Predictably insert Katy Perry ROAR lyrics here

Today was ROAR (Raise Our Annual Responses) Day! I mentioned ROAR day just a few days ago when I posted about our Microgrant, Major Impact Challenge. Well, today was the BIG day when we could triple our impact!  

Good for one free ice cream cone! YEAH!

I decided this morning that I could even raise the stakes by offering a free CIS SWAG item to anyone who showed me proof that they donated to the Microgrants fund. Little did I expect that this would mean my day would be all-consumed by ROAR Day. But, that's okay, because it was fun to see so much spiRIT going around!

I gathered up some troops and we made our pledges right after the table outside CIS in the Unity Quad opened. I was very happy to see that they even had their own flyer for the Microgrant challenge prominently on display! As a gift for pledging we received small clip-on reflective blinking lights with "RIT" printed on them, so we turned them on and wore them as we used our stickers to get our free small ice cream cones from Ben & Jerrys (mm-mm!). I can certainly say that we were... attention-getting...

I should note, this all feels pretty funny for me, considering how incredibly anti-school spirit I have been for most of my life. This dissent lessened while I was in college since I actually loved RIT and took great pride in being here, but they didn't have spirit events when I was a student! I've tried participating in some events since I've been back as staff (eg Tiger Walk), but suffice it to say, I'm still no cheerleader.

Anyways, the rest of my available day ended up being devoted to ROAR Day, between getting the word out, helping people with pledge forms, handing out SWAG, et cetera, and then I had Staff Council and class. So note for next year: Do not expect to get anything else done on ROAR Day.

It's too soon to tell yet what kind of participation we got, but I do know I had about 25 people collect their CIS swag, so that's a pretty good indicator! (Especially assuming that there are probably people out there who did donate but don't care about getting a free bottle opener branded with the CIS logo.) I was especially pleased to see how many students participated, it was awesome!

Meanwhile, the icing on the cake came at the end of the day when I was CC'd on the following email:

MVRL'rs
Congratulations! A total of 21 students, staff, and faculty from the Multidisciplinary Vision Research Lab participated in the MVRL challenge, raising over $1,200 that will be doubled again by matches from Stefi Baum and the RIT administration.
The students exceeded their goal, donating $138, which the MVRL staff and faculty matched 2:1 for $276. With the directors' 2:1 match, the MVRL's total contribution was $1,242.00  After matches from Stefi and the administration, the students' contribution will grow to over $3,700!
Thanks to all who participated,
   Anne, Andy, and Jeff

WHOA! I did not even know that MVRL issued their own challenge in addition to Stefi's AND to RIT's! How cool is that?!? I am so impressed with how MVRL embraced the challenge, and their efforts resulted in a major positive impact for the Microgrant fund. What a shining example of ROAR Day spiRIT!

I do know that overall, RIT exceeded its ROAR Day goal early this afternoon. From what I can tell, this was also a very successful ROAR Day for CIS. I can't wait to see the final numbers!

Announcing: The CIS Microgrant, Major Impact Challenge

For my first time ever, I have been involved with the planning and support of a fundraising campaign. Over the past couple months, we have been working with RIT Development to develop a campaign the raise money for the CIS Microgrants program. In the past, microgrants were funded mostly by donations from Kodak. For obvious reasons (unless you have really been living under a rock), that funding has since run out; so in order to continue fostering cutting edge research performed by students, CIS has had to look for other sources of funding. Towards that end, we have developed an internal campaign whose main goal is to maximize faculty and staff participation: so long as 50% of faculty and staff donate some amount, Stefi will match all raised funds, up to $5,000. The hope is that by challenging Stefi to pony up some cash out of her own pocket, more faculty/staff will want to participate. We also hope that students will participate, too. Then, later on, we will take the campaign out to external collaborators and alumni - but it is imperative that we first demonstrate how committed we are to our own cause (hence why it is starting out as an internal campaign).

I mentioned last week that the Fall Picnic was supposed to include the kickoff for the campaign, but unfortunately that momentum got a bit muddled because of the fast-approaching ROAR day at RIT. Our hope is to have as many people as possible donate to the microgrant fund on ROAR day, since their impact can potentially be tripled. For any amount donated between $5 and $50, RIT upper administration will match it; and then if we get the 50% faculty/staff participation, Stefi will match donations as well. Hopefully we can get a lot of people participating on Thursday so that things will snowball!

