LAST WEEK!

So, I'll sum up this week (tuesday-friday):

Tuesday and Wednesday were days devoted to working on our presentation. On wednesday, we practiced for Jake and he gave us some good feedback.

Thursday we spent the day practicing at UR with the interns over there. I think it was helpful but it took just soooo long!

Friday: PRESENTATION TIME!! It was a smashing success! Astronomy went so good! We actually seemed fairly competent in what we were presenting. After the presentation we went out to lunch (on Jake =]). I can't believe this summer is finally over, its been long but I must say that I wouldnt have done it any other way! And whats better is that I'm working for Jake during the year, except I'll be getting credit instead of money which is basically the same thing b/c college will leave me broke!

Day 30

Soccer has officially started, so this week will be busier than ever. I have tryouts all week from 8-10 and then 11:30-1:30. So for monday-wednesday I'll be at RIT from 2-6 or maybe 7 if i feel up to it.

Today, for when I was here, I worked on finding xray wavelengths. I've got almost all of them done so hopefully It'll be done tomorrow. Today there was also a thing for girl scouts in the lobby. Basically a bunch of organizations came in trying to get girls into science/math/technology. Bob thought we should have a look around so me and nicole ventured off. It was actually really cool. There was a lot of stuff on fuel cells, they even had a fuel cell SUV. General Motors has a branch in HF-L where they do all there fuel cell research. I'd really love to see fuel celled cars out on the road with in the next 5 years. They'd make such a difference for the environment. I'd go through all the positives, but I need to get back to work!


basma

Days 29+30

Thursday was spent working on the poster, of course. Chris O'Dea gave me some helpful feedback so I did some editing on my poster. Jake was pretty much gone the whole day so I didn't get to ask him anything.

Friday: we started to plan out our presentation. Its going to be interesting...Somehow we're going to fit 4 mini presentations into 1 big presentation. Oh dear. Today I also started to find the xray wavelengths using planks constant. I really hope i finish my plots by wednesday. I think Jake gets mad when i ask Bryan for help with plotting. I don't know why, its not like i was born with plotting capabilities...I guess thats what IDL help is for. Team building today is going to be snowball fight by the ice rink. Its been a while since we've team built so, I'm semi-excited.

Well one more week left! Next week is going to be busy, between soccer, plotting, making our presentation (I'm missing the practice session at UR..crap). Its going to be hectic and I'll have to put it in overdrive to finish everything!


weekend time :)

Basma

Day 29

Today we went on a field trip to Optimax. They're an optical manufacturing company in Ontario. They gave us free stuff, and like all interns, free stuff is great. They gave us some sick shades, a little glass lense, and a cozy for drinks..We had lunch at Amiels...Must say that i wasn't too impressed with my chicken parm sub but now I know never to order that again.

When I got back to CIS, Bryan and I worked on more plotting. We made a code! I'll be able to put in my flux/wavelength data and it'll plot my graph for me.



meeting time!

basma

p.s. I took another look at my poster and I'm definitely going to have to go back and do some major editing..

Day 27

Today went surprisingly fast..Not exactly sure how that managed to happen, but all of sudden it was 4:30. Maybe it was due to my astounding amount of productivity! I completed my poster. Its not bad, not entirely satisfied but it'll suffice for now. Bryan and I started the plotting process. It was long, tedious, and frustrating. Sure enough with in a half an hour we decided it'd be best to talk to Jake for some clarification. I think we have a pretty good idea for how to do it now, so tomorrow, after we get back from the field trip, I will devote my day to plots, plots, and more plots.





bananas in pajamas forever,
basma

Day 26

So today's focus was mainly on my poster. I pretty much have it all done with some exceptions. Besides making it look pretty, I need to type up the section on the processes behind my work and how I did it all. I'm using publisher to make my poster and its pretty easy to use. Joe said that Illustrator would be better, but we don't have it downloaded on the tablets so publisher it is. The rough draft is due wednesday, so tuesday will be basically me finishing it up. Presentations are due by next wednesday, thats really what I'm worried about. I think that Kevin, Tom, and Nicole are doing their's together cause they mainly did similar research but, of course, I was the oddball doing different research. So, it looks like I'm flying solo for this one.

In other news, I passed my road test! yay!! It was probably the best feeling..ever. Now, if I only had a car.

Day 25

So, today was the undergrad symposium. Essentially the ugrads, who stayed at RIT for the summer doing research, presented either a poster or presentation on all the work they've completed thus far. Brad, Bryan, and Greg(who wasn't present) presented on starformation and Karla presented on the FRI/FRII galaxies. They all did a great job and I'm super glad that I never have to answer a question from Dr. Robinson, or any other British Astro-physicists. We were there pretty much all day. When we eventually returned back to CIS, I did some more flux crap and worked on my poster -- they're kinda due by next wednesday so I'll be cramming that in next week..



