Day 18

I successfully implemented uploading today with the help of Jim! Next is the scoring function.

Also, Kevin Rock, the leader of the SpecTIR operation, emailed a mosaic of their flight-lines today. This could mean that data will be coming quickly, and that I will have another site to develop!

Day 17

We collected today! It was extremely cloudy this morning, so I thought that there was no way a collect could go down today, but around 2:00pm today, we received word that SpecTIR would be over campus at 3:30. With the help of a couple interns (thanks guys!) we got all of the target out in time to spell "RIT" as the plane flew RIT_1 for the first time.
I think I am done with IDL for my site, but who knows what the future will bring. I have to figure out why uploads won't save in the tmp directory.

Day 16

The morning collect was canceled today. Hopefully we will get good data tomorrow!
My transition to the webserver is going well. Note to self: type carefully!!
I'm having trouble with some more IDL, but that looks like one of the last few obstacles left for which I am not sure what to do with yet.

Day 15

The collect for today was further postponed, but hopefully it will happen tomorrow afternoon.
Bob had us go through a demonstration today where we covered one eye in the dark, had the other adjust to light, then uncover the covered eye in the dark. In order to compensate for the darkness, our brains lowered the brightness of of both eyes, making it impossible to see out the original eye.

As for progress on my web app, I got my own directory on the web server today! (yay!!!) Now I just have to figure out how to get something to display (not even a simple echo command works).
Still, things are moving along.

Day 13

Today I made huge progress on the site, enabling file downloads, cleaning up the menus and fonts, and adding some content. I also implemented the uploading and scoring feature, but I can't test it until I'm allowed on Pegasus (the web-server computer).

Day 12

Today I made huge progress on the site. I fixed the authentication issues and hover menus and am ready to start editing content (the easy stuff) and adding my downloads (the kind of easy stuff). Computers are really fun when they work!

Day 11

The field trip to UofR was really cool today. They are working on synthetic tissues and hope to create functional organs that can be used in people.
I found what was causing a major error in my site today, just a silly copy and paste mistake on my end of course, so I'll be moving along more-so on my site. I even got internet working on my laptop!!!

Day 11

Today was a big preparation day for the collect. I tested out radios and set up the tarp flag system for signaling when flyovers happen.
Also, I created my own training data for the classification blind test, and put some finishing touches on the IDL scorer.

Day 10

Today I mostly worked on the IDL module that will score the user's upload. Despite my doubts in IDL last week, the programming went almost smoothly today! The test is actually done to the current specifications.
Now I just have to make the website functional and I'll be moving right along.
Thursday's collect should be exciting too!

Day 9

Today we saw a master's dissertation on classification of trees species and herbaceous bio-massing with fusion of HSI and wLIDAR. I'm proud to say that I understood most of the presentation, besides some data-processing terms she used, and it was pretty enjoyable.
I also attended a planning meeting for the coming collect. Usually this department takes a few months to set up for a collect, but this one is being set up in a couple of weeks. Needless to say, the meeting was a little crazy, but it definitely made my day more interesting.
I also starting learning IDL today, but it doesn't like me as much as php yet.

Day 8

Today I established with Dr. Kerekes exactly how the website is going to present and take data from the user. Also, I found out how to access Dave's database, so I could get all of the code in there.
After a long day's work, I have a not-functioning login screen (with no errors!). Progress is coming slowly and steadily.

Day 7

Today was very different from the normal workday. First off we took a field trip to JML Optical. Their manufacturing process was very precise, fun to watch, and awe-striking. Relating what I had learned in Physics this year to what I heard was really fulfilling. Also, I was able to ask tons of questions while on the tour.

Today we also tried a new team-building activity. Bob had been urging us to play volleyball since last week, and everyone was really glad that we did. It's too bad that no one else joined the interns, but it definitely was a "bonding" experience for all of us. I hope that the next time we play, some other RIT students and employees join the fun!

Day 6

I finished off most of the HTML structure of the website today and began the CSS scripting. The bagels Bob brought in were gooood! Being at a computer for so long each day is a little different, but I like the chairs here and leaning back seems to help me avoid discomfort.

Video from our group from day 1:

Day 5

I started off today reading through more source code in the documentation.

Also, I started coding today, and put out almost 1000 lines using Dave's source code as a reference.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting with Dr. Kerekes to establish how the actual data is going to be implemented into the blind test.

