About Us

Faculty

Dr. Laura K. Harrison is the Director of Access 3D Lab, where she oversees instrumentation and workflows, spearheads outreach with faculty and researchers, and carries out collaborative digital science and digital humanities research. Dr. Harrison is an advocate of open access and interdisciplinary approaches in the sciences and humanities. She has over ten years of experience as PI and co-PI of research projects in archaeology and museum studies. Her experience with 3D virtualization includes digitally reconstructing an endangered archaeological site in Turkey, documenting historic architecture in Europe with terrestrial laser scanning, and creating a virtual museum for a collection of global archaeological and ethnographic objects, among others. As Director of USF’s Access 3D Lab, Dr. Harrison looks forward to mobilizing the facility’s resources to support and advance student and faculty research at USF and beyond. 

Staff

Alex Fawbush is a Research Support Specialist for the Access 3D Lab and the Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx). His duties include the operation of advanced 3D instruments, processing captured data, training/consulting with lab users, assisting with public outreach, social media management, and the creation of technical reports, workflows, and metadata. Alex also served in the U.S. Navy for eight years where he was an electronic warfare technician, deploying to the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean Sea. He is also an MA candidate in the Applied Anthropology program at USF, focusing on archaeology and cultural resource management with Dr. Thomas Pluckhahn.

 

INTERNS

Rose Lopez is a senior B.A. student in History with minors in Classic and Anthropology. She is set to pursue M.A.’s in Ancient Religions and Library Sciences. In her internship at Access 3D Lab, she is focusing on using the Faro Arm and Artec Spider to document skeletal collections as part of the Transylvania Bones Scanning Project. Before her internship with the Access 3D Lab started, she worked with the Institute for Digital Exploration on a project scanning a collection of artifacts for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. She plans to continue volunteering with both labs while pursuing her M.A. Rose’s research interests involve digital curation, museum work, and religious cultural artifacts. She hopes to use the knowledge she learned at both internships to further her career in museum work at her job working with the Ybor City Museum Society.

Hannah Thieryung is an MA student in the History Department at USF Tampa focusing on Irish History and Public History. Her Irish studies research is primarily done with Dr. Matt Knight and looks at Irish cultural nationalism through the eyes of theater and literature. Her public history research, done with Dr. Jennifer Knight, has mainly been done working as an intern with the May Stringer House in Brooksville, Florida. Her goal with Access 3D is to create an accessible virtual tour of the upper floors of the May Stringer House for museum guests with mobility issues to enjoy. 

CAS Visualization, Virtualization, and Simulation Undergraduate Fellows

Kathryn Bell is a 3rd year undergraduate student at the Judy Genshaft Honors College double majoring in History and Criminology with a minor in Environmental Science & Policy. As a recipient of the CAS-VVS Fellowship, she is working on the Transylvania Bones Scanning Project to 3D scan and archive archaeological human remains from Medieval Romania. Kathryn aims to further expand her interdisciplinary studies and explore possible career options by gaining experience with 3D scanning and data processing at the Access 3D lab. 

Myriam Gabriela Rodriguez is an Anthropology undergraduate student that focuses on Forensic Anthropology through a lens of structural violence and inequality. She received the CAS-VVS internship to conduct research on testing the accuracy of the CoxAGE3D software, which estimates the age-at-death of an individual. Her career aspirations are all based on academic research, humanitarian aid and structural violence within a forensic anthropology context. This project will enable her to contribute to the anthropology field by introducing new methods to expedite age estimation and demonstrate how new technologies, such as digital 3D scanning, can aid in the accurate application of methods long studied in anthropology, which is also one of her career goals.

Courtney Morgan has her BA and is working towards getting her MA. She is interested in forensic anthropology, human identification, human variation and trauma and pathology. In the fall semester, she'll be working with Dr. Jonathan Bethard on validating CoxAGE3D software program on the archeological collection from Transylvania to see if it is accurate or not. The CoxAGE3D software gives researchers estimated age at death. She'll work with Dr. Harrison and three other interns to validate this project. Her goal is to learn 3D scanning and data processing to apply this knowledge in her future career. 

Eva Pesta is an undergraduate student in the anthropology department who focuses on forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology. She received the CAS-VVS internship and scholarship along with three fellow students. Together they will develop a project that will focus on testing the accuracy of the CoxAGE3D software package. This software package (CoxAGE3D) suggests that researchers can estimate the age at death by uploading a three-dimensional scan of either the pubic symphysis, auricular surface, or acetabulum. She will be focusing on the auricular surface while her two team members focus on the other two mentioned. The goal for her research here at the lab as well as future research is to better understand a specific population of people. In this research that will be seen through common age-at-death estimation, which is helpful to both archaeological and forensic contexts. Her goals include museum work as well as academia, she is hoping to find a place in the world of academic research for forensics as well as bioarchaeology.

