Meet Liz Hogrefe, Emerging Technologies Fellow
Emerging Technologies Fellow Liz Hogrefe came to work in virtual reality by accident. Although she has always enjoyed video games, she was more interested in exploring a greater context for their use beyond recreation and leisure. As a Creative Writing major at the University of Rochester, her interests were in writing dialog and game text, not the technical side of creating games. But it was also at Rochester that Liz discovered that libraries could be an open door for her imagination.
Serendipitously, between her sophomore and junior year, Liz began working in Rochester’s Robbins Library, a medieval studies library, where she learned of a joint project with the emerging technology department Studio X. The project was to build a VR alchemy lab based on a text held by Robbins. Liz started working on the project as a researcher, feeding her interests in writing dialog and character creation. This was when she put on a VR headset for the first time. After a year, Liz was invited to manage the project in Studio X, and she continued to work on it for three years. Read more about Aurum VR: an Alchemy Laboratory, watch a short video, and view digitized pages of the medieval manuscript on which it is based.
As Swarthmore’s Emerging Technologies Fellow, Liz builds on her educational research experience and works to expand opportunities to integrate emerging technologies–including VR, AI, and 3D modeling–into library and classroom learning. This supports one of the objectives in the Libraries’ Strategic Plan: “Ensure all students graduate with strong knowledge of the research process and are literate in the use of information, digital technologies, and primary resources.”
Watch for opportunities to participate in a workshop with Liz to learn and develop digital skills, such as using 3D modeling software Blender, or ArcGIS to create StoryMaps, or to learn 3D scanning. Liz hopes to demonstrate that the barriers to learning these tools are low, and the research possibilities are vast.
Fun Facts about Liz:
She completed a 5th year of undergraduate study through Rochester's E5 Program using the opportunity to produce an original video game for LGBTQ historical education.
She’s a fan of both Formula1 (Ferrari Team) and Premier League Soccer, er, Football (Chelsea fan.)
She’s from Upstate NY, so obviously a Bills fan, but is quick to mention her “deep respect” for the Eagles.
Favorite books: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut.
She loves to bake and is always open to requests (except for pies!) Her friends (and co-workers?) never need to worry about a birthday cake.
She creates art, both charcoal sketching and oil painting and attends the Philadelphia Sketch Club regularly.
She’s a foodie. While she’s already discovered a favorite restaurant, illata, on Grey’s Ferry (“Do not skip the Brown Butter Tart”), she’d love your recommendations for other places to try.
She worked in radio all 5 years at Rochester's NPR affiliate station, WRUR FM — if anyone wants to talk about music — she’d love to!
