New series to explore use of digital tools, data in research, teaching

The UB Libraries have launched Digital Dialogues, a new brown-bag series that aims to examine the ways digital tools and approaches are transforming research and teaching at UB.

The first event in the series will feature an introduction to technology that allows researchers to quickly analyze parallels between works of literature and a discussion on applications of 3-D modeling in archaeology and cultural heritage.

It will take place from noon to 1 p.m. Dec. 3 in 310 Silverman Library in Capen Hall, North Campus. The free event is open to faculty, staff and students. Guests are welcome to bring their lunch, and also can participate remotely using Webex. Click here for more details and to register.

“The series will allow researchers from every department and school at UB, from the humanities and social sciences to the medical sciences, to come together and discuss the use of digital technology in higher education,” says Rachel Starry, series co-organizer and Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) postdoctoral fellow in social science data curation in the UB Libraries.

Adds series co-organizer Heidi Dodson, CLIR postdoctoral fellow in digital scholarship: “We’re working to bridge disciplinary siloes to spark conversations on creating and using digital tools in higher education, both in and outside of the classroom. Interdisciplinarity is a huge buzzword, but in practice it is often difficult to implement and sustain.”

In the December brown-bag, Neil Coffee, professor in the Department of Classics, will present the Tesserae Project, an online platform that allows scholars to rapidly scan large works of ancient literature for poetic allusions and linguistic similarities. The technology can analyze works in Latin and Greek.

The Tesserae Project is a collaboration between the UB departments of Classics and Linguistics, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Geneva. Coffee serves as co-director.

The event will also include a discussion led by Kevin Garstki, 2018 UB Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology postdoctoral scholar, on photogrammetry and 3-D modeling in archaeology.

Garstki will discuss how 3-D models can vary in their representation of artifacts and, like photographs, be edited and presented with different degrees of realism and accuracy. He will explore questions surrounding the potential uses and pitfalls for 3-D models that are based on incomplete data.

Brown-bag events will continue on the final Tuesday of each month during the spring 2019 semester.