Day 4 - Things Becoming a Little Clearer

Having never created a website before, all of this php, HTML, AJAX, MySQL, and css (oh yeah and IDL) is pretty new to me. I spent most of the day going through Dave's source code and looking up commands I didn't know (most of them). I actually feel really good about php after today, and MySQL isn't looking hard at all. Dave came by and was really cool. He answered all of my questions and gave me some insight on how unprepared I am to do this type of application. I suppose that's the sort of thing I want to be doing. I wanted a challenge this summer and I got one.

Apparently I'm not allowed to create a server on the computers here, so looks like I'll be bringing in the laptop for coding and testing stuff out.

Day 3 - Just Getting Started

Today was mainly a day of continuing to analyze the scope of writing this web application. I digested the first 14 pages of the documentation to the existing application, and everything made sense conceptually. Things became more difficult when trying to figure out the meanings of the source files, mostly coded in php and javascript.

Until today my group could not utilize images in ENVI that weren't located in their main fileserver directories. This posed a problem as further tutorials required different images. I went down to the IT department, where Brett and James were a HUGE help in getting my group setup with ENVI.

At the beginning of the day, Nina introduced us to the Twiki within cis. I created my own page and am keeping a task list/journal there.

OH and I almost forgot, today was EXTREMELY FUN. This is exactly the type of environment that I wish High School was. And I even got to sit behind Brett in the IT department and absorb some of his actions and commentary. AWESOME!!!

About ten interns met for lunch at SAU today, the underground game room was cool and I got to play DDR!

Day 2 - The Work Begins

Ever since I got that email telling me that I was hired as an intern, I was waiting for the day when I would actually start getting down-and-dirty into science. Today was that day. After a quick tour of the remote sensing part of building 76, Nina guided us in accessing Envi and its tutorials. RIT even has the Envi + IDL license, giving staff access to the language used to program Envi, in turn giving them the ability to add desired functionality to it. Today's weekly staff meeting was canceled, but I hope to attend next week's since it will be interesting to hear some high-level discourse relevant to what I will be doing this summer and see who exactly I am working "alongside."

My first assignment from Dr. Kerekes came today, along with some documentation outlining the parameters of a Blind Test web application. My current goal with Dr. Kerekes is to create another blind test web application based on the current one (located Here). The documentation did a great job of outlining the purpose, usefulness, and conceptual portions of the project, but I am still extremely unaware of how to code a web application in general. I took a look at some of the source for the current blind test application, and (X)HTML doesn't look too bad.

Dr. Kerekes also wanted me to try the blind test, and after taking some Envi tutorials, I almost feel able to take it, but I do not have the ability to import files into Envi that aren't on the main file server. Hopefully I can learn how tomorrow.

Day 1 - "Getting to know you... Getting to know all about you" (RIT Campus)

The first day of the internship was pretty interesting. Only two minutes away from punctual, our group (of I think 19 today) strolled into the Reading Room for a quick briefing regarding a secret "activity" Mr. Callens had in store for us. The cat was out of the bag; we were going on a scavenger hunt. The cool part was that instead of just checking off items on a list, each of the three groups had to record their discovering of the location on the RIT campus of a corresponding picture... no not "a" picture, forty-three pictures. With visual wanted lists in hand, each group pestered RIT staff, students, and unlucky passer-bys into pointing them in the direction of one of the images. Unfortunately, words like "Crossroads" and "Java's" meant nothing to us at the beginning of the day, but the point of the activity was accomplished, since I can honestly say I know where to find the "oversized" section in the library and can hear the words "Kodak Quad" without furrowing my brows in confusion.

In order to prove our success, each group was assigned to create a movie using the Kodak usb camera they were given in conjunction with iMovie. At the first mentioning of the Mac operating system, it was apparent that I was pretty much the only intern not ready to smash one on sight. But once again, this was an opportunity for everyone to learn something new and be confronted with a challenge. After some trial and error, restarting, switching computers, and discovering of a 2.56gb video recorded on July 1st on our camera, my group began moving along with iMovie. Helen, comfortable with photography and cinematography on PCs, took care of the clipping and editing of the raw video files. The final DVD included our actual findings in realtime, 4x speed clips of us walking and pestering, and a soundtrack starring Mission Impossible, "Pump It" by the Black Eyed Peas, and "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse.

After departing with the whole group, Toni, Sean and I met with Nina to talk about how tomorrow would work. Unfortunately, Dr. Kerekes was at meetings for the remainder of the day.