HS Internship at RIT - Remote Sensing - WASP

2005-08-23T07:23:00.000-04:00

August 22, 2005: Today the intern meeting was held in the auditorium so that we could all get acquited to its settings. We were also given the opportunity to load our powerpoint presentations on to Joe' computer and test them out. Afterwards I went back to up to the Rapid Response Lab. The batteries that Steve ordered finally came in and they were fully charged. Matt and I made power connectors for the batteries and loaded them into the wagon. We also brought the usual toolbox, access point, and four cameras. We left a walkie-talkie in the lab in case Steve arrived while we were in the field. As we were assembling the cameras and hooking everything up Steve called us on the walkie-talkies saying that he just checked into the lab. Once we finished hooking up all the cameras Steve had to go on the roof to try and ping the access point and the cameras. We only used three out of the four cameras, I suppose the fourth is a spare camera in case on of the others fail. No luck for either thing, and after a few attempts we brought the access point back to the lab. As it turns out it was configured incorrectly and once the necessary changes were made it seemed like everything was all set to go. Matt and I brought the access point out the forest and hooked everything up once again while Steve stayed behind in the lab to try and ping the access point and the three cameras. This time our luck was a little different Steve could ping the access point, but only two of the cameras. With some fiddling around Steve could ping the third camera, but it would not maintain a steady signal. So, after several tries we brought back two cameras for testing in the lab and left everything else out in the field. Hopefully, our luck will change tomorrow.

2005-08-19T15:18:00.000-04:00

August 19, 2005: Today started with the usual morning intern meeting. However, part way through the meeting Lon came in with Jesse and brought cake for Courtney, whose birthday was on Wednesday. Afterwards I went to the Rapid Response Lab where Matt was just finishing up the cameras for Nature Spy. They were all working perfectly and it seemed that everything was going to be ready to be deployed on Monday. Also Courtney, Karen, and Katelyn dropped by for awhile and we went to visit them in the Measurements Lab. While we were talking Steve arrived and we headed back to the lab for awhile. Later we brought some boxes from the Lab and went to Steve's apartment on Perkins Green to help to him move some stuff to his new apartment in Westbrook Commons. (Don't worry we clocked out for this) After loading Matt's car and Steve's car to full capacity Matt and I drove down to Westbrook Commons while Steve went to the bank to make a deposit. Once Steve finally arrived we put all the stuff into his new apartment. Once finished Matt went to his other job and Steve dropped me off back at the center. I grabbed a few things then I went out to lunch. When I got back I just worked more on my presentation.

2005-08-19T08:23:00.000-04:00

August 18, 2005: Today started off with the usual morning intern meeting. Then afterwards I went to the computer lab where Tyler showed me his powerpoint presentation. His was pretty cool all the animations and stuff weren't just for show, but were very helpful in showing the process. He also seemed to show a lot of knowledge in his area, so hopefully in the my presentation I create the same quality powerpoint. Once he was done showing me his presentation I went upstairs to the Rapid Response Lab. Matt had me grab a walkie talkie and go out in the forest to retrieve two cameras and the power supply that was powering the router. When I got back I watched Matt try to get the cameras and the access point to work together properly. He was finally able to get the two cameras working by the time he left. Steve and I then went out to lunch at Wegman's, he got a box a cereal because he missed breakfast and I got a pizza and m and m's. On our way back we parked in the parking closest to the forest and went to retrieve the rest of the cameras and the radio. When we got back Steve was working on another project while I was trying to get the other two cameras to work. Unfortunately I kept on getting my wires mixed up, but Steve helped me correct my mistakes. However, even once the hardware was connected correctly the cameras still were not working. So I suppose we could deal with this problem tomorrow.

2005-08-18T08:21:00.000-04:00

August 17, 2005: Today I overslept so I did not clock in until 10:30, so I missed the morning intern meeting. However, when I went to see Mr. Callens he said there was no new business, so I guess I did not really miss anything. Then I went up to the Rapid Response Lab, but the floor was being buffered and Steve and Matt were out somewhere. So I went out on a walk around campus and met up with my friend Alex Arcey whose going to attend RIT in the fall. We talked for awhile and he took me to Gracy's and after a quick look at his dorm I went back to work. Exciting thing happened today, Steve picked up his new Saab 9000 and new plates. For lunch we went out to Dibella's. After we were finished eating we went back to work in the lab. I had to test out the camera, receiver, and transmitter to see if I could get the video on a television they just bought. It seemed to work fine, so sometime this week they will put the camera system and television at the zoo to monitor blind areas in the otter display for the little kids. After that I did some more sodering for the rest of the day on the boards I had already surface mounted the components. This time I did regular through-hole sodering instead of surface mounting.

2005-08-16T14:13:00.000-04:00

August 16, 2005: Today once again began with the morning intern meeting. I went upstairs to the Rapid Response Lab to once again help out Matt and Steve. However, today Steve never checked in so it was just me and Matt. We began by just surface mounting some components onto a circuit board. Then the janitor came in saying that she was going to clean, buff, and wax the floor the next couple days, so Matt and I had to move everything off the floor. That included several boxes that were stacked in the corner, which we just put on the counter. Then after that we organized most of the things on the counter. Then it was back to the forest to test out a router, which was supposed to replace the hub. We also brought out the batteries we recharged to power the access point and the cameras. We then went back to the lab to see if the cameras were functioning, but we were unable to ping them. Another weird thing was we could not ping the access point either. So then we basically had to go back out again to retrieve the battery as well as the router and bring it back inside. Matt left a note for Steve saying what we did today and he left to go to his other job. For me I had to go get the other battery for the access point after lunch to recharge and it is back to the LIAS lab to work on my powerpoint presentation, and of course volleyball later today.

2005-08-16T08:15:00.000-04:00

August 15, 2005: The intern meeting is routine, but it makes a good introduction. Anyways, afterwards I went back upstairs to the Rapid Response Lab. Matt and I went to RadioShack in the mall to be more hardware such as wire tabs and power connections. To find a stencil kit we had to go to Michael's. When we got back Steve tried to explain some imaging science stuff to me. It had to do with how certain dots when placed a certain distance apart can create the appearance of certain color densities due to the bad resolution of the human eye, which the theory behind inkjet printing with dots. Also certain patterns or colors and circles also creates some type of interference pattern. When Alvin stopped in he tried to explain to us a Radon transform, which had to do with the mathematical theory behind magnetic resonance imaging and CT scans. This one was a little over my head. All I got was that when certain angles are taken on a specific object the area from one point to another has to be slightly interpolated or guessed, which results is a wrong diagnosis. Then Steve had Matt and I work on surface mounting, which is a new type of sodering technique I have never learned before. Basically unlike regular components, the components are sodered to only the top of the board and that is where the connection is made. Unlike regular sodering where a hole is drilled and the connection is made beneath the board, while the component rests on top of the board. Matt did the first board and I did the second board. Then it was lunchtime and I went to McDonald's with Alvin. When we got back we stopped at the interfaith center in the Student Alumni Union where there was a piano we could play. When we got back Alvin went back to his office and helped out Steve for the rest of the day.

