USF Innovators: Dr. Lori Collins (DHHC USF)
READ BELOWQ: Can you tell us a little about yourself?
DR. LORI COLLINS: I am an archaeologist who specializes in using spatial technologies, mapping, and 3D imaging. I have been with the University of South Florida for over 15 years with my best friend, husband, and colleague Dr. Travis Doering. We are the Directors of a Center that works with 3D technologies to digitally record and preserve world heritage and museum collections. I love to teach and mentor students and am a Research Associate Professor with teaching through the School of Geosciences where I have courses and directed research relating to environmental sciences and geospatial technologies. We also work with several graduate and undergraduate students through our Center in the USF Libraries, providing opportunities to work on grants and projects across Florida, the US, and internationally.
I am probably most passionate however about animals and started out wanting to be a large animal veterinarian, loving all creatures great and small. While my career went in other directions, we currently have six rescue dogs, a cat, and two birds- including one dog we brought home from Guatemala from an archaeological site we were working on. We also are active with helping animal rescues locally and internationally, supporting not-for-profits in the US, Canada, Thailand, and Guatemala. My plans for retirement one day are to devote my efforts to animal welfare initiatives and the environment.
Q: You and your team are doing some fascinating work at USF DHHC. Can you talk about what your team does?
DR. LORI COLLINS: We work with governments, institutions, tribes, corporations and non-profit organizations locally, regionally and globaly, to help develop programmatic strategies, ethics, and research designs to document, conserve, and protect cultural heritage and museum collections using 3D and other types of imaging and spatial data tools. Some of our current projects include the digital preservation of our nation’s space history at Cape Canaveral; working locally on a project called Tampa through Time that will allow a 3D and virtual exploration of our city’s history through its important places; examining ways to protect and develop unique educational and outreach efforts at national monuments like the Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas in St. Augustine; and using 3D documentation for the conservation and preservation of significant world heritage sites and museum collections in Mexico, Guatemala, Armenia, and Spain.
Most recently, we returned from documenting the legacy and life of our 39th President, Jimmy Carter, working in collaboration with the National Park Service and the Friends of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. We used 3D and imaging technologies to document his boyhood homestead, furniture creations and art, the 1976 campaign headquarters at the Plains Depot and created virtual tours for the National Park Service. It was also exciting to meet the former President and First Lady and to have the opportunity to share our research with them. Our team includes amazing individuals and recognized and certified expert-level specialists in heritage and 3D technologies, and certified geographical information specialists and virtual tour developers that together are working in innovative ways to document and present the world around us in 3D.
Q: You’ve documented some historical sites in the Tampa Bay area. Can you tell us about some of the projects that helped formed the Bay areas identity and what you did to document them?
DR. LORI COLLINS: Some of the most imperiled and important sites we are currently working on include the Jackson Rooming House in Tampa and the Moseley Homestead in Brandon. Both sites are part of our Tampa through Time initiative and include 3D models that allow virtual exploration but are also used much like an MRI or CT scans for humans- providing a diagnostic, forensic look at the structure and environs, and providing measured drawings and structural condition assessments that are the foundation for preservation and conservation treatments. Our work at these sites also can be used to assist fabrication and design needs, and is supporting public interpretation, education, and engagement opportunities. We are doing similar types of virtual tourism and heritage work across the Tampa Bay area, focusing on iconic locations such as the Columbia Restaurant and cigar factories, and at homesteads and business locals many of which are important to the history of Tampa but are threatened by development and neglect. We are bringing together an important document, map, and photographic collections in the library with our 3D and virtual tours, that will promote virtual time travel to see Tampa then and now and promote historic preservation more broadly to the community. Working with the Tampa Bay History Center, the USF Libraries and our Center will work to ensure long-term digital preservation of these sites and social memories into the future.
Image Courtesy of DHHC USF.
Q: Do you know what’s in store for the Jackson House?
DR. LORI COLLINS: For our team, it has been all about recording the Jackson House with the highest level of precision possible with the idea that this is a threatened and fragile site that is highly imperiled. We began efforts in partnership with the Tampa Bay History Center with the idea of documenting as much as possible to digitally save what we could. More recently, with funding and support from the Vinik Family Foundation, we have been able to work with architectural and engineering firms that have used our data and measured drawings as part of a structural assessment and preservation plan development for the site. Many elements damaged and endangered such as interior stuccoed walls with hand imprints, were able to be documented and fabricated, providing opportunities for historic salvage and interpretation. Features such as fireplace mantles, staircase decorative elements, and other architectural details have been captured with sub-millimeter 3D precision supporting fabrication and restoration needs that may arise. Models of wall deformation, roof and pier supports, and structural elements have also been completed with data supporting permit and planning needs going forward at the local and state levels. Our 3D models will be archived and used in collections with the USF Libraries, be used and made available for teaching and education applications, and be part of a Library of Congress submission, ensuring the lasting memory of this place and time at the national level.
Q: What’s the future look like for DHHC and its role in our area and beyond? Including the role at the University?
DR. LORI COLLINS: The DHHC is now part of a new officially recognized Center in the USF Libraries that was recently approved by the Board of Governors and USF Provost Office. The Center for Digital Heritage and Geospatial Information has two major units of operation- the DHHC and the GIS Research Alliance. We are planning a premiere of the new Center and affiliated units in the Fall semester and are actively engaging in new research and collaboration initiatives locally, nationally, and abroad.
We have many exciting initiatives including a new National Science Foundation grant that is examining the need for ethical considerations in relation to 3D data and tribal heritage documentation and archive development. We are conducting several new collaborative research projects in Spain at World Heritage sites and museums and are also continuing to document significant national historic sites relating to space history at Cape Canaveral including sites from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. We also hope to greatly expand our Tampa through Time initiative and continue to have a strong local impact on protecting and preserving history and heritage sites across the region.
Image Courtesy of DHHC USF.
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