SYN100: Digitally Documenting Climatic Change

Instructor: Neil Smith
Lecture: T/Th 11:00 am - 12:20 pm

Dr. Smith’s research over the past fifteen years has been in computational cultural heritage and archaeology. Prior to his current position as Research Scientist at the Visual Computing Center in KAUST, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He played a critical role in developing novel software and hardware applications for archaeology and cultural heritage through Calit2’s Center of Interdisciplinary Science of Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3). Since 1999, Dr. Smith has been involved in the integration of geographic information systems (GIS), database management systems (DBMS) and remote sensing for Cyber-Archaeology. During his doctoral research he developed the Pottery Informatics Query Database which sorts and types ceramic profiles objectively using mathematical representations. A key aspect of this research was the development of 3D scanning techniques for properly scanning thousands of ceramic vessels efficiently. As an archaeologist he has extensive field experience as a supervisor and excavation director in Southern Jordan. From 2009- 2011 he field commissioned and directed the first UCSD CISA3 Ash-Showbak Cyber-Archaeology research laboratory in Jordan. This is a state-of-the-art portable laboratory for conducting cyber-based archaeological research (software development, geographic information systems, scientific visualization, and database management) in Jordan. During this period both ArchField (field recording technique integrating Total Stations and SfM) and ArtifactVis2 (a 3D stereoscopic scientific visualization tool for archaeologists) were first developed.

Currently, Dr. Smith is the Co-Director of the Center for Cyber-Archaeology and Sustainability at the Qualcomm Institute UC San Diego. His research interests focus on the merging of computational science with a variety of domain driven research topics including disciplines such as archaeology, cultural heritage, digital humanities, geophysics, marine science, and urban reconstruction. Current research has focused on novel computer vision solutions that incorporate geographic information systems, scientific visualization, informatics, and simulation. Recent research at VCC has led to the development of non-invasive remote sensing techniques (e.g. SfM, LiDAR) including aerial based scanning techniques using unmanned multi-rotor copters mounted with imaging sensors.

Dr. Smith has co-founded a KSA based company called FalconViz, which provides aerial scanning and mapping services to the MENA region using drones. Since 2014, FalconViz has been involved in the scanning of all three UNESCO cultural heritage sites (Madain Saleh, Ad-diriya, and Al Balad Jeddah). Most recent work has involved placing these historic sites in VR experiences