2005-08-12T14:57:00.000-04:00

Free Line #11

A moment just flashed by, but the camera misfired
A forgotten memory turned into a missing desire

2005-08-12T14:44:00.000-04:00

August 12, 2005: Today began with a field trip to Kodak. Since we arrived at Kodak earlier than expected we took a walk on the Platt Bridge at High Falls to take pictures and burn time. After ten minutes or so we went back and entered Kodak office where we had visitor passes waiting for us. We headed upstairs to the next floor and entered the Experience Kodak room. The purpose of this room was for showing visitors from all over the world all the new technology Kodak had to offer. The tour started off with the tour guide showing us how the Kodak Easyshare program works and how pictures can be saved on an online album. After that short demonstration she showed us some different digital cameras Kodak has on the market and one in the prototyping stage. The next part of the tour was a picture kiosk that could print pictures from multiple types of memory sticks and prints them out rather rapidly. The next part of the tour was a few new innovations in printing and display of pictures that had applications to the medical field such as displaying magetic resonance imaging (MRI). One of the coolest parts of the tour was the videos she showed us with special effects and a preview of Kodak's new commercial. Next we saw a slideshow of how imaging science is being applied at Kodak and the opporturnities and training programs Kodak has to offer. However, the best thing in the tour was the three-dimensional gaming console that had Nascar Thunder 2004. Besides making me a little light-headed it was an amazing way to play a game, I hope Kodak decides to put that on market for arcades and home entertainment gaming. A couple things I remember most were the ceramic golf club and the organic light emitting diode (OLED). I have seen both things before during "bring your son or daughter to work day" when my dad took me a few years ago. I knew the golf club would not become a major project, but the OLED technology I thought would be massed produced by now. Because a few years ago during a presentation the people developing the technology said they had already had contracts with Motorola and Nintendo, but I suppose the deals fell through. Hopefully I will be seeing them on the market soon. Lunch at Jimmy Mac's was not bad and the ride home was filled with a conglomeration of music as Jason was riding shotgun. Back at work I basically did more research for my presentation and I am greatly looking forward to a weekend of relaxation and unwinding.

2005-08-12T08:20:00.000-04:00

August 11, 2005: Today started once again with the usual morning intern meeting. Afterwards, I went upstairs to the Rapid Response Lab to help out Steve and Matt. We had to head out to the forest again to add some new netwok cable, which we made right out in the field. When we got back Joe was giving some people from ITT a tour of the building and one of them just happened to be Steve's new boss. Steve was able to make it back just as they were leaving the lab and he was able to make a short conversation before Joe took them to the next part of the tour. Back in the lab I worked with some more hardware stuff. After lunch I had to cut insulation foam to fit inside a camera box and more hardware stuff. I apologize that this blog is a little shorter than usual I was trying to remember stuff from yesterday because I forgot to blog, and some of my recollections were a little fuzzy.

2005-08-10T16:37:00.000-04:00

Free Line #10

If I could jus stare into eyes for that one moment of serenity
Forgettin da times of broken dreams n unscripted tragedies

2005-08-10T15:30:00.000-04:00

August 10, 2005: Today started off with the usual morning intern meeting. Then afterwards i went with Tyler to the Library to browse each of the levels containing different types of literature. Tyler gave me a quick tour of the different areas he usually visits while he is in the library then we headed back to the imaging science building. There we went our separate ways he went to astronomy and I went upstairs to the Rapid Response Lab. Already waiting for me there was Steve and Matt who were doing final preparations before going out to the forest where the equipment was setup. Matt and I went to borrow a wagon from the remote sensing group next door to carry some of our equipment. Into the forest we hooked up the cameras and the newly charged batteries. Once everything was hooked up and setup we took the battery we took out back to the lab to recharge. Then it was off to Chase Pitkins to purchase some extra tools equipment. There we found a wagon for the Rapid Response Lab, so we would not have to borrow one from the remote sensing group everytime we went out to the field. We also got some other stuff like buckets, wrenches, super glue, spray paint, and other miscellaneous items. When we got back we were just a little late for the picnic at the Gosnell Building and we ate basically what they had left over. Then after lunch we went our separate ways I took my thirty minute break. I went to the Ritz Sports Zone to play a couple games of Dance Dance Revolution and I went back to the lab.

2005-08-10T08:15:00.000-04:00

Free Line #9

Its the pain thats inflicted when playing these love games
For once its game over, its she, who shall not be named

2005-08-09T14:16:00.000-04:00

August 9, 2005: Today started off with the usual morning intern meeting. Joe briefed us on our presentations and what the deadlines were. Afterwards, most of us (interns) or all, I'm not completely sure, went to see the Master's Thesis defense in the auditorium. I thought the speaker did a very good job at explaining what she did and what she accomplished. I suppose if I plan on getting my Master's and PhD there's something I have to look forward to besides typing my thesis. With the conclusion of the defense everyone in the room dispersed and I went up to the Rapid Response Lab on the third floor to help out Steve and Matt. When I got there Steve had not checked in yet, so I helped Matt clean up the lab and put the cables onto the camera cases. Once Steve came in he had Matt and I go to the workshop to drill a hole for a camera in the workshop. When we returned Matt had to leave and Steve had me take some pictures with the digital camera and import the pictures onto the computer. The pictures I took were of a calibration chart at various distances so Steve could find out, which distance he wanted the camera to placed at. The weather seems to holding up nicely, so I am looking forward to playing volleyball later today, but for now it's back to work, laters.

