CSC Internship

Yesterday, Dr. Heggan, CJ, and I put together a final schedule for the remaining days we have left on our internship. The reality of the situation is that we do not have as much time as we expected. The end of this internship has snuck up on us and now we have to work around a crunch time. We are not likely to have the 4th of July free because of the amount of work we have to complete. I was not very fond of this idea but we had no choice. With this presentation that Dr. Hackbert wants us to give to the Berea community, CJ and I have less than a week to complete this task. However this would not be as hard as it seems. The presentation we are asked to give is only supposed to be five to ten minutes long. I had an ace up my sleeve. Back when I was in GSTR 110, I had to give a five minute presentation on a topic of my choice. However, I could not look at the screen and it had to be on a timer. I was only in control of what I was saying and the key was to know how much to say on each...

Finally it was over! I was so happy to pack all of my things and get out of that trail. All the mosquito bites and the sweat was annoying and irritating. Luckily I came prepared for the last day with a jacket for the cold morning and an umbrella for the mid-afternoon heat. I should have been more cautious of the bugs that were around me. In got eaten up by everything that was in the area. I am not sure if I could have done one more day of counting because I might have had an attitude, with Mother Nature that is.  Among all the bad aspects from this experience, I learned out important the job CJ and I were tasked with. The point was to collect ground data to see how accurate the sensor was at counting trail users. Without that information, both of these days we were on the trails could have been for nothing. The other students had important tasks as well. Having this experience has taught me the importance of field work. Also, the teamwork put into the other students and myself...

The field testing had finally begun. The 12 hours shift that would put CJ and me in one location for the entire day had finally caught up to us. We knew this day would come, we just never knew how we would bare it. Because of the lack of manpower, CJ and I had to be split up between the Stephenson trail and the Indian Fort trail. This was going to be a true test of our independence to work without the help of each other. CJ got the more popular trail so he had to worry about more trail users than I did. I expected this part of our internship to be the worst part of the 10 weeks spent over the summer. My expectations for this part of my internship were not things I wanted to be true but I knew the reality of what was to come. However, some things did not happened the way I imagined it to play out. I knew I would be out in the sun all day but I never thought I would be accompanied by other students. As it turns out, Dr. Summers' students also had to complete intercept surveys as...

Who would have thought that this day would come? CJ and I finally took our sensor to the Stephenson trails. I wish we would have been able to go to the trail earlier in the week but the weather was our enemy. It took till today to realize that I am not a fan to this part in our internship. All of this standing around and waiting for people to pass by is not something I had looked forward to. It may have been sunny outside but that did not keep the bugs from flying around us and the heat from making us uncomfortable. Clearly we did not plan this out enough. Today was a great example of the importance of planning ahead. Our attempts to have everything under control only resulted in chairs to sit on. However, we had no umbrellas to give us shade, no bug spray to ward off the bugs and we had no gloves to attach the sensor to a tree. I could have gotten poison ivy today because of that sensor. The problem was trying to get this testing over with so that we could go home. We should have...

So far CJ and I have not been able to test the sensors. Berea's weather is starting to rub me the wrong way. Actually, I already has. It just so happens that I have not gotten over it. CJ has been able to make great progress on the code while I have only been able to set up the sensors for when we eventually test them. The setup is important. I even created the locations for the sites we will be placing the sensors. Time has not been wasted but we could have gotten a lot more done if it had not been raining throughout the week. We already knew that weather was going to be a problem later on in the internship but this is ridiculous. This is a good example of uncontrollable conditions. You never know what might happen because anything can happen. I was doing an assignment for one of my classes last term and our group decided to wait to finish one of our assignments for the next class period. The problem with that was we could have gotten the assignment done if we had not been la...

Our sensors finally came! I could not believe this day would come. For too long have CJ and I be working with code with no hardware to use it with. Now with about half of the internship over and done with, it is time to use get some raw data. This would be the changing point in my goals for the internship. As you know from previous posts I am not very good with code. However with these sensors, something about them became familiar to me. I realized I had a handle on what we had to do to get these sensors to work. Suddenly it became clear that this is what I was meant to do. CJ and I both agreed to split the work. He would work on the code and I would work with the sensors. We both were working on something that allowed use to apply our strengths and skills. My goal was not to become an expert in these trail sensors. This reminded me of the time I was working on a project with a group. I chose to be the presenter because I knew I would be great at public speaking. I learned tha...

CJ and I had another meeting with Dr. Hackbert and Dr. Summers, only this time Scott was there to provide his input on the situation at hand. Not much has happened since our last meeting. We have only been able to work with software until the hardware comes in the mail. Furthermore, it will be the first time I have done anything like this before. Using cameras and sensors is going to be a new field of learning for me as the only cameras I have every handled were models that still required you to switch frames manually. Hopefully we will get these cameras next week so we can actually get ground data for our algorithms. Once we get the cameras, we will have to do what I think is the most boring part of this internship. We have to count people as the camera is to insure that we know how accurate the camera can be. This kind of work will require us to sit out on the trails for at least eight hours of the day. It can only get worse if the weather is bad like rain or extreme heat. Howev...

