Ongoing Research Projects

Major Qualifying Projects

All of the following projects are directed and advised by Prof. Fabio Carrera of the Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division in collaboration with colleagues from many other departments on campus.

MONITORING BOAT TRAFFIC and CONTROLLING WAKE DAMAGE IN VENICE

Boat traffic is one of the main problems in Venice, Italy. In particular, Moto Ondoso (wake damage) produced by motorized boats is contributing to the gradual dismantling of the walls of dwellings, palaces and churches that line the inner waterways. After years of WPI contributions based on manual traffic counts and other ad-hoc studies, we are now developing technologies that will enable the city to monitor traffic and wake levels on a more continuous basis. We have three projects focusing o this problem at this time.

v One team is creating an Ultrasound Boat Monitoring System that will be able to count boats passing by the instrument, detect their velocity and direction of motion, measure the length of the boat and the shape of the hull and record the height and the normal pressure of the wake that the boat generated, as well as the noise produced by the watercraft (ECE dept., with Prof. Pedersen).

v Another team is developing a system for the Mapping of Turbulent Discharges released by motorboats when making sudden maneuvers in the inner canals of Venice. Once the prototype is developed, about a dozen systems will be installed on a variety of types of boats (taxis, cargo boats, private boats, etc.) and run for at least one year to develop a map of the “hot spots” where energy is prevalently discharged. This will enable a detailed analysis of the root causes for these highly destructive practices and thus will enable us to propose local as well as systemic remedies (ECE dept., Prof. Looft, and CS dept., Prof. Ciaraldi).

v A third project is looking at a promising pair of technologies that we have joined together in a highly promising package. Several researchers have established the ability to produce electrical currents from sewage sludge and sediment, through what are called microbial fuel cells. Separately, the Venice Project Center has already experimented with the process of accelerated accretion, which uses a form of electrolysis to produce reinforced concrete through the application of electrical charges to metal cathode and anodes in sea water which accelerate the deposition of calcium carbonate to create a thick, hard layer. This research projects will determine the feasibility of combining the two processes to arrive at the Protection of Canal Walls and Barene through Auto-Accretion Processes (CM with Prof. DiBiasio, and BBT with Prof. Miller).

TRANSCRIBING ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS

The concept is to make transcription of ancient manuscripts more efficient for the end user by creating a software tool to aid in the transcription of ancient manuscripts after they are digitized into a visible-light, infrared and/or ultraviolet image. In the past, we have already successfully developed a functioning an Infrared Scanner.

v Today, a research team from WPI’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department is developing a retrofit for an Ultraviolet Scanner that will read through parchment molds (with Prof. Pedersen).

v Meanwhile a team of students from the Computer Science department (with Prof. Selkow) is working on the software tool that will facilitate the production of transcriptions for scholars. The Transcription Assistant will be able to gradually learn handwriting and thus will be able to help the transcriber when difficult passages are encountered.

Eventually, we foresee the creation of a web-based system that archives all over the world will adopt to disseminate manuscript images (scanned under visible light, IR and UV), together with manuscript transcriptions to facilitate the development of higher and higher quality transcriptions and thus creating a virtuous, emergent cycle that will foster the accelerated production of historical scholarship all around the world.