2005-08-08T15:36:00.000-04:00

Free Line #8

My rhymes are universal, heard in every zone of time
What I just said has just crossed the international dateline

2005-08-08T15:15:00.000-04:00

August 8, 2005: Today began as usual with the morning intern meeting. At the meeting we all met Bob McIntyre's granddaughter from New Hampshire. After the meeting I went to Tyler's office in the basement and he gave me a short tour. Also he showed me the graphs of the scan of his phantom. The graphs showed what the ideal graph looked like and what the actual graph looked like. Afterwards I went upstairs to the Rapid Response Lab to work with Steve and Matt today. I learned a lot of cool things working in the lab with them today, not only that but they had some awesome music playing too. The first thing they had me do was go to the forest to retrieve the battery for the camera to recharge it. When I returned I had to build the leads that would connect the charger to the battery. Also I put three cameras into a camera box that they were going to put up in the forest tomorrow for Nature Spy. The next thing I learned how to do was make a network cable. Basically you measure the network cable to the length you need it to be then cut it. Then using a razor or wire stripper, strip one inch off both ends exposing the eight cables inside. The next step is to untwist and straigten all the wires. Each of the eight wires has a specific color code so you have to place them in the correct order. Once I had straigtned them and arranged them in the correct order I used a wire clipper and cut them all to an even length. Then very carefully I inserted the eight wires into the connector. Once fully intacted I used a network crimper to secure the wires. And that is how you make a network cable, it saves money and you can make it to any desired length rather than purchasing specific lengths in the store. After I finished making three network cables I had to put eight pin connections onto another cable. Basically you place the pin in the crimper and then strip the wire then placing the wire into the pin, then just squeeze the crimper, I had to do this for sixteen wires. Afterwards, I went out to lunch and when I got back there was a meeting in the lab. All in all today was a very fun day. I learned a lot of new things, especially with hardware in the Rapid Response Lab. Hopefully, I get to work with Matt and Steve more often this summer because I always have a good time working with them and also Dr. Kremens he definately makes work a fun experience.

2005-08-05T16:19:00.000-04:00

Free Line #7

Too late for questions, too early for answers
Welcome to the military n a life of yes sirs

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

August 5, 2005: First of all I would like to wish Tyler a "Happy Birthday!" The day was kicked off with the usual morning intern meeting. No news just the usual conservations were jump started. Then it was back to work. Everything I did before lunch time dealt with copying and binding in the mailroom. Jason had me copy and bind three different manuals, which I actually found to be a considerably fun. One reason being I was away from a computer monitor, which was starting to make me light-headed. So after copying and binding it was already lunchtime. I originally intended on seeing the collect being done by the remote sensing group, but by the time I got back after lunch they had already finished. Starting a new job I was supposed to cut out a certain portion of the Honeoye Lake pictures that was Cummings Nature Center. However, do to incorrect coordinates the cameras in the airplane did not catch the area so that job was scrapped. So that was pretty much my day, a little different than usual. Some things that are starting to crowd my brain include the final presentation, but more pressing issues are summer assignments for AP Literature and Composition and AP Chemistry. Wow, school is going to start soon, or so it seems, and that means college applications, well have to see how fall will unravel itself.

2005-08-04T16:23:00.000-04:00

Free Line #6

A story lived as a fairy tale was once told
About an average hero who was young n bold
Born into surburbia he overcame its grips
Now hes in the city where its all bout stock tips
Insider trading n goin above the law
Searchin the market for a sign of a price flaw
He has taken a bite of the big apple
Goin oversees is jus another weekly travel
Unknown to him...he was poisoned like snow white
A struggle of man n disease where he'll surely lose the fight
What happened to the kid everyone called nice
Only thinkin bout wats his cut n how bigs the slice
A person lost in the shuffle of progession
Thats why i told his story in the form of a confession
This is his chance to have one look back
To see in anothers eyes his former home track
Wat group does he belong is the next question
Umm...lemme think...i have a suggestion
Y live a divided life wen the pieces dun fit
There are no boundary lines so he didnt hafta split
Its a conflict of home town new town
A double argument jus turn it upside down
Once a kid of the sidewalk now hes a cat of the streets
Its a new york minute n its clocked to his heartbeat

2005-08-04T16:03:00.000-04:00

August 4, 2005: Nothing much to report, except just the usual happenings that have posted so refer to those to find out about my day today. This will be an extremely short blog because I want to avoid to much redundancy in my blog. However, some new news to report include the intern meeting we had to this morning. Somehow the discussion was swung to the topic of how teachers should teach students. Also there were ideas of how teachers should be evaluated in terms of how well they are teaching. Since this internship will come to a close in the next three weeks I have also started to think about my final presentation. I spent some freetime today just brainstorming some things to include in my powerpoing presentation. I intend to take a more contemporary route as it was indicated at the intern meeting this morning noone seemed to like the typical powerpoint presentation. So I will have to try something new and innovative now necessarily with cool stuff with powerpoint, but elements of presentation that are not on the computer screen. I have been known in the passed for differing from the norm, some Rush-Henrietta students might remember from my student council speech. So in conclusion I can be said to be a loose cannon when it comes to presentations. But anyways, I will definately try and come up with something different. In this blog I have been trying to tell the reader about my presentation without actually telling them what it is, purposefully. So hopefully the way I plan to present will not be a complete embarassement and failure, but rather provide a refreshing alternative, don't worry a powerpoint is still part of it.

2005-08-04T08:26:00.000-04:00

Free Line #5

Walking alone I stare down the path of a ragin storm
Crossin da threshold i find our enemy has taken tru form

2005-08-03T15:52:00.000-04:00

Free Line #3 and #4

Standing at a crossroads between a life lived and lost
Knowin I would do anything for u, no matter the cost

Wats da next item within Pandora's Box...a hurricane or drought
If it leaves a mess we'll simply shout it out

2005-08-03T15:11:00.000-04:00

August 3, 2005: Today I started my day with the usual intern meeting. Afterward it was back to work. Firstly, we finished the last NUC for 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I had to transfer all the data I collected yesterday from the temperature logging onto an excel spreadsheet. This appeared in the beginning to be a juggernaut of a task. This is because I have recorded over three hours of data in which temperature readings were taken from a digital multimeter that took its data from three thermistors located on WASP. However, I when I finished the first task I was starting to get the hang of it. All I had to really do was create a procedure that would get this done as quick and efficient as possible. Basically I would find the resistance conversion on the data sheet then look back to my recorded data to find any repeated numbers. From there it was basically copy and paste. I did this for every value and the total time it took me to convert the value from resistance to degrees and plug them into excel was a little over two hours. I thought this was going to be an all day affair. After I had inputed all the data onto six different Microsoft Excel spreadsheets I generated charts for all of them. In the beginning I noticed that the charts were making weird plots, and I then I realized I was using the wrong type of chart. I was using a line graph instead of an xy scatter graph. Once I realized that problem all the charts were generated properly and painlessly. Once I finished I had to show Don the completed charts. After showing him the charts he also wanted me to add explanations on the charts for the people at ITT because they would not have the benefit of having someone explain it to them personally. Don said I deserved a break so I went out to lunch at the Wednesday lunch talks at the Gosnell Building. Once again the presentations were alright, but the food did not disappoint, very good. Afterward, I took my thirty minute break and just to a long walk around the campus. It was definitely a worthwhile walk cause it definately cleared my mind from the numbers I was staring at the few days. Then when I got back to work I put in the annotations Don wanted in all the graphs explaining what the graphs represented and emailed it to him. Some highlights of today include seeing a couple people from Rush-Henrietta that graduated this year who were Alex Arcey and Jennifer Vuong. I suppose RIT has a knack for bringing in Rush-Henrietta graduates.

