August 24th

So since today was the last day of blogging, I thought I would do a video blog! We just finished our mock presentation this afternoon (after receiving free food!), and I think it went really well. I'm getting really excited for tomorrow!

So today is pretty bittersweet. I'm excited to move on and start school and get going on my senior year, but I'm going to really miss RIT and all the incredible people I have met this summer. This program has been so incredible and given me so many opportunities. Although the research and the paper were a challenge, all the hard work was worth it. Thank you Joe, Bob, and especially Dr. D. for everything! 

Halle, Space Cadet

August 23rd

Today we focused on practicing our presentation. We completed and made all updates by lunch, and in the afternoon Matt and I ran through our presentation. We presented in front of Maria, Ed, Alex, Kelsey and other people in Ed's lab. We got a lot of positive feedback, which was super helpful. Hopefully tomorrow's practice will be great!

Halle, SC

August 22nd

Today was awesome. Super awesome. I submitted the final copy of the research paper to Dr. D. YAY!!! It took all morning to figure formatting out and get it in perfect condition, but now it is beautiful. I also showed him the powerpoint, which he liked as well! So I'm feeling good!

Now all Matt and I have to do is rehearse our presentation, which will be our main task tomorrow. We still have to divide up the slides and figure out who's doing what, but I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Halle, SC

August 19th

We started out the day by sending Dr. D. our paper for him to look over. He had quite a few changes to make, but I think he semi approves. Maybe. Hopefully? But it is my first time ever writing a scientific research paper of any kind, so I'm just happy we completed it. It's also nice to say that I've done something like that before, and it's nice to see all my work assemble into a nice final project. Once he made some of the edits, the formatting on all the table and graphs got shifted around, so I will have to go through and fix that. Aside from that, we are in home stretch :]

Today was also our last cookout, which was very bittersweet. On one hand, it's kinda nice to see things wrap up and come together, but on the other hand, I'll miss RIT and the people here a lot after this next week. But, hey, there's still one week left!

Halle, SC

August 18th

YAY! We showed our powerpoint to Joe today! Luckily, it opened up successfully, and he seems to at least semi-approve of it for the time being. That's been the bulk of our work for about a week, so it's nice to get some positive feedback. Now all we have to do is send him some videos we want to show and work on some citations, and we'll be all set.

YAY! We are almost done with our paper. Aside from some formatting and some acknowledgements, it's completed. Of course, we still need Dr. D. to look it over and help us edit it, but the bulk of it is done. Everything is coming together so well, and it makes me very happy :]

Plus, tomorrow is Friday (our last Friday actually), so I'm just in a good mood.

Very successful day - hopefully tomorrow will be the same!
Halle, SC

August 17th

Today, we basically moved forward with all the work we have to do. Between the paper and the powerpoint, we've been pretty busy. The "crunch time" Bob talked about is really becoming a reality. Luckily, all of Matt's confusions about the formula were cleared up, so we seem good to go.

Today was also the last day of movies. We sat and watched a lovely movie about start-ups while eating our final free pizza and soda. Very bittersweet.

Hopefully, we can finish up the powerpoint tomorrow and show it to Joe, but we shall see.

Until then,
Halle, SC

August 16th

Today we worked more on the research paper. Dr. D. was out sick today, so we have to ask him some questions tomorrow. The paper itself is more challenging than I thought. Not only do we have to physically write it, but we have to compile all of our information from excel into a word document. Slowly but surely, we're getting it done!

In the afternoon, I helped Kelsey with a project. We had to glue mouse pads to the bottom of this contraption. This involved going outside and using spray adhesive! We kinda got it everywhere, including on ourselves. But it was a fun task and it was nice to be outside for a while.

Hopefully Dr. D. will feel better tomorrow so we can talk to him some more about our project.

Halle, SC