Sunday, August 25, 2013

8/23/13

Presentation day is finally here! It was scary at first but when you start talking all your fear goes away! Everyone's presentation was awesome and was followed by free lunch! I can't believe it is over. I am going to miss everyone so much!! Hopefully, we all will keep in touch. I feel well accomplished and hope to continue researching subliminal messages. I have enjoyed learning about eye, psychology, eye tracking and more. It is axing what I have learned and done in such a short time frame! I could imagine the things I could do here, if I could stay longer

8/21/13-8/22/13

For these two days, we primarily practiced a lot and made final changes! Of course, there had to be technical difficulties last minute with the Mac to PC conversion. The videos we used were acting werid!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

8/20/13

Big day today with our practice presentation! Mia and I were extremely nervous. So, we decided to practice all morning non-stop. I personally think it was a smart move on our part. It was not as bad as I thought it would be! It was a lot of fun and extremely helpful. Everyone was nice to us and supportive which was good. Also, the questions were not as hard as we thought they would be! Unfortunately, we have a lot of changes to make to our presentation. It will benefit  us but there is not too much time left to make these "minor" edits! I had my part of the speech mastered, but I guess not anymore. There are a lot of changes and not much time. We have to make and be able to present all the changes tomorrow, at another practice presentation at 1:00. Although, this time we won't be as nervous. Surprisingly, it did take a whole 2 hours for them to critique us. After that, we just worked on making the changes.

8/19/13

We are extremely nervous for tomorrow. We heard that the MVRL Lab's practice presentation is a tough one to get by. They have allotted a whole two hours for us! Just hearing all those horrible things about the practice talk. We decided to make edits to our powerpoint to make it look cleaner. Additionally, we practiced multiple times throughout the day, to make sure we are ready.

8/16/13

Practice makes perfect! That is exactly what we did today. We finished our powerpoint and practiced a lot of times together. We are around 18 minutes which means we are in good shape. Also, we played badminton at the BBQ, it was a lot of fun! It was sadly, our last BBQ together. I can't believe next week is our last week here.

Friday, August 16, 2013

8/15/13

We finished our presentation speech and made the graphs for our powerpoint. Afterwards, we had Ciecly read our powerpoint since she was an intern two years ago. She had a lot of helpful edits to make to our presentation speech. Those edits took basically the whole afternoon.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

8/14/13

Presentations are close! I feel the pressure and time constraint building up. Today, Mia and I worked on our presentation speech. We are almost done, we need to do some analyzing of our data. That way we can finish up our presentation. So, we are almost done. Tomorrow, we plan to work on our powerpoint. We should be all set by Friday. How exciting??? And, then it is all practice.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

8/12/13

Today was an exciting day! We went to the Mees Observatory. But, before that we went to Mendon Ponds Park. At the observatory, we got to see meteorite showers. As well as, some double stars. In addition, we got to see a little of Saturn's Rings which were surprisingly clear. It was a fun night.

8/9/13

Today we finished the last of our experimentation. Also, today was take your friend to work day which was super fun! We got to visit everyone's lab during the day and learn a lot more. We also had our Friday BBQ, but it was raining.....so we sat inside. It was not much of a BBQ.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

8/8/13

More experimentation...... We got a lot of emails for participants which is really exciting! Unfortunately, we could not fit them all in this week and we are only experimenting this week:(. However, we have 28 test subjects! Our results don't look too great at the moment but isn't that what research is about? So, I am not too disappointed but still disappointed at the same time...if that makes sense?

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

8/7/13

So, today we got to meet Judy the reporter. She was here to write an article on what public school students were doing! Pretty much, we worked on testing subjects for our experiments. We got around 20 people in total for our experiment. It was a little annoying because our test subjects we didn't know well. So, when they forget and we tried looking for them.........let's just say it was not fun. People can be so uncooperative sometimes! Also, Bob tried to help us find test subjects by sending out an email. So far, it has been a half and hour and we have got so many responses! Hopefully, they are free when we are.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

8/6/13

Testing, testing, and testing is what we basically did today! Our results are not looking so great right now. Hopefully, our results will be favorable with more test subjects. Also, we went around the building looking for more test subjects. I realized that nobody is willing to spare 5 minutes for our experiments! Right now, with all the people we have booked....we have around 25 test subjects! Our goal is to get 30 people. In addition, Mia and I got a chance to participate in a Insight Lab study. We played around with different learning technologies that could potentially be used in a classroom. It was really interesting to see what they were able to develop! That was basically my day....

8/5/13

In the morning we worked on putting the final touches on our experiment. Sadly, the videos did not work properly at the last minute. Thus, we had to delay the testing. However, we fixed it by 2:30! We got lots of interns to come in! That is great progress, since we are on a time crunch for testing. So far, our results are somewhat decent.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

8/1/13

Our videos are a pain! But the good news is we are finally finished with them! We have a couple of tweaks to our experiment but hopefully it should not take too long. We got the approval from Jeff to start testing people on Monday which is super exciting. Especially since Mia and I are not here tomorrow. Meanwhile, Jeff and Susan are not going to be here next week. So, this a crucial milestone we have achieved. Monday we will be finalizing the experiment and testing some of the interns in the afternoon!