TGIF!



basma

Day 24

Alrighty then, today I spent time calculating/looking up more galaxy frequencies and wavelengths. I have all the radio data frequencies, which apparently is not the same as the wavelengths. So, I had to figure out the wavelength based on the frequency. It basically was an equation and some unit conversions.

Today I also worked on my poster a bit. I pretty much know what I'm going to do for it. I figure I'll give some background about my work, explain what I've done, describe the purpose of my work, and how I accomplished my tasks, plus acknowledgments etc. I think I'm going to pick one galaxy and have pictures of it at 3 wavelengths. Then I'll have another image with the 3 images layered on top of each other so whoever is looking at the poster can see where the wavelengths come together.

We also watched the undergrads practice their presentations for the undergrad symposium which is tomorrow. They came out well and it was cool to actually understand(somewhat) the thing that they talked about and referred to.

Today I also volunteered in the visual perception lab. The interns up there are running their own study. They had me look at where's waldo pictures and try to find waldo. Not a bad way to spend a half hour. They also had a lego experiment where i had to find certain lego pieces in the image. It was cool to see them running their own types of experiments.


meeting time!
basma

Day 23

Today I finished calculating the flux's for the x-ray galaxies. However, the packet Jake had given me didn't have the nuclear data for all the galaxies I've been using. I figured I'd check it with Jake at lunch. The college of science held a picnic for everyone in cos which was pretty cool because interns love free food. I didn't get a chance to really talk to Jake so I found him later in the afternoon. He gave me another paper that had all the Radio information that I would need. He also told me how to find the other x-ray data that I don't have. So now I have the information, all I have to do is figure out how to find the peak flux's...It wouldn't be so hard if everything was in the same units and if all the data I had was the same..When I did the green/red galaxies it was really easy because the information i needed was in the header and all i had to do was plug it all in an equation. The first batch of xrays wasnt too bad either, all i had to do was some conversions and use another equations. The remaining x-rays/radio galaxies are different so who knows what I'm going to have to do. Well, Bryan probably does so I should talk to him tomorrow.

Today I also spent some time thinking/working on our posters. Joe and Bob want us interns to make posters that we can take back to our schools to be put on display. If they come out anything like the posters around the halls and in the astrolab, then I'll be satisfied for sure. I asked Jake what program he used when he made the posters upstairs. He said they used power point and Illustrate..I think Power Point will be my best shot. I thought about publisher and word but I think they'd just be frustrating, or at least word would be. I think that I'll put up a lot of the images of the ugcs i worked on. Maybe pick like one set of them and show what they each look like at different wavelengths. Probably a chart of the electromagnetic spectrum and hopefully the peakflux vs. wavelength graph that i'm supposed to plot eventually...oh dear



thats enough for today,
basma

Day 22

Today seemed to go on forever, mainly because I was extremely tired. I spent the morning procrastinating calculating the flux's for the x-ray files. I honestly was pretty clueless as how to actually figure it out. Jake told me what to do but, like most thing Jake says, it went in one ear and out the other. We had our Tuesday meeting with Stefi and I explained to her what I was doing with all the flux's. I told her about the missing Infra-red files, so she emailed whoever had the original files. She thinks that they could have been accidentally deleted when one of the servers went down. I may end up having to get the files from another source which hopefully wont be too painful...I have the feeling that I'm going to have to go on an infrared scavenger hunt and I foresee some chronic frustration..yes! Anyway going back to the x-ray files Bryan came down and was my savior(once again). We were able to actually figure stuff out! It was a pretty good feeling. I must say I'm rather fond of not being confused all the time! I'll probably finish the x-ray files by tomorrow and begin to tackle the Radio files. Meeting soon..I'll run by our process for the x-ray files by Jake. Hopefully he wont object too much.



-basma

Day 21

Today we visited ITT. Its an international corporation with a branch in Rochester where its imaging science hq is located. I found out that they're the ones who make the transmitters for all gps systems. They do a lot of work for the military and department of defense. They also made the mirrors on the hubble telescope and do a lot of work on the Chandra and a few others. Everything was essentially classified and they made sure you knew it. All over the walls were posters telling you to protect the secrets of the labs. It was pretty intense. We saw a lot of glass and the process in which the glass was pressurized into this honeycomb-type shape. On the way home we stopped at Dibellas for some tasty subs. We got back to cis and had some serious intern bonding over lunch. It was pretty funny.

When I got back to the lab, Bryan told me where I could find the orginal xray/inf files. Sadly, when we opened the folder that was supposed to have the inf files they were mia so I'll have to search them down. Jake printed out an 80 page packet and pointed out some tables that had Xray info. He explained how to do something with the flux and converting the units but naturally I was left confused and clueless. I decided that working on making the T-shirt would be better. So, Tom and I went to the second floor lab to use the macs up there. We ran in to Meghan who was working on the shirt too so we all collaborated to make one. It looks pretty good so far, Jakes face is embedded in a galaxy.