2005-08-03T08:17:00.000-04:00

August 2, 2005: This day was another day devoted only to one thing, logging data. Basically in the morning after the meeting I sat once again watching the three thermistors with a multimeter and logging in the journal. After lunch it was the same story. However, one major discovery was made today, which is that the ambient temperature was always roughly ten degrees Fahrenheit lower than the camera lens temperature. Also under the right camera lens temperature, when the appropriate NUC is selected, an image is almost perfectly flat. Then around three thirty the daily meeting occurred again where similar topics concerning Leica, Vulcan, and WASP were brought up. During that time I just kept logging data waiting for the camera lens to cool to its ideal temperature for taking an image. Because of this long work day, I was unable to make it to volleyball, maybe next week I suppose. That's pretty much it, laters.

2005-08-02T08:15:00.000-04:00

-->Free Line #2<--
U think whips n gear can make a rappin career
Ur just the next poser sayin, yo...insert rhyme here

2005-08-01T19:00:00.000-04:00

A new segment I will be adding to replace "My Freestyles" so that updates are daily is what I will be calling "free lines." Instead of being a short freestyle it will be instead just one line of a freestyle or just simply one rhyme.

-->Free Line #1<--

Battlefields lined with corpses and chalk lines
A new world order in twenty-twenty-nine

2005-08-01T18:00:00.000-04:00

-->MY FREESTYLES<--

If you are sick of reading my journal entries or find that they are making those who are bored even more bored maybe these entries might help brighten your reading. I added this as a relief to myself from just having strictly blogs about the internship in my blog as well as personalizing my blog. I put this ahead of my journal entries because I believe that those preview my blog would rather read this daily installment first. Unless you are more interested about what I do at work just scroll down to the next entry or simply click the link called daily journal entries on the side margin. Just a note for those who don't know, in my freestyles I refer to myself as Tha Phyloz O'Phie and for those who hate colloquial language a translation to the standard conventions of modern English would be The Philosophy. Feel free to criticize, make fun, or make suggestions at anytime because input, either negative or positive (preferably negative), is always welcome.

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-->Part I - Time Travel<--

What would say if I told you I could travel back into time
Rewrite history so Jesus never turned water into wine
In an instance the forgotten would be remembered
Where you exited is just where you entered
Take a step back I think you just moved forward
Dun worry its aite, u dun belong at the psych ward
What u have just experienced is now a bit of reality
This is pseudophysics in its true totality
U think its immoral, ur comment has jus been erased
What happened five seconds ago has jus been defaced
In your mind you believe what you experience is in the matrix
Its only a compilation of some modern day mind tricks
You thought i was here, and deja vu said u saw me
The magic i pulled here even fooled houdini
Coincidence n accidents are a figment of the truth
Wanna know my secret, jus step into this booth

--> Part II - Into the Booth<--

Steppin into the booth is lika transformation of man
First he was clark kent now hes superman
Thats pretty much the process, justa quick switch
Dun be frightened tho, its not a project like blair witch
Its not watcha see on sci-fi lika gene splice
Jus picka time or place n clik ur heels twice
Its instaneous, like a wormhole just opened
Like fallng into a coma and u jus awoken
Enter terri schiavo, a case that went uncertain
Look at her now shes become her familys burden
So taka lesson from this, and u hafta understand
This aint a reality show like making the band
As funny as this is, the matter is serious
Causing distortion n makin da disinterested curious
Walk into a world caught between two times
Fabrics of the universe is what this matter combines
To spiderman its a curse, to me its a chance
Entering this booth, ur snapped outta realitys trance

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Wow...I havn't updated these for awhile, my bad if anyone was looking forward to more stuff. I will try to make it up, although I can't promise daily entries. Maybe weekly or biweekly, whenever it hits me that I have to update this, well...here's some new stuff.

-->Untitled<--

How can I explain to you that I really care
And losing you is my greatest fear
A better tomorrow is lost in the puddles of deception
Seeking truth in lies has just made honorable mention
Questions, and things only in theory
Understanding what happend has resulted in fury
I cant comprehend the stealing of my soul
Finding a place in your heart is my only goal
And yet you dropped me without a safety net
I feel like i jus went all in and someone called my bet
So your telling me years can end in seconds
Planned events occurring without detection
So hold you now realizing this nightmare
To cherish everytime i run my fingers through your hair
I can't take the chance that one day you'll leave me
And what was love, you perceived not to be
So I ask you now and for only honesty
In Shakespeare's words do you love thee
And if the response is fact rather fiction
Fairy tales to me has become a historical depiction

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

August 1, 2005: Today was basically dominated by one task. That was monitoring the temperature of the environmental chamber for WASP. Basically I monitored the three thermistors (ambient, lens, body) until the ambient temperature reached one of the five target temperatures (92, 87, 82, 77, 72) and tell Jason to take the NUC (pronounced nuke). The reason this task was time consuming was that the environmental chamber cooled at a very slow rate; however, its benefit is that it can maintain a very stable atmospheric conditions for taking a NUC. The is another attempt to remedy that spot or bubble problem that was occurring earlier in my previous entries. Two meetings were held to today concerning the progress of WASP. The first one was in the morning that involved Don McKeown, Jason Faulring, and myself. The purpose of this meeting was to go over what we needed to NUC today and why. Basically the purpose was to achieve some temperature uniformity. The second meeting I was a part of, but less involved. This meeting had a lot more people than just the three of us as Dr. Rhody, Janno, Shari, and some others were present. It dealt with some problems they were having with a new version of Imagine. Originally they were using Imagine version 8.7 and now Leica told them to upgrade to version 8.72. The only problem was it kept on freezing and errors were occurring with the UTM projection WGS 84, which is the one we use for the region. Another thing was transferring programs and files from Vulcan to Silvanus. The meetings were basically short breaks within the day, which was devoted to monitoring WASP; however, they were worth mentioning. And of course, I have volleyball to look forward to tomorrow, hopefully the weather will cooperate.

