Remote Sensing Internship

Last Day

2005-08-24T15:08:00.000-04:00

Today was the last day of my internship. Since I was really busy and forgot to uptade Monday and Tuesday, here's a little recap of what went on.
Monday after the intern meeting we worked on cleaning the lab up a little. I took a break and went across the hall to talk to Matt and Phil as usual, then did a little more work. For lunch I went home because my aunts came in from out of town to visit me... that was nice of them. When I got back we cleaned up the lab some more then changed around some things on our presentation before we turned it into Joe.
Tuesday we worked on our presentations pretty much all day. In the morning we just sat in the lab with Jesse and Sarah and presented to them because Lon was gone all day. We mostly talked about a few things that needed to be changed, like the Imaging Science cirruculum which was outdated because it has been recently changed. A few of us went out to lunch, then when we got back we presented in the actual auditorium to Jesse and Sarah again. My friend Andrew stopped in to say hi when he was on campus signing up for a few classes for this fall which was nice, he got to sit in a watch a little of our presentation.
Today was the presentation day. I have to say, it went pretty well. To all of my fellow interns: nice job. I was really impressed to see how much we all accomplished over the summer. The remote sensing group went last but that was ok because we had plenty of time to stop being nervous. Everyone seemed to enjoy our slides with the funny pictures on them. After the presentations I showed my mom around the labs a little then Karen, her dad, my mom and I all went to Friendly's for lunch.
Well seeing as the summer is over and this is my last ever blog entry, I would just like to say thanks to everyone at RIT's Imaging Science building. Special thanks to Lon, the undergrads, and my fellow remote sensing interns for making the summer so enjoyable and so worthwhile... it would not have been the same without you guys. I really enjoyed going to work every morning and spending time with everyone. This is an experience I will never forget. Thanks to Joe Pow and Bob Callens for giving me this opportunity, it has been a great summer. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer, and my fellow interns enjoy their upcoming senior year.

2005-08-19T18:10:00.000-04:00

This morning in the intern meeting Lon, Sarah and Jesse surprised me and walked in with a cake that Lon made for my birthday. Everyone had some... I've never had red velvet cake before and I must say I do like it. That was really nice of them... so thanks guys! :)
After the meeting I hung out with Steve, Phil and Matt in the other lab across the hall for a few minutes while I was waiting to get the work for the day from Lon. Then Karen and I did some cleaning of the lab and a new refridgerator that we got. Not too exciting. I left for a little while to go home because my aunts came from out of town to see my mom and I for our birthdays and to buy us lunch. When I got back, Sarah helped Karen and I load a whole bunch of pictures onto CD's that we could look through to pick out the best ones for our presentation. There were some really good pictures that we picked, and some really embarassing and funny ones to add some humor to our presentation. We basically worked on the power point for the rest of the afternoon until we left for the day. Monday we just need to run it by Lon and add a few minor finishing touches then we are good to go. Only three more days left... which is sad. It's been a lot of fun though.

My Day Off

2005-08-18T19:56:00.000-04:00

Today I took the day off because I had to go to school and attend an all day workshop for a peer leadership class I will be taking this fall. So basically I missed out on measurements and the Dino BBQ... but I'll be back tomorrow.

Yesterday I forgot to update. In the morning we went to the meeting like always, then went out and collected some GPS waypoints around campus. That was actually pretty fun. Afterwards, we met Lon and the rest of the gang at Java's and hung out for a little while, then Caitlin, Karen and I went shopping for t-shirts at the bookstore. By the time we got back to the lab it was time for the end-of-summer remote sensing picnic. We all ate together in the fishbowl, then some people went outside and played volleyball in the grass all afternoon. Instead, Caitlin, Sarah and I stayed inside and worked on the power point presentation for Wednesday. It's looking really good, if I do say so myself.

