The Qualcomm Institute and its Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) will provide exciting summer research opportunities for Aliya Hoff and other undergraduates interested in the study and safeguarding of cultural heritage.
CISA3 Researchers Ashley M. Richter, Vid Petrovic, David Vanoni, and John Mangan presented on the utility of developing visualization methodologies for data collection and dissemination and the social meanings of encountering the past as a layer of the present, thereby becoming part of the history of the space. Their paper was presented to the 2013 Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference at the University of Chicago, and the University of Southampton in the UK. The paper was entitled "Expanding Layered Realities: Cognitive Annotated Imaging Systems for Accurate Archaeological Visualizations and Augmentations of Space and Time in 3D Immersive Virtual and Physical for Collaborative Research and Public Dissemination." The presentation was part of a session entitled Seeing, Thinking, Doing: Visualization as Archaeological Research, organized by Sara Perry of the University of York and Catriona Cooper of the University of Southampton. It was organized via teleconference so that speakers at Chicago, Southampton, and UC San Diego could present from within their own visualization systems to further emphasize the potential of collaborative visualization with distant colleagues.
CISA3 was visited by his Royal Highness Prince Mired Raad Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan. CISA3 researchers and IEEE Trainees presented their latest work on Cyber-Archaeology in Jordan to his highness as part of his Roads for Success tour of the UCSD campus.
CISA3 Researcher David Vanoni visited San Diego's Kearny High School of Media and Design to engage junior and senior students in learning computer science, discussing with them his own path as a computer scientist and researcher with CISA3, where he applies his technical knowledge to visualizing and experiencing cultural heritage objects through his augmented-reality tablet application, ARtifact.
Five CISA3 Undergraduate Research Interns (CURIs) presented their projects at the 26th Annual UCSD Undergraduate Research Conference (URC) at the UCSD Faculty Club (presented by Academic Enrichment Programs in association with the Experiential Learning Cluster, Student Affairs, and the Office of Research Affairs). In the URC session on Artifacts & Technology, Cognitive Science CURIs James M. Darling and Shelby Cohantz presented on Creating Cognitively Minded User Interfaces for 3D and Augmented Reality Visualizations of Cultural Heritage Spaces and Information. Lead CURI, anthropology undergraduate Aliya Hoff, presented on Diagnostic Visualization Systems and Methodologies for Underwater Archaeology. And anthropology undergraduate Kat Huggins presented her Faculty Mentorship research project entitled "Breaking the Ingot out of the Mold: A Practice Approach to Technological Ceramics." In the URC Session on Materials and NanoEngineering, Chemistry CURI Lillian Wakefield presented on "X-Ray Fluorescence in Cultural Heritage Diagnostics." CURIs Aliya Hoff and Lillian Wakefield have also recently been awarded spots in the coveted Qualcomm Institute/Calit2 Summer Scholars program to pursue their respective research. Aliya will be working with Scripps Institution of Oceanography underwater visualist and professor Jules Jaffe and his team to take CISA3's diagnostic imaging methodologies underwater. Lilli will be working with Professor Maurizio Seracini and his Ph.D. student Samantha Stout on elemental analyses of cultural heritage artifacts.
IGERT Trainee and Archaeological Anthropology Ph.D. candidate Ashley M. Richter has won an Interdisciplinary Research Award from UC San Diego's Office of Graduate Studies and Graduate Student Association.
Great news: Christine Wittich, a grad student from Structural Engineering who is part of CISA3's NSF IGERT program in cultural heritage diagnostics, has won an award from the Science & Engineering Library at UCSD. She received one of the two awards given by S&E Library at the Jacobs School of Engineering's annual ResearchExpo, which took place April 18. Christine's prize-winning poster on "Shake Table Testing of Stiff Model Statue Structures Considering Mass Eccentricity" will be displayed in the library through the summer. The award for "Best Use of the Literature" was selected from among more than 200 posters on display at ResearchExpo.
On March 13, IGERT Trainees David Vanoni, Ashley Richter and Vid Petrovic were among the CISA3 personnel who demonstrated cultural-heritage technologies to attendees from the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), which held its annual meeting at Calit2 UCSD. Click on the link to view a photo gallery on Flickr depicting one of the demos for small groups from CENIC.
UCSD prof. Jules Jaffe, a CISA3-affiliated faculty member in the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is the founding Editor-in-Chief of a new journal, Methods in Oceanography. The publisher, Elsevier, says the journal will focus on new methodology of oceanographic research. According to Jaffe, the journal will "also plan to publish so-called career narratives, authored by leading figures in oceanic methodology."
