RIT CIS Summer Internship: Sensors/Advanced Instrumentation

Today, Peter and I made a few adjustments to our setup while waiting for our part. During the morning, we went to a PhD dissertation about measuring supermassive black holes, which was very interesting. After the dissertation, we started working on our camera. First we moved our track and light source, and then focused the camera. Then, we took some pictures, but realized that our light source wasn't bright enough, so we borrowed Tristan's light source, which is way more intense. We then solidified the base of our camera by using a post to hold up the lens. After lunch, we took some pictures of skin and looked at the various measurements our computer program provides, including degree of linear polarization (DOLP), angle of linear polarization (AOLP), and birefringence. We also went to the Machine shop to see if they could shear some LEXAN that Tristan needs for the clean room, but LEXAN of our size of 1/4" thick would crack in the shearing process, so they recommended

Peter Letendre, Ashley Cummings Joe Pow Research Outline 28 July 2017 Outline Purpose Create a new method of detecting skin cancer in a non-invasive manner with polarized light Background Polarization of light is the orientation of light in its movement The CCD we are using measures linear polarization at 0, 45, 90 and 135 degrees Healthy skin is birefringent, Cancerous skin is not birefringent Birefringence is when light hits a surface and the light splits into a parallel and perpendicular planes that have different indexes of refraction Healthy skin reflects elliptical polarized light, cancerous skin reflects circularly polarized light when hit with circularly polarized light Methods Materials: CCD camera (12 bit), polarizer, quarter-wave plate, light source, collimator, skin samples, acrylic track Choose angle of light projection using acrylic track. Project collimated light into a polarizer and quarter wave plate to generat

Today, Peter and I continued to work on our glass attachment parts. In the morning, we finished the part in SolidWorks, and then went to the Construct. Apparently, the mill in the Construct can't make a part out of our material and with our size, so we were then sent to the Machine Shop in the engineering building. At the Machine Shop, we were told to bring prints of our drawings, so Peter and I had to figure out how to print without having to pay (at the Library, it cost 16 cents to print our drawings, and neither of us had money on our ID cards). We eventually printed our drawings, and then went back to the Machine Shop to submit our request for our part to be made with a mill. Our part should be done by Tuesday. After lunch, Peter and I worked on our outline and hung out in the Reading Room for a little bit. We ended early, around 3:30pm. Next week, we will hopefully be able to begin collecting data. Joe brought up a good point that we are going to have to find cancerous skin

Today, all of the interns came into work later, around 2pm, before the field trip to the observatory. Between 2 and 6pm, Peter and I went to the library and used SolidWorks to edit our glass attachment parts. At 6pm, all of the interns and some REU students left RIT to go to the observatory in Bristol. First, we stopped for a quick dinner at a sub shop, Amilel's, and then continued the trip. The bus ride there was pretty fun. Once we got to the obseravtory, Henry gave us a presentation about the history of the property and Kenneth Mees, the man who the observatory was named after. After the presentation, everyone walked up a hill to the telescope. Dmitry gave us a tour of the telescope and talked about its history. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, and it was cloudy, so we couldn't observe anything. We then took the bus back to RIT. Overall, the trip was fun and I'm still glad we went despite the weather :)

On Wednesday, Peter and I reprinted our part in the 3D printer, and it finally fit the collimator and light source! After, we helped out Titus and Aditi with their research by walking around campus wearing special glasses that track eye movement. Aditi and Titus then took the data collected, and went to analyze it. Peter and I then went to our lab, and used black construction paper to block out the excess light coming from the light source box, which seems to work pretty well. Then, we went to lunch, which was a tech talk. The talk was about using imaging to analyze planets orbiting around newly formed stars. It was very interesting, and Tristan was really into the subject material (he wants to be an astrophysicist I think). In the afternoon, Dmitry had us design another part for our setup on SolidWorks that we are going to make at the Mill in the Construct. That means Peter and I will have used all three of the tools there: the laser cutter, 3D printer, and the Mill, which is very

Today, we were all around campus. In the morning, Peter and I went to the library to look at out SolidWorks part. We then went to the 3D printer at the Construct (in biomedical engineering building), with Emily and Paige, but realized our SolidWorks part had to be saved as an .stl file, so we went back to the library to re-save it. After re-saving our file, we went back to the 3D printer and started printing our part. The printer was really easy to use, which was nice. The Construct has a really nice online step-by-step guide that helped a lot. Will from the Construct was very helpful too. Our part took an hour and a half to print, so we took a lunch break with the group. After lunch, Peter and I picked up the printed part, but it didn't fit over the collimator (to small), so we went back to the library and edited our part on SolidWorks. Then, we went back to the Construct and printed the edited part. Unfortunately, our edit was too large, so the new printed part didn't fit

