Workshops

Winter Programming & Hours: January – April 2026

We are closed from December 22, 2025 – January 5 (Winter Break), February 16 (Family Day), April 3 (Good Friday) and April 26, 2026.
For full schedule of Library Building hours: https://library.torontomu.ca/info/hours/

The Library Collaboratory is staffed Monday – Friday (9:30 AM – 4:30 PM).
Please note: The Library Collaboratory entrance is affected by the SLC Building’s hours. Please plan accordingly.

TMU Libraries’ Collaboratory is open for access from:

Monday, December 15 to Sunday, December 21, 2025
Monday to Thursday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Friday: 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Saturday & Sunday: CLOSED

January 5 to January 11, 2026
Monday to Friday: 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Saturday – Sunday: 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM

January 12 to April 12, 2026
Monday to Friday: 7:00 AM – 1:00 AM
Saturday – Sunday, 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM

April 13 to April 26, 2026
Monday to Friday: 7:00 AM – 1:00 AM
Saturday, April 18: 8:00 AM – 1:00 AM
Sunday, April 19: 10:00 AM – 1:00 AM
Saturday, April 25: 8:00 AM – 1:00 AM

Be sure to check our calendar for all other scheduled programs and closures not listed here.

Workshops are offered throughout the semester, some in-person only and some online only.
Research consultations are available for Library Collaboratory members. If you are not a member, and interested in becoming one, learn more about membership here.

If you are a faculty member getting new research off the ground, contact us about training and in-kind support.

* Appointments for consultation may only be made by members of the Library Collaboratory.

Workshops

* Except where otherwise noted, workshops, talks and presentations hosted at the Library Collaboratory are open to all of the Toronto Metropolitan University community.

January

Seeing Ourselves in Robots: A Curious Look at Anthropomorphism
Wednesday, January 21 | 1:00 – 2:00 PM | IN-PERSON

This presentation will not be discussing Large Language Models (LLM) or complex AI systems. Nor should participants expect  to build robots from scratch, either. Instead, come join the Library Collaboratory Research Technology Officer for a fun and curious look at how humans can’t help but see life in machines.

Through simple robot demonstrations and interactive moments, participants will explore how easy it is to  project emotions, intentions, and even personalities onto the most basic of robots. This presentation is  a lighthearted dive into the very human habit of treating machines as though they are alive.

Please note: Library Collaboratory workshop instructors will not sign attendance forms for courses.

Register Now

Text Mining and Topic Modeling with Orange 3
Tuesday, January 27 | 5 – 7:00 PM | IN-PERSON

Struggling to efficiently review extensive research literature? Join this hands-on walkthrough workshop to learn how topic modeling and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) can streamline your literature review process with the help of the open-source tool, Orange 3.

In this peer-to-peer learning workshop, you will learn how guest instructor Zarah, a TMU Professional Communication graduate student, is actively using topic modelling in her own research.

Participants will learn how text analysis capabilities of Orange 3 can speed up and automate literature reviews by analyzing papers without getting bogged down in manual reviews.

Using a case study of “binge-watching,” participants will be shown how to use this tool to efficiently uncover the core themes and topics within large volumes of text and research data.

No technical or previous experience is required.

Bring a laptop with the software and add-ons installed, along with the CSV.
All materials linked below are required to follow along, and should be downloaded and installed prior to the workshop.

Please note: Library Collaboratory workshop instructors will not sign attendance forms for courses.

Register Now!

February

Creating and Printing a Lithophane
Tuesday, February 10 | 1- 2 PM | IN-PERSON

A lithophane is an object for the display of an image in 3D relief. Illuminated from behind, light passes through layers of translucent material, revealing the image in detail. Invented in the early 19th century, and originally made of porcelain or bone china, lithophanes are becoming popular again because of modern 3D printing techniques. 3D printing techniques permit far easier and faster methods for making lithophanes.

Participants will learn how to:

  1. prepare an image to be printed as a lithophane;
  2. 3D print the image;
  3. display a printed lithophane.

No prior experience is necessary.

Participants are required to bring their own laptop, and encouraged to choose an image to work with, in advance of the workshop. There are no constraints on resolution or image size. The printed lithophane will be between 10x10cm and 20x20cm. Participants may wish to choose an image that will look reasonable at that size.

