In partnership with the Classics Archaeology Club and the Anthropology Club, the Immersive Scholarship team was invited to create 3D models for “Lighting the Way to Archaeology,” an annual archaeology-based outreach event hosted by student clubs from Florida State University. Lighting the Way to Archaeology is a program where tactile activities and 3D printed objects are used to give visually impaired participants physical access to ancient Etruscan artifacts and the processes of archaeological excavation. The project specifically works with children from the Lighthouse of the Big Bend of Florida (LBB), a nonprofit agency dedicated to helping people with vision loss through direct services, community engagement, and education.

In the summer of 2021, a team of researchers from the Biological Engineering program reached out to the Immersive Scholarship team for help prototyping a model “swimmer” that could navigate in a liquid. In consultation with the Immersive Scholarship team, the model went through several iterations that refined the experimental iteration features.

In collaboration with Dr. Nancy de Grummond of the FSU Classics department and head of the long-running Cetamura del Chianti excavation in Tuscany, Italy, DRS contributed several 3D printed artefact replicas for a new museum display unveiled at the FSU Florence Study Center in the summer of 2021. This year marks the 48th anniversary of the FSU-helmed excavation, and the first in a new study center in Florence. To mark the occasion and share recent finds from the excavation of the Etruscan and Roman site at Cetamura, replicas of several archaeological finds were produced to give FSU Florence students and visitors insight into the various types of finds this site has produced.

During the summer of 2021, an instructor for the FSU International Programs’ Florence Study Center requested 3D-printed models of famous Florentine architecture and sculpture to assist in teaching the students of an art appreciation class. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly-changing nature of museum and gallery closings, teaching on-location at these sites was expected to be impossible, and backup options like these models allowed for the display of various aspects of architectural and art historical components even without access to the physical originals.

The Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science Building is working with FSU Immersive Scholarship to create 3D models of the specimens on the first floor. From corals to fossils, this project culminated in the creation of the EOAS Collections website, featuring a virtual collection of the fossils that visitors can interact with online. This includes a geospatial timeline, in where these objects are placed into the context of where they originally come from and their age. The goal of this project is to make this collection more accessible for students and researchers outside of FSU and make an alternative interactive experience with the amazing collection housed by the Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences Building.

The archaeological site of Cetamura del Chianti is one of the major field school programs hosted by Florida State University, and in 2024, they decided to enlist the help of the Immersive Scholarship office to begin the process of creating a digital archive! Using the Diginole Digital Repository, we began the process of uploading all of the digital images taken starting from when the site transferred from film, ensuring that these images are open access for students and researchers who are interested in the site. Our long-term goal is to put everything that the Cetamura archaeological site has onto this open-access resources; from photographs taken in film, to digital images, to 3D models of artifacts found.

In the summer of 2024, the Immersive Scholarship team will be travelling to Cetamura to model several artifacts found by students of the field school in order to further their goal of accessibility to their site.