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

July 29, 2005: Today started off with the usual morning intern meeting. When I got back to the LIAS lab I learned that we were making an environmental chamber for further testing of WASP. This was accomplished by taking several large pieces of styrofoam into a box around WASP. The first step was to clean off all the styrofoam panels because sitting in Don's truck they got wet from the rain. The next step was to build three walls around the back and sides of WASP. Next the front panel was taped to the other three sides with a square cutout where the mid-wave infrared camera would be lined up with the black body. Then it was time to secure the sides by "duck-taping" them to the table. Also another square cut was made on one of the sides for the wire leads for the three thermistors to come out. The locations of the thermistors were on the camera lens, camera body, and one just for determining the ambient temperature. The next step was installing the top which was taped all around except for the front, which had a crease in it to allow for opening a portion of the lid in the front. Next step was to "duck-tape" the top to rest of the box and there's an environmental chamber for WASP. For the next two hours it was my job to log the temperature readings of the thermistors every minute. So firstly, Jason heated the inside of the chamber until the ambient temperature on the digital multimeter read one hundred degrees. In the next hour I basically every minute recorded the temperature readings from the three thermistors. After the conclusion of the that hour Jason came back and it was time for the second trial. This time the inside of the chamber was heated until the ambient temperature on the digital multimeter read one hundred eleven degrees. For the next hour I once again logged on the temperature readings for the three thermistors. Afterward it was time to make a chart on Microsoft Excel of all the data I logged. First I did the chart and graph for when the chamber was heated to one hundred degrees and another for when the chamber was heated to one hundred eleven degrees. After I finished entering the values I produced two graphs of temperature versus time containing three lines each, representing the ambient temperature, body temperature, and lens temperature.

2005-07-28T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 28, 2005: Today was a vacation from computers. I got to help Steve and Matt with putting up a dish that would send data from the forest behind the soccer fields to the roof on top of the Chester F. Carlson Building. The purpose of this was that there was a barrier setup to force frogs through a small entrance. In that entrance would be a motion detector that would activate once something goes by it, like a frog. Once the motion detector is triggered a digital camera will take a snapshot of whatever just walked through the entrance. The picture is then emailed or through some other mode of transferring information to the computer on the roof. The purpose of this is to count the number of frogs that pass by the entrance of the barrier, which is basically the same idea as counting the number of frogs within the barrier. Therefore Steve and Matt's job today was to setup the dish and see if it could connect to the computer on the roof of the imaging science building. This experiment is being run by the biology program and is using some program called nature spy. Anyways we had to bring all the supplies to the forest and we did this by putting it all in two wagons, and Matt carried the rods. Once we got there we had to face the problem of somehow assembling the antenna and raising it up. The height from the ground is going to be well over thirty feet. After a few failed attempts Steve and Matt came up with an idea. With the use of a really long network cable and guy wire for support they basically walked from the end to the stand. My job was to keep the base from sliding and help pull it up as they were walking toward the base. Once up it seemed as though it would fall down because the rods were simply to thin and the structure was reallying bowing. So to reduce the instability Steve tied the network cable and guy wire to trees on opposite sides. Although we were able to get it up the next problem was actually establishing a connection with the computer on the roof. After several attempts to locate it and ping it, it was obvious that there was no signal. The only thing that could be affecting this was the height of the pole. Therefore, we had to raise it. This was challenge as Steve and Matt had to lift the pole off the stand and attach an extension. My job was to make sure the pole did not fall or bend to much in either direction. Suprisingly we were able to get it up and no injuries of any kind were sustained. Next we had to try and communicate with the computer on the roof and once again no luck. Therefore, Steve called Dr. Kremens and had him go on the roof to see if he could locate our computer. After several attempts and tweaking a signal was found, but then it was lost. This seemed to be the occurring trend, a signal would be a found and later it would be lost. The only conclusion was there was some type of interference and the antenna probably had to be raised higher from the ground. This would be a job for tomorrow trying to raise the antenna to eighty fight, now that will be a challenge. So we left most of the stuff there and just brought back everything that was not waterproof. Also we had to take down the antenna tower that we worked so hard to put up because the router or access point was not waterproof. Hopefully the results will be a little better once the antenna is more above the tree canopy.

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

July 27, 2005: Today was the day of the field trip to CooperVision. I got to work around eight o'clock just to make sure I was not late for the time we were going to meet, which was eight thirty. Once everyone was here it was time to load the transportation vans as usual. Then it was off to Scottsville. The field began similar to the Melles Griot field trip where we were placed in a conference room and were given a brief on what we were going to do and see during the tour of the manufacturing facility. We were given lab coats to wear and a hairnet to put on in certain areas that require a higher form of cleanliness. Walking around the plant we saw the injection molding process. Also we passed by rooms where the employees were conducting quality control of the products. One thing I noticed was the punch clock, which was extremely "low-tech" for a manufacturing facility that was working with cutting edge medical optic technology. Anyways after this portion of the tour we were split into groups of four or five to tour the facility at different starting points. A really cool machine that I saw was the machine use to package the finished contact lenses. It was basically a conveyor that would bring the contact lenses to certain points of the packaging process and by the end of the conveyor they were sealed, pressed, and ready. That area reminded me of checkout counters at Wegman's because each conveyor station had a light over it. Another place in the plant we went to was the assembly line, which people each had one specific job in the process. For me it seemed kind of cool some of things they were doing, but after a week or two I would I think would get extremely bored at work. Afterwards it was back to the conference room again where awaiting us there were doughnuts, bagels, cream cheese, grapes, and strawberries. I suppose free food someone seems to always find us. With the conclusion of the tour it was time for lunch where we drove to Avon to eat at the Tom Wahl's Drive In. It was good food and I became very full after finishing my burger. Then it was back to work, which mirrored the things I have been doing the past couple days.

