Location – Boca Raton, FL, USA
CT Scanner — Bruker SkyScan 1173
Facility Contact Information — Lauren Simonitis, Research and Bioimaging Specialist, lsimonit@fau.edu
Facility Overview
What inspired the creation of an open access facility?
The Owls Imaging Lab is a one-of-a-kind research laboratory situated within the Florida Atlantic Laboratory Schools campus and serves three main goals. First, it introduces K-8 students to hands-on experiences in a research laboratory by integrating their classroom curriculum with state-of-the-art equipment and imaging data. Second, it supports high-level university research conducted by dual-enrolled FAU High School students, many of whom are mentored by FAU faculty. These students can research challenging problems at an early age and share their work through presentations, publications, and patents- ultimately preparing them for careers in STEM. Lastly, it serves as a research hub for the University community (undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate, faculty, etc.,) and external collaborators with access to cutting-edge equipment including a micro-CT scanner, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) suite, histology suite, fluorescence microscopy, FTIR spectroscopy system, and more.
How is the facility able to support CT scanning without charging for services?
Florida Atlantic Laboratory Schools receives funding through a combination of state funding, grants, partnerships, and philanthropic donations. Recently, the schools received a $2 million donation from The Marcus Foundation to launch the Marcus Research and Innovation Center. The Center will provide our students and collaborators with access to new equipment (such as a confocal microscope and cabinet CT scanner), larger research laboratories, and interdisciplinary workspaces. We facilitate a reciprocal arrangement where users provide their time and expertise in return for access to our equipment by participating in Community of Research and Education (CORE) options. These options vary based on the intensity of the lab/equipment use and range from delivering guest lectures, mentoring student researchers, teacher training, in-class and hands-on activities, and more.
Is there anyone who cannot use the facility or any special conditions a user must meet to receive their data for free?
The Owls Imaging Lab is accessible to all K-8 students at A.D. Henderson University School, all high school students from two FAU High School campuses, as well as university researchers from all over the country. In partnership with the Stiles-Nicholson STEM Teacher Academy, we offer resources and training for educators outside of our school to provide their students with hands-on learning experiences and innovative lessons.
We work with the Florida Atlantic community and external collaborators through an agreement where they select one or more of our CORE options in exchange for equipment use. For our users that produce micro-CT scans, we encourage them to upload their datasets to MorphoSource, to promote more open-access 3D data.
What do you like best about your facility?
We are proud to serve such a broad range of users in our facility. In one day, our CT scanner can be used by elementary students, Ph.D. candidates, and tenured professors. We can have kindergarten students comparing CT scans of toys to biological specimens to learn the difference between things that are real and fake, followed by a doctoral candidate digitally preserving a critically endangered porpoise skeleton. Even when we’re not bringing students physically into the lab, we can infuse their science lessons with our images, resources, and other data. For example, we 3D print CT-scanned vertebrae from a variety of taxa to help third graders investigate what makes a vertebrate different from an invertebrate.
We are thrilled to support a vast diversity of research topics and researchers in the Owls Imaging Lab and are excited to expand into The Marcus Research and Innovation Center to continue supporting students and fostering new collaborations.
Recommendations for Others
Any recommendations for others who might be interested in starting their own open CT facility?
We recommend allocating funding for data storage as soon as possible. Data generation with micro-CT adds up very quickly and can be costly to store due to its size.
We also encourage facilities to consider different models of equipment use repayment, when possible, to make biological imaging equipment more accessible.
Additionally, partnering with K-12 educators allows your data to go beyond the higher education academic bubble. Collaborating directly with teachers greatly influences how effective your outreach outputs and broader impacts can be. Many times, as researchers, we think we put together a great outreach lesson that, in reality, is inaccessible or unhelpful to actual K-12 teachers. Aligning with these educators from the start ensures that your outreach materials are useful, grade-level appropriate, and align with educational standards being covered in the classroom. Plus- it’s just so fun. Believe us, nobody can remind you how cool your data is like a seven-year-old marveling at your CT scans or learning from your 3D printed reconstructions.