After the meeting, Prati and I went down to boot camp! There were donuts there, and I grabbed 2 plain ones. Yum! Eventually, it started. Jeff made everyone introduce themselves. There were lots of people, from us lowly interns to undergrads to people with Ph.Ds. Then he started talking about the history of eye tracking, the parts of the eye, and things that go wrong with the eye (near-sightedness like me, far-sightedness, etc). He borrowed my glasses to show what the lenses do, but I have no idea what they did because I couldn't see anything!! Far-sighted glasses focused light into a little dot when the lenses were focused.
All of a sudden, there was a fire drill, or a real fire, or something. I still don't know. If it was indeed a fire drill, it never occurred to me that colleges had those! Anyway, I grabbed all my stuff (which was probably bad but oh well) and went outside with Prati and everyone else. Prati and I watched clouds. We found Abraham Lincoln's/the cat in the hat's hat, a face/whale/fish, Mickey Mouse ears, and a giraffe just to name a few. We then moved to another building to continue boot camp. The chairs in the conference room we went to were really comfortable. Unfortunately, I didn't understand this part of boot camp as much because the Ph.Ds started asking questions of another Ph.D., and I had no chance of understanding. Also, Jeff told Prati and I to research an answer to several of their questions! I knew he was going to pick us as soon as he said he was going to pick someone in the front row who hadn't contributed to boot camp yet. I tried to avoid making eye contact, but it was hopeless and sure enough, he said, "Prati and Liz, you can do it!"
Once we got back to this building and clocked out for lunch, I went out to lunch with my dad. We went to the student union, and I got a turkey sandwich. I also ate some strawberries I brought for my normal lunch. I didn't eat very much because I was really full from the 2 donuts from boot camp! I also didn't get to talk to Dad very much because I wanted to get back in exactly a half an hour, and we had to shove down the food to do that. Luckily, I clocked in after exactly a half an hour, and I was very excited about it.
After lunch, I went back to the lab to wait for Prati. I started reading the article about Remote Sensing that Bob wanted us all to read, but Karen came in and asked me what I thought of boot camp. I told her that I really didn't understand the last part and she said we would have a group teaching session. So, when Prati got back, Karen, Glenn, and Mike took us to a room and started recapping what everyone was talking about in boot camp. It was really helpful! People kept trickling in and out to help out. Prati eventually asked why the fovea, a little pit in the retina, was off center with the pupil, and Glenn and Mike tried to come up with answers. Jeff walked in eventually and spent an hour coming up with more answers. He also explained why we shouldn't look directly at the sun- basically, the lens in our eyes would concentrate the sunlight on the back of our retina and burn it, just like an ant under a magnifying glass. So, we went outside with Thomas's lens, and Prati and I burnt holes in a piece of paper by focusing the sun's light. It ended up looking exactly like Abraham Lincoln so Prati hung it up in the lab!
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| Abe <3 Uni! |
Jeff went to a talk, so Glenn and Mike continued to teach us until we didn't have any more questions. Nadya and Kelsey came in and the three undergrads started talking about RIT, imaging science, and everything! It was really cool, and I found out that RIT is the second largest brick structure in the world. It's only second to the Great Wall of China! Also, there's a rumor that anyone who counts all the bricks and tells the president would get a free ride- that would be so hard!
After we went back to the lab, Prati and I researched the answers to the Ph.D's questions. The first two parts were right on wikipedia, but we couldn't find the third part anywhere! In case you were wondering, the question was how many layers of the cornea are cut during Lasik eye surgery, and why can't it heal correctly? Prati even called Lasik eye surgery offices, and nobody knew! I think we were talking mostly to secretaries, but still, it makes me nervous that they don't know. The highlight of these calls was when Prati said her name was Maria. Prati and I also watched a video about Lasik eye surgery, but I was way too squeamish to watch it! All I know is that I will never, EVER get Lasik!!! EVER!!!
After we decided that the company just didn't want to let other people copy them with the exact measurements, I read the Remote Sensing article and went home. It was probably the best day of the internship yet!
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