7/31/13

Today was a crazy day! We worked super hard on getting the videos finished! Too many opinions and comments that are confusing us. I don't know if our experiment will come out with good results. That is how Mia and I feel currently....disappointed. That is what we did today! We were suppose to meet Jeff but he did not show up:( But on the bright side we finished the videos which is a big accomplishment.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

7/30/13

Today was a very productive day! It just flew by which is extremely exciting! We learned how to video edit and record youtube videos using the mac! Also, we got to talk to Jeff 3 times today! That is a big accomplishment! So basically we worked on the videos today. However, we are only half way done....but we are on a time crunch. Since, Jeff and Susan are really busy and we are not here on Friday. So, we have to finish and get our experiment approved for next week since both Susan and Jeff won't be here.

Monday, July 29, 2013

7/29/13

I came in all excited about the research idea but sadly Jeff was no where to be found! So, Mia and I tried to do as much as we could without him. We outlined our idea, made an abstract, and looked for youtube videos to use in our experiment. Let's just say that took up most of our day because it is very hard to choose a good youtube video for our experiment. Hopefully, the videos we find are approved! I think we have narrowed it down to 2 videos which is exactly what we need. Tomorrow, we should find Jeff!

7/26/13

So, today was an exciting day! We finally talked to Jeff and got an experiment idea finalized. All thanks to Glen for his clever idea. We were thrilled that we got step 1 accomplished. After lunch, Jeff assigned us to each read 4 articles on our research topic. Thus, we spent time looking for articles and dividing them up between Mia and I. That's about what I did today because I had to leave early once again. It was an accomplished day

Thursday, July 25, 2013

7/25/13

Our favorite agenda of the day.... Brainstorming! As usual, we spent the morning brainstorming and we also tested another subject. Afterwards, we went around with our survey and achieved a little bit of our goal with the survey! That is exciting. We also learned how to set up the experiment in BeGaze in order for it to be exported to a txt file that will later be converted into an excel file. I gotta say its a little tedious but much better than the wearable eye tracker. We also wanted feedback from Jeff about our research ideas. But, as usual we cannot find him as of now. Hopefully, we can talk to him today or tomorrow at the latest because we want to actually start up on the experiment designing next week which will be fun and interesting!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

7/24/13

It started out as a slow day but got better! Mia and I brainstormed(once again) and this time I actually kinda like my idea which is exciting! We also conducted our experiment on three other subjects today! The only new thing today was that we made a survey to give around the building for our experiment. That was fun and awkward at the same time! Cuz we have the "high school interns" reputation. I got my laptop finally but it was having problems, so now they have to fix it:( O and since today was Wednesday we got our usual pizza and soda.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

7/23/13

We finally had people come into the lab today!!! We talked to Susan about our research ideas, she liked them! However, I am not happy with my idea. So, I am going to write an abstract for my current idea and then hopefully change it to something better by the end of the week. Mia, Sara, and I went to the Graduate Symposium in the afternoon today. It was interesting because we could actually follow some of them. I think for the most part they were interesting. We also got Ice Cream at the Symposium! Also, we got cake for Dong's Birthday! It was a really good Ice Cream Cake that Preethi made. Today, was fun. I hope to get an idea finalized by the end of the week and finish the current experiment by Friday. Hopefully, everything goes as planned.

Monday, July 22, 2013

7/22/13

Today was a pretty slow day... No one showed up today:( It was just Mia and I in the lab. So, we researched our ideas a little bit more and wanted to run them by Jeff and Susan because we needed to get the ideas approved for our abstract that is due Wednesday but that did not happen since no one was here today. We finally talked to Preethi about what we could do because we ran out of things to do. She showed the wearable eye trackers and how to use them. They are much cooler than the SMI's! We played around with them and had Sara walk around the building with it on. Afterwards, Robert came in to do his experiment. Lastly, we finally got introduced to Yarbus! The fun application that goes with the wearable eye-trackers! It is a little tedious with clicking the points on the pupil and cornea but I thought it was exciting. Unfortunately, the video was bad accordingly to Yarbus. Thus, we could not calibrate it properly. That is our task for tomorrow!

7/19/13

We got a lot of work done today! We first did a test-run of our experiment on Jeff with Susan watching us for feedback! The feedback allowed us to make some changes to our directions and question sheet. This basically took up the whole morning. Afterwards, we went our BBQ! It was honestly too hot to do anything outside. When we came back from lunch we prepared our experiment for Sara and worked on a revised t-shirt design since we can't use Phineas and Ferb on our T-shirts! We were able to conduct our experiment on 3 interns today. It was really interesting and fun to actually run the experiment today! I look forward to continuing on the experiment. I really hope the results show that the hypothesis is true! Unfortunately, we could only perform the experiment on 3 people since I had to leave early because I'm going to Virginia and Washington D.C. for the weekend! I'm excited except for the 10 hour car ride....