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

July 26, 2005: Today started with the usual morning meeting in the Optics Lab. However, the more exciting thing about today was the launching of the space shuttle Discover in the Return to Flight Mission. Although Joe couldn't book the fish bowl for watching the launch he got instead the reading room, which would work equally as well. To my surprise Fox channel 31 came to do a segment for the news central as we watched the space shuttle launch. Kind of funny though, a television station watching us, watching television for television, I guess that is what news is all about. Anyways after the launch it was pretty much back to work again. Fox wanted to do an extended segment with interviews and I just stayed to watch, I was too nervous to get interviewed myself. So for me it was back up to the North laboratory on the roof taking more data collections from WASP's mid-wave infrared camera. Today I was able to collect two hours worth of data. Good stuff, hopefully that data will help in the experiment Jason is running and aid in the effort of finding the problem with the mid-wave camera and the mysterious spot that appears in most of the imagery. Volleyball for most of the day seemed like a distant possibility as the morning paper predicted afternoon thunderstorms and after checking information from weather.com (which predicted thunderstorms from noon to the evening) it was not much better. However, the rain held up and I was able ot see the remote sensing team bring out the volleyball net while I was on the roof doing my data collections. After I finished my second collection that day I went for my lunch break that I had neglected to take. Nothing special though, just a roast beef sandwich from a vending machine, because Crossroads was closed already. Afterwards it was back to the LIAS lab to shut down my computer and then it was off to volleyball. I only got a chance to play for about forty-five minutes, but it was well worth it. Tomorrow will be a field trip to Cooper Vision in Scottsville, which is projected to be rather fun, but we will see tomorrow, until then, laters.

2005-07-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 25, 2005: Today was a slow in comparison to the past few days, or at least for me. For most of the morning there really wasn't much going on just small things to do here and there. Then it was finally lunchtime. To my surprise Crossroads was extremely crowded today. However, the lines turned out to be very short, it was just the cafeteria that was filled with people. After lunch it was time to get some real work done. I was assigned by Jason to run a some tests with WASP. The mid-wave infrared camera problems were still trying to be solved. The purpose of this experiment was to test the camera it was renuced (pronounced like re-nuked) last week. The experiment was basically taking images of the black body (set to twenty degrees celsius) every ten minutes. After the picture is taken I had to find the FPA temperature, the camera lens temperature, and the camera body temperature. The purpose of this was to see if the camera could sustain a constant temperature. I was told to take measurements for an amount, or in other words take seven images. (one extra for the starting time) The first hour yielded weird results, which was most likely due to the fact that the temperature of the room was not constant. Therefore, Jason had me run the same experiment for another hour. This time the results were much better as the temperature stayed pretty much around thirty six degrees celsius. Although the pictures were better this time around the spot or bubble was still present in the images occupying about one hundred fifty pixels. I have a feeling that I will be running more tests tomorrow and hopefully tomorrow the weather will hold up so we could play the usual tuesday volleyball.

2005-07-22T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 22, 2005: Today's blog will be shorter than the rest because today was not as eventful as the previous days. The day started the usual with me orthorectifying more images. This time it was finishing the images from Spencerport. Soon it was the daily meeting in the optics lab where everyone seem extremely tired. I suppose everyone has been getting little sleep and work exhaustion at the same time. I know for me this was my first experience having a full time job. After the meeting it was back to orthorectification. Once again the resampling process for the terrapix images took an extremely long period of time. After that was completed I basically had nothing to do for awhile, except waiting for the images to finish. By lunch time the images were still resampling. After lunch they had finally completed. Then it was back to running tests with the mid-wave infrared camera for the WASP and trying to pinpoint the cause of the error. We ran the same experiment as yesterday and got the same results. A new experiment we ran today was heating the lens and checking the temperature reading with a thermistor and compare it to the computer data. There was a difference of about four degrees celsius between the two, ideally they were supposed to be the same. Another test involved testing the camera with the lights on and the lights off in the lab, there was a slight effect on the image, but it could have been the cooling process. So pretty much I am guessing that next week we will be running more experiments to figure out what the problem is and how to fix it.

2005-07-21T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 21, 2005: Today began with me checking my mosaic of Honeoye Lake that I let run overnight. It turned out alright with the exception of the few things: I did not color balance the images, there was one really small missing portion, and some of the cut lines were visible. Before I could make any corrections it was time for the usual 8:45 meeting. It seems that there is no new business except a reminder about the upcoming college and career day on Saturday and the confirmation of our field trip next Wednesday. After the meeting I went back to work on the mosaic and this time I read up on how to color balance the images and ran the mosaic again. Next it was the beginning of an experiment in the lab next door to find the errors occurring with the mid-wave infrared camera. For some reason in all of the pictures it has taken there seems to be a bubble or spot of some sort that is about a hundred pixels wide. The suggested reason for this occurence is that the camera is seeing itself. The reason for this is that the mid-wave camera can see both infrared and visible light. With the visible light spectrum you can see reflected light, and vice versa the infrared spectrum sees emitted light. This combination of ability to both reflected and emitted light is what results in the camera seeing itself. In order to find the solution we ran two experiments today. The first one was checking the temperature of the lens and body of the camera every ten minutes in a situation where it is operating. The second experiment involves putting a black block in front of the camera and taking images and collecting the temperature of the lens and body of the camera every ten minutes. The second experiment was cut slightly short since Jason had to attend a meeting with ITT. This leaves me to going back to looking at the finished mosaic with color balance. Although the color was better some of the cut lines could still be seen and that missing portion was still there. Tomorrow I will bring this up with Shari to find out what I am doing wrong in the mosaic processing to result in some of these blemishes.

2005-07-20T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 20, 2005: Today I started the day viewing the terrapix images I had orthorectified of Honeoye Lake. Then it was off to the morning staff meeting. Returning to the LIAS lab, I learned that we had to unload WASP from Jason's truck. So it was off to the loading dock and we put everything into two carts and brought them to the 2nd floor. Don McKeown characterized this as WASP returning to its nest. Once everything was in the lab there was a meeting about the problems they were having with the cameras. For some reason there was some type of spot or curvature in the images and they are trying to pinpoint the problem. Therefore, in the next couple weeks there were several tasks assigned to everyone to complete. My task is to mosaic the pictures from Heneoye Lake. Once the meeting ended I started the orthorectification of the images collected from Spencerport. Soon it was time for the weekly presentations at the Gosnell Building and awaiting there was a free lunch. Same as last time it was submarine sandwiches and Salvatore's pizza (cheese, pepperoni, and vegetarian). The talks were very interesting in some ways while dull in other ways. They had their ups and downs. So I guess it evened itself out. After a the usual thirty minute break I was back to work. This time I was trying to teach myself how to mosaic images with the aid of the mosaic tour guide. I basically conducted the same steps in the tutorial, but using different images. The program is running right now and I have a feeling this will have to run overnight similar to the orthorectification of terrapix images. Hopefully in the future this process could be sped up, but for now it is a several hour project, in which the computer is constantly working even after I clock out. My only fear is the computer crashing, in which case I would have to begin this process all over again tomorrow. Some things I noticed today that were out of the ordinary since I started were the presence of a lot of kids that could be middle school or high school students. I suppose it must be some type of summer camp or summer program RIT is running and right now Jason is giving a presentation of WASP to some high school students and high school teachers in the conference room.

