Scholars Studio Workshops
The Scholars Studio offers a series of workshops each semester introducing students and teachers to digital methods and tools. No prior experience with digital skills or tools is necessary to attend any of these workshops.
The Scholars Studio offers laptops for use during workshops. Please feel free to bring your own laptops as well.
You are not required to attend all the workshops in a series, and you can attend workshops at random. However, we strongly suggest that you try to attend the entire workshop series in sequence.
Past Workshops
Holiday Décor Workshop
Hannah Tardie
Stop by the Makerspace for some craft time and free access to machines and materials! Make gifts and décor for the holidays with help from staff on the laser cutter and 3D Printers. Some possible ideas include: 3D printed trinkets, custom greeting cards, 3D printed cookie cutters, laser cut ornaments, and more.
Stop by the Makerspace for some craft time and free access to machines and materials! Make gifts and décor for the holidays with help from staff on the laser cutter and 3D Printers. Some possible ideas include: 3D printed trinkets, custom greeting cards, 3D printed cookie cutters, laser cut ornaments, and more.
How to Make an Analog Synthesizer
Hannah Tardie
In this workshop we will solder an Atari Punk Console Synth kit together. No prior soldering experience necessary. The Atari Punk Console is an analog synthesizer instrument that is relatively inexpensive and easy to build from scratch.
In this workshop we will solder an Atari Punk Console Synth kit together. No prior soldering experience necessary. The Atari Punk Console is an analog synthesizer instrument that is relatively inexpensive and easy to build from scratch.
Using Google Earth and R to Visualize Environmental Change
Austin Martin
This two-hour single-session workshop offers an introduction to remote sensing using Google Earth Engine and the United States Geological Survey platforms to obtain satellite imagery of environmental landscapes. R Studio will be used as a part of the demonstration to process these images and analyze land cover changes. Basic knowledge of R coding is helpful but not required.
This two-hour single-session workshop offers an introduction to remote sensing using Google Earth Engine and the United States Geological Survey platforms to obtain satellite imagery of environmental landscapes. R Studio will be used as a part of the demonstration to process these images and analyze land cover changes. Basic knowledge of R coding is helpful but not required.
Learning History by Playing Games
Trystram Spiro-Castello
Games have a lot to teach us about a variety of subjects. In this workshop, participants will learn how to play a classic 4X videogame like Civilization. We will spend a couple hours playing together and learning the mechanics and game design. This play session will be sandwiched by discussions of how history functions as a process, how games work, and how games can be used as educational tools.
Games have a lot to teach us about a variety of subjects. In this workshop, participants will learn how to play a classic 4X videogame like Civilization. We will spend a couple hours playing together and learning the mechanics and game design. This play session will be sandwiched by discussions of how history functions as a process, how games work, and how games can be used as educational tools.
Intro to Github
Alex Wermer-Colan
This workshop will introduce Github, a valuable resource for anyone looking to do digital projects. This workshop will overview how to use Github to find and share open source code, how to build a public profile on Github, how to use Git to version your own software as you develop it, and how to use Github Pages to host static websites. No prior knowledge of Github is necessary.
This workshop will introduce Github, a valuable resource for anyone looking to do digital projects. This workshop will overview how to use Github to find and share open source code, how to build a public profile on Github, how to use Git to version your own software as you develop it, and how to use Github Pages to host static websites. No prior knowledge of Github is necessary.
An Introduction to Digital Accessibility
Jasmine Clark
This workshop will introduce the documentation, guidelines, laws, and TU resources that work to ensure that digital materials are able to be used by those with disabilities.
This workshop will introduce the documentation, guidelines, laws, and TU resources that work to ensure that digital materials are able to be used by those with disabilities.
Intro to High Performance Computing
Mohaiminul Islam
This workshop will introduce the basic ideas and working procedures of a typical HPC, with special focus on how to apply for an account and request resources at Temple’s HPC (Owl's Nest). Interested people can also learn about job management at HPC along with writing simple job scripts. No prior knowledge about Linux commands are necessary, common commands will be introduced as the workshop progresses.