Thursday, July 18, 2013

7/18/13

As soon as I came in today, I worked on my Excel sheets. Afterwards, I spent a lot of time researching the project I want to do! I looked on Google for ideas but it did not really help. Thus, I asked Bethany about the previous interns. That really helped me understand the types of projects I am suppose to do. I also looked for ideas on the RIT Library Site. That was actually helpful! In addition, I played around with the SMI trackers a little more because practice makes perfect! I think I know how to use the tracker for the most part and how to analysis it in BeGaze but the real test will be tomorrow when we do some trial runs before the actual experiment starts! O and I won Uno today at lunch:)  I really am hoping I get the a laptop soon with Matlab on it. That way I can get familiar with the program in my down time and learning it now will help me finish my project sooner in August.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be more exciting because Susan said she will have more time for us tomorrow.

7/17/13

Today is my birthday! I brought in cupcakes for everyone and Bob and Bethany bought doughnuts for us! We ate a lot of junk food today.... Today we did a lot of research on our experiments that we will be executing later on this summer. But it's really hard to think of ideas. Especially, when there are no guidelines for the experiment. Also, Mia and I worked on a t-shirt design. I personally like it! It has Perry the Platypus on it:) We also worked on the Excel sheets today. Lastly, we worked with Susan on the experiment we will be working on next week. We finished the observer sheet, instructions, and made the permission slips to hand out to the participants. Today was a relaxing day in a way....

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

7/16/13

Today was a lot of fun! It was a lot of information to absorb in one day but I honestly learned a lot. Surprisingly, I didn't feel like it was a slow and boring day! We have been learning from 9 A.M to around 3 P.M. But, time flew by! I was so excited that I started learning the information the night before. Plus, Susan and Jeff bought lunch for us which was nice of them. I learned a lot  about the structure of the eye, the different eye movements, and the different eye trackers. I thought it was really interesting that  we perceive and process images differently than we think. Also, we learned that even though we think our eye is stable, it really is not. In fact, it's always moving around! After a fun day of learning, we worked with the remote eye-trackers in the lab next door. We conducted a test run of the experiment that we will be conducting later in the summer on real test subjects. Also, we took the data and tried to analyze it in the BeGaze. Today was a lot of fun and I can't wait until we execute this experiment on actual subjects soon!

7/15/13

I came in late today but we continued to work on excel and learned a little more about the eyetrackers. I finished around 50 files, maybe! That is a huge accomplishment especially since I came in late today. No one was in the lab today. Only Libby and Jeff showed up around 3 in the afternoon. Otherwise, we were alone in the lab all day today! But, I am very excited for the Bootcamp that starts Tuesday!

Friday, July 12, 2013

7/12/13

Excel, excel, and excel was all I did today. I tried to finish as many as I could because I felt bad that we may be slowing down the Libby's work instead of helping him out. I work efficiently and finished many of the excel documents. Sadly, I missed the first of the many intern barbecues because I had to go somewhere. Hopefully, I will make it to next Friday's BBQ! It's officially the end of my first week here and I got to say I love everyone that I work with and I can already tell I'm going to learn a lot this summer! Especially, with the qusestion of the day we have everyday and the occasional brain teasers:)

7/11/13

Sorry! I didn't have time to post on the 11th But it was a frustrating day. We spent hours working on a problem in Matlab. We finally had to ask for help. I wish I had this application at home, so I could learn the program better and become more familiar with it. After lunch, we decided to take a break and work in excel which is in our comfort zone. Afterwards, we got to look at the eye tracking device and play around with it. We realized I'm a difficult person to eye track! Well, that was pretty much my day....

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

7/10/13

Today was more on the boring side. We fixed various issues throughout the day and once again ended with a major issue with our programming in Matlab that we will have to deal with tomorrow. In short, we finished and plotted the raw data in Matlab and we started on our events data but ran into problems with graphing the duration overlapped on the elapsed as the x value and two y values. We will see how that goes tomorrow. We also got a nice opportunity to watch some Tedtalks videos on new technology that is developing rapidly. One of the videos dealt with helping the blind see with these UV glasses that had a camera in it. That was pretty much my day today!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

7/9/13

Today was a pretty productive day. We worked in excel and learned how to use a new program called Matlab. There is a lot of codes to use and it difficult to understand. We went through the process of using this program to graph data. It was pretty frustrating at first to work with the program. However, we finally understood the program at the end of the day! Now that I have got the hang of it, I want experiment more in this program tomorrow!

First Day

Hi everybody! My name is Simran Marwah and this summer I am interning at the RIT college of imaging science. In particular, I will be spending time in the visual perception lab along with another intern!



The first day was a lot of fun! We got to know our team of interns really well. We started off with a video scavenger hunt around the campus! It was a long and tiring scavenger hunt...it was about 3ish hours long. Our group did really well, we found around 20 items out of 36 and we won the overall competition. Afterwards, I got a tour of the Visual Perception Lab. Our supervisor will be out this week. Thus, we are working on data analysis for a graduate's experiment that is really unique and interesting. I can't wait until tomorrow.