School's a brick and I'm drowning slowly

Okay, that title is too dramatic, but WOW what a crazy week this has been. For being a short week (thanks to Labor Day), it sure has felt looooong. I feel like I am barely treading water to keep myself afloat! The start of the school year means a number of things:

• *POOF!* Welcome back, thousands of students! The campus goes from a ghost town to a bustling metropolis in a single day. Orientation does little to prepare for this, especially because freshmen can't park anywhere near where I do, and have all their own activities to participate in that don't involve our building. But I welcome the activity, and am excited to have students back :-) ...even though I have lousier parking (more exercise!).
• TONS of RIT emails.
• The restart of the Seminar Series. Not only does the series starting back up mean quite a bit of maintenance on my part, but other schools are now back in session also - which means a number of future presenters are getting their abstract/bios/et cetera to me simultaneously right now.
• The start of classes - which does impact me since I am continuing to take a graduate class each quarter. (I feel like I just finally recovered from my class over summer!)
• Regular Staff Council meetings. Since my tenure on Staff Council started in June, meetings have been irregular during the summer months. Now it's time for me to adjust to a regular meeting schedule... And since I'm on the Executive Committee, that means I am now busy from 2-4 every Thursday from now until forever. Plus there's the Ad-Hoc Outreach Committee that I am liaison for - we only meet once per month, but our one meeting so far has generated a fair amount of action items. Oh, AND there's Institute Council meetings once/month.
• Regular IS&T (Imaging Science & Technology Club) meetings every Friday.
• Espresso Cart socials 4 days a week
• And last but not least, my personal favorite: Noon-time skating every day!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!

On top of all of this going on this week, some other things happened to coincide:

• We have a new Assoc. Director of Alumni Relations for COS - which is GREAT news! It has been difficult to organize alumni events in the absence of a dedicated person over in Alumni Relations. So this is wonderful, but just happened to coincide with everything else busy going on in this short week - so I have planning upcoming receptions now on my plate with everything else.
• New CIS Promotional Items - which in turn need their own promoting, kind of. I'm advertising our new SWAG to entice people to participate with our Foursquare and Ambassador Program initiatives.

So all of those have been the major themes of my week, with even some more little things here and there - getting promo materials together for the Office of Graduate & Part Time Enrollment to use on their recruiting trips; promoting the espresso cart and seminar series; putting out fires regarding the seminar series live feed (or rather, an unannounced lack thereof...); getting in the hang of our foursquare presence; making connections with new people across campus; so on, so on. Oh my! And I really, REALLY need to get the next CIS Imaging Connection newsletter finished. I have been trying to get it done now for 2 weeks but between meetings, more pressing/urgent matters, and the not-quite-decided-on elements of the newsletter (namely, upcoming events and receptions), it remains incomplete. This is stressing me out quite a bit.

It has been a difficult week because I feel like I have been so busy, and yet I feel like I have gotten so little accomplished. For everything I can check off of my to-do list, 3 more things get put on! I don't mean to vent or sound negative; I am just trying to objectively and accurately illustrate how my week has been. I don't let it get me down - I prefer being busy because I love my job! Well, TGIF!

CIS is now on Foursquare!

So I've decided to try and expand our social media outreach tactics, which means CIS is now running specials on Foursquare! If people check in to CIS during the Coffee Cart, Seminar Series, or IS&T, they'll be able to view specials and find out how to fulfill campaigns to receive prizes. I'm pretty new to Foursquare, so this should be interesting. I'm not usually a big fan of it, but I think that checking in on a college campus during normal business hours should be nice and safe, and the app as a whole has some pretty neat features that could become a lot of fun. Who knows, maybe the "Mayor" of CIS will be allowed certain perks, like cutting to the front of the IS&T pizza line... We'll see! I'm also very open to suggestions on where to take this. 

Click the logo below to be taken to CIS's venue page!

Introducing...All new Outreach resources!

I have been glued to my chair for the past while, putting together several new and several other updated pages for the CIS website:

• NEW! CIS Ambassador Program - Details the new CIS Ambassador Program I'm organizing, which supports and rewards dedicated individuals willing to help spread the good word about Imaging Science.
• NEW! Imaging Science Outreach That You Can Do - Features videos, informational slideshows, and activities that can be presented to students of all ages.
• Facelift! Outreach Programs - Added slideshow banner, reorganized, and added the new pages above.
• Facelift! In-Class Demos - Added slideshow banner, reorganized, added programs/events we participate in, and added schools we've visited.
• Facelift! Information For: Alumni - Added information on the Ambassadors Program (which we are hoping will involve many alumni), reorganized, and added pictures.

