last year, talking about which ones worked well and which didn't, and what the possible reasons might be for some being more effective than others. 

I then gave a simple overview on binocular vision and how that allows us to see in 3-D. I connected that to today's activity by describing how we can emulate binocular vision by taking two pictures: one to represent the view of one eye and the second to represent the other eye. The color properties of each picture are then manipulated and the images are viewed through filters, so that one eye sees only one perspective/picture and the other eye views the other perspective - essentially, the left eye receives the left eye view and the right eye sees the right eye view. This is then combined in our brains into a picture that appears to have depth.

After showing the kids how to take these pictures with our D50 cameras, groups of three each took a camera and went off to venture around RIT and capture images to make into anaglyphs. Upon their return an hour later, Bob and I (along with two helpful high school intern helpers!) got all of the groups situated in Optics Labs where they could then start processing and combining the images. 

HS Intern Christina lending a hand!

HS Intern Nick was a great helper, too!

 

These kids were really on top of things - they followed the directions really well and were surprisingly self-sufficient - though I don't want to take all the credit away from Nick and Christina, who both were a huge help. Everybody did a really great job today, and hopefully learned a lot (and I should think had fun doing it). Check out some of the results (don't forget to grab some red/blue 3-D glasses!):

This might be my favorite.

 

I'm not sure about this one... Once I go googly eyed enough to resolve a single image, the parts that ought to be in the foreground actually appear in the background (this is obvious in the areas where flowers overlap, so your mind knows which should be in front, but the 3-D image is not in agreement). HHHMMMM...

Sure enough, the team had the left/right images reversed. Here's a fixed up version.

 

Tomorrow we'll have a chance to look them all over and pick out favorites to use in Friday's presentation. Hard to believe there's only really 1 day left!

Urban League Summer Camp: Day 2

Today's session with the Urban League Summer Camp met up in the new classroom, where we started out picking up where we left off yesterday. I asked the kids to tell me what were some of the things they learned were true about Imaging Science, and what were some of the misconceptions. After making a list of the board, we rewatched a bunch of the clips as a refresher. The kids were in charge of determining on their own whether a video response deserved to be BUZZed or DING DINGed, while Joe added the clip numbers to the appropriate sides of the board where we were keeping track of truths and misconceptions:

This was a useful activity because it reinforced what we went over yesterday, and also gave us a starting point for Friday's presentation. It was decided that the presentation will describe what Imaging Science is, and will start out with videos of wrong answers that will get buzzed followed by correct answers.

This activity didn't take as long as I was expecting but actually gave us a perfect segue into talking about resolution and frame rates. I was able then to present a bit about what digital images are, what resolution means, and how frame rate makes a difference in videos. Although the topic is a bit dry, it gets into some nitty gritty Imaging Science, and also provided some background for what was next to come, which was a presentation from our freshmen students that have been continuing work this summer on the craniofacial phenotyper.

This was good practice for the freshies since they will be presenting at the Undergraduate Research Symposium on Friday. It also provided an introduction for the Urban League students to 3-D Imaging, which is what the remainder of our week will focus on.

After the presentation, all of the kids were going to get their heads scanned, though only a few people could fit into the lab at a time so we had to split up. Most of us went across to the hall to the Reading Room where last week's winning team got first pick at the comfy seats and ice cream (as promised yesterday). In there, while groups went to get their faces scanned, we watched a few videos about 3-D Imaging including other medical applications, usage in film and television, and how you can make your own inexpensive 3-D scanner at home.

I tagged along with the last group to get their faces scanned and snagged a few cool videos of the process:

Overall I think things went pretty well today, though it wasn't as exciting as yesterday. The kids did seem to still appreciate it, though - one was nice enough to hand me an ice cream bar and say, "You did such a good job today, I think you deserve this." Heehee. Tomorrow the kids will be let loose with cameras to make their own 3-D anaglyphs, so that should bring the excitement level back up again!

Urban League Summer Camp 2012: Day 1

If you have been following my blog for over a year now you may remember when I ran a session last year as part of the Urban League Summer Camp. Well, it's that time of year again! The camp is set up a bit differently this year, in that I am only running one week of sessions, which also means that I get the entire group (whereas last week I had half the group, and for two weeks). Also, the other session has changed this year from GIS to Nano Bio Technology. There is a lot more participation this year, seeing as how my number of participating students has practically tripled(!). Other aspects of the camp have stayed the same: the kids start the day in a leadership workshop, then have lunch at Gracie's, and then are with me for 2 hours before heading back out. Oh, but there is one other noticeable difference versus last year: the kids seem to be really into it this year!

For our first day, I planned basically to do introductions of each other and an introduction to Imaging Science - but I wanted to find a way to somehow combine the two and do something more relevant than a normal icebreaker activity. After a little brainstorming in the morning with Bob and Joe, we decided to follow our usual first day routine of letting the kids loose with video cameras, but this time with a different purpose. Whereas last year I asked the kids to find examples of Imaging Science all across campus (which was not so exciting), this year Joe suggested we tell the kids to go out and find as many people across campus as possible and as them what they think Imaging Science is - so, like how Leno does his Jaywalking bit. They would get tallied for how many people they asked, but they had to get a minimum of 10 and no more than two of those were supposed to be inside the building. Also, they were supposed to start their video by each introducing themselves: their name, what grade they're going into, and at what school. They had 45 minutes to get as much footage as possible, and like last year we weren't going to show them how to use the cameras (but we would be available to help if they needed us). Aaaaand, GO!