This workshop will introduce the basic ideas and working procedures of a typical HPC, with special focus on how to apply for an account and request resources at Temple’s HPC (Owl's Nest). Interested people can also learn about job management at HPC along with writing simple job scripts. No prior knowledge about Linux commands are necessary, common commands will be introduced as the workshop progresses.
How to Make a Custom Keychain
Hannah Tardie
In this workshop we will use Adobe Illustrator and the laser cutter to make custom keychains. No prior experience laser cutting necessary. Please download Illustrator prior to the workshop (Feel free to email Hannah if you have any issues downloading).
In this workshop we will use Adobe Illustrator and the laser cutter to make custom keychains. No prior experience laser cutting necessary. Please download Illustrator prior to the workshop (Feel free to email Hannah if you have any issues downloading).
Introduction to 3D Scanning and Printing
Marcus Bingenheimer
This two-hour, in-person workshop invites participants to bring a small object they value to be 3D scanned and printed at the Makerspace. Workshop attendees will learn the basics of 3D scanning and printing.
This two-hour, in-person workshop invites participants to bring a small object they value to be 3D scanned and printed at the Makerspace. Workshop attendees will learn the basics of 3D scanning and printing.
Mapping the U.S. with Social Explorer
Fred Rowland
Social Explorer provides thousands of social, economic, and cultural data variables from public sources for easy mapping and visualization. This one hour session will introduce you to the intuitive features you need to create effective maps, whether you are an undergraduate writing a paper, an instructor presenting a lecture, or an author demonstrating your ideas. Learn how to build story maps, produce data tables, export and import data, and download your maps as powerpoint slides. Social Explorer is low stress and high satisfaction, so come one, come all!
Social Explorer provides thousands of social, economic, and cultural data variables from public sources for easy mapping and visualization. This one hour session will introduce you to the intuitive features you need to create effective maps, whether you are an undergraduate writing a paper, an instructor presenting a lecture, or an author demonstrating your ideas. Learn how to build story maps, produce data tables, export and import data, and download your maps as powerpoint slides. Social Explorer is low stress and high satisfaction, so come one, come all!
Basics of Social Network Analysis with Gephi
Marcus Bingenheimer
This three-hour, single-session workshop will introduce participants to analyzing and visualizing social network data with Gephi (gephi.org). We will briefly introduce the fundamental ideas underlying network science, then work through a series of exercises.
This three-hour, single-session workshop will introduce participants to analyzing and visualizing social network data with Gephi (gephi.org). We will briefly introduce the fundamental ideas underlying network science, then work through a series of exercises.
Text Mining Databases
Alex Wermer-Colan
This workshop will introduce researchers to the range of text mining portals increasingly available for conducting data analysis in library databases, including Proquest, LexisNexis, Gale, HathiTrust, JSTOR, and other databases. This workshop will overview the range of resources, limitations on access, and modes of analysis possible through these text mining portals. Workshop attendees will also learn the basics of text mining and how to build research projects around text mining databases.
This workshop will introduce researchers to the range of text mining portals increasingly available for conducting data analysis in library databases, including Proquest, LexisNexis, Gale, HathiTrust, JSTOR, and other databases. This workshop will overview the range of resources, limitations on access, and modes of analysis possible through these text mining portals. Workshop attendees will also learn the basics of text mining and how to build research projects around text mining databases.
Basics of Map-Making with QGIS
Marcus Bingenheimer
This three hour, single-session workshop offers an introduction to map-making with the open-source QGIS software. The workshop is aimed at students, faculty, and anyone who needs to include maps in articles, term papers, or reports.
This three hour, single-session workshop offers an introduction to map-making with the open-source QGIS software. The workshop is aimed at students, faculty, and anyone who needs to include maps in articles, term papers, or reports.