Participants should also install Bambu Studio in advance. Bambu Studio is free and available at this link: https://bambulab.com/en/download/studio

Please note: Library Collaboratory workshop instructors will not sign attendance forms for courses.

Register Now

Text Mining and Topic Modeling with Orange 3
Tuesday, February 24 | 5 – 7:00 PM | IN-PERSON

Struggling to efficiently review extensive research literature? Join this hands-on walkthrough workshop to learn how topic modeling and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) can streamline your literature review process with the help of the open-source tool, Orange 3.

In this peer-to-peer learning workshop, you will learn how guest instructor Zarah, a TMU Professional Communication graduate student, is actively using topic modelling in her own research.

Participants will learn how text analysis capabilities of Orange 3 can speed up and automate literature reviews by analyzing papers without getting bogged down in manual reviews.

Using a case study of “binge-watching,” participants will be shown how to use this tool to efficiently uncover the core themes and topics within large volumes of text and research data.

No technical or previous experience is required.

Bring a laptop with the software and add-ons installed, along with the CSV.
All materials linked below are required to follow along, and should be downloaded and installed prior to the workshop.

Please note: Library Collaboratory workshop instructors will not sign attendance forms for courses.

Register Now

March

Interactive Media With Touch Designer
Tuesday, March 18 | 3 – 4:30 PM | IN-PERSON

This workshop focuses on interactive workflows of interfacing various input and output data within TouchDesigner. TouchDesigner is a node-based visual programming software for real-time interactive multimedia content.

Following an overview of the software through concepts like proceduralism and data flow, interactivity is explored with a variety of input devices such as peripherals, cameras, depth sensors, MIDI controllers, biofeedback sensors and microcontrollers.

Participants will learn how to interpret and process this data using node-based operations to craft dynamic and expressive experiences with a variety of audio-visual outputs.  Researchers can benefit from using TouchDesigner, by having access to its vast set of tools, which can apply to a variety of disciplines. In addition to being a real-time interactive 2D/3D design tool for visual media with a strong audio toolset, TouchDesigner can be used to interface and communicate with a variety of other applications, including but not limited to physical computing, robotics and lighting.

Participants are encouraged to have the software installed prior to the workshop, but assistance can be provided in case participants install it during the workshop. TouchDesigner and the components required for this workshop are listed below:

Register Now

Text Mining and Topic Modeling with Orange 3
Tuesday, March 27 | 5 – 7:00 PM | IN-PERSON

Participants will learn how text analysis capabilities of Orange 3 can speed up and automate literature reviews by analyzing papers without getting bogged down in manual reviews.

Using a case study of “binge-watching,” participants will be shown how to use this tool to efficiently uncover the core themes and topics within large volumes of text and research data.

No technical or previous experience is required.

Bring a laptop with the software and add-ons installed, along with the dataset and stopwords linked below:
** All materials should be downloaded and installed prior to the workshop.**

Please note: Library Collaboratory workshop instructors will not sign attendance forms for courses.

Register Now

April

Audacity 101: Audio Research Production and Post-Production for Grad Students
Friday, April 10 | 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM | IN-PERSON

Picking up where Part 1 leaves off, this workshop is designed for students who are about to go into production and/or post-production of a podcast or audio piece. Participants can expect to learn:

  1. Tips on how to best record voice and sound without breaking the bank
  2. How to edit raw recordings
  3. How to incorporate sounds and samples using Creative Commons-licensed sources
    • Learn to cite sounds and samples from other sources

This workshop will use Audacity, a free, open-source and powerful little multi-track audio editing piece of software. Audacity is available for a variety of operating systems, including Mac, Windows and Linux.
Find the right version of software at this link: https://www.audacityteam.org/

Audacity should be downloaded and installed prior to the workshop so that participants can more easily follow along.

Participants should expect to leave the workshop with a completed 2 – 5 minute audio piece of their making. If time allows, there may be a short discussion on where to “publish” podcasts for dissemination.

Please note: Library Collaboratory workshop instructors will not sign attendance forms for courses.

Registration Coming Soon