Weekly Journal
First Weekhhjj, Second Week
1. My first week involved getting a variety of task done to stabilize myself for my internship at Auburn University.  I also had to meet with my mentor, Dr. Gilbert to discuss topics for the next couple of weeks and for the summer in general.  Dr. Gilbert mentioned to me that there will be various task, events and projects that I will have to work on with the Prime III group.

2. In addition to meeting with my mentor, I had to get training from citiprogram.org as requested by my mentor.  When doing research, especially with human subjects, Dr. Gilbert clearly mentioned to us that there are certain guidelines and procedures that one must understand and follow.  The training and certification involved reading and understanding very long papers including the Belmont Report and so forth.  After which a required test was taken to examine one's knowledge of the information that was read.

1. The second week of my internship brought a lot more serious and technical work to the table.  As soon as I completed my certification from citiprogram.org, I went directly to reviewing a basic version of the Prime III Java code to gain a better understanding of what I would be working with.  I then moved on to making certain specific changes that my mentor, Dr. Gilbert as me to make to the code.  
2. I also had to prepare three computers for the Prime III presentation at the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind.  Preparation included getting both hardware and software ready for the presentation which was done and completed.
3. On June 4, 2009 we went to the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind in Talladega where a usability study was carried out to examine how blind and deaf persons interact with the system.  We also had surveys, so that we could gain direct feedback from these individuals, in an effort to examine what we needed to change on the system to meet their needs better.    

Third Week Fourth Week
1. The first thing I had to do is to make adjustments and necessary corrections this website that you are looking at right now, which was requested by my DREU mentor.  I restructured it from scratch and made quite a number of changes to it.
2. I also have to do a sole presentation on electronic voting next week, therefore I have started looking a different articles relating to this topic in an effort to increase my knowledge.  I have also prepared an abstract with reference to the presentation and biography of myself.     
3.  Later this week I will have to again meet with my mentor to go over with him exactly what type of analysis that he wants me to carry out on the results that were obtained from the Talladega usability study.
1. Myself, and Ashley who is also a part of the Prime III group went to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) to carry out some preliminary checks for a PRIME III setup and usability study, which will officially take place on June 29, 2009.  We will be carrying out another usability study and allowing older individuals to test the Prime III system.  All results and feedback will be documented.   
2. I met with my advsior to discuss various topics and projects.  Some of the priority task that he mentioned to me, was that I will have to read and analyze data from the AIDB study that was carried out previously in 2008.  I will then have to analyze the data that I received from this year's AIDB and then compare the two.  
3. I have already read three articles and papers regarding electronic voting, and I will have to read five more in order to get ready for a presentation which I will have to do Friday June 19, 2009.  The presentation will relate to and discuss some of the topics regarding voter trust in electronic voting.   
4. I will also have to update my website as I am doing on a weekly basis.   

Fifth WeekSixth Week
1. I critically analyzed the data and results from last year's usability study at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind.  
2. I then analyzed the results from this year's study at AIDB, after which, I compared it to the previous year's study.
3. I met with my advisor and the entire Prime III group to discuss what we will be doing over the next couple of weeks.
4. There will be a Prime III usability test that will be carried out on Monday June 29, 2009 at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), and I will be a part of the team that will be going there.  I had to prepare and service 6 laptops and touch screens, to get them ready for the usability study that will be carried out next Monday.  I also had to pre-load a specific version of Prime III on all the machines.  Additionally, a part from servicing the four other machines, two of them were in bad condition from a software standpoint, and I correct the issues by whatever means necessary.
5. The main task that I had to start on next week, is to do research on Optical Character Recognition (OCR), in finding the most suitable Java library, if there is one.  I will then have to do detailed research to examine the accuracy rate of OCR.  If OCR is feasible, I will then have to integrate it into Prime III so that it works efficiently (Which, this particular step my mentor said may take additional time, over a period of a couple weeks).     

1. Went to OLLI to carry out a usability study with Prime III.   The study was done to for the continuous enhancement of the Prime III system and to also continue a previous graduate student research in reference to where people touch touch-screens.  As always, when we carry out a feasibility study, the key is to get feedback from the users.  One of the main things that was being observed is to see if they participants touch the words on the button or if they just touch the button in general.  
2. I met with the Prime III group on Tuesday and each person gave updates regarding the progress of their particular tasks/project.  My main response was that, from the analysis of the data that was received from AIDB this year, it suggested that many persons liked the Prime III electronic voting system and thought that it was new and innovative technology.  The only negative comment was that, some did not like the mechanical voice that was used in Prime III and would prefer a more friendly or human voice.  However my mentor Dr. Gilbert explained to me that even though some may not like the mechanical voice, they can understand it.  We would not want users of the Prime III system ever thinking that they may be possibly interacting with a human being and not the Prime III interface.  
3. I also met with my advisor for my weekly meeting, and the main thing that we discussed and worked on were the progress report which he had to do, and I also had to work on the progress report that I had to do.
4. I started research on OCR.

Seventh Week Eight Week

1. My main task for the seventh week of my internship was to research Optical Character Recognition (OCR).  The results from my research proved that there are current versions of Java libraries for OCR.  However, the main issue with OCR although it would be an excellent advantage for Prime III is that its accuracy level is very low.  There is no room for error when one is referring to Prime III, and essentially an electronic voting system in general.
2. In addition to doing detailed research about Optical Character Recognition I also updated my website as I do every week.

  

1. In reference to the eight week of my research experience, for half of the week I continued my detailed research about OCR and for the other half I went to the African American Researches in Computing Sciences (AARCS) conference at Microsoft Research in Seattle, Washington.  The AARCS conference is aimed to broaden the involvement of African Americans at the levels of Tenure track faculty and research scientist in the computing sciences.   Essentially the AARCS conference is targeted to give information to African Americans about research, graduate school and the reason why it is critical.   
2. For me, going to Seattle, Washington at Microsoft Research was the best part of my experience.  I finally got the opportunity to go to Microsoft, which has been my dream from ever since and the best part of it is that I made some excellent contacts for the future.  
3. I also updated my website as I normally do on a weekly basis.  

Ninth and Final Week 

1. The final week of my research experience was very stressful for me.  I completed my research on OCR and essentially my research project.  I then had to write a technical paper on my entire research experience which is available of the home page of this website.  
2. I had to fully update my entire website with all I had done this summer with regards to my DREU experience and I also added a couple more connected pages with additional information about my research experience.  
3. In addition to everything that I had to do relating to my research, there were numerous task that I had to do that were not directly related to my research such as pay for the housing, return ID cards, keys and many other related task which all took a lot longer than I anticipated.
4. In spite of all that I had to do, I do not know how I did it, but I certainly got it all done.
5. I also had to meet with my mentor on two separate occasions throughout the week and I also had to do an exit survey for the DREU program.