Text Mining JSTOR's Constellate Part 1 & 2
Alex Wermer-Colan
This workshop will introduce students to conducting quantitative data analysis on textual corpora in the JSTOR database through their new text mining portal, Constellate. Temple affiliates have free trial access to JSTOR Constellate through the fall. This workshop will introduce students to text mining (aka natural language processing) using Jupyter Notebooks and Python, and they will learn how to conduct text mining queries to search for patterns across datasets in JSTOR that they can create themselves.
This workshop will introduce students to conducting quantitative data analysis on textual corpora in the JSTOR database through their new text mining portal, Constellate. Temple affiliates have free trial access to JSTOR Constellate through the fall. This workshop will introduce students to text mining (aka natural language processing) using Jupyter Notebooks and Python, and they will learn how to conduct text mining queries to search for patterns across datasets in JSTOR that they can create themselves.
Mapping the U.S. with Social Explorer
Fred Rowland
Social Explorer provides thousands of social, economic, and cultural data variables from public sources for easy mapping and visualization. This one hour session will introduce you to the intuitive features you need to create effective maps, whether you are an undergraduate writing a paper, an instructor presenting a lecture, or an author demonstrating your ideas. Learn how to build story maps, produce data tables, export and import data, and download your maps as powerpoint slides. Social Explorer is low stress and high satisfaction, so come one, come all!
Social Explorer provides thousands of social, economic, and cultural data variables from public sources for easy mapping and visualization. This one hour session will introduce you to the intuitive features you need to create effective maps, whether you are an undergraduate writing a paper, an instructor presenting a lecture, or an author demonstrating your ideas. Learn how to build story maps, produce data tables, export and import data, and download your maps as powerpoint slides. Social Explorer is low stress and high satisfaction, so come one, come all!
Basics of Social Network Analysis with Gephi
Marcus Bingenheimer
This three-hour, single-session workshop will introduce participants to analyzing and visualizing social network data with Gephi (gephi.org). We will briefly introduce the fundamental ideas underlying network science, then work through a series of exercises.
This three-hour, single-session workshop will introduce participants to analyzing and visualizing social network data with Gephi (gephi.org). We will briefly introduce the fundamental ideas underlying network science, then work through a series of exercises.
3D Scanning and Modeling
Marilla Cubberley
This four session workshop will introduce the fundamental techniques of 3D scanning and 3D modeling. We will discuss the technologies’ practical uses as well as artistic potentiality, experimenting with distorting and abstracting 3D scans. We will look at a range of programs including Blender, Sculptris, and Sketch-up and discuss the pros and cons of each.
2D & 3D CAD Design For Laser Cutting, CNC, and 3D Printing
Kyle Schwab
Designing 2D and 3D objects using Computer Aided Design (CAD) for physical fabrication on 3D printers, laser cutters, and CNC machines. In the first two sessions, participants will be introduced to basic CAD design concepts and methods using AutoCAD and Fusion 360. During the third and fourth sessions, participants are given a demonstration on the theory and operation of three fabrication methods; laser cutting, CNC machining, and 3D printing. Lastly, objects designed in previous sessions will be fabricated with different materials using the fabrication methods listed above.
Practical Implications of VR
Eugene Kukshinov
This workshop will explore key notions of VR and opportunities that VR technologies (such as an Oculus Quest) can provide for scholarship. We’ll overview the applications of VR to education, therapy, and so on. Participants of the workshop will have a better understanding of how and why to use VR as more than a source of entertainment.
Photogrammetry as a Tool for Heritage Work
Elysia Petras
This workshop will explore applications of photogrammetry for historic preservation of and increased community engagement with heritage sites. Workshop will cover theory, and the complete process of photogrammetry from photography techniques to tutorials in Agisoft, and Sketchfab.
Text Analysis with Python
Alex Wermer-Colan
This workshop series will introduce students to computational text analysis methods in the Python programming language using Jupyter notebooks and Google Colab. Students will learn how to import and clean textual datasets, before analyzing and visualizing their corpora using topic modeling and word embeddings.
Accessibility for Video Recordings and Events
Jasmine Clark
This workshop will introduce participants to tools and workflows to consider when thinking about making video recordings and presentations accessible. Tools will include those provided by Temple, as well as recommendations based on measures implemented at successful remote events.
