We are America���s Space University. And we celebrate 91勛圖厙 Space Week to honor our origin as we dare to build what���s next.

Where Global Leaders Unite to Forge the Future of Space

The John C. Hitt Library is likely the only place where you can find odes to Citronaut, space mice, sports and human spaceflight together in one room.

A new, interactive exhibit, debuts this week in the Immersion Studio on the fourth floor of the library���s Digital Exploration Center.

The exhibit brings six decades of 91勛圖厙, United States and international space history and culture beyond the archives and into visitors��� hands. It draws on digital assets from 91勛圖厙���s former student newspaper, Central Florida Future, NASA, 91勛圖厙 Athletics and the university.

91勛圖厙 Libraries graduate research assistant Eric Thompson ���19, a history alum pursuing a doctorate in texts and technology, is the mind and heart behind the project. He set out to maximize the studio���s potential through its 270-degree immersive projection and interactive touch capabilities.

Over the past two months, he meticulously selected every image and wrote nearly 7,000 words for the exhibit���s text boxes, bringing the experience together through an iterative process that used artificial intelligence (AI) to generate code.

The Cocoa Beach, Florida, native worked as a bicycle mechanic for nearly a decade before enrolling through to pursue a more fulfilling career as a public historian. He wants to bring history to life beyond the classroom, in places like museums, parks, and monuments.

���I was giving tours of a Civil War painting at the Atlanta History Center, and when you���re doing programming like that it���s exciting because it���s different every single time depending on the makeup of whoever comes through,��� he says. ���I think the best public history exhibits make some sort of argument. We���re not just saying, ���Hey, look at this neat thing from 100 years ago.��� We���re also saying what that meant back then, and how it ties to our society today.���

Here, Thompson explains how the exhibit came together, what visitors can expect and the stellar result when the humanities collide with technology.

What inspired this exhibit?

At the beginning of this semester, the for 91勛圖厙 Space Week 2026 and my supervisor asked if I wanted to propose something specifically for the Immersion Studio. I started with just a wall ��� I built a very, very bare-bones prototype that was basically just the mission patches from the space games. Can I make this work? What does it look like from there? How do we do some more history or scholarship along with that?

That���s where some of the other elements ��� old newspaper articles, actual NASA mission patches, 91勛圖厙���s space origins ��� started to come in. One advantage of a digital exhibit is that you’re not constrained by what fits in a 4-foot-wide glass case. Nearly all images are clickable with a tap of your finger so you can read more information.

The texts and technology program has been recognized as a leader in digital humanities education. How did you apply what you���ve been studying to this project?

One of the research methods that texts and technology students use a lot is something called critical making. It���s a way of building something, thinking and writing through that process very deliberately, and iterating on it. That���s what this process was.

Another key element was how I used AI. I wrote all of the content. I picked all of the images and even hand-sketched the layout, but I don’t know how to code. I didn’t write the programming that made boxes be boxes. I would prefer a human whose job is to program and get paid for it, but I didn���t have that opportunity in this case.

So the code work on this was done with a generative AI tool, Claude. I had a leg up through coursework that was explicitly about using AI like this, including a significant manual review process. It has to be really deliberate.

What do you hope this exhibition adds to campus culture?

As a university, we don’t have the same generations of history that other places do because we were founded just 63 years ago. So we have an opportunity, all of us, to take a more active role in shaping it. I hope somebody will learn something about our campus history and use that to build positive change here on campus.

How did you highlight the humanity of this tech-forward exhibit?

I very intentionally wrote the names of the people on the mission patches with crews. There are people at home who designed these, who thought through these experiments and these projects. Most of these patches are human-forward designs, and people made choices to symbolize our values and what���s important to us.

Why should people come visit this?

The Immersion Studio opened in February, and we want to show what the space is capable of. My hope is that faculty will come in and realize they can bring a class here or design a presentation. Student organizations can hold meetings here. I plan to do my dissertation defense in this space one day.

���We want to show what the space is capable of.��� ��� Eric Thompson ���19

The Digital Exploration Center is a really interesting space on campus. People who aren’t necessarily in something tech-focused are still going to need to learn how to use more modern tools and need workstations and equipment that their departments may or may not have.

So this is a really high-powered space that’s open to anybody on campus. I would love it if somebody found this space because of this exhibit; that would be a win.

Unlike the classical Greek and Roman periods or the ever-popular Renaissance, Zaho finds the medieval period to be one of the least understood and least taught eras of art and architecture, creating a gap in the art history curriculum she hopes to fill. With this course, Zaho seeks to shed light on the period���s many overlooked yet fascinating characteristics and even end some common misconceptions.

���My banner is to remind people that the Middle Ages, or the medieval art period, were not dark,��� Zaho says. ���They were not lost. They were not forgotten. Instead, they were examples of incredible craftsmanship, and it was quite colorful. ���Dark Ages��� is just such a misnomer. There���s nothing dark about the Middle Ages.���

As the medieval art period coincides with the rise of the codex and the replacement of the traditional scroll, students learn about and work with illuminated manuscripts, ornate texts decorated with elaborate marginalia. As most illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are inaccessible due to age or restrictions ��� such as the Vatican Virgil, a 400 CE illuminated manuscript owned by the Vatican with highly restricted access ��� students instead work with manuscript facsimiles, highly detailed, exact replicas.