I found something useful to our project. It took a great deal of time but I was finally able to put together code that benefits our algorithms. However, I did not get it working yet. Somehow I am not surprised by the results. Back when I was working within my computer science courses, I always the supportive partner in my group. My partner would always be the mastermind behind all the code while I checked for errors and commented on ideas they had. Having only reached this far with my code reminded me of those times. Suddenly, those challenges I had back then have found their way back to my work. My problem is interpreting code. Most of the time I cannot look at a piece of code and tell what is wrong with it. However, when someone else explains it to me it suddenly all makes sense. I cannot believe after coming so far on this internship I am still having these problems. Interpreting code comes naturally to CJ. He is consistently flying through code like he has been born to write i...

These past couple of days I have been working from home. This is not the first time we have done this but it is the first time during a week day. Ever since the briefing with Scott, our objective has been to get the software working so that we can test it on the camera ordered by Dr. Hackbert. The weather has not been kind to us as it has been raining, which has prevented us from getting more sample data for our algorithms. However, gathering sample data is not what I was worried about. Working from home seemed to be harder than I thought it was. Whenever I am taken away from an environment of work, I tend to procrastinate more often because there is no one to keep me on track. I have been this way ever since high school.  I realized that I am the one who is holding myself back. Everything was moving smoother when I was working with CJ in the same room. It all comes back to effective communication. If meeting up in the lab is not part of the plan. I make an effort to keep our ...

It looks like our tasks are going to get tougher on our end from now until the end of the internship. After holding a brief meeting with Dr. Hackbert and Dr. Summers, I realized that there is still a great deal of work to be done. It did not occur to me until Friday that we were without our supervisors so we would need to catch Scott up when he returns as soon as possible. Sure we have Dr. Hackbert but even he is not on the same page with our progress. Lately we have been in the middle of miscommunication between our supervisors and Dr. Hackbert. There was a misunderstanding of our job specifically versus our job to the overall project. Luckily we had this meeting because we were able to inform him on any misunderstandings that may have still existed. It was easily one of the challenges I have had this internship. Not having meetings together with our supervisors had thrown us off track and we were switching back and forth between what we need to do and what is easy to do.  ...

Our presentation was a huge success! Everyone was really impressed with what we have done with the project thus far. Both CJ and I did our part and set the bar high for other group presentations. Not only was the presentation successful but there were a great deal of people who asked us questions. I never knew some many people were so curious about our project. It was not until today that I realized how import this project could mean to the people of Berea. It is surprising to me how this internship can change the label of Berea to the public. Our presentation has given me a better understanding on the project as a whole. This projects has more than just an impact on Berea's health but also its economic growth. These trails can attract tourists to area and get them to stay and spend money while they are here. Furthermore, this kind of work has never been done before. We would be the first to complete such a task and other would likely follow.  The realization of this work ...

Today was preparation for the presentations for both the EPG group and the URCPP. Yet another hardcore critique was given and it was worth it. Sometimes you do not see something from your angle and it takes someone else's perspective to realize the mistake. This is not the only time I have had to struggle with this. It is just like how I thought I knew enough about the project to answers other people's questions. I was sadly mistaken. I know enough to get by but I am not where I need to be if I were presenting to crowd that is prepared to question everything. I had the same problem when I was taking the Databases course here in Berea. I was given the presenter role for the group so I was in charge of explaining to the class what we have been doing with our work. For a great deal of those days, I did not do so well. I would always have to refer them to another student in our group who knew how to answer the question more accurately. This would continue to happen for the majori...

Have you ever completed a task and believed that it was some of the best piece of work that you have ever done? There is this feeling of accomplishment and success like you have just gotten a perfect score on a test. Everyone loves that feeling.  However, sometimes it is not always what it appears to be. We may feel good about completing something but in reality, the outcome was not what you were expecting. Yeah, that feeling. Well I felt like that in a similar way after completing our presentation.  It just goes to show that more work needs to be done when it comes to my abilities to put together a presentation. At first I could not believe it; the problem was not with the presenter but the content on the slides. We had apparently had forgotten to talk about what makes our job significant. However, I did not stress on it. I knew it was not perfect but there was still a great deal of work to do. I communicated o my teammate to my partner on some tips on how to improve his...

So after working on our code lately, we were able to figure out how the Contour People Counter (CPC) works. When we used it on one of our images, the person was being recognized as two different people. This person was me and at the time I was standing in front of a white background while wearing a peach shirt. Apparently, the algorithm recognized my shirt as part of the background. Of course that was the least of our problems.  This was not the first time that I have ran into a problem with coding. I faced these problems throughout my academic career in Berea. Coding does not come easy and I feel myself struggling every time I have to interpret something, at least that is how I felt earlier in my academic career. Back then, I always felt myself asking for help and relying on others to get me through the course. Sometimes I wonder if it is just me not putting enough effort into what I am doing. If only I knew then what I know now, things would have been different. Things are g...