Defense

2005-08-16T17:57:00.000-04:00

This morning after the meeting I went downstairs to watch Emmit's defense. A lot of the stuff he was talking about went right over my head, but some of it I actually understood which surprised me. It was interesting to watch, and you can tell his presentation and research took a ton of time. After the defense we went and toured the nanotechnology lab over in the college of science... that was really neat. They have some cool machines and things there that I had never seen before. We went to lunch then came back and listened to Cory play his guitar as we worked on our presentations for next wednesday. I worked on the slide show until Lon left then went and joined in on the volleyball for a while, then said goodbye to Marek and Alvin and headed home.

Metadata Monday

2005-08-15T20:26:00.000-04:00

Hmm this morning we went to the usual morning intern meeting. When that was over Karen and I went to get started on metadata, but we realized the laptop we were going to use didn't have excel. We found another computer and did metadata until lunch. Came back from lunch, we did some more data, took a break and then worked some more. After work Marek, Alvin, Sarah, Karen, John, his friend, and I went to Olive Garden for dinner... that was a good time. I'm excited for volleyball tomorrow.

Kodak

2005-08-12T17:51:00.000-04:00

Today was the feildtrip to Kodak. That was actually a lot of fun. We got to test out the cameras and play around with the photo kiosk. They have some really cool new technology that I had never heard of. After the tour we went to Jimmy Mack's for lunch... that place was really good. It started to rain before we left but the walk back to the van wasn't very far and the rain wasn't very hard so no one minded too much. When we got back to RIT, Karen and I worked on typing in a bunch of metadata for Lon. That wasn't very fun.

CARY 500

2005-08-11T17:53:00.000-04:00

Hmmm well today after the morning meeting Karen and I helped Lon unload his truck because he went shopping for stuff for the lab last night. He got a lot of useful stuff I must say. When we brought it all upstairs Lon had me electrically engrave his initials on to everything then put it all away in the tool cabinet. I finished then Sarah showed me how to use the CARY before she left. It sucks that she's gone tomorrow but its not that bad because we have a feildtrip in the morning anyways so we wouldn't get to see her a lot. After lunch I worked on a little bit of metadata in the CARY lab and did some other stuff for Lon. It really stinks that this is going to be over so soon, I really like it here and I love all the people. We all have so much fun together it doesn't even seem like work. It will be sad to leave everyone to go back to school.

Scavenger Hunt

2005-08-09T17:19:00.000-04:00

After the morning intern meeting, Lon told us we were going to have 3 hours to go out and collect as much building materials to measure as possible, and get lunch. So Karen and I headed out and got some stuff from a nice guy in the metal shop in the next building over, thinking we had a ton of variety of stuff and it would be great. Then we went off campus with Mike and Jesse and Caitlin and wow Mike and Jesse have some creative ways of finding stuff. They randomly stopped outside houses that were throwing away old stuff and just grabbed wood. It was quite enjoyable to watch, we all got a good laugh out of it. When we headed back to RIT, Lon loved all the stuff we got. He made Caitlin present her nanotech stuff then we all found spots for our materials. When we had everything put away we headed outside to play volleyball for a while.

Completing the Metadata

2005-08-08T21:04:00.000-04:00

This morning we got all set up outside before we realized it wasn't going to clear up and we weren't going to be able to get anything done. So instead we packed everything back up and went back inside. Karen and I went back outside together for a little while to work on some reserach for Kristin then we had a meeting with her to discuss what we found. After that we went to lunch then came back and discussed the nanotech book. Then we completed the metadata and called it a day.

More Metadata

2005-08-05T16:53:00.000-04:00

This morning we didn't go to the intern meeting because we were planning on going outside right away but Lon decided it wasn't nice enough outside to take measurements. We were going to stay inside and continue to catch up on metadata but we found out we were going to be videotaped for an RIT imaging science recruitment video, so we went outside. By the time we got outside with all of our equipment we were just in time to watch the scaffolding be taken away, unassembled, in the back of an RIT facilities truck. Apparently they needed it for painting or something and we wont get it back until Wednesday-ish. That didn't make Lon too happy, but we ended up measuring grass outside the building instead so it all worked out. Once we finished our few measurements and the video, we got to go to lunch. After lunch we did some more metadata then worked on our posters for Lon.