PHEW! Believe me, this is no small feat. It has been a lot of effort and a lot of experimenting to get all of these things running and looking good. I am proud of everything I've put together this week. And the Office of K-12 Programs likes the new Outreach pages too - we're going to be linked on their website! Yeah!

Next it's on to finishing the summer issue of the CIS Imaging Connection - which will now be a little late once it gets out, but that's a good thing because now it can include all of the new goodies I made.

Check!

The new reading group webpage I mentioned in my last post is now live! Check out the Computer Vision Reading Group page to find out more.

The Calm Before the Storm

So in this strange lull between interns being gone and students coming back, I've been fixing up some little things here and there:

• Updated the CIS YouTube Channel to include more videos and have an RIT color scheme, and added a link to the channel on the CIS Image Galleries page (seemed the best place to put it...)
• Fixed the tellmemore portal to have a link to YouTube, so that iPhone/iPod/iPad users can still watch the intro video
• Created new images for the image slideshow banner on the front of the CIS website
• Gotten everything in order for the 2011-2012 Seminar Series, website/promotions-wise
• Created a flyer for RIT Young Professionals (not strictly Imaging Science, but getting the word out there will get me more exposure which will then give Imaging Science more exposure)

And I've gotten started on a few more-involved projects:

• Webpage for a new reading group for grad students
• Summer issue of Imaging Connection Newsletter for alumni
• "Outreach That You Can Do" website with resources for other people to do Imaging Science outreach

It sure is quiet around here... It is the calm before the storm, before students start returning to campus. And speaking of storm, I hope everybody stays safe from impending hurricane Irene!! We have a lot of alumni and families of students in her projected path. My thoughts are with them this weekend.

Today we say goodbye to the BEST INTERNS EVER

Today was the summer interns' last day! So sad! Although their first day feels like ages ago, it felt like it all came to an end in an instant. I am really going to miss them!

Final presentations: Here we go!

For their final day, the interns present powerpoints based upon their research from the summer. Yesterday we had a dry run, and it seemed that most of the interns felt at least a little bit nervous, if not very much so. Well I am very proud to say, that ALL of the interns pulled out really fantastic presentations today. Everybody came off very confident and knowledgeable, and really did a great job. I am extremely proud of everything that our interns have accomplished this summer! Click here to view pictures of today's presentations.

I am equally excited by how well the interns bonded this summer. I don't think CIS has ever had a group form as strong of friendships as this year's class of interns. They hung out outside of work, went to see movies together, had a party at Kelsey's house this past week, and are even planning group trips to Laser Quest and Darien Lake before the summer is out. And, after the presentations were over, they didn't even want to leave. Everyone hung around for at least an hour afterward, already reminiscing and generally being reluctant to say goodbye. I found that I even had a difficult time breaking away. I made sure to make it well known that they are all welcome to come back and visit anytime they like! I hope a bunch of them come back as Imaging Science students, how cool would that be?!

Oh yeah, I can't end my final interns 2011 post without acknowledging how silly they all are. Just kidding! But they did give us all parting gifts, which are immediately now among my most prized possessions:

Parting gifts from the BEST INTERNS EVER! #warmfuzzy #ohyoushouldnthave

I should point out the fabulous Photoshop job they did for this group picture, and the fact that they intended it to look just so. Just a little Imaging Science humor. #imlovinit

I will always treasure these appreciation/parting gifts and keep them prominently displayed in my office, and any future office I may work in. (The lava lamp is an especially nice touch!) THANK YOU so much to our wonderful group of 2011 High School interns!!! (I miss you guys already!)

A family legacy, of sorts

Part of today I spent showing around a prospective student and her family. She is local, and her sister was actually one of our interns a few years ago - but what actually piqued her interest was a visit to her school by one of our current students! So I gave the family a tour of the building and introduced them to our current high school interns, who described the research they are working on this summer (they did a great job, by the way - I know they'll be fantastic at their final presentations, which are next week already!). Afterward, we joined the whole group of interns and all went out to lunch together at Crossroads! There we all had a chance to informally chat and get to know each other, and let her get a feeling for RIT and the experiences the interns are having here. She seems like a really great fit for Imaging Science, and she has great interest and enthusiasm! I could relate a lot to her interests and feelings, as they remind me of myself 10 years ago when I was her age. After lunch, I pointed the way to the Admissions Office - she is just THAT excited! Yeah!!! I surely hope we'll be welcoming her here next fall.