In February of 2024, Qianqian Shao, Makerspace volunteer, and Ammon Shepherd, Makerspace Manager, were awarded a Library IDEA grant to provide opportunities for underrepresented students.

In 2022, the Library’s IDEA Committee received library staff requests to help support programming related to IDEA. The success of these projects encouraged the committee to create a process to support and promote staff-generated programming pertaining to inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility across the library.

Our proposal was to welcome 4 female Black and Latino/Hispanic students, along with 2 teachers, from Annandale High School to the UVA campus and the library for the Spring of 2024. The students will have a tour of Grounds with a focus on UVA libraries. The students will visit the Lawn and Rotunda to learn about the history of UVA. They will visit Brown, Clemons, and Main Libraries to learn about the resources available to UVA students. The Scholars’ Lab Makerspace will host a workshop for the students while they are at UVA.

The following is taken from a presentation that Qianqian gave to the Library at a monthly “Town Hall” meeting to report on the success of the initiative.

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Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Qianqian, I’m a PhD candidate (graduated on November 5, 2024) from the Chemistry department. Today, I’m excited to share with you the highlights from an impactful event that took place as part of my IDEA project.

First of all, I would like to thank you for funding my proposal, which made this event possible. Your support allowed me to create a truly impactful experience for underrepresented Black, Hispanic and Latino female high school students, showing them the opportunities available in higher education.

On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, we had the pleasure of welcoming five students and two teachers from Annandale High School for a one-day visit to the University of Virginia. The goal was to inspire these young women by introducing them to both the academic and social aspects of college life, showing them what’s possible for their futures, and what kind of resources our library can provide.

The day began at the Chemistry Department, where they were guided by Dr. Marcos Pires, the Director of Graduate Studies of Chemistry. He provided an overview of the chemistry program and offered insights into the broader STEM opportunities available at UVA.

Following that, with the help of Kalea Obermeyer and Michelle Bair, program coordinators of the Hoos First: First-Generation & Limited-Income Initiatives, along with Kimberly Wong, the students had the opportunity to connect with UVA students from their home countries. This connection helped them see how they could build a community of support as they begin their own college journeys.

Then, we had the privilege of hosting Dr. Adrienne Ghaly from the English Department, who gave an inspiring presentation on global citizenship and global policy. She also shared her project, “Read for Action: Climate, Conflict, and Humanitarian Crisis,” which is in partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Dr. Ghaly’s session sparked meaningful discussions, helping the students understand how reading books in a library can connect to a deeper understanding of broader global issues.

After the presentation, the students enjoyed a campus tour and lunch in the Shannon Library, where they met two guest speakers, Samuel Wachamo and Giovanna Camacho, who are pursuing MD and PhD programs at UVA. These interactions provided the students with first-hand insights into the experiences of Hispanic, Black and Latino individuals in higher education and how they can navigate similar paths.

The students also got a chance to audit Dr. David Kittlesen’s immunology lecture after lunch.

To wrap up the day, the students visited the Scholars’ Lab Makerspace, where the students explored a variety of hands-on activities, learning about the innovative equipment available to UVA students. They even made personalized buttons as part of their experience. It was a fun and interactive way to introduce them to the creative and collaborative opportunities they could expect in college.

Overall, the visit was a tremendous success. The students and teachers left UVA having made valuable connections with both professors and current students, and they expressed a newfound sense of excitement about their future educational possibilities.

Special thanks to Makerspace manager Ammon Shepherd, who supervised my project, and to Makerspace technician Kroesna Chour for assisting during the event. I managed all aspects of the event myself, except during lunch when I had to arrange catering at Shannon Library. At that time, Summer (Wenxin) Xu kindly picked up the food while I guided the students to meet Dr. Ghaly in the English Department. Later, Kroesna helped lead the group to the library, allowing me to finalize the setup for catering. I couldn’t have accomplished this event without their support.

Claudia Berger maintains a Zotero “physical data viz” group library containing nearly 100 articles, datasets, and other relevant reads.

I added several items to that library this past week, and wanted to capture my Bluesky thread about them for the blog:

Personal stress data as commentary on stress-impacted health issues

Laurie Frick’s “Stress Inventory” uses leather discs on stretched linen, piled and colored to record daily irritation levels & highlight stress’ contribution to chronic health issues. (HT Laura Miller)

Weaving data analysis of speculative fiction

Quinn Dombrowski’s “The Locked Loom 1: Gideon the Ninth” discusses a weaving text visualization and analysis based on elements of everyone’s favorite “lesbian necromancers in space” fantasy novel (the Locked Tomb Series; highly recommend, it is not silly/pulp despite that being a fitting descriptor, but rather epic, page-turning speculative fiction/sci fi).

Baking data-displaying cakes for climate change advocacy

An interview with “baker-turned-glacier guide” Rose Mcadoo on her “Cakes for Climate Change” combating climate demise through educational cakes and desserts that explain the natural processes behind glaciology and climate change.

Workflow for turning ambient audio data into 3D prints

Audrey Desjardins’ and Timea Tihanyi’s “ListeningCups: A Case of Data Tactility & Data Stories” documents a workflow for capturing data, creating 3D printed porcelain cups embedded with datasets of everyday ambient sounds; and shares reflections around experiences such as “data accidents” (HT Beth Mitchell)

Reflections from installing a data physicalization exhibit

Claudia Berger and Chris Alen Sula’s piece on lessons learned from installing a data physicalization of a HASTAC conference’s metadata, published in Nightingale (the journal of the Data Visualization Society).