Metadata

2005-08-05T01:06:00.000-04:00

Today when everyone else went outside pretty early, Sarah and I got to stay in and fill out metadata on the computer all day. That actually wasn't too bad and I got a lot done so I was pretty happy. It was an added bonus that I didn't have to deal with the heat. I left early to go to Buffalo for a concert and I just got home and remembered I needed to blog. Tomorrow should be fun running on so little sleep.

Tree Classification Day

2005-08-02T17:55:00.000-04:00

Well Lon was out almost all day doing ITT work so that left the interns with not a whole lot to do. In the morning, Karen and I worked on typing in metadata for the SOC 400 into excel. After the meeting Marek asked us to go out and classify trees with him so we showed Caitlin how to type in all the data so she could take over for us. After Marek got all of his stuff ready we headed out to Camp Eastman and classified trees for a while. That was interesting, Corey was getting really into the classification and Marek was pretty funny. We got back just as the volleyball net was being set up, so we went outside and played for a while then left.

Data Processing

2005-08-01T17:04:00.000-04:00

Karen and I came in today to help Lon play catch up with a lot of the things he needs to get done. We went to the morning meeting as usual and were planning on having to go out for a collect, but Lon decided the weather wasn't good enough for taking measurements. Corey unexpectedly came back to work today, so Lon had me teach him how to run the SOC 100 in the morning, then we went to lunch. Afterwards, Corey and I worked in the lab a little on measuring another peice of aluminum siding, but Lon had more important things for us to get done. He gave Karen, Corey and I all a bunch of data that we will be spending the next few days typing into excel to help him catch up on all the data processing. Because we came in on Saturday and we got a good start on the data entering, Lon came in at 2 and said he needed to go collect water samples alone and whenever we wanted to leave we could. We all wanted to leave at like 2:30 but Corey and Karen didn't have rides home so I drove them. On the way back from taking Corey home, Karen and I stopped at Lugia's for ice cream. FYI- piece of cake ice cream sounds gross but it's really good.

Saturday's bust

2005-07-30T13:37:00.000-04:00

Today Lon, Mike, Kristin, Sarah, Karen and I came in to measure cars because the weather said it was supposed to be really nice out. Well it was for a while, and we started to measure but then a huge cloud coverage came over and we waited for a while but it didn't look like it was going to clear up anytime soon, so we packed up and headed back upstairs. Of course, as soon as we were all done getting everything put away it started to look really nice out but there were still some clouds and we didn't want to put forth all the effort to set up everything again. No one wanted to take the chance of clouds getting in our way again. We only ended up working for like 3 1/2 hours but it wasn't bad.... I didn't mind coming in.

Finally Friday

2005-07-29T17:43:00.000-04:00

Today I came in early and started up the SOC before the meeting, then after the meeting I ran the health check. It didn't work the first time, and I realized it was because I had the glass on the wrong side. I did the health check over then Lon assigned us our tasks for the day before he headed out to work with the ITT man. He asked me to come with him, but he had signed me up to take an eye test on the 2nd floor at 1 and he wasn't sure if he would be back by then. Instead, I sat in my lab all day and completed the work that Jesse left for me. Karen and I discovered the comfy leather chairs in the Ritz at lunch, so we sat up there and watched tv while we ate. When we got back I did some more measurements then headed home. Tomorrow we have to go in at like 8:30 to measure cars. It will be nice to get extra hours.

More with the SOC 100

2005-07-28T16:51:00.000-04:00

Well today Jesse had a lot of work to do for the ITT man who came in, so all day I worked on measuring brick and aluminum siding samples for him. It wasn't too bad... the measurements take about 20-30 minutes each, sometimes longer, so inbetween setting the machine up and getting the measurements going I had quite a bit of time. That gave me a chance to complete other things though, which was good. I really like working with the SOC 100 and I've pretty much got it down how to do everything. Tomorrow Jesse won't be here so I get to start it up and do everything on my own, start to finish. It won't be that bad after all the practice I got today. Because he won't be here tomorrow, Jesse left me a list of work to do for him that he wasn't able to complete today. That should keep me nice and busy. Saturday is supposed to be really nice out and good for measurements so Lon is having us come in to work with the cars, that way we will not have to come in on Monday.