Meeting time soon...I'm looking forward to napping through it..


basma

day 20

So today was pretty slow. I'm thoroughly confused on how to find the flux's of the UV's. I have an equation that finds the flux in Jansky but I don't know if my photflam/photplam are in corresponding units. If those words aren't familiar to you, don't feel to bad, your life will be completely unaffected by them. At 1 o'clock, the interns and some other imaging students went to a IS and T meeting. Its a group for imaging science students. They meet during the year to discuss imaging stuff...There was free pizza(of course) and Dr. Easton from the historical document restoration dept gave a "short" speech. It probably wouldnt have been too bad if I hadn't already heard the same speech about 2 other times. Easton is one guy who definitely has a lot to say. Nonetheless, it was interesting but I'm not sure I could sit through over an hour of it. When I returned to the office I spent the afternoon looking for Jake and reading up on more flux stuff. At 4:30 we have to go listen to the Journey of the Photon kids give a presentation...I'm looking forward to heckling them! hah just kidding.



TGIF!!!


basma

Day 19

Today we visited the U of R to see what types of work the interns over there were doing. When we arrived at RIT we were a bit early so we decided to peruse around. It just so happens that we managed to stumble upon free donuts! There were a bunch of students giving presentations on their research. It was pretty interesting to see their posters, it gave me some idea of what our posters should look like (somewhat). After our raid on the food table we met with Dr. Pinto who led us on our tour of UR. The UR interns are mainly doing bioengineering research. Each group was at a different level of research. There were some at the molecular level, some the cellular, and others at the systems level. We saw so much cool stuff! They too do a lot of hands on types of research.
One lab, which was more physics related, had a person connected to infra red detectors seated in a chair that moved sideways. They had the infra red cameras connected to the computers so they could see the movements of the test subject. They could see how the head was always delayed to move, when the chair shifted to the right the body would move with it but the head lagged and moved after the body. It was pretty neat. They did this test with the subject wearing various types of helmets (rugby, football) to see the effect of different weights.
The next lab we visited was researching the effects of epilepsy on rats. A lot of it was based on neurology. They explained how they evoked the epilepsy in the rats and we got to see the brain of the rat. They do a lot of animal testing at UR and that rat brain was only the beginning of our animal exposure...there would be a lot more to come.
We also got to see the types of imaging that they used at UR. While it wasn't as incredible as IDL, it was still cool to see other labs doing some type of imaging that we could all semi-relate to.
Then we went to everyones FAVORITE lab! We go to see the complete decapitation of a lab mouse! Hah when I asked whether they had a guillatene for mice I was disturbed to hear that they actually did! In this lab we got to witness the intern removing a mouse brain from a passed out mouse. She first made an incision in its middle so that most of the blood would be emptied. Next she took a razor blade and cut off its head. I asked her if she was phased at all by what she was doing, but she said that after you've done about 20 you learn not to feel too bad. She proceeded to cut off its head and then carefully removed the mouse's brain. She stored in a bottle of formaldehyde and passed it around for all of us to see. It was much smaller than the rats brain that we had seen in the other lab.
The last couple labs that we visited were working on something about the metastasis of cancer...I kind of got distracted in that lab by the meow-mix cat clock on the wall, the italian music that was playing, and the fish tank. But what I did hear sounded really cool. The last lab we visited was trying to find away to strengthen artificial cartilage. For patients who have arthritis, cartilage is really important as a shock absorber, alleviating a lot of pain. But for patients who have declining amounts of cartilage and artifical replacement is really important. They were doing different types of experiments to see what would make their cartilage as strong as normal cartilage. If they could come up with something it would mean a lot to the many people who have to suffer from arthritis pains.
I'm really glad that we got to visit UR. Bioengineering is something I'm really interested in and to see that high school kids (some were even younger than us) were doing such amazing research was an eye opener. Living in Rochester with a place like UR right down the road makes me want to look for opportunities like the ones that UR interns got to experience. Maybe I'll get in touch with Dr. Pinto, or someone else at UR to see if they have any intern/research programs available during the school year.
We ended our tour with free pizza! It was really good, buffalo chicken pizza. Need I say more? When we got back to RIT I attempted to find the flux of the other files that Jake had in his folder. But, before I could do that I had to find the names of UGC galaxy that corresponded with Jakes files. Galaxies are often have many different names and the ones that Jake had weren't the same as the ones I had been working with so thankfully the good people at caltech had a website that listed the many different names of almost every galaxy (or so it seemed).
It was also Chris' last day so we had team building as well. It consisted of an office sing along to Hoogie Boogie Land (youtube hoogie boogie land, trust me. Just do it) Its going to be weird not having Chris sitting next to me being a complete pain in the ass(and I mean that in the most loving way). Our other team building idea (well chris's idea) was to play 3-legged duck duck goose with duck tape holding our legs together. For some strange reason no one wanted to play..bizarre.



-basma-