3D Modeling Working Group
Jordan Hample, David Ross
Building a game, simulation, VR world, or pretty much anything in Unity or 3D modeling softwares like Blender? It's dangerous to go alone! Join this working group! Every week we will be hosting a 3D modeling working group to help you develop your existing projects, or help you get started from scratch. Learn from our staff, learn from your peers, help your peers learn. This will be a collaborative environment where you are free to ask the questions you need and get one on one help.
Intro to Coding Working Group
Alex Wermer-Colan
This working group will explore the fundamentals and the intricacies of coding. Aimed at a beginner audience, we will practice a wide-range of methods, including dataset harvesting and cleaning, analysis and modeling, using languages such as Python and R, as well as Unix for the Command Line and Regex for text processing.
Designing Accessible, Usable, and Inclusive Digital Projects
Jasmine Clark
This workshop will introduce attendees to the concepts of accessibility, usability, and inclusion, as well as how to integrate these concepts into their own projects. Workshops will cover the legal requirements around accessibility, the difference between accessibility/usability/inclusion, workflow and time allocation for user testing, universal design, multimodal systems, resources offered at Temple, and Web Content and Accessibility Guidelines.
Digital Fabrication
Vivien Wise
What does it mean to use digital fabrication in the arts? Digital fabrication offers user-friendly ways to enhance such artistic processes as creating tools, building foundations and supports, and duplicating works in multiple formats. In this workshop about digital fabrication for artistic purposes, participants will learn to use photogrammetry to replicate an object of their choice in a 3D model, before refining the model and 3D printing and sculpting the object. Participants are encouraged to bring their own objects to make 3D scans.
3D Modeling: Designing Characters
David Ross
Using free 3D modeling software, participants create unique characters that can be used for 3D printing, animation, and video games. This three day workshop starts with sculpting a head using analog techniques similar to clay. Next, participants learn how to combine multiple 3D models by attaching a body to the head that is ready to be animated. This workshop ends by taking this animated character and inserting it into Unity, allowing for it to be playable in a game environment.
Make a Game Everyday in Unity 3D
Jordan Hample
In this workshop series we will make a new game in Unity every session… in just one hour. Participants will be given some starting assets and shown how to create simple games like Pong or Breakout from scratch learning 2D and 3D art and C# programming skills. Basic Unity and programming experience would be a plus, but not expected. Participants can bring their own laptops with Unity installed, or use those in the DSC.
Optical Character Recognition: An Introduction
Bethany Farrell
This workshop will provide the basics for using optical character recognition software to create computer readable, searchable texts. Over three sessions we will focus on getting started in Abbyy, including file preparation, basic operations, and outputting into txt and html files. Since Abbyy is a proprietary software we will also explore open source OCR software.
Microsoft Excel: From Beginner to Advanced Techniques
Gary Scales
The series will look at advanced techniques for using MS Excel. The sessions will cover using powerful and underused Excel functions (both discretely and in combination) to better manage and manipulate data; how to build a search engine for locally-hosted data using advanced Excel features; how to use the advanced formatting and graphics features to create data dashboards for viewing or export, and also how to create and program user-forms using Visual Basic code.
Webscraping Youtube
Jeff Antsen, Ania Korskunska, Nicole Lemire-Garlic, Alex Wermer-Colan
This workshop will introduce students scraping and analyzing data from Youtube, including comment threads, using content, and network analysis. Students will be introduced to the theory behind web analysis, the tools for scraping Youtube videos and threads, and user-friendly tools such as Gephi and Voyant for network and text analysis.
Text Mining the HathiTrust
Alex Wermer-Colan
This workshop will introduce students to data analysis using HathiTrust’s repository (containing over 15 million books), especially its extracted features datasets, as well as its Data Portal’s tools for accessing copyrighted data. Students will learn not only how to navigate HathiTrust’s search functionalities, but also to build their own custom datasets. It is an onerous process to access HathiTrust’s data analytics tools, and we will walk through each step of accessing a Data Capsule. We will experiment with both Voyant-Tools for user-friendly text analysis, as well as some easy to adapt scripts in R for text analysis.
