REU Supplement: Mid-Scale RI-1 (M1:IP) EduceLab - Infrastructure for Next-Generation Heritage Science

Request for REU Supplement: Award 2131940 Mid-scale RI-1 (M1:IP) EduceLab - Infrastructure for Next-Generation Heritage Science Summary of Proposed Work We request funds for 8 undergraduate students to continue the EduceLab preparation for commissioning by engaging in field and laboratory work now that the renovated space is available for EduceLab to occupy as a fully functional Heritage Science user facility. EduceLab consists of four operational clusters – BENCH, MOBILE, FLEX, and CYBER – each of which will provide unique scientific and technical capabilities for studies in Heritage Science. Students will participate in activities designed to test the usage, integration, and synergy of the four clusters under development. MOBILE (1 Student) Workflow Development The student will work with Co-I Bailey to develop the workflow required to merge magnetometer, ground penetrating radar, lidar and photogrammetry surveys of the same area to produce geo-referenced imagery characterizing the surface and subsurface topography of an area of interest. These data sets will be acquired using fixed wing and rotorcraft uncrewed aerial vehicles, conducting surveys using different instruments which each use proprietary software to process data for the user. The objective of the work will be to identify tools and resources which can be used to integrate these disparate data types into a single navigable data set which can be used to connect and identify signatures produced by features of interest. In addition, students will build initial datasets for use in training other personnel within Educe Lab. This will include personnel of different backgrounds ranging from archaeology and anthropology to computer science and engineering. BENCH (2 Students) Equipment Integration and Data Synthesis Students will engage in the development of additional capabilities that leverage recently acquired instrumentation within the BENCH cluster of EduceLab. Both students will focus on the complementarity of available techniques within the BENCH cluster as applied to a variety of samples between the projects. These studies will help build staff and students’ facility with instrumentation and help build a roadmap for future research projects. These projects build off of work begun by REU students in previous years. The first student will use Educe Lab BENCH’s recently acquired suite of equipment to study limonite stone tools from around the region. These tools were produced by prehistoric native peoples and demonstrate potential evidence of rudimentary metallurgy techniques. The fabrication techniques used to produce these artifacts will be studied via optical and electron microscopic imaging. Composition will be studied EDS and XRF techniques. Additionally, X-ray diffraction equipment will be used to probe crystal structure of the mixed iron oxide/iron hydroxide ore. Molecular spectroscopy equipment will also investigate the chemical state of the material in cross- section to study potential heat treatments of the raw materials to improve material properties. Micro-CT may be applied to test variations in the tool’s material density. Unmodified limonite will be sourced from the region and experimental archaeological techniques applied to study possible production routes of these artifacts. In-lab annealing procedures will be carried out to study chemical and physical transformation of the ore under processing. The second student will focus on the study of ceramic materials sourced from the Grand Canyon National Park area in conjunction with Anthropology Professor Mink. This project will focus on studying provenance of these ceramics among the various pottery traditions in the Grand Canyon region primarily through compositional analysis using pXRF Results will be compared with previously acquired compositional data at another university. Some WD-XRF study using EMC equipment may also be required for further comparison. Results will be compared to results from fired daub samples taken from structures in the park to study potential correlations between clay and mud materials used for building and similar materials used for pottery production. In addition to this traditional provenance sourcing technique, XRF mapping of pottery cross-sections will be applied separate clay matrix composition from temper influence supported by optical and electron imaging. Distribution and size of temper and pores within the ceramics may also be studied using micro-CT techniques for 3-D scanning and reconstruction. Fingerprinting of materials using molecular spectroscopy techniques will also be tested. BENCH+MOBILE+CYBER (2 Students) Inter-Cluster Integration Students will engage in field and laboratory work that will test integration of mid-scale infrastructure instrumentation and software within the BENCH, MOBILE, and CYBER clusters of EduceLab. The summer research program will comprise an archaeological survey field season at the Butts Hill Fort (Portsmouth, RI), an American Revolutionary War site listed in on the National Register of Historic Places and on the National Historic Trail of the National Park Service, as well as cataloguing, analysis, and interpretation of formerly recovered cultural heritage items from the colonial-era Historic Spring Site (Newport, RI). Research conducted at these sites provides an unprecedented test case to continue testing and experimenting with the integration of EduceLab clusters within the context of recovering and analyzing the material record of unique historical sites. The project is a collaboration between the University of Kentucky and Stonehill College (Easton, MA), with support from the Battle of Rhode Island Association, the Church Community Housing Corporation (Newport, RI), the Newport Historical Society, and the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission. The REU field and laboratory summer project will operate under a field school organized by Stonehill College by Dr. Alexandra Uhl (former Visiting Scholar with EduceLab Co-PI Reyes- Centeno) and Field Director James Keppeler (UK Doctoral Candidate under the direction of Reyes-Centeno). All field school student members will be housed at Stonehill College dormitories. Data collected will serve to continue testing the synergy of three of the four clusters being developed at EduceLab, including BENCH, MOBILE, and CYBER. Research conducted will provide content for public education displays on-line and on-site, both which are within an EPSCoR jurisdiction (Rhode Island). The experience will provide students with skill sets that are transferable to careers in a wide range of areas. During the summer season, one student will focus on field surveys and the application of site-wide optical 3D scanning, photogrammetry, and/or ground-penetrating radar through MOBILE instrumentation at the Butts Hill Fort site. During the academic year, the student will become proficient in the use of BENCH image processing software and experiment with algorithms and parameters that maximize renderings for inspection and metrical analysis. The second student will provide on-site curation support of field-retrieved materials during the Summer 2022 season and select a sample of artifacts for further analysis in BENCH during the academic year. The student will become proficient in the analysis of cultural heritage materials, focusing on the application of artifact-scale optical 3D scanning and on-line visualization and public dissemination. The student will test and experiment with capabilities for data integration and data sharing with EduceLab’s CYBER cluster and build on the work of the Summer 2022 EduceLab NSF-REU alumna. FLEX (4 Students) System Development Students will assist PI Seales with the development of the FLEX micro-CT and non-radioactive imaging environments onsite at EduceLab. One student will help determine desired specifications of the X-ray sensor-source-detector- manipulator setup for the micro-CT hutch. Tasks will also include equipment testing, data collection, and integration of the micro-CT equipment and software system for tomographic reconstruction with the other clusters, CYBER in particular. Student 2 will manage the setup of the spectral photography and photogrammetry environment, which is returning from a field deployment in Italy. Tasks will include developing protocols for the controlled lighting environment, identifying desired locations of cameras for optimal image quality, installation and testing of hardware, establishing working volumes, and identifying imaging constraints. The third student will assist with the installation of various data visualization tools mapping onto the deployed visualization hardware, including testing and deploying the visualization system and integrating with the other EduceLab clusters. The fourth student will focus on the flow of data from the FLEX environment through the CYBER infrastructure.