Of course you know what remoulade is.

Last night there was an OSA lecture at the George Eastman House about Kodak's contribution to Cold War surveillance. Well it just so happens that the third year undergrads were planning a CIS-sponsored outing for the same evening, so I ran the idea past them that we all hit up the talk before heading out to dinner. I know I was interested in attending, and organizing a group to see the talk gave more relevancy to the outing overall. Lo and behold, they agreed! So around 5:30 we gathered in the lobby of Carlson and caravaned over to the Eastman House. (For the record, I got there first by taking a well planned route and driving the appropriate speed limits, despite SOME student's attempt to beat me with the bright idea of taking a "shortcut" and driving like a banshee at unsafe speeds. NOT well played, sir. Not well played. This time you put the STUD in STUpiD - oohhh, I got you there. You know who you are.) (PS> I'm just kidding but the adult in me still must scold you for acting irresponsibly.)

We arrived early enough to - oh wait, stop everything, there's a photo booth.

We arrived early enough to tour the Eastman House and museum (and Sam of course b-lined for the food, which he says was really good). While we really enjoyed browsing around, there seemed to be quite a crowd forming so we made sure to get to the Curtis Theater in time to all get seats together. So many people showed up that it ended up being standing-room-only, and there were people sitting on the floor. 

The lecture began with a Kodak retiree detailing his time as an optical engineer at Kodak after graduating from the U of R Institute of Optics in the 1950's(!). He was actually Kodak's first employee to hold the title of "Optical Engineer". He showed a bunch of old draft drawings for lenses that were used in the Gambit and Gambit-3 reconnaissance satellites, and had old pictures of Kodak's Hawkeye building and labs. It was fascinating to see the "old way" of doing things, before easy computer models or even simple calculators. I really enjoyed seeing this perspective.

This was then followed up by a Corning optical engineer who had voluntarily gone about a quantitative comparison between the Gambit and Gambit-3 systems. He also detailed a bit more about how the systems worked and compared their layouts, and also explained how imagery was actually delivered back to the ground. This, too, was very interesting. Ah, it felt so good to be wearing my science hat again. Meanwhile, this speaker actually graduated from the U of R Institute of Optics a year after my dad, so I wonder whether they knew each other. (I tried discreetly texting my mom, asking her to ask my dad whether he recognized the name; to which I received the response, "He's asleep." Bear in mind, this was about 7:30PM....)

Overall, I thought the talk was fascinating. I'm not too sure the students felt the same way... Then again I'm not sure I would have felt the same way back when I was a student, either. Interesting how things change.

Anyways, after that it was on to the Distillery for - what's that place with all the goofy stuff on their walls and the mozzarella sticks? Oh yeah,

Basically we ate some tasty food, made fun of what was on the TVs (Summer 2012 flashback with Olympic gymnastics and Kobe Bryant in the NBA playoffs - Why?), blew off steam, and took silly pictures, like this gem:

Aww, all my widdle students, all tuckered out.

And with our bellies too full, we called it a night. Sure, I got thanked because I had the credit card - but really the appreciation should go to our awesome students, because it's thanks to them that I have the best job in the world.

No need to alert the authorities, I'm just fine.

So I recognize that I haven't written anything in a while. I have been SUPER busy with a number of in-depth projects running in parallel (hence why none of them have really gotten done enough yet to have blog posts written about them). For example, my to-do list contains (but is not limited to)...

• Develop new undergrad promotional brochure
• Develop new undergrad promotional online booklet
• Develop new graduate promotional online booklet
• Develop banners to mount outside CIS
• Update "About CIS" presentations for general use
• Update lobby slideshow (since the computer FINALLY just got turned on for the first time in months)
• Add a "What the students are saying" section to the IFE webpage
• Help with coordination of a professionally produced IFE video
• Design and coordinate a ████████████ <- Sorry! This project is TOP SECRET.

Plus normal, all-the-time, day-to-day stuff. Right. But despite my ever-growing desktop sticky note of to-dos, I have been able to knock out a few things, most notably a poster for the grad program info sessions that will be taking place next Monday:

And an accompanying e-mail announcement that already started spamming inboxes as of this morning:

Plus the end of last week was busy with homecoming, but Brick City deserves its own post so that will have to wait.

Meanwhile, the new grad brochures that I made just came in, and they look AWWWEESOOOME (if I do say so myself). But as LeVar Burton's trademark phrase went, 

I <3 RR so much.

...so drop by and pick one up to see for yourself. Da-dun DUN!

NEW CIS Graduate Programs Brochure

I think it is FINALLY safe to reveal the outcome of a project I've been working on for a few weeks now - a new graduate programs brochure! It's actually been nearly complete for a while, but hadn't received full approval until, well, about half an hour ago. Check it out:

Fold-over flap, back, and cover

Inside 3 panels

You might think the cover looks a little familiar... It was designed to follow the same themes as the 2011 Annual Report cover. The big rectangle was actually intentionally left blank to allow someone to jot down some notes, and it just so happens to be the same exact width as a business card so it looks very nice to staple or paperclip one right on there.

I've never actually made a graduate brochure before. There were some simple pamphlets already produced before I got here, and a year and a half ago I created postcards, posters, and flyers (which I still have bajillions of hard copies of...). However those materials just weren't cutting it, and didn't really have enough information. I've received requests before to create a brochure like this, so I'm glad it has finally actually happened and am happy with how everything came together. I think it is appealing visually and includes a lot of relevant data. Hopefully this brochure will satisfy some unmet needs.

