RIT Remote Sensing Internship

August 20

2008-08-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

I ran through my presentation with Mr. Pow and May, and have to make some changes. But overall, it was good. I also helped jason with cords and moving equipment in my "office". I hope i do well in the practice run through at U of R tomorrow!

August 19th

2008-08-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

I finished my lab report and worked on my presentation. I am pretty far with the presentation, almost done. I just have to look it over at home. i was also part of the eye tracking experiment again. My task during the experiment was to find the irregularities in the brain scans in different images with different color patterns.

August 16

2008-08-18T15:23:00.000-07:00

I worked on my presentation today and also on the poster. In additions, today I went to an RIT information session and talked to the counselor. I felt proud of myself because I knew a lot about what was presented, and also knew about the internship opportunities they talked about.

August 15

2008-08-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

I found a website for Alvin that has LandSAT TM images for the entire globe, he was very pleased with me. He said when May comes back he is still going to have me working for him. The afternoon I searched for information on duel imaging for him, no luck though :(.

August 14th another note

2008-08-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

Well, yes, this is another blog for August 14th. I've worked on my poster and tried to find the picture of the power plant cite that May is testing with, but I couldn't find one.

August 14

2008-08-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Today, oh today, why is brazil so hard to find!!!!!!! (still for the LandSAT TM images) I transfered my work onto a flash so i could work at home if i needed to. So, yeah, basically today was spent researching, and Alvin left early I think, so I didn't know what I could do other than research.

August 12

2008-08-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

I found some LandSAT TM files for Washington D.C. for Alvin, actually a pretty good website of them. I worked on my 1st draft of the poster and sent that in, and also made an abstract of my project for the University of Rochester visit, where we will practice our presentations.

August 11

2008-08-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

I researched LandSAT TM images for Ouro Preto in Brazil, Sierra Nevada in California, and for Washington D.C. to help Alvin out. May is gone so i'm working for Alvin for some of the week. I found a great site for Sierra Nevada, but it seems that no one cares about making the files for the other two easy to find. (Scientists have a weird habit of naming their project title the most complicated thing that they can come up with. Why can't they name the title something that is obvious and understandable?)

August 8th

2008-08-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

Today I worked on my lab write up, ran around trying to find things (like all over the proximity), and went out to eat lunch (nothing special, just McDonalds). The morning was hectic, the evening, cool down time.

August 7th

2008-08-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

I collected the data from the experiment I ran over night and transfered it to Excell. Then I worked on figuring out why the ice capsule leaked and made some changes to the structure, the picture above is the new capsule. Later I worked on my lab and looked over the comments and changes.

August 6th

2008-08-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

Today I worked on another ice capsule/thermocouple trial run. There were some problems with Trial #3 that May and I wanted to check upon. The testing conditions are about the same. I also interviewed with the RIT Honor's Director and learned more about the program.

August 5th

2008-08-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

I remade the labs so they were in the right format as well as understandable. I had to rush because May wanted to present them in a meeting she had, which was at the time, in one hour. That was fun and stressful, but I finished in time. I also have almost finished the lab report. Jeez, lab reports in college are way different than high school reports. The work I've been doing on this report is comparable to a final exam or project in school. Yikes.

August 4th

2008-08-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

Today we toured ITT and I had a blast! In the opening, we were informed of the areas that ITT works with; they include national security, weather imaging, and maps used by google maps. I am interested in the national security part; using images to find things like tanks, airstrips, etc. When I first learned about the Imaging Sciences and remote sensing, that is exactly what I envisioned in my mind and what I wanted to do! I later asked one of the people on the tour about internships at ITT and was told that there are high school internships during the summer. I am so excited, I will definitly apply for a job for next summer there!
Oh, and at work, I worked on my lab report some more.

August 1st

2008-08-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

Today I researched containers to hold ice blocks, but had trouble. I guess companies just don't like giving out their secrets. The Remote sensing interns (myself included) had a meeting with May about lab reports and how they should look and be overall. I learned that I didn't need to give out instructions on how to do the experiment, just to convey how we did it. I learned a lot about the college lab format and am happy because this is great preparation for the future.

July 31st

2008-07-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

Today we visited the U of R and we toured the labs there. It was all bio centered, and lets just say biology isn't my cup a' tea. But when we got back I tried running my experiment, but it broke.