2005-07-19T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 19, 2005: Today it was back to using OrthoBase again to orthorectify more images. In the morning I was able to see the finished resampling of the visible-near infrared of Mendon Ponds. Next on the list of things to do was help Jason and Janno move MISI into Jason's SUV. The purpose of this was for Jason and Janno to drive down to the airport to take WASP out of the Piper Aztek and put MISI in its place. Afterward they would run a test flight. For me it was back to work with Orthobase and orthorectifying images taken from Honeoye Lake. So far Honeoye Lake contained the most images I had to orthorectify at one time. Therefore, I knew this would take more time than all the others I have done previous to this. So my plan was before lunch I would finish the eastern portion of the images (long-wave infrared, mid-wave infrared, and short-wave infrared) and let the terrapix images resample during lunch time. Then after lunch I would finish doing the western portion of the images (long-wave infrared, mid-wave infrared, and short-wave infrared) and let the terrapix images for the eastern and western images to resample overnight. The thing I have found out about OrthoBase is that setting up the images and the steps before resampling takes a short amount of time, with the exception of finding the average flying height. However, the last and final step in the process, resampling, takes hours of end to complete. From my experiences every image that had to be orthorectified as a terrapix image I had to let run overnight. As I am typing right now the images are being resampled. However, I am looking forward to volleyball at three o'clock, which is only a half hour away. I am also looking forward to the presentations tomorrow at the Gosnell Building, and hopefully there will be some interesting presentations. However, the free food only enhances the experience.

2005-07-18T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 18, 2005: Today I began the day starting with the orthorectification of WASP data collected from Mendon Ponds. The previous week I had just finished the orthorectification of the data collected from RIT. However, I noticed that in the viewer the images for the very-near infrared did not match up correctly. Therefore, after I had finished orthorectifying the short-wave infrared, mid-wave infrared, and long-wave infrared, I redid the very-near infrared for RIT. During the resampling process, which takes two to three hours for terrapix, I clocked out for lunch and let the computer run during that time. By the time I got back the terrapix images had been finished for RIT so I started the terrapix images for Mendon Ponds. Once I complete the orthorectification of Mendon Ponds I plan to start working on the images that were collected from Honeoye Falls. Orthorectification has pretty much characterized the past few days of work, but I still find the OrthoBase program to be rather fun to use. Other things I did today was registering for the lectures on Wednesday. Hopefully the food was as good as it was last time. It will be interesting to see what topics are being discussed on Wednesday. My hope is that at least one the topics deals with the medical field, because I plan to major in biomedical engineering in college and I would like an early insight to what I should be expecting. The highlight of the day was in the morning when Mr. Callens shows all the interns the infrared camera. Some things to look forward to are the field trip at the end of the month and volleyball tomorrow.

2005-07-15T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 15, 2005: Today began with me viewing the terrapix images in the morning to verify if the images matched up correctly. Then I had time to conduct the orthorectification of another set of short-wave infrared images before the staff meeting. After the staff meeting we had about forty-five minutes to work before going on the field trip at 9:30am. I basically figured that was not enough time to start on another orthorectification before our departure time, so I went with Tyler to see what kind of projects he was working on. As he had told me earlier he had been using a program called MatLab to create phantoms, which were basically a image similar to what an MRI would produce. The field trip at Melles Griot turned out to be rather interesting beginning with receiving protecting goggles at the sign in desk. The field began with a short presentation about what they were doing at the facility and the cool thing was during the presentation we each had nice leather executive chairs to sit-in. The first part of the tour was to the areas where they were machining parts. Seeing the machines and some of the workshop drawings it reminded me of a few classes I took at high school the past couple years such as Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) and Principles of Engineering (POE). Some things I noticed were the metal lathe, CNC milling machine, and some workshop drawings that were produced by a CAD program. The next part of the tour was the clean room, which was cool to be outfitted with the clean room suits. The clean proved to be air conditioned, which was much confortable than the rather warm room we had to put our suits on. Afterward we went back to the conference room for two more presentations and it was off to lunch at Pizza Hut. Back at RIT I took my thirty minute break and it was back to work. I finished orthorectification of the mid-wave infrared and long-wave infrared and waiting for the visible-near infrared resampling to finish. This gave me time to do today's blog, which I just finished.

2005-07-14T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 14, 2005: Today I conducted the tutorials once again. After completing the tutorials for a third or fourth time I took a break from the tutorials to work on some additions to my blogs such as the my freestyles section, which I will try to update daily along this section. Soon it was lunch time. After lunch I started working orthorectifying some photographs of RIT after being instructed through the process by Janno. He helped me complete the orthorectification of the short-wave infrared images. The process was similar to the tutorials in some ways with some added steps. Some steps in the process in short was basically creating a block file, specifying the location, creating pyramid layers, classifying the camera, classifying the interior orientation, classifying the exterior orientation, locating DEM, and finally resampling the images. Once the resampling process was complete you can view the mosaic using the viewer. The resampling process is the longest process, especially for terrapix. In other words that would be the resampling of the visible and near-infrared images. This process was projected to take two to three hours so I just let the machine run overnight and I will look at the finished mosaic tomorrow in the viewer to make sure the roads and rivers matched up correctly. Some highlights of the day included the staff meeting in the morning in which the question was asked by Mr. Callens about the adaptation for one eye to be photopic and the other scotopic. Through internet research I found the meaning of photopic to be the viewing an area with plenty of light exposure and viewing something photopically occurred in color. Scotopic in the opposite, which is the adaptation of the eye to see at night or also known as night vision. Viewing something scotopically is in grayscale and images tend to be slighly fuzzy. In answering the question it is possible for each eye to be independently photopic and the other scotopic because that is how airforce pilots are trained to fly at night so when a blinding light hits them they can still see. Also our experiment verified this finding as well.

2005-07-13T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 13, 2005: Today I am finishing up the tutorials for Leica Photogrammetry Suite. The last one being automated DTM (digital terrain model) extraction. A DTM according to the manual is described as "a discrete expression of topography in a data array, consisting of a group of planimetric coordinates (x,y) and the elevations of the ground points and breaklines." In other words a DTM is a simply a map that shows areas of equal elevation by the use of contour lines. The closer the contour lines the steeper the slope and vise versa the more spread out the contour lines the slope is more gradual. Other highlights from today include helping Steve carry some equipment to the soccer fields for him to test out if the antennas he and Matt designed would allow their computers to communicate with each other through the use of radio waves. The day finished with the completion of each of the tutorials for the second time. I did this for the purpose of further practice with the OrthoBase program to increase my speed and efficiency.