Getting started Making Games with Twine
Matt Shoemaker
Twine is an open source software platform for making text based choose your own adventure style games and other forms of non-linear story telling. Come learn how to get started using it! More info on Twine here: https://twinery.org/
Meet and Build: Making and Community
Emily Logan
Join an interdisciplinary group of makers looking for solutions, feedback and support on their projects. This ongoing workshop/meet up group is for anyone who enjoys or wants to make things and desires to be apart of a community. Making is not a fringe movement, but rather is apart of a human need to build. It extends many areas of higher education including but not limited to: science, engineering, art (visual and performance), entrepreneurship, medicine and literature. Bring an idea, a project, a prototype, a line of code, a question and/or most importantly, a desire to build. We will work through each other’s personal projects, discuss problems, and brainstorm solutions. If no one knows the answer to a particular problem, we will look for an expert in the given field who does. This meet up group is for anyone interested in interdisciplinary collaboration and who has a desire to build.
Reading with Computers
Alex Wermer-Colan
This workshop series will provide an overview of theories, projects, methods, and tools for computational textual analysis (otherwise known as “natural language processing”). After familiarizing ourselves with traditional and alternative methods of interpretation in the humanities, we will consider critical applications of digital technology to cultural studies and literary analysis, from Franco Moretti’s distant reading of nineteenth-century literature to Alex Gil’s genetic analysis of Aimé Césaire’s composition methods. We will spend the final workshop sessions exploring and experimenting with ready-made digital tools for comparing texts, uncovering compositional methods and styles, tracing historical genealogies and etymologies, as well as topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and literary mapping and visualizations. No prior knowledge of computational textual analysis is necessary. The workshop sessions will build on prior sessions, so consistent attendance to the workshop series is recommended, but not required.
Computational Textual Analysis
Alex Wermer-Colan
This workshop series will model a mini-collaborative research project, involving experimentation with computational textual analysis tools using the Digital Scholarship Center’s recently digitized corpus of twentieth-century literature. We will begin by discussing various methods and tools for cleaning and preparing a corpus, including text encoding initiatives. For most of the series, we will employ a variety of ready-made tools, including the Google Ngram viewer and Voyant, to quantify grammatical, lexical, and organizational structures in dozens of novels. This workshop will also establish a working knowledge of how to deploy and adapt simple programming scripts to run more complex and pointed analyses on multiple texts at once. No prior knowledge of computational textual analysis is necessary.
Data Cleaning with OpenRefine
Luling Huang
The workshop covers basics and examples of data cleaning with OpenRefine. Feel free to bring your own computer to practice with hands-on examples. Topics will include: data transformation, the General Refine Expression Language, and data reshaping.
Learn to Code Python
Luling Huang
Participants will work together to learn the programming language Python at their own pace. Join us to work through online learning sessions of Python with hands on exercises and get help from others there. Feel free to bring along your lunch. You will need a laptop (Mac or PC) in order to participate.
Web Scraping with Python
Luling Huang
The workshop covers basics and examples of web scraping with Python. You will need a laptop (Mac or PC) in order to participate as well as the freely available Scraping the Web for Arts and Humanities, by Chris Hanretty. Topics will include: Intro to web-scraping and html, Intro to Python, Extracting texts, Downloading files, Extracting links, Extracting tables.
Investigating Twitter
Caroline Tynan, Luling Huang
This workshop will introduce several tools for using Twitter for social science research. Geared towards political science, media studies, and journalism, it will show ways of searching and analyzing Twitter hashtags and other indications of political trends. It will include at least one session on how to identify automated tweets, commonly known as bots. It will draw upon examples from my own research on state propaganda in the Persian Gulf, but asks others to bring in their own ideas for researching how authoritarian governments and social activists alike are using Twitter to promote agendas and ideologies.