To help promote both the Challenge and ROAR Day, I made up a quick poster detailing the challenge:

I know it's wordy (just like this blog post...), but there wasn't really any way to explain it in fewer words. This campaign is also the reason I teased a while ago about why I was asked to update the microgrants webpage. 

Anyways, that's the main gist of the Challenge. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what to expect. Some people expect it to do very well, while some people don't expect it will go successfully at all. I have witnessed a lot of mixed reactions... It is very difficult to ask people to give during a time when so many of us feel stretched so thin already. I certainly hope that the campaign goes well, not because of my involvement or the hard work I've had to put into it, but because I don't want to see the microgrants program suffer. We have been lucky to be able to offer such a special program for our students, and I would hate to see it be diminished in any capacity; there already wasn't enough funding to award every great idea that was submitted, and it would be a shame for the program to have even fewer resources. At the same time, I feel incredibly awkward working on the campaign and trying to encourage my fellow staff and faculty to participate... I am more than happy and proud to sing the praises of CIS and encourage students to come here and alumni to reconnect, but soliciting donations is definitely outside of my comfort zone. I also hope that this doesn't damage all the work I've done over the past 4 years trying to convince alumni that I am only asking for connections and involvement, not money. Thankfully I haven't been asked to put the "hard sell" on anyone, but I can't help but feel nervous about how my involvement might reflect on my position and the promises I have made. At least my work has essentially been behind-the-scenes, and really, it's not like this is some kind of dirty work - we are trying to do something very positive here! But you never know how some people might react. I guess all I can do is keep thinking positively, do my part, and ROAR loudly on Thursday... 

CIS Fall Picnic 2013

Yesterday was the annual CIS Fall Welcome Back picnic! It seems like each year we try something a little different. A few years ago, we did an Imaging Bash-style event. Then we returned to a more laid back cookout event out in front of the building. Even that started to get a little stale (and difficult logistically since we didn't have tables or chairs), so we changed things up a bit this year and went off campus to nearby Black Creek Park. Apparently, many years ago (even before I ever got here), the picnic was always held off campus. Everybody - and I mean everybody, according to legend - went, had a great time, knew each other's names, played all sorts of games, and morale was at an all-time high. It didn't really seem to me like the last couple picnics fostered the same kind of environment... In fact, they didn't even feel like the picnics I remember as a student (oh no, am I really old enough to be reminiscing about "the good ol' days"?). So, taking things off campus was our first step towards rekindling the spirit that used to thrive.

Meanwhile, there were some grand ideas of also incorporating some sort of a field day/homecoming vibe, with teams and partners and competition and multiple events. Unfortunately, that was way too much for just li'l ol' me to organize on my own, so without any support this never really got off the ground. Phooey. Maybe another time...

Anyways, despite the change in venue, other traditions remained the same: cookout food, raffles, the trusty old PA system, and volleyball. However, now we had the benefits of expansive green lawns, places to explore, and tables and chairs! Also, we really lucked out with the weather (as it seems we almost always do) as it was a gorgeous day. I'm not sure which of these factors, or maybe it was all of them together, contributed to the overall success of the picnic; but we had upwards of 70 people in attendance, which is the most I have ever witnessed in my (million-or-so) years of being connected with CIS!

Does it get much more perfect than this?

My roles in the event were to help with the organizing, make announcements over the PA, control music, and raffle off some swag. Sounds easy enough, but this still took a surprising amount of preparation leading up to the picnic itself, and there was a fair amount of setup (and later, takedown) involved. Thankfully other people took on the responsibilities of the food and the volleyball net. Meanwhile, I may have gone a little overboard on the swag...

What was I thinking? There was enough swag there for every other person to walk out with something.

There was so much stuff to raffle off that I spent basically the entire allotted time of 4-6PM on the PA reading off ticket numbers, many of which no one claimed because they didn't actually bring their ticket, or they weren't listening, or they just didn't care. Sigh. This was one of those, "Why do I bother?" moments. It was exhausting (not to mention it prevented me from being able to eat, or chat, or participate in volleyball or kan jam). Anyways, I did things a little differently this time by having a bag full of paper slips that represented each item, so that when a winner was picked they randomly selected a prize. Seems like a lot of extra work, but it takes any blame off me when someone gets a prize they're not so excited about, so it was worth it for me. If I do any raffles next time I'll probably do them the same way. (Notice how I put that "if" in there?)

