Advances in Digital Media Workshop Series: Florida Museum

Workshop at FLMNH: March 2024

When: March 25-26, 2024
Where: Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Florida
Organizers: Hank Bart (Tulane), Jill Goodwin (iDigBio, FLMNH), Austin Mast (iDigBio, FSU), Nelson Rios (YPM), Zach Randall (FLMNH), and Mike Webster (Cornell)
Expected Number of Participants: 25 - 30

Workshop Goals

This two-part workshop series will focus on opportunities and challenges at the leading edge of digital media creation (2D, 3D, video, acoustic recordings, etc.) and use in the context of biodiversity collections. Leading experts in the field will be brought together to address recent advances in equipment, software, workflows, data management, and data use. The first workshop will focus on the data creation, and the second will focus on usage of the data with a large focus on leveraging A.I.

The first workshop will be held at the Florida Museum in late March to focus on digital media advances relevant to biodiversity specimens and specimen collecting events. Day 1 will include workshop presentations from leaders in the community using media technologies to position biodiversity collections for even greater relevance to science, society, and Earth’s biota in the future. Day 1 media presentations will include topics on: photogrammetry, 360 photography/videography, computed tomography, VR, AI, multispectral imaging, lidar/remote sensing, robotics, data standards, and acoustic capture for the biodiversity collections community. Presentations will be streamed virtually and recorded so anyone can view. Day 2 will include attendee focus groups to create a deliverable, such as an infographic that can be shared broadly within the community to inspire others to employ innovative media practices and understand research potential, challenges, and solutions.

Logistics Information

Invited participant support:

Airport: You airfare should be booked through Jillian Goodwin, if you did not book your airfare through her, please reach out immediately.

Airport transportation: Uber/Lyft/taxi/rental car to get from the Gainesville Airport to the airport. It takes ~15 minutes to get from the airport to the hotel.

Hotel: Workshop participants will be staying in the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center Gainesville on 34th St. If you have not booked your room, please do so by Friday, March 1st to take advantage of our group rate. To book, please contact Christina Rodenwoldt at(352)384-3412 or crodenwoldt@hiltongainesvilleuf.com. You will be reimbursed for lodging following the workshop. If you booked using the (now expired) booking link, no action is required.

Workshop venue: The workshop meeting will happen in the Powell Hall/ The Florida Museum of Natural History.

Transportation from hotel to venue: The hotel is within a short walking distance from Powell Hall and there is also the option of getting an Uber or Lift from the hotel.

Wifi networks: If you are coming from an institution that uses eduroam that will be available on the University of Florida campus. If that is not the case, then you can connect via the UF Guest wifi.

Meals: Breakfast, break refreshments, and lunch will be provided at FLMNH on both workshop days. Dinner is not provided, but you will be reimbursed for meals not provided following the workshop and group dinners are encouraged, the iDigBio team will have suggestions for group dining.

Referencing Pre-Workshop Materials

• Advancing the Accessibility of Digital Media for Biological Research in the 21st Century: May 7, 2015
• Increasing the impact of vertebrate scientific collections through 3D imaging: The openVertebrate (oVert) Thematic Collections Network

Agenda

	Day 1: Monday, March 25
8:00	Breakfast on your own or light snacks at the Museum
9:00	Workshop Welcome & Logistics	Jill Goodwin (iDigBio)
9:10	Public Welcome	Gil Nelson (iDigBio)
9:20	Increasing the impact of vertebrate scientific collections through 3D imaging	David Blackburn (FLMNH)
9:30	COPIS: Computer Operated Photogrammetric Imaging System	Nelson Rios (YPM)
9:40	Capturing in 360°	Nicole James (FSU) **remote**
9:50	Novel 3D tools for Reconstructing Living Animals	Duncan Irschick (UMass) **remote**
10:00	Questions	Moderator: Gil Nelson
10:15	Photogrammetry of fluid natural history collections	Zach Randall (FLMNH)
10:25	Taking the art out of photogrammetry: the UMORF methods for fast, consistent, 'all-sides' models	Adam Rountrey (Michigan)
10:35	Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) and NeRF-like approaches: Gaussian Splatting and Neuralangelo	Alex Adkinson (FSU)
10:45	Color segmentation in 3D	Arthur Porto (FLMNH)
10:55	Questions
11:10	Using diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced CT (diceCT) for high throughput imaging of the anatomy of natural history specimens in three dimensions	Jaimi Gray (FLMNH)
11:20	What comes next? Post oVert museum digitization, and the application of FAIR principles to our data	Ed Stanley (FLMNH)
11:30	Haida Replication Project	Jennifer (JJ) Hill (SI NMNH)
11:40	Specimen collection is essential to bridge modern imaging technologies with progress in evolutionary and developmental biology	Matteo Fabbri (Field)
11:50	Baby bat bytes back: digitally reconstructing embryos from histological serial section images	Jon Woodward (MCZ)
12:00	Questions/Discussion
12:20 - 1:20	Lunch Provided @ Powell Hall
1:30	Digitizing Whale, Ichthyosaur, and Sea Cow Graveyards: How 3D Data Changed The Way I think About Research, Collections, and Diplomacy	Nick Pyenson **remote** (SI NMNH)
1:40	NASA BioSCape: Hyperspectral Multi Scale Imagery to Understand Biodiversity and Invasive Alien Species in South Africa	Kit Lewers (CU Boulder/iDigBio)
1:50	Interpreting the Transformation of Maya Landscapes from Above	Whittaker Schroder (UF)
2:00	Using Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) for Public Engagement	Hyo Kang (UF)
2:10	Questions
2:25	Using Specimen Media and Machine Learning for Research and Engagement	Mike Webster (Cornell's Macaulay Library)
2:40	Leveraging the emerging opportunities for digital media capture in the documentation of biodiversity	Austin Mast (FSU)
2:55	Questions & Wrap-Up
3:40	Explore exhibits. Join guided Lepdioptera collection tour. (both optional)
6:00	Dinner at Chuy's (optional)

	Day 2: Tuesday, March 26
8:30	Breakfast on your own or light snacks at the Museum
9:00	Welcome back & Framing for the Day Conveying research to people with different expertise: Sharing data through visualizations that are memorable, compelling and credible	Jillian Goodwin
10:00	Breakout Groups	Dream big-free of financial and other constraints: Create a product to highlight your work to a group outside of natural history collections
11:00	Break
11:30	Group Discussion
12:00	Lunch Provided @ Powell Hall
1:00	Breakout Groups	Expanding community knowledge and resources
2:30	Break
3:00	Group Discussion
3:30	Wrap - Up
3:40	Explore exhibits. Join guided tour of new wet collections building. (both optional)