Previous Interns

Lizzy Bews is a PhD student in the applied anthropology department specializing in bioarchaeology. Her dissertation focuses on the physical impact Roman imperialism had on subjugated peoples in Roman Anatolia (modern Turkey). The goal of her research is to better understand how locals navigated the complex issues that accompany incorporation into an empire, and how that civic, religious, and political shift impacted health and disease in conquered Anatolian populations. Lizzy is particularly interested in the ethical issues surrounding 3D imaging of human remains and how digital exhibition of archaeological material can be used for public education. As an intern in the Access 3D lab she will be working with the Faro Arm to scan Dr. Jonathan Bethard’s comparative skeletal collection from Transylvania.

Crystal Wright is an MA candidate in the Applied Anthropology program at USF, focusing on archaeology and cultural resource management. Her main professor is Dr. Nancy Marie White. Crystal’s research focuses on stoneware utilitarian ceramics from a now underwater railroad river depot that serviced the lost antebellum town of St. Joseph in the Florida panhandle’s Apalachicola River Valley. The goal of her research is to trace the origins of the ceramics and uncover the contributions of enslaved African Americans to the American southern ceramic production. As an intern with Access 3D Lab, she is digitally curating this ceramic collection for sharing with the general public.

Samantha Vorce is an MA candidate in the Sustainable Tourism program at the Patel College of Global Sustainability (PCGS). She also has a certificate in Food Sustainability and Security from PCGS. Samantha hopes to work in environmental injustice in the tourism industry and in food insecure communities. She has worked with USF’s Access 3D Lab, The Coalition of Community Gardens of Tampa Bay, Rosebud Continuum, and the Egmont Key Alliance. She has experience in social media planning, Matterport digital technology, Intuiface Software, and interpretation training.

Sophia Annis is an M.A. candidate in the Sustainable Tourism program at the Patel College of Global Sustainability. From her time in the 3D Access Lab, she has been trained in innovative tourism interpretation technologies like the Matterport 360 3D Camera, Intuiface, and Virtual Reality with data analysis. Some of her projects have included promoting sustainable tourism practices and monitoring cultural heritage at Egmont Key.

Aurélien Tafani is a PhD student in Applied Anthropology at USF. His main advisor is Prof. Robert H. Tykot. Aurélien's research focuses on the mobility and diet of the populations that lived in the Lower Danube River Valley, in Eastern Europe, during the Late Neolithic period (5500-4000 BC). During his internship at the Access 3D Lab, Aurélien will endeavor to create a tridimensional reconstruction of the prehistoric site he is working on, Sultana-Malu Roşu, Romania. The goal of the project is to combine the information derived from numerous archaeological campaigns of excavation with GIS data in order to offer an appealing visual interpretation of the site within its paleoenvironment to the academic community and to the general public.

 Nancy Froistad is currently processing a digital LiDAR dataset of historic buildings in Ybor City at Access 3D Lab. She is enrolled as a student at Arizona State University, where she is studying Anthropology/Archaeology. Prior to this internship, Nancy ran her own record storage company for 27 years in California. After retiring and traveling for a couple of years, she decided to pursue a life-long passion for archaeology. In addition to her experience with records management, Nancy also has experience in real estate, contracts, law, probate, software development, and medical management.

Kaily McCain is currently working on scanning Dr. Sarah Sheffield’s Paleontology collection with the Faro Arm Scanner, and processing in Geomagic Wrap and Zbrush. She is a junior at the University of South Florida, majoring in Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences and minoring in Philosophy. Within the broad umbrella of interdisciplinary sciences, her concentrations are in biology, chemistry. and geology. After graduation, she plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology.

Rudy Prieto is a senior in Computer Engineering at the University of South Florida.  He is interested in computer visualization, 3D modeling, and robotics. Rudy became interested in 3D modeling during a class on virtual reality last semester. This semester he is doing an independent study and is currently working on processing the Terrestrial LiDAR data from the archaeological excavation in Manatee Mineral Springs. His goal is to learn about 3D scanning and data processing to be able to apply such knowledge in his future career. 

Haley Thomas is a senior Anthropology student working towards a career in archaeology, with the goal of focusing on bioarchaeology. She is interested in human remains and what they can tell us about the lives and cultures of past populations. This semester, at Access 3D Lab, Haley is working on scanning Dr. Jonathan Bethard’s archaeological skeletal collection with the Faro Arm Scanner and processing the scans with Geomagic and Zbrush. Ultimately, she will create a digital collection of her work.

Abdullah Fathi is an International Student from Saudi Arabia pursuing a M.A. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Florida.  He is interested in 3D scanning, 3D modeling, and 3D printing. His internship focuses on 3D scanning a robotic arm with the Faro Edge ScanArm, and processing data in Geomagic Wrap, and modifying the mechanical components of a CAD robotic arm to optimize them for 3D printing in Autodesk MAYA. His goal is to discover the 3D scanning field, learn about data processing and 3D modeling, and 3D print a robotic arm.