Exploring the frontiers of heritage visualisation

Professor Jonathan Roberts gives the first school “Engage” lecture and talks on heritage visualisation. The Engage lecture series, are a range of lectures on a range of Engineering, Computing and Design topics, organised by �鶹��'s IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Student Branch and School of Computer Science and Engineering.

In a captivating talk, Professor Jonathan Roberts speaks on his work on visualisation heritage monuments.

“Heritage sites are eroding away. In fact, many sites that are perilously close to the coast and we need to capture digitally and record them before they disappear into the sea. Our solution is to use photogrammetry.” Jonathan C. Roberts, Professor in Visualisation

Professor Roberts went on to say “We take lots of photographs of the monuments and sites, and then when we are back in the lab, we use algorithms to change the photographs into 3D models. The algorithms match pixels between photographs to build three-dimensional models of the monuments.” He went on to say ``One of our main projects, that I talked about, was . This project was a collaboration between archaeologists, local trusts and heritage organisations, and computing academics from �鶹��, Aberystwyth, and Manchester.”

The talk represents the first “Engage” lecture. The seminar series is organised by the new �鶹�� IEEE Student Branch, and hosted in the School of Computer Science, academics. The aim is to engage with people across the University and local community, and to provide a platform for researchers to explain their work. The seminars are focused on Engineering, Computing and Design.

Andrew Hall (chair of �鶹��'s IEEE Student Branch and society) said

“These lectures are aimed at students, staff and researchers across the school and university. The Engage lectures are designed to be digestible, bite-sized sessions lasting just 30-40 minutes! They take place on every Wednesday lunchtime at 12 noon, throughout the taught semester. We are looking for speakers for future weeks. Please contact myself or the Bethany Johnson (of the �鶹�� IEEE Student Branch) if you wish to give one, or are an alumnus, or external person, who could give one!”