Our vision was to provide community supported, hightech, monitoring of the restoration of the San Dieguito River Park Marsh, a natural recreation and wildlife observation park in the great San Diego, California area. Land managers often lack vital long term, large scale data sets that allow them to make informed decisions. We utilized drone imagery through aerial photogrammetry to create high resolution maps, models, and conservation materials for the marsh, while establishing citizen science infrastructure to sustain a continuous data collection effort. To appeal to the local community we designed a crash course in ecological theory, conservation and restoration, and digital technology and its applications. As part of this learning period, we invited local drone users and local high school interns, showing them the San Dieguito Marsh and discussed the flora and fauna, as well as physical factors that may be affecting the local biology. Additionally we talk them how to operate the drones – flying transects, collecting data, and proofing data, for ecological use. Lastly, we taught them how to run the Pix4D software that would be used for our project. Our volunteers now not only have a stronger appreciation for their local wetlands, but can actively participate in its conservation.

I response to the excessive heritage destruction throughout 2016 I travelled to Beirut, Lebanon to train groups from the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums. Participants were an amazing collection of men and women that would employ the reality capture techniques learned in the workshop across Syria to preserve their endangered cultural heritage. Across 3 work shops we covered terrestrial laser scanning, photogrammetry, panoramic photography, and metadata organization. While the initial workshop focused on capturing the imagery and laser data, the latter workshops focused on processing. The DGAM participants were instructed in a suite of twelve software programs that took the from RAW data to scaled models, architectural drawing, and interactive animations. Since the culmination of the last workshop in January of 2017, the team has documented six sites within Damascus and two in Aleppo.

In 2013 I travelled to the unrecognized country of Somaliland, within southern Somalia. In partnership with Horn Heritage, I led a workshop in new 3D capture technologies at 6 Neolithic rock art sites in the hinterlands surrounding Hargeisa, including Laas Geel. Over two weeks we covered capture technologies such as terrestrial laser scanning, inferred scanning, and panoramic photography. The second portion of the workshop covered data processing and the creation of conservation outputs. By the end of the workshop Horn Heritage had an equipment and capacity level unequalled within the country.

In the summer of 2015 I traveled to Lahore, Pakistan to hold an intensive workshop in 3D reality capture for the Lahore University of Management Sciences Computer Science department,funded by USAid. Students and staff from 10 different organizations including Mehran University (MUET) in Sindh, Islamia University of Bahawalpur, National College of Arts in Punjab and representatives of the Walled City Lahore Authority and Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan (AKCSP) had joined the project. In two weeks of intense training we were able to train over seventy students in terrestrial laser scanning, panoramic photography, and all the processing associated with the two forms of data capture. We also went through conservation deliverable creation like 3D modeling, CAD, meshing, and interactive outputs like animations and game environments. Since the projects inauguration the team has continued on to document seven more sites across pakistan.

Following the 2016 earthquake centered in the historic Bagan valley, I travelled to Bagan, Myanmar in