The findings of the 2012 Petra Cyber-Archaeology Cultural Conservation Expedition, led by CISA3 associate director Tom Levy, are included in a new paper in the March issue of the journal Antiquity. Five IGERT Trainees co-authored the article.
During the recent fall and winter months, CISA3 associate director Tom Levy and his team of archaeologists and computer scientists took their high-tech roadshow from Jordan to Saudi Arabia and back again, conducting field work for both UC San Diego and KAUST in regions of the ancient Holy Land and Petra, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Jordan.
IGERT Trainees got a closeup look at the challenges of underwater archaeology when CISA2 staged its first underwater archaeology workshop February 4-7. University of Southampton Prof. Jon Adams (above center), a maritime archaeologist; Justin Dix, a senior lecturer in geophysics and geoarchaeology; Graeme Earl, senior lecturer in archaeology; and Filippo Fazi, a lecturer in the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, all joined Falko Kuester, Tom Levy, Jules Jaffe, Tom DeFanti, Peter Otto, and Dominique Rissolo, as well as IGERT students, for a series of working meetings to talk about how to broaden CISA3’s terrestrial cultural heritage diagnostic approach and methodologies to maritime applications. Some of the outcomes included plans to install a CAVE environment at the University of Southampton for collaborative visualization; submission of joint proposals; and participation in each other’s field expeditions.
In January, CISA3’s Tom Levy headlined a meeting on cyber-archaeology for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. UCSD Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla (above right) welcomed the American Academy members to the campus, before Charles Stanish introduced Levy. Stanish directs UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Levy’s keynote talk is available for viewing ondemand at http://bit.ly/15CGf6d. His talk was followed by tours of CISA3 labs and demos by IGERT graduate students (below right and left). See photo gallery at http://bit.ly/X3sUhO.
Held every four years, the 7th World Archaeological Congress (WAC-7) took place January 13-18 2013 at a palatial convention center at the Dead Sea in Jordan, featuring more than 800 researchers from roughly 70 different countries. CISA3’s work on Cultural Heritage Diagnostics, Engineering, and Analytics -- applied to Cyber-Archaeology -- was well-represented at the meeting. Over the course of two days, CISA3 Associate Director Tom Levy and longtime collaborator Mohammad Najjar co-chaired a session on “Deep-time perspectives on culture change in Jordan: Cyber-archaeology, production and exchange.” Levy led off the series of talks with a presentation on Jordan as a model for world cultural heritage research and conservation. He noted that since 1999, UC San Diego and Jordan’s Department of Antiquities decided to ‘go digital’ and abandoned paper recording methods in their work in the Faynan copper ore district of southern Jordan. “Beginning in 2010, with the help of a five-year National Science Foundation IGERT grant, interdisciplinary students have been involved with faculty using UCSD field research as a testbed for cyber-archaeology,” said Levy, whose overview presented an “integrated system that includes data capture, storage, analytical frameworks, scientific visualization, and cyberinfrastructures for onsite and global data sharing.” Levy and IGERT Trainee Matthew Vincent delivered a paper, “From the copper mines to the data mines: OpenDig and the data avalanche in southern Jordan.” OpenDig is an in-field data acquisition tool for the descriptive metadata of field archaeology -- providing new ways of accessing and organizing the data through the use of NoSQL databases that allow for “seamless replication and easy access through standard HTTP protocols.” On Day Two, IGERT Trainee Ian W.N. Jones talked about “Technological narratives, nrand and small: Where do we currently stand?” Fellow IGERT Trainees David Vanoni and Vid Petrovic, working with CISA3 director Falko Kuester, presented papers on “ARtifact in Jordan: Augmented reality for on-site scientific visualization and digital tourism,” and on “Capturing and visualizing excavations in 3D: Lessons from fieldwork in Jordan,” referring to case studies carried out with Ashley Richter from excavations in Faynan and Petra. The World Heritage Site at Petra was also the subject of a paper by IGERT Trainee Matthew Howland, Matt Vincent, Tom Levy and Christopher Tuttle (the latter from the American Center of Oriental Research). Their topic: “Ballooning in Petra: Utilizing low-altitude aerial photography and structure-from-motion for archaeological conservation.”
The Biblical Archaeology Society has published an e-book co-authored by CISA3 associate director Tom Levy and colleagues.