Coming off of this, I feel momentum to redesign the undergraduate materials as well. I think I can follow a pretty similar theme, but prospective undergraduates are a totally different audience so it will have to be an entirely different pamphlet. It will take quite a bit of effort, and it's a little sad to say goodbye to the materials I made previously, but with the upcoming switch to semesters now is definitely the time for an overhaul. 

I'm at over 2,000 page views!!!!

Just sayin.

Sorry, no, this food is not for sale... What do we look like, a restaurant?

The CIS Welcome / Welcome Back picnic was last night! We had a great turnout and feedback I've received so far has been really positive. Unfortunately the weather was a bit chilly and it was breezy, but the sun held out at least. Food was ready by 5 and we had a huge crowd of empty stomachs eagerly waiting. I could tell that a bunch of them were completely random people, though, which is super annoying to me. I know that's always apt to happen, but it doesn't help that a class let out right when we started serving food, so students that just happened to be leaving the building thought they would step right up and take advantage. Well since it was my job to emcee, I decided to go ahead and use my little soapbox to not-so-inconspicuously call out the offenders with an introduction that went a little something like...

"Welcome to the Center for Imaging Science Fall Picnic! If you followed instructions and did things the way you were supposed to, you donated a can of food in return for the food you will be enjoying tonight, and also received a raffle ticket for which I will begin doing raffles shortly. For those of you who did not do follow instructions, well, you should be very VERY grateful to the Center for Imaging Science who is giving you food for apparently no reason tonight." 

Yeah, those unrecognized faces definitely had guilty looks on them. Later on into the picnic I got a little more direct with even saying a semi-facetious "Shame on yooouuuuu," but anyways, it's all good I guess... We had way more food than we could possibly eat, anyways.

Unfortunately I barely got enjoy the picnic myself, since I was busy DJing, emceeing, taking pictures, and doing raffles... I had to scarf my food and didn't really get to chat with anyone. I think much of it was the same way with other staff people at CIS... Take a wild guess at who all had to set up, cook, break down, clean up, et cetera... Luckily IS&T is taking on the job of delivering all the donated food to a local food pantry.

BUT ANYWAYS, not to get all downer, because really it was a great picnic. You can see for yourself via the Fall Picnic photo gallery. As for that random picture of me with another girl with fabulously pink everything, that was probably the highlight of the day for me. This girl went walking by, and one of our students said, "Bethany, you should go ask her for a picture together! Here I'll take your camera!" And goofy me thought that was a great idea, so actually I went running after her. After mutual compliments on glorious hairstyles, we got an awesome picture.... And the fact that I actually did such a ridiculous thing prompted the student to admit, "Most people think my suggestions are stupid, but you actually do them. That's why I love you, Bethany." Awwww.

I want to be friends with this girl because clearly she is super awesome. Too bad I didn't even ask what her name was.

It's kind of like being an aunt/uncle, where you get to experience all the joys of having kids, without the actual life sentence of being a parent.

Yesterday afternoon I was invited to do a demo in one of the Imaging Science Fundamentals classes. Usually Joe is the one to do this, but this time around he asked if I wanted to give it a try; and I thought, why not?

Imaging Science Fundamentals is a general overview class that satisfies requirements in other colleges (outside College of Science) for a class + lab credit. So, the makeup of the class is mostly art, business, and IT majors who just need to put in their time and get their credit over with. It turns out that most of them are 3rd and 4th year students who put it off until now... And it's a big class, too - around 70 students! So this was a pretty different audience for me, considering I'm used to middle/high school kids and my main purpose is to encourage interest in science and/or recruit. 

On one hand, I felt more pressure - this is a college course, plus I'm being watched by a professor (who has a PhD from Cornell, I might add!); but on the other hand, I felt less pressure because the purpose was simply to teach, with no expectation that I needed to recruit these students in order to be perceived as successful. The fact that there was a very high chance that the students couldn't care less about what I had to say contributed to both sides of the equation - maybe I could say whatever I wanted, but maybe I'd have a really tough audience (which would be a real challenge considering how interactive I make my presentations).

Well, as it turned out, all my fears were unfounded - PHEW. I did my normal schtick with the FLIR, with the surrounding story of the Mars rovers (which thankfully is relevant again now that Curiosity is out there exploring). Actually this great news story JUST came out about "snow" on Mars, which they were able to identify using spectrometers, so I was able to weave that in nicely as well. The students were very active and engaged, and actually laughed at my stupid jokes and mannerisms, so that was cool. They answered many of my questions, and asked many of their own; and a variety of students contributed thoughtful and meaningful insight. A couple students even stayed after class was over to chat. Overall, I think it went really, really well.

When I was in college I always thought I'd want to be a college professor some day. Then I realized I would have to get all sorts of advanced degrees, and I wasn't so sure anymore (there are many reasons behind this; please don't get the impression that I am lazy or unmotivated). Then I discovered there were years of being a post-doc before you were really a viable candidate for becoming a professor even at the lowest entry level. THEN I found out all that actually goes into being a professor at a university like RIT, like writing grants (bleah) and dealing with a lot of competitiveness, and I was sure that being a professor was something I did NOT want anymore. Which is too bad, because I really enjoy "teaching", and I love the atmosphere in college when [most] everyone is excited to learn and takes class seriously... and today's experience only served to reinforce that. But, I guess that's why I appreciate my job so much and constantly refer to it as the best job in the world - because I do get many opportunities to do what I love and am passionate about.

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!