Today, Peter and I continued to set up the lab. Dmitry brought us a new, smaller camera, and a new laptop with new software that actually measures polarization. We started to learn how to use the new software versus Maxim DL 6. I don't think we will have to use MATLAB now because of the new software, which I don't mind :) . During lunch, Peter, Tristan, and I went up to the Reading Room and hung out with Emily, Paige, and the other interns. In the afternoon, Dmitry showed us the light source we will be using, which includes a cable that needs to be connected to our collimator. In order to connect the cable, we had to design a part in SolidWorks. Tomorrow, we will 3D print the part as it cannot be cut with the laser cutter. I'm excited to learn how to 3D print and will maybe bring Emily and Paige along with Peter and I when we go so that they can see how cool the 3D printer is too. Today, I also downloaded software, APT, on the new laptop for the polarizer that lets us ad

On Friday, Peter, Tristan and I were in our office for most of the morning. There was a fire drill which was exhilarating. Emily and Paige came down and visited us for a little bit, then we went to lunch outside. I left early. On Monday, Dmitry will be back, so we will figure out MATLAB then. This upcoming week, we also have the field trip to an observatory which I am excited about.

Today, Peter came back. In the morning, we worked on testing the camera pixels to see what pixels measure vertical, horizontal, 45 degree, and -45 degree polarized light. We had to use a polarizer, but before we used it, we had to figure out its orientation of by using a wollaston prism, which splits unpolarized light into horizontal and vertical polarized light. Lee helped us figure out how to use the prism and the polarizer, and we found that at 0 degrees, the polarizer created vertically polarized light. We then took pictures using the CCD camera of a white background inside the polarizer at different polarization states (0 degrees (vertically polarized), 45 degrees, 90 degrees (horizontally polarized), and 135 degrees (-45 degrees)), and analyzed which pixels allowed light through. If a pixel shows up white, that means that the pixel measures light at the polarization state of the polarizer. For example, when the polarizer was set for 90 degrees, the pixel that appeared white meas

Today, during the morning meeting, we continued to read over and peer edit abstracts. After, I edited our abstract. I then had to find screws to fit our cart parts, and went to the Construct (where laser cutter is) in the biomedical engineering building to glue some spare acrylic with Gorilla Glue to make sure the Gorilla Glue will work on our pieces. Around 11:50 am, I went upstairs to the Tech talk with Tristan, which lasted for about an hour and a half. The talk was about quantum mechanics and how quantum physics principles can be used to build a quantum computer that can process data faster than a conventional computer. Professor Edwin Hach gave the presentation, and used some relatable analogies, such as one about coins and "heads or tails" so everyone could understand the information he presented. Tristan and I then took a lunch break and hung out with Emily and Paige in the Reading Room. After lunch, I checked on the spare acrylic to make sure that the Gorilla Glu

Today, during the morning meeting, Joe had us peer edit other interns' abstracts. It was beneficial to read over other abstracts as I was able to hear about and understand the research other interns are doing, and I saw a couple areas where I could improve my abstract. In the morning, I continued to review MATLAB. I watched a couple of YouTube videos about how to make a multidimensional array, and Tristan showed me the code that he and Dmitry created, which helped to further my understanding of coding. I think by explaining his code to me, Tristan was able to understand his project better as well. Dmitry came in with the acrylic, so Lee, an REU intern, and I went to the laser cutting lab and cut out our pieces. First, we had to pull up our pdf drawing into a program called Inkscape, where we changed the colors of our drawing; outer edges were black, holes were blue, and the tick marks on the track were red. Then, we saved the Inkscape file into a pdf that the laser could process

Today, Joe returned. During the morning meeting, Joe had some of us describe our research to the rest of the group. After, Tristan and I went down to our office. Dmitry and I then went to the laser cutting center, which unfortunately didn't have any acrylic sheets that we could use, so we were unable to cut out our pieces today. Dmitry said that he'd go to the store tomorrow to buy some acrylic, so hopefully we will be able to use the laser cutter then. In the afternoon, Dmitry and I went to the IT office and got the laptop that I use during research. Dmitry then showed me a program called MATLAB, which stands for, "matrix laboratory." It's basically a program where you can code and create 3D diagrams. For our research, we will use MATLAB to convert our data into images/diagrams in order to fully understand our results. Here's a screen capture of some practice code I completed from the introductory course. In this practice, I created a loop started

Ashley Cummings, Peter Letendre Joe Pow, Dmitry Vorobiev Rochester Institute of Technology High School Internship July 17 2017 Abstract The purpose of our research is to find a new method of detecting skin cancer using polarized light. In order to detect cancer, we will measure skin cell birefringence; a property where refraction in skin depends on the polarization state and direction of incoming light. When subjected to circularly polarized light, healthy skin cells will have a high birefringence, reflecting linear polarized light, while cancerous skin will have negligible birefringence and will reflect circularly polarized light. Using a polarization-sensitive CCD, we will capture the backscatter of circularly polarized light projected onto skin with varying degrees of incidence. Through finding the optimal angle of polarized light projection, we will be able to determine which areas in the skin sample are healthy or cancerous.