July 30th

2008-07-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

I ran my LED experiment and was able to find a difference with voltage in the photocell when the LED was on and when it wasn't. The container for the ice broke though, so we bought a plexiglass container now to use instead of plastic. I also presented my work to the U of R interns. (I did very well.)

July 29th

2008-07-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

I carried out my experiment, but found that i needed to make some changes. I also made a magnificent introduction for a lab report. I also met a friend during lunch who is teaching at RIT for 2 weeks.

July 28th

2008-07-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

Today i constructed the LED-ice tester structure. I am proud of myself because I designed the whole thing and now was able to build it. I can't wait to test it out tomorrow.

July 25th

2008-07-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

I worked on putting the new data from the logger machine into excel, and researched the tools used in the project. I learned more about how they work as well. The air show also started today so i had a lot of visitors come up to my rooftop "office".

july 24th

2008-07-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

Today I ran the 3rd ice-thermocouple experiment and read more about the overall goal of May's project. I also am writing more in the lab report and inserting more data. We also watched the thunderbirds on the roof for a while.

July 23rd

2008-07-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

Today I ran another ice capsule experiment, except this time the PVC pipe was removed. May and I think it may act as an insulator on the ice. I also learned more about how to write a lab report college style. I went to a presentation and learned how the Imaging Sciences is used in wild fire studies. I got really excited when I saw that the presenter used ENVI in his presentation.

July 22nd

2008-07-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

We found success! We ran our experiment and the thermocouples gave temperature differences between the water and ice! Now I am continuing to write up the lab report. I am also putting the collected data onto excel.
We also took a trip to Bauch and Lomb. I enjoyed seeing the machines being run. I still don't think wearing the hair net, safety glasses, ear plugs, and gown was very fashionable.

july 21st

2008-07-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

Today I learned how to use the logger with the computer. I now know how to use the logger machine. I hooked up the wires so tomorrow when we run the experiment we can hook up 11 thermocouples to the logger machine. I also am starting to write a lab report in the college format.

July 16

2008-07-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

Today I explored the logger machine and cleaned a water cooler. I could not figure out how to read the logger machine's results so I will be working with May and Dr. Salvaggio on Monday to learn more about it.

July 15th

2008-07-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today we froze the ice in the capsul, and worked on cleaning the room where the freezer is to go in. I also worked more with ENVI and made two images, one with 3 classifications (water, ice, and snow) and the other with 4 (add on unstable ice).

July 14th

2008-07-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

Today I showed May and Dr. Salvaggio what information my experiments with ultrasound produced. I also worked with May on making a contraption that freezes water with thermocouples (connected to a metal rod) in it. We used a PVC pipe, two end caps, thermocouples, and a metal rod in this experiment. I also talked with Dr. Salvaggio about ENVI and he showed me some features that I hadn't figured out yet.

Day 5

2008-07-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

Today, I experimented with more ice just to make sure my data from yesterday was accurate. I also explored ENVI and its classification features. I was fascinated how the computer classified (for example) snow just by me selecting a small area of snow on the screen. I can't wait to learn more about this feature and see how we are going to use it to reach the project goal.

Day 4

2008-07-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

For our morning meeting, we went into a room, shut off the lights and closed the door, got used to the darkness, then covered one eye and walked around outside of the room. Then we went back to the room, made it dark again and uncovered the covered eye. One eye could see while the other eye looked like it was covered or blindfolded. Our "homework" was to figure out what was happening. Our eyes were adjusting to the light by making our pupil smaller, but in the dark the pupil grows so it can take in more light.
Today I finished my experiment with using ultrasound to find the depth of ice. I found that as we used bigger ice, we had to use lower frequency on the machine to be able to transmit through the whole cube. I also searched for ways to make snow. I enjoyed today because of the hands on experiences.

3rd day

2008-07-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

I used the ultrasound machine today, but we couldn't get the ice to stop floating. So we found a solution and I am bringing in a bigger container tomorrow.

Day 2

2008-07-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

Today I prepared ice for an experiment tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be using ultrasound to find the height of the ice cube. I read a couple chapters on ultrasound. I had a good understanding of the terms and overall idea since I just took AP Physics this year. Later I explored more of the program called "ENVI".

1st Day

2008-07-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the red barn and did some getting to know you activities, some really fun and silly stuff. I had a good time, then we had lunch. At lunch I talked to some of the RIT students and heard their perspectives on RIT, (don't worry, they are good). Overall, Today was a good day and a great start to the internship.