Oh yeah, and there was one other new thing for this year: the kickoff to our new microgrants campaign that I teased previously - or, well, sort of. The picnic was going to be the kickoff, but then just before Stefi was going to make the announcement, our RIT Development officer told us about ROAR day, during which all contributions between $5 and $50 are matched by five of RIT's upper administration. So... Stefi ended up announcing the campaign, but telling people not to actually pledge anything for another week, so the whole kickoff ended up being a lot less climactic than anticipated. Nonetheless, it is a secret no more: introducing, the CIS Microgrant, Major Impact Challenge. Actually, I suppose I'll tell you more about it some other time, since this post is already awfully long winded, and we don't want anyone participating yet, anyways. So... stay tuned, I guess.

At any rate, the picnic ended up being a smashing success overall. Some other highlights include Sue Chan and Roger Easton playing volleyball (have you ever seen Roger when he's had too much sugar?), running jokes about some students trying to play volleyball, and some children who ended up being better than pretty much all of us at volleyball. Also, two of this year's summer interns came, ate with the students, and joined in the games too, which was awesome!!!! Oh, and let's not forget Jeff Pelz running around the parking lot dodging moving cars and eventually driving off in his Mini. We didn't end up packing up the volleyball net until close to 8PM, and only because it was getting dark... I think that's a good indicator of how well everything went.

See more pictures (including some amusing raffle wins) here: https://picasaweb.google.com/RITImagingScience/CISWelcomeBackPicnic2013#

Paper applications are soooo 2000

Now that I've had sufficient time to cool off after this year's batch of interns, it's never too soon to start thinking about preparing for next year. Because of the dramatic increase in applications this past year, it became painfully apparent that we need to update our application procedure to streamline the process.

First and foremost, we need to make as much of the application electronic as possible. When processing the applications currently, it is very time consuming to take their written-out information and type it into our database. If even just their personal and contact information were digitized so that that data could be easily copied and pasted, that would be a significant improvement.

Once the applicants are all entered into the system records, each application is reviewed by the selection committee. Having everything online and accessible by multiple reviewers at once would be advantageous, as you're no longer relying on passing paper around. So, it would be best to also have the short-answer questions, essay, and letters of recommendation sent to us electronically.

Under the current process, once the 24 applicants selected to interview are identified, their complete application packages are scanned one at a time to PDF and sent to the lab directors that will be conducting the interviews, This task is surprisingly tedious and time consuming, as there are staples to remove, combinations of single- and double-sided pages, etc. So to have everything electronic and eliminate this step completely would definitely be an improvement.

One thing we will not be able to handle electronically is official transcripts, so we will still have to scan those individually and match them up with their corresponding applicant. I don't think there is any way around this, but at least we would presumably only have one piece of physical mail for each applicant, as opposed to the 2, 3, 4, 5, sometimes more pieces we collect currently (depending on whether the applicant includes everything at once, or in pieces over time).

So, where does this leave us? In the current application, we provide:

• Cover letter
• Research group descriptions
• Application checklist
• Applicant information - to be filled out and returned with application
• Short answer questions - to be filled out and returned with application

And then we have additional required materials:

• 1 page essay
• Copy of a lab report
• Official transcript
• 2 letters of recommendation

What I plan to do is replace the application package with a website that contains application instructions, including:

• A link to the cover letter and group descriptions 
• A link to download the application checklist (for personal use)
• Instructions on how to:
• Complete an online submission form (replacing the applicant information and short answer questions)
• Email the 1-page essay and lab report
• Have letters of recommendation sent via e-mail
• Have schools mail an official transcript

It will also be explicitly state NOT to ask for confirmation that all materials have been received - if letters or transcripts are missing, applicants will be notified; and if any other materials are missing, applications will not be considered. Although I won't say this on the website, I hope to send out notification emails that the initial submission forms have been received... but it all depends on the volume to applications I receive. If I get as many as I did last year, there's no way I can address every applicant individually like that.

I think that this new process covers all the current bases while making the overall process more efficient. I also hope that this will help cut down on the number of last-minute submissions we receive (though I doubt there is any real solution for that... But at least I won't have lost parents wandering around campus looking to hand-deliver written applications to me). The only real way to find out is to try it, and address any problems as they surface. If you have any thoughts, please feel free to share in the comments! 