On Friday, we continued to use SOLIDWORKS to create 3D models of our research setup. We made a track, a cart, and cart connectors. Lee taught us how to convert our models into a drawings that the laser cutter can use to fabricate our models into physical pieces. We visited with some other interns and finished our abstract too. It was a productive day that put us in a good spot to start research next week. Here's a picture of the 3D model of the track we are going to cut out with the laser: It's a quarter of a circle (90 degrees), and will be used to measure the angle of the light source from our sample. Our light source will go on top of the track attached to a cart that will allow us to move the light source. We designed angle tick marks on the track so that we know what angle the light is coming from (just like a protractor). The track will be fastened to our lab table with screws that will go into holes that we designed on the track. On Monday, we will have the laser c

This morning all of the interns watched a video about a freshman Imaging Science course. After the morning meeting, I looked up another research paper about using polarized light to measure birefringence in skin. Peter and I then went and talked to Dmitry about our findings and the methods used in the research paper that can be applied to our research. We then sketched out an idea for our setup in the lab, and asked Anton if our design would work. We then went to the lab and began set up and made a lot of adjustments. We then took a lunch break and went up to the reading room where we ate with some of the other interns, Emily and Paige, who are working with maps. After lunch, we worked on our abstract and then continued to set up the lab by adjusting the camera location. We then went to library where Dmitry showed us how to use SOLIDWORKS, a program where you can design a 3D model. We used it to design a track that will be used to change the angle of our light projection from the lo

Today, during the morning meeting, all of the interns watched a video description of imaging science. After the morning meeting, I caught Peter up on the information I found about birefringence and then showed him how to use the camera. We then started to research how to measure birefringence and then went up to the tech talk on the second floor. The talk was about how imaging science is used in the biomedical engineering field to create new, less invasive technology. Less invasive technology means that doctors need more external viewing ability through technology such as digital models or physical models. I really enjoyed the talk and was able to learn a lot about biomedical engineering. In the afternoon, Peter and I took a quick break and then continued research about the birefringence   of skin cells. We then looked into some reports that Dmitry suggested about polarimetric imaging of cervix cells that used processes that we might be able to apply in our own research. Tomorrow, w

Today during the morning meeting all of the interns heard a description of imaging science. After the morning meeting, Tristan and I went down to out office where I looked up some information about focal length and aperture for review. Around 10am, we met up with Dmitry and went over more information about CCDs, including a lesson about bit count and ADU (analog- to-digital units). Afterwards, we went to the lab where I continued to learn how to use the camera and the computer program to fully focus an image and analyze the image. Around 12:30pm, we left for lunch in the reading room. After lunch, I looked up articles and reports about birefringence and phase retardation of light waves. I found information about how birefringent materials work, including how they change the polarization of the light that passes through them by splitting a polarized light wave into a perpendicular and a parallel polarized wave. In the material, one of the waves will be slower than the other because t

Today all of the interns received a guide about how to write abstracts during the morning meeting. After the morning meeting, Tristan, Peter, and I went down to our office and reviewed material about polarization from last week's reading. Around 10am, we met up with Dmitry and went over the polarization material and other background knowledge we will need for our research, such as info about lenses and filters. We also learned some more about what our research will entail, including the use of cameras and polarized light to detect cancer cells in skin. We then had a longer lunch break where we ate lunch with the other interns in the Reading room and afterwards, Peter and I looked up articles about using polarized light in tissue samples. After lunch, we started to learn how to use the camera in the lab that we will use for research. We learned how to use a computer program that controls the camera, and we learned how to read and adjust a lens, including how to read and adjust th

Day 2 of interning also went well! At 8:45 we had our daily briefing with Joe and were given a schedule of the internship. After that, my group and I went down to our office space where we set up shop; I also reviewed some of the material we went over yesterday. At 10am we met up with Dmitry and went over our "homework" from the night before and reviewed information about bell curves, mean, and variance, and learned some new information about reflection coefficients and the Fresnel equation. After that, Dmitry printed out some information for us about polarization that we read through for about an hour and a half. Then we took a lunch break and met up around 1pm. We went to the main lab where we took a look at the enclosed room that will be used for Tristan's research, which isn't fully constructed yet. It's necessary that the room is enclosed and the air is filtered because dust and dirt will create noise that will affect measurements and data. Dmitry then sho

Today was a solid start to the internship! All of the interns met up in the morning at 8:45 and then went to the Red Barn for team building activities. It was nice to get to know the other kids in the program and learn valuable skills about communication and team work. After, we had lunch and were able to chat and get to know each other better. In the afternoon, I met up with the other interns in my group, Tristan and Peter. We were then given a tour of our lab and office space by our advisor, Dmitry. Dmitry then gave us a lesson about light, semiconductors, and semiconductor detectors. It was awesome to see how the physics and chemistry principles I've learned in school are applied in the detectors. I can't wait to learn more and am excited for tomorrow!