2005-07-12T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 12, 2005: Today will finally be able to work on the tour guides for the Leica Photogrammetry Suite. Tour guides are simply another name for tutorials. The tour guides include a frame camera tour guide, digital camera tour guide, SPOT pushbroom sensor tour guide, and an automated DTM extraction tour guide. In the beginning the time it took me to orthorectify an image was more than the estimated time, which was one hour and fifteen minutes. My guess was it took somewhere between two to three hours. The reason for this was that this was my first real exposure to this program and I had no prior experience with finding and making ground control points, check points, and tie points. This process although meticulous I found to be a rather fun and gratifying after I got the hang of it. An interesting break today was that other students that were working over the summer presented a couple powerpoints on their experiment. The experiment was about finding the amount of error that the elements in the atmosphere would effect a camera lens, some hypothesized factors included water vapor and aerosols. The purpose of this experiment was to figure out what this error was and how to calculate it under different atmospheric conditions. The highlight of today was volleyball with the some the people working in the imaging science building and other interns. However, next time I have to remember to bring gym shorts every tuesday instead of playing in jeans on a ninety degree day.

2005-07-11T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 11, 2005: Today is my first day being able to log on to the silvanus server. Besides the 100 Mbps connection speed there are other benefits as well. I will be finally able to use the program ERDAS Imagine, which is designed by Leica Geosystems and contains the Leica Photogrammetry Suite. However, when I began the program I ran into a few problems. The major problem was that all the components for running the program were installed, but the dems, texts, and other components needed for the tour guides were not installed. However, Janno was kind enough to take time out of his day to help me out and install the rest of the program for me. Once I began the first the tour guide, the Frame Camera tour guide, I ran into to early administrative problems because I needed certain privileges such as saving files and creating folders. This was essential to the creation of pyramid layers, which was pretty much the first steps after creating a block file and importing the images. However, by the end of the day Janno was able to resolve these problems and I would be able to begin working of the tour guides tomorrow. The highlight of this day was going to Spencerport to collect aerial photography by the WASP, which was attached to a Piper Aztek and being flown at three different elevations, 2500, 5000, and 10000 feet. Also, earlier today we found out that we had to move our lab to the neighboring lab for the cleanup crew to clean and wax the floors. So I have two things to look forward to tomorrow, moving and volleyball.

2005-07-08T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 8, 2005: Today as predicted was another day that was composed of mainly reading. However, through my reading I came across something about how the program works and the way it generates images through the use of matrices. Curious about matrices, I also remembered that Janno had mentioned something about during the first day during introductions. Therefore, I researched over the internet to figure out what these mysterious matrices were because I felt knowing what they were and how to compute them were essential to understanding OrthoBase and photogrammetry in general. Photogrammetry according to the American Society of Photogrammetry is, "the art, science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring, and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant imagery and other phenomena." It turns out that matrices are a part of Linear Algebra. The rest the day consisted of a combination of reading on the theories and techniques behind photogrammetry and learning how to perform basic operations through matrices. Something to look forward to next week is the flight that is taking place over a field in Spencerport where fires will be set and WASP will be used to sense them.

2005-07-07T17:00:00.001-04:00

July 7, 2005: Today was my first actual day of work. Today I received a desk and a computer. This day basically consisted of reading information about the WASP project and the introduction in the manual by Leica Geosystems for their OrthoBase program. After I received the manual I was entered into the silvanus server and given a log in name. This would give me something to save my files to and the silvanus server contains ERDAS Imagine 8.7. However, bad news came later that I would not be able to access silvanus until next week due the fact that it only could only hold two licenses per computer and someone else needed the license I was using. Therefore, I basically just read the manual to get acquainted with the program. After reading for a few hours it was finally time for lunch. After lunch it was back to reading again and I did that for the rest of the day until I clocked out. Not the most exciting day, but is was definately worthwhile reading because I knew I would be prepared once I began using the program.

2005-07-06T17:00:00.000-04:00

July 6, 2005: Today is my first actual day of work. However, this day i suppose could not be characterized as a work day regardless of the fact that all the interns were paid for "work" today. Well, i am not complaining because it was easy money as well as getting the opportunity to get to know all the interns. The first part of the day was simply a meeting in the fish bowl to conduct a few house keeping duties. However, problems had occurred with Tyler and I so that we were not in the system and would not be able to punch in and out of the system. The only solution was manually recording our hours for this week. It turns out that it was due to the fact that we did not turn in our demographic information a few weeks earlier during the day of processing. However, this was just a minor speedbump, the real challenge is awaiting later today. The day continued on with simply a tour of the imaging science facility and a short visit to all the different groups the interns would working with, which included: ultrasonic imagery, MRI, visual perception, color science, remote sensing (spectral imaging), remote sensing (WASP), and ancient document restoration. After the quick tour was lunch at crossroads, which Joe reminded was one of the many free lunches we will be receiving at RIT for the summer. Of course this was alluding to his blog about free food he has received at RIT. After lunch was the starting of a "cooperative activity", which was the challenge I was referring to earlier. It started with a trust walk to the red barn, which involved half the group to be blindfolded and the others to lead the ones who could not see without the use of any talking. The way it worked out was that an intern/RIT student led twice and walked blindfolded twice and eventually we were all in the red barn. The icebreaker was simply passing around different animals in a specific order that would allow us to get to know each other's names; however, that was not the only purpose. After we became very adept at this, more animals were added until it was just zoo of plush cluttering the airways. The real challenge as it revealed itself, was to get the animal from the first person to the last in less than a minute. With several ideas being said we eventually solved it with the conglomeration of everyone's proposal. We basically stood in a circle and Karen spun in a circle touching everyone's hand in succession. The next challenge was just keeping a beachball up in the air and for everyone to touch it. This challenge was not a real challenge as it did not take the same length of time to complete this one than the first one. The final challenge was being tied to one another at the ankles and walking across hula hoops. After that was completed we had two to three hours to meet with our advisors and who we were working with. It turns out that my advisor who I already met earlier was Don McKeown. I basically was working with three other people: Jason Faulring, Janno Park, and Shari McNamara. I would like to apologize to them if i mispelled their names. Basically for those few hours we basically got to know each other and they gave a quick brief on what they were doing.