Coopervision

2005-07-27T17:36:00.000-04:00

This morning we had to come in early and leave for our tour of Coopervision. That was actually pretty cool, I liked it a lot more than the tour of Melles Griot. It was really neat to see how contacts are made, but the jobs there seem so monotonous that I could never see myself being happy doing them. The assembly lines were pretty neat to watch though. Afterwards, we went to Tom Wahls for lunch.... that was good. When we got back I did some work with Jesse in the SOC 100 lab then Lon took Karen, Caitlin and I down to the fishbowl to watch some short movies. They were definately inspirational, and afterwards we had another college talk about what motivates us and what we want to do. Went back upstairs and worked some more with Jesse then called it a day.

SOC 100

2005-07-26T17:39:00.000-04:00

Today Lon decided to switch up our partners so I got paired with Jesse. After the morning DIRS meeting, Jesse taught me how to do the health check, then I went and watched the shuttle launch in the reading room. When I got back Jesse was pretty happy because he realized why the health check wasn't working and he fixed the part of the machine that was loose, which made the health checks all work. Then I actually got to make a measurement and learn to put all of the data into a chart. Once you learn how to save all of the files, the SOC 100 is a pretty good machine to work on.... but it doesn't require a ton of work so it gave me and Jesse a chance to talk. At 3 we went out for volleyball as usual. That was fun but I wasn't feeling very well so I didn't play as much as usual. Overall it was a good day and we actually accomplished something, which is a plus. Field trip to Coopervision tomorrow.

A case of the Mondays

2005-07-25T19:52:00.000-04:00

Today was really long. In the morning, Lon was just training Mike and Sarah on how to use the D&P and the ASD, so there wasn't much work for Caitlin, Karen and I to complete. We basically sat and watched Lon teach the undergrads for 2 hours. Lon knew we were getting bored and tired of watching, so he let us go to lunch then when we came back we pretty much sat and watched some more. When he felt like Sarah and Mike knew their machines well enough, we all went inside and put away all the equipment and charged the electronics. Then we made a larger aluminum foil reference and called it a day.
There was one good thing that came out of the day though... some really funny conversations.
"It was either that or my pants. I wanted a shot at Bruce." -Sarah

Friday

2005-07-22T19:44:00.000-04:00

This morning Lon had Jesse take us on the "Jesse Tour" of the more residential side of the college. We saw the dorms, the radio station, the gym, the track, the pool, the tennis courts, the nature trails, the whisper wall, and other things that average students at RIT would encounter on a daily basis. Jesse, Mike and Sarah showed us some of the resteraunts around campus as well. It was good to hear about the college and the living situations from a student's point of view, and the dorms were actually pretty nice compared to some of the other colleges I have visited. When we returned to the Imaging Science building, Mike and Corey showed me how to use the drill press. We made an extension for the scaffolding that the D&P can sit on so it's more direct over the cars we are measuring. After lunch, we met with Kristin again because she went shopping and picked up some materials we will need to make our measurements more successful next time. Lon taught us how to process the data from the D&P and determine whether or not the data would be useful. There wasn't a ton of work to be done but we managed to find odd things that needed to be finished in order for us to move on. Because of that, the day seemed to drag on at first but overall it wasn't bad. I really like working with Lon and the undergrads because he makes sure whenever we have a free second that we are picking their brains about the college. I have learned a lot from Lon already, he has given me and the other interns so much information about what RIT has to offer that each day it becomes increasingly appealing.

Getting our rhythm

2005-07-21T16:16:00.000-04:00

Today the weather wasn't too good so we didn't go outside in the morning. Instead, Lon found this book on Nanotechnology and he's making all the interns in our group read a chapter each and give a little presentation type deal to himself and the undergrads. So I spent some time reading and taking a few notes, then we all went to lunch. Afterwards we had a meeting with Kristin about changes we need to make with the car measurements and extra data we might need to start taking. Then we went outside and helped Mike and Sarah learn the D&P. It was really hot and humid but we weren't out for very long so it wasn't all that bad. Just had a little meeting with Lon talking about how we like things around here and now we're all getting ready to head for home.

