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How they saved virtual reality at UMD

The North 103.3 | By Lisa Johnson
Published February 21, 2018 at 10:37 AM CST
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At one point, water in the hall outside the MMAD Lab was deep enough to have currents
UMD Viz Lab/MMAD Lab
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Offices on the left, Viz/MMAD Labs on the right and the VenDen at the end of the hallway, blocked off the morning after the flood
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The flood damaged the VenDen 17 days before the third anniversary of its renovation
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The Bohannon 90 lecture hall was closed for a day for cleanup

To paraphrase Coleridge: Water, water everywhere, / Nor any time to think.

Two weeks ago.  Quiet Wednesday night on the UMD campus. Almost 6pm.

Viz Lab/MMAD Lab (emerging visual technologies and techniques and Motion and Media Across Disciplines) director Lisa Fitzpatrick is still at work, helping a student pull a paper together.

Then, without warning ... water starts rushing into the lab - threatening a million or so dollars worth of equipment.
Tags
Public Affairs UMDNorthland Morning InterviewsUniversity of Minnesota DuluthFloodWater Main BreakLisa FitzpatrickViz LabMMAD Lab
Lisa Johnson
Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.
See stories by Lisa Johnson