Surprisingly, the kids went right off and started getting video, and we were never asked for help other than one anomaly where the camera froze and was totally unresponsive. Most of the groups finished up early, so I encouraged them to go out and ask more people. One team heard that going up to the 7th floor of Eastman would be an automatic win, so sure enough they ran off to try it. 1:30 came around and I started processing the videos while the kids had a little down time, and within a few minutes (and a few additional minutes of having to wait for one team whose cameraperson apparently was in the bathroom for quite some time - minus 100 points!) the videos were ready for viewing. 

A few of the teams caught intern Olivia (who should have had a better answer, COME ON!)

An esteemed panel of myself, Joe, Bob, and Michelle (from the K-12 office) were to serve as judges. I had the role of tallying the number of people and awarding bonus points; Joe had a buzzer to BZZZZZ bad answers from people; Bob had a call bell to DING DING! good answers; and Michelle was in charge of pictures. Some highlights from the videos include answers from some notables across campus (which the kids had no idea were such important people), asking someone while they were in the bathroom, one of the answers actually mentioning the platypus, and of course visiting the President's office (which, although they didn't get to interview Dr. Destler himself, they did get a very nice answer from one of his staff assistants). We had told the students that they should introduce themselves and explain that they were part of this program, and we were very pleased to see that they did actually remember to do this. The kids were all extremely polite, and also thanked people for answering and sometimes even gave them handshakes. Although even despite this, there were still some people who had very adverse reactions to being asked "What is Imaging Science?" and/or were pretty upset to have been recorded; so for that reason I won't be posting any of the clips on here. (sad trombone)

The competition was FIERCE but as you can see, even with all the random bonuses and deductions (and miscalculations for Team 3), there was a clear winner.

Overall the experience went way better than I was possibly hoping for. The kids had a lot of fun making and watching the videos, and the clips were actually very educational, too. By having the buzzes and dings to indicate good and bad answers, the kids had a chance to learn what Imaging Science really is and what a lot of the misconceptions are. (They also learned that a lot of people simply don't know and won't even try to guess.) The kids also all learned how to use the video cameras (and did a good job, too!) and got to know their way around campus a bit more. And on top of all of these awesome things, we already have some really great material for their presentation on Friday! Originally we were going to reward the winners with Ben & Jerry's coupons, but we ended up being so impressed with ALL of the videos that we're going to give all the kids ice cream tomorrow. Oh boy!

Urban League Summer Camp: Day 10 - LAST DAY

So today marks the end of an era! Or something... Well, at the very least it's the end of the summer camp. Our whole 2 weeks were wrapped up in a final presentation, which for my group consisted of a power point I put together that had pictures and videos for all the days of the camp, with the students narrating and telling stories. My kids were well behaved and put on a great show:

Alright, guys, here we go...

BUT FIRST - The terrorist strikes again!!!!! This time they gave Debbie, one of the workshop organizers, a response to the note begging for the baby's safe return! She passed it along before our presentation, saying it was dropped off to her.

Back to presenting. Here's Darryl explaining his mirror demo.

Showing off our anaglyphs to a wowed audience.

After our presentations were done, the GIS group started their presentations. Lo and behold, one of them pulls out of their bag...THE BABY HOSTAGE!!! She claims she found it out in the hall way... Hmmmm... ;-)

The baby's back!!!!!!

After they were all done presenting, we all got together for a couple group pictures, and then parted ways. I am really proud of my kids and the things they have accomplished these two weeks. Hopefully they have taken away as much from this experience as I have.

THE END!!!!

Oh, and about that baby hostage - guess what... (It was me the whole time.)

Urban League Summer Camp: Day 9

The end is near... :-( But what a way to bring these two weeks to a close: Hi-speed video!! Below are my picks for the top 3 videos made today.

We put mentos into Diet W pop to create a geyser.

Hmm, I smell trouble...

BOMBS AWAY!!!

The aftermath... Check out the blast pattern left in the grass!

When we got back inside, we found another evil note from the terrorist!

This prompted a few of the campers to write a note in response:

We finished off the day going over tomorrow's presentation and getting to look at all the work we've done so far, including yesterday's anaglyphs.

The rest of today's videos can all be watched on the RITImagingScience YouTube channel. You should definitely check them out :-).

Urban Leage Summer Camp: Day 8

More fun times!

We started out by piling into the Freshmen Lab.

HS Intern Kelsey told us about PTMs and her summer research.

Then while Kelsey set up Betsy to be able to capture a PTM for us, we piled into the Biomedical Imaging Lab...

...Where HS Intern Ed told us about his research with ultrasound.

Then it was back upstairs to watch Betsy do her thang.

Then we got to play around with the PTM we made.

When we got back to the Fishbowl, we found another note left by the hostage-taker! (What?)

And then it was on to capturing images to make into anaglyphs.

There were 4 teams each sent around campus armed with D50s.

Then it was back to the optics labs to process the imagery (or goof around with the cameras some more).

The first team with a finished anaglyph. Look how exciting it is!

And finally, viewing analgyphs with the 3D glasses.

Here's the actual anaglyph from the last picture.

Below are some more of the analgyphs from today, and you can check out a bunch more at the Picasa album. (Don't forget, these should be viewed with some red/blue 3D glasses!)