Some funny quotes from the day....
"Please take advantage of Corey." -Lon
"Catfish... isn't that a plant?" -Karen

Our First Collect

2005-07-20T16:07:00.000-04:00

Today after the meeting we went right outside and set up the cars and equipment for the first collect. We measured a lot more than we expected and the weather was perfect for measurements. The only bad part was the sun constantly pounding down. We got free pizza for lunch which was good but we pretty much spent the entire day outside. I guess the measurements we took were pretty good and Kristin was happy with them so that all worked out. The sun kinda made everyone tired but it was nice to get back in the building and hook up all the equipment to the chargers in the air conditioning. Tomorrow we are going out again and hopefully now that everyone has their task down we will be able to work faster and finish sooner than we planned. That would be good, then we would be able to start measuring vegetation for other groups that have time restrictions. Maybe we will get most of the measurements done this summer.

Volleyball

2005-07-19T18:05:00.000-04:00

Yesterday wasn't too great. We had to do a lab experiment for Lon in the morning and we weren't getting anywhere near ideal data so everyone's patience was definately tested. There were problems with specman, a program used to check the data collected from the SOC 400 so we had to have another undergrad come help us out and try to fix it. With everything, including the ASD pretty much messed up it was kinda hard to find things to get done which really made the day drag along quite slowly.
Today was a lot better. The meeting in the morning was kinda long but it wasn't that bad... I actually payed attention and understood a lot of what was being said. After the meeting I did a lot of Metadata prep for Lon and the car experiments we will start tomorrow. We couldn't find Lon and we ran out of things to do so we went to lunch then came back and did some cleaning and moving a whole filing cabinet and its contents from Lon's office to the lab, and then putting all the contents back where they were. It was Cory's birthday today so Lon gave us money and sent us to Ben and Jerry's to celebrate... that was really nice of him. We got some ice cream then went back to tidy up the lab some more before a few tours came through, then Lon showed us a little more about the ASD. Finally at 3 it was time to play volleyball.... that's always a lot of fun, even with the heat.

Finally Friday

2005-07-15T16:10:00.000-04:00

Today was a pretty easy day. Took a tour of Melles Griot in the morning. That wasn't all that exciting but they do some pretty interesting stuff there... if I was a big tech person I think I would have appreciated it a little more. But we got to dress up in gowns and booties and head coverings... we all looked pretty rediculous but we had to do that to go into the clean rooms. We got some cool protective goggles and a hand bag out of the deal too. On the way home we went and got Pizzahut buffet and that was good. Free food is always a plus. When we got back Lon made us do some calculating of angles and such for this project we will be starting monday that involves measuring a bunch of cars. I went and got Jesse and had him help us... he was pretty angry when Lon got back and he found out that we were doing the measurements to earn free pizza for monday. He got over that pretty quick when we agreed to share it with him. After that Mike and I pretty much found some busy work to do b/c we realized we didnt have a key to get into the lab we were supposed to clean and we couldn't find anyone who had one. I started my poster which I guess will make for less work later on down the road so that's always a good thing. Interestingly, while Mike and I were returning a cart to the mail room, we encountered a nice bulletin board of pictures of all the summer interns... pictures that Joe Pow promised would never be displayed. That was real fun. Maybe a warning would be nice.....

Learning the SOC 400

2005-07-14T19:00:00.000-04:00

This morning was the usual meeting. Except we had to do some kind of eye test where we sat in the dark for a while then we had to walk around the third floor with one eye covered. That was real fun... we looked like idiots im sure, and plenty of people stuck their heads out of offices to watch us as we walked by, laughing at us the whole time. To answer the question written on the board, yes it is possible for one eye to work scotopically while the other works photopically. After the meeting we met up in our groups and Lon showed us how to use the D&P outside. That was pretty cool, and we saw the structure he got from facilities we will be using to conduct the car experiments with. Had lunch in the cafeteria with most of the interns and Jesse, then talked in the coffee shop about our posters and how we want to do them. Back in the lab we had a meeting with Lon where we basically just talked about what makes us happy and what we want to get out of this program that will help us someway to pick a career and future goals for college. Then Mike and I made some measurements with the SOC 400 and tried tracking down Mark Updegraff.. that was fun. Ordered some filter paper for an upcoming collect involving the testing of water samples then measured some more and headed out for the day. I was pretty angry it took me an hour to get home because of all the rediculous traffic, when it normally takes only 15 min max. I need to find a new route.