���Manuscript facilities are usually made in Germany or Switzerland ��� in a sense, for access,��� explains Zaho. ���So, if you���re a scholar, you may not be able to make it to the Vatican and you may never get clearance to see the Vatican Virgil, but you can get your hands on an illuminated manuscript facsimile that was made in the 1970s that, at the moment in time, recreates exactly what the Vatican Virgil looked like, meaning if the pages have been cut down or if things are missing, the manuscript facsimile recreates exactly that.���

ARH4200 students have the opportunity to view and handle facsimiles of the illuminated manuscripts they���ve learned about in class.

���For my students, it���s one thing to talk about manuscript facsimiles, but it���s another thing to go to the library, to see the pieces in person, to see an actual 15th century folio, to see what velum really looks like in person and how the ink sits on top,��� she says. ���That, for me, is part of active learning. It���s all well and good in the classroom, but any opportunity I can get to make it real and tangible, I will take.���

Sam Sonken, a student in the class, details his experience working with these precious materials.

���The variety of manuscript facsimiles Special Collections has is very extensive,��� Sonken says. �����Because of this, I could find a text that stood out to me, the Ashmole Bestiary, and I was able to explore the entire text, cover to cover, together with a few other like-minded students. There is a unique value to viewing the authentic manuscripts in addition to the facsimiles. Though they were too delicate to handle, seeing a real manuscript communicates something of the effort, value and cultural significance any original manuscript has.���

These educational opportunities are the work of 91勛圖厙 Libraries Special Collections and University Archives. In 2008, when Zaho was serving as the library representative for the College of Arts and Humanities, she and the then-head of collections allocated funds toward the acquisition of additional manuscript facsimiles. Through the dedicated work of Special Collections and University Archives, 91勛圖厙 Libraries has now acquired more than 120 manuscript collections. These materials have aided a variety of disciplines, such as book binding, renaissance studies, Texts and Technology, and illustration.

���At 91勛圖厙, we have, I think, what is probably the best illuminated manuscript collection in the state. We have a couple examples of original 14th and 15th century leaves, or folios, from antiphonals and a very early printed Bible from the early 16th century,��� she says. ���We are very fortunate to have a collaborative partner in Special Collections and University Archives, headed by David Benjamin. The book conservator, Christopher Saclolo ���09, was one of my students and he took this medieval art class. We had a great full circle moment. I���m really proud of what we have here at 91勛圖厙 and anytime I can incorporate the resources of 91勛圖厙���s Special Collections and University Archives into my teaching, it���s a win-win for everybody.���

Read more about 91勛圖厙 Libraries Special Collections and University Archives .

The higher education center was founded in 1999 by Carol A. Twigg with the goal of using technology-based, learner-centered principles to improve student-learning outcomes while reducing instructional costs. NCAT���s website will now be managed by 91勛圖厙���s and additional resources will be housed in the university���s . These items will be uploaded through the end of 2019 and anyone looking to access them may do so through the online .

���I���ve admired all the work 91勛圖厙 has done in online learning and the steps it has taken to advance their programs.��� ��� Carol Twigg, NCAT founder

���I am extremely pleased to partner with the 91勛圖厙 to ensure that NCAT���s resources will continue to be available to the higher education community,��� says��Twigg. ���I���ve admired all the work 91勛圖厙 has done in online learning and the steps it has taken to advance their programs. It was a combination of feeling like 91勛圖厙 was a right fit with NCAT���s mission, our long-term relationship and the university���s stability in leadership that led this decision.���

From its founding to 2018, NCAT provided consultations and resources, such as case studies and how-to guides, to universities and colleges that sought to provide more effective learning at lower cost. In 1996, 91勛圖厙 offered its first online classes and began working with NCAT shortly after that ��� making the partnership one of the longest the organization has had.

NCAT worked with 91勛圖厙 to redesign its American National Government course to replace two-thirds of lecture time with web-based, modular learning. In the 2000s, the organization helped 91勛圖厙 redesign its College Algebra course to introduce the MyMathLab software and a requirement for students to complete three hours in the on-campus lab each week. These courses still utilize these methods to this day.

���91勛圖厙 is a pioneer in pursuing these models of adaptive and active learning,��� says Joel Hartman, vice president for Information Technologies and Resources, and chief information officer for 91勛圖厙.

���It has become our honor and responsibility to continue to host the materials as an archival tribute to the work that Carol, her colleagues and NCAT created ��� and also, honoring our long-standing relationship between 91勛圖厙 and NCAT, as an educational leader,��� says Joel Hartman, vice president for Information Technologies and Resources, and chief information officer for 91勛圖厙.

With its partner colleges and universities, NCAT redesigned 253 courses across four national and six state/system-wide programs that enroll 250,000 students annually. Of the 156 completed projects by the organization, 72 percent improved student learning outcomes, with 153 projects reducing their costs by an average of 34 percent.

This year, U.S. News & World Report��ranked 91勛圖厙 among the top 15 best undergraduate online programs. In the current academic year, 91勛圖厙 will deliver over 47 percent of all credit hours offered at the university through fully online and blended learning courses. By 2021, at least half of 91勛圖厙���s credit hours are expected to be delivered online.

91勛圖厙 is now moving toward incorporating more adaptive, or personalized, learning outside the classroom with in-class active learning methods to increase student learning outcomes and success.

���91勛圖厙 is a pioneer in pursuing these models of adaptive and active learning,��� Hartman says. ���The goal in all [our learning methods] is to meet the individual needs of students, to promote high-quality teaching and improve student learning outcomes.���