Building data intended for (sometimes physical) art

“Datasets as Imagination” by Lisa Shroff argues for collectively built datasets shaped specifically for reuse by artists for art, including for physical data exhibits. (HT Zoe LeBlanc)

Library research guide for data physicalization

“Data Driven Creativity: Making Data Physicalizations” is a library guide by Ariel Ackerly, Sarah Reiff Conell, and Ofira Schwartz, gathering datasets, projects, and writing about data physicalizations.

(“HT” is shorthand for “hat tip”, a minimal-characters way people say “I found this link via this other person sharing it in the past; thanks to them”.)

Over the years, the Makerspace staff have helped with numerous projects connected to the UVA Medical School and Hospital. Here are six projects I have worked on over the past year or so.

Woodchuck Liver Tumor Slicer

In the summer of 2022, two medical students reached out to the Makerspace seeking support for making a 3D model from CT and MRI scans. The students were working in a radiology lab over the summer and need a process for creating a mold from the scans. What were the scans? Livers. Livers from woodchucks. What did they want to do with the mold? Put the liver in it. And then slice it up so they could do tests on the tumors in the liver. And that was how the woodchuck liver tumor slicer was created.

Imagine my surprise, when in the summer of 2023, another student asked for the same thing!

Files for Replication

• Fusion 360 file
• 3D printing file - Slicer top
• 3D printing file - Slicer bottom

3D Printing Protein

In Fall 2023, Ilya Levental asked about 3D printing a beautifully structured protein called caveolin.

With a little effort and a lot of support material removal, we were able to get a nice model of the protein printed.

Files for Replication

• 3D printing file - caveolin protein

Mouse Pup Anesthesia Bed

Lou Legouez, a post doctoral researcher at UVA’s Neuroscience department, requested help with creating a bed and mask cone adapted for mouse pups that undergo anesthesia. It sounded like an interesting project, so I was able to model a part and 3D print a prototype.

Files for Replication

• Fusion 360 model
• 3D printing file - mouse bed

Neonatal Rib Cage

One of the earliest efforts to assist UVA’s medical field was in from 2021; an inquiry from the Medical Simulation Center to 3D print a baby sized rib cage for students to practice placing chest tubes in infants. Apparently, the center would use chicken rib cages for this purpose. With models available online for this, I was able to 3D print some rib cages for the center.

Files for Replication

• 3D printing file - ribs

Motion Capture Clusters

Dante Goss, a PhD student in Kinesiology, was looking for some replacement motion capture clusters. The department had received these clusters some years ago, but who created them and how was lost to history. One of the clusters had recently broke and was unusable. I was able to take the measurements from the old ones and model some new ones in Fusion 360. A usable model came after a couple of iterations.

I decided to put the files on a popular 3D printing website so anyone can use them. The Fusion files and .3mf files are available for download at the following site:

Files for Replication

• 3D files for clusters

Petri Dish Comb

While most of my help ends up successfully, some do not. Point in case is the attempt to print a petri dish comb for Louis Wilson from UVA’s Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics Department. They had a filament 3D printer available, but printing in PLA was not an option as the part deformed and warped when applied to the hot temperatures in the medical equipment. This meant using a more sturdy material, which we could do with our resin printer. Louis was able to procure the materials and we provided the printer.

I tried several times and with several different resins to print a usable comb, but most of the attempts had too much support and left spurs on the comb tines rendering it unusable, or the finished product was so brittle and fragile that the tines broke off, or the resin was so old that it produced more of a mess than a prototype.

Files for Replication

• small petri dish comb

While I have no formal training in biomedical engineering, or engineering in general, I love the opportunity to help people solve problems. And that’s what life is pretty much all about anyways. We all have problems and issues. Finding people to help us find solutions can bring happiness!

Collaboration with Dr. Zimmerman began in 2022 through a request to create a life-size, life-like model of a heart that he and other fellows could use to practice the movement of catheters inside the heart. Ideally the model would be clear and hollow. Due to time constraints the project was put on hold until the summer of 2023.

The original request was unable to be created due to the limitations of FFF printers and our lack of quality resin for our Form 2 printer.

So, like all good projects, we came up with the next best thing; a 3D printed, life-size heart with extra holes to make it usable for practice surgery.

I found a version online at https://www.printables.com/model/5612-anatomic-heart-multi-material, which provided the perfect model.

My 3D printed version came out pretty close!

After viewing this version, Dr. Zimmerman had a few alterations in mind that would improve the model. I was able to pull the .stl files from printables.com into Autodesk Fusion for digital manipulation.

The first attempt made sure the atrium and ventricle pieces could fit together and included most of the holes. I forgot a few, and Dr. Zimmerman had a couple more altercations, so it was back to the proverbial drawing board.

The second attempt was “good enough”™ even if orange in color. I think I gave him a couple of versions in a more medical white or red.

Dr. Zimmerman was very grateful for the heart models and noted that they would be useful for learning anatomy and showing patients what would be done to their hearts during surgery.

The .3mf files can be downloaded here for your printing enjoyment:

• atrium
• ventricle