Now it's time to get to work creating the online forms and writing clear instructions... Hopefully I can find a decent free online tool that will support my planned approach.

How does it happen that even though I moved, and building thermostats were turned up, I am still sitting in a 68º office?

So you may have heard that I moved! My old office, CAR-2111, and the adjacent office are being removed to expand the lab behind them. As such, I had to be relocated (as have many other people in Carlson for one reason or another. There has been much shuffling about lately). I am now located in CAR-2255, and now after a week I think I can safely say I am all settled in to my new digs.

Welcome to my new home.
Strangely enough, it has come out very similar to my last one.

Check out this sweet panorama I made. Hey hey hey

It has been quite a process to get everything moved over and settled into my new space. I helped install shelves, haul furniture, remove one of my desks (I'm down to 1 now, but at least my chair fits under this one), and even stayed until after 8PM one night to try to get things organized. That may sound crazy, but I am so busy right now that I don't have a lot of daytime to devote to moving, and I was determined to have one space in my life clean and tidy (since I am concurrently building a new house and packing up my current one).

Anyways, you may have noticed that my blog has been really quiet. Through all this chaos it has been difficult to keep up. But rest assured, I have like 8 draft posts in the queue that will be published soon, and then you'll be up to date with all the happenings of my August and early September, of which there have been many. (At least this isn't as bad as that other blog I just linked to, which is perpetually two months behind.) Keep an eye out, since some backdated posts are about to start sneaking in behind this one! - I mean - no, I wrote those weeks ago, you just must have somehow missed them. Or, maybe you're reading this later and I've already gotten all caught up... Whatever.

Some major effort for micro grants

So it turns out the CIS website had some webpage about microgrants that I didn't even know existed. Even once I knew it existed, I had no idea what was going on with it or what its purpose was. Well, I got introduced to it recently because, in preparation for something we'll be unveiling soon (spoiler alert: it's a campaign of some sort), we'll be wanting to feature our microgrant program, and that current page was not going to cut it. It was formatted poorly, had no introduction or explanation, no updates; in fact, it didn't actually have the functionality that was originally intended. So, even though most major website updates are on hold until we get that new website I teased created, it has been my task recently to create a more functional and user-friendly page about our microgrants.

Originally, the page was intended to have all of the awarded microgrants listed by title, with PI and advisor (if applicable) names, a thumbnail image, and links to the associated proposal and any updates. It was the hope that the website content would be maintained by the PIs; as in, they would be in charge of uploading images, updates, and any other related information. I'm not sure what happened, but the page didn't come out that way, so I was asked if I could make the page more functional and able to facilitate easy updating. My first thought was to utilize some sort of wiki for each of the projects, as that would allow for PIs to do their own uploading (thus taking the burden off of me or anyone else). Well, this is still a good idea moving forward, but that wasn't going to help with cataloging what's already done. So, the burden is on us (me + some helpers, I hope!!!) to get everything from the past 8 or so years posted online and appropriately linked.

So far I have been able to reorganize the existing abstracts that were online (and upload them as PDF instead of them existing on their own pages), which were all from this past year. Beyond that, I've simply added placeholders for what will eventually be filled in. This included creating a logo that can stand in for image thumbnails until real ones are added. Creating this page was as much a proof of concept, if anything, as I needed to get something together to see whether it would meet the original requirements. Anyways, you can check out the work in progress here: http://www.cis.rit.edu/micro-grants

It turns out the page as designed is a go, so now everything needs to get organized and linked in. This is a major task... Even getting this far was not at all trivial. Formatting seems to be wildly inconsistent, and not all of the files I have been provided are organized. Add on to that that I have no prior experience with the microgrants program (in fact I really know diddly squat about it) and this was all needlessly complicated. I may have to enlist some help to get this underway because it has already been really time consuming and that was only for abstracts and only for one year. There are hundreds of other files that need converting to PDF; the overall listing that includes titles, PI names, and advisors for all previously awarded microgrants needs to be created; and all those files need to be opened up and searched to find accompanying images for thumbnails. EEK. It would be one thing if this was the only thing on my plate, but this is only one of several major projects I am waist-deep in in the moment. Needless to say, I am feeling a little overwhelmed in general...

Warm Fuzzy x 1000

Today I received a very special letter in the mail from one of this year's summer interns:

What can I possibly say??? I am humbled and honored.