Text Analysis with R
Matt Shoemaker
This ongoing workshop will be lead by a DSC staff member taking participants through Matt Jocker’s Text Analysis with R for Students of Literature for learning the open source coding language R and applying it to textual analysis uses. Participants should intend to come to all sessions as we will move to a new chapter each week. Feel free to bring along your lunch. You will need a laptop (Mac or PC) and an installation of RStudio (free and covered in chapter 1) in order to participate.
Network Analysis
Bethany Farrell
This workshop will cover the basic theories underpinning social network analysis, covering what type of relationships, connections, and/or ties can be mapped using network analysis. We will look at different types of data that can be used, predominately focused on research within the social sciences. Network analysis can be used to study a wide array of different types of interactions, from mapping terrorist organizations, to analyzing co-authorship of journal articles within a disciplines, or looking at the flow of international aid between states. Next, we will cover how to run analyses (e.g. network density, measures of centrality, clustering, and subgroup identification) on social networks using various packages in R. We will also go into how to create data visualizations of networks within R. No prior knowledge of network analysis is needed, but some basic experience with R would be advantageous.
Mapping Datasets in the Humanities
Bethany Farrell
This series provides both methodological and technical support for mapping datasets. We will discuss how different fields within the humanities interpret and utilize data as well as the application of tools, such as ArcGIS, Carto, Neatline, NodeGoat, and QGIS.
Mapping the Great Migration
These sessions will teach you how to use software for historical mapping purpose to trace the Great Migration. We will begin with a brief intro to some mapping software and advance each session to include more information and delve deeper into these software tools to create a digital historic map that will help illustrate key locations, dates and events of the Great Migration.
Intro to Electronics & Arduinos
Emily Logan
The Arduino is a small open source micro controller that allows you to sense and control objects in the physical world. Join us for to learn more about and try building projects with the Arduino as an entry into the realm of physical computing.
Working with 3D Environments
Jennifer Grayburn
This ongoing workshop will introduce you to various technologies that create, manipulate, and display 3D models. The first session will focus on capturing 3D images from objects in the real world using photogrammetry. The second session will introduce the DSC’s structured light scanner and 3D printers, walking you through the model creation and 3D printing process. The third session will focus on creating original 3D models and importing your earlier models in Sketchup. The final session in this series will introduce easy to use platforms allowing you to view and share your models in VR.
Using Unity 3D
Jordan Hample
This ongoing hands-on workshop will introduce you to using Unity and show you how to apply it to your re-creation, simulation, virtual reality, or game related projects. Topics include Unity interface and general usage, importing and using Unity Standard Assets and Asset Store, importing and using custom models, scene/level composition, object interaction, using virtual reality, and more. While programming knowledge is not required, is is suggested for some lessons. You will need a laptop (Mac or PC) and an installation of Unity 3D (free and covered the first lesson) in order to participate.
From 3D Model to 3D Print
Jennifer Grayburn
In this workshop series, we will work through the 3D modeling and 3D printing process. We will explore the basics of 3D modeling and printing technologies, consider different ways to generate printable models, and design our own models using free, intuitive software. We will then 3D print our models on the DSC’s Big Box printer. Each workshop in the series will build upon the previous ones and participants of the entire series will both satisfy the safety training requirement to 3D print in the DSC and 3D print their own model. No 3D modeling or printing experience is required.
Makerspace Technology and Safety Training
Jordan Hample
Here in the DSC we don’t just want to provide a space where things like 3D printing, laser cutting or working with electronics are provided to you, we want you to learn how to use them as well! In order to use any of the maker space equipment in the DSC you must first go through a basic makerspace safety training along with any equipment specific training for the equipment you desire to use. DSC staff will still be around to assist you if you run into difficulties, but we want to make sure you get started in the right direction.
Fundamentals of Omeka and Digital Exhibition Design
James Kopaczewski
Omeka is a free and open-source web publishing platform with rich metadata and digital exhibition capabilities. This workshop will introduce Omeka and the process of establishing your own online exhibition. Topics will include: data selection, collaboration, physical and digital archives, and methods for promoting your work.