Stanford Pilot Project Digitizes Bone Fragments for Classroom Use

The Digital Production Group of Stanford University Libraries has launched a pilot project to produce digital 3D models of bones and other artifacts for use in research and instruction.

Students began using the models recently in a winter course, Zooarchaeology: An Introduction to Faunal Remains, led by Assistant Professor of Anthropology Krish Seetah.

"The ideal situation would be for each one of my students to take an entire skeleton home and study it, but that's just not realistic because of the fragility and limitations of the collection," Seetah said in a Stanford news release. "Before, I used photographs, and two dimensions versus three is a completely different situation."

In Seetah's class, students are required to become familiar enough with the bones of different animals that they can identify them from fragments, as well as identifying marks that indicate trauma the animal experienced. In the most recent class, students were able to pull up models on a tablet or computer screen and look at them from different angles and add annotations to the images.

Stuart Snydman, associate director for digital strategy at Stanford Libraries and leader of the digitization project, said that eventually he hopes to expand the effort and make the models available to researchers and scholars anywhere in the world through the Stanford Digital Repository.

"The 3D model doesn't replace the original, but it gives you a digital surrogate to make analysis, evaluation, instruction on those objects easier both in the classroom and at home," said Snydman in a prepared statement. "Digitization is one way we can not just preserve our heritage and our history but also make these really important objects or works of art available to our students and faculty and researchers in the world at large."

About the Author

Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • DreamBox Math

    Discovery Education Announces Updates to Experience, DreamBox Math

    K-12 learning solution provider Discovery Education has announced enhancements to its Discovery Education Experience and DreamBox Math products, designed to create a more personalized, engaging learning experience for students.

  • abstract pattern of cybersecurity, ai and cloud imagery

    Report Identifies Malicious Use of AI in Cloud-Based Cyber Threats

    A recent report from OpenAI identifies the misuse of artificial intelligence in cybercrime, social engineering, and influence operations, particularly those targeting or operating through cloud infrastructure. In "Disrupting Malicious Uses of AI: June 2025," the company outlines how threat actors are weaponizing large language models for malicious ends — and how OpenAI is pushing back.

  • digital dashboard featuring a shield icon, graphs, a world map, and network nodes

    IBM Launches Agentic AI Governance and Security Platform

    IBM has introduced a new software stack for enterprise IT teams tasked with managing the complex governance and security challenges posed by autonomous AI systems.

  • laptop and fish hook

    Security Researchers Identify Generative AI 'Vishing' Attack

    A new report from researchers at Ontinue's Cyber Defense Center has identified a complex, multi-stage cyber attack that leveraged social engineering, remote access tools, and signed binaries to infiltrate and persist within a target network.