Wednesday

2005-07-13T20:53:00.000-04:00

Lon had a little meeting with us in the morning then I spent some time with Mike gutting an old machine of some sort trying to salvage whatever parts Lon could find use for. At noon headed off to the science lunch talk where we got free pizza. Some of what they talked about was kind of interesting but others weren't really too appealing to me. On the walk back to the lab, Mike tried freaking me out by telling me all about the secret floor below the basement where all the cadavers are stored in freezers for the medical students. Lon gave us a little physics lesson after lunch and showed us how to use the CARI machine. After he left for the day I worked on writing a lab procedure with Mike and got to ask him some questions about the Imaging Science program. I also got to talk to Sarah after and it really helped hearing about everything from a student's point of view. The more I talk to the undergrads the more interested I become in RIT.

Volleyball Day

2005-07-12T19:17:00.000-04:00

Started out with the morning staff meeting as usual then a big faculty and staff meeting with Lon. Dr. Schott gave us all a big overview of what it is we will be working to accomplish this summer and how it will help in different government, airforce, and NASA projects. That was pretty cool. Then we headed upstairs for another meeting about a masters student's research project about tracking cars of various colors and conditions of cleanliness. That was also kinda interesting. Went and ate lunch in the cafeteria then did some busy work for a while until Lon took us to Ben and Jerry's for icecream on him. That was really nice. At 3 we went outside and set up the court then played a few games of volleyball till about 5:30. Tuesday is now my new favorite day... volleyball was so much fun. We played with a bunch of students, faculty and other interns. It was a good way to meet new people from the building and have a good time in the 90 degree weather.

Lon's First Day Back

2005-07-11T18:26:00.000-04:00

Today Lon came back from vacation. In the morning he showed us around the lab and explained about some of the major equipment we will be learning to use. He is a pretty cool guy with some really funny sayings. We took a lunch break then afterwards packed up his truck and headed out to Spencerport to take measurements while WASP flew overhead. That was interesting... it was extremely hot with very little shade. The plane was late flying over which I guess they said is normal, so we ended up waiting close to 2 hours for it to finally come. When we finished taking all the measurements we packed up the equipment and headed back to RIT to punch out.

Day 2

2005-07-07T17:27:00.000-04:00

We spent the whole day outside painting these huge calibration targets out in one of the parking lots. After a few hours we realized me needed more paint so Karen, Sarah and I went to Lowe's to buy some more while the guys stayed back and used up the paint we had. We picked up some Papa John's for lunch on the way back then we sat out under a tree in the parking lot to eat. When we went back to working we realized the guy at the store mixed the wrong color of brown paint so Sarah went back to exchange it while the rest of us finished up the grey target. The painting itself wasn't that bad... we joked around and actually had some fun in the process. Because we finished both targets, Jesse and Sarah have no other work for us to do until Monday so tomorrow no one has to come in.

The First Day

2005-07-06T20:06:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day. We did some basic first day kinda stuff... meeting in the fish bowl in the morning to go over more of what we would be doing, followed by a tour of the building. Then an orientation at the library to learn how to use the different resources and things online. Afterwards, Joe bought everyone lunch at Crossroads, then we all went to the red barn for the get to know you kinda stuff. It was actually a lot of fun, and a good way to get everyone talking. We all worked together which was nice and now everyone seems to be warming up to eachother more. When that was over we all went and split up into our groups. Since Lon took the week off, Jesse, an undergraduate student took the leadership of my remote sensing group and we found out what we would be doing for the next few days. Everyone seems really nice and I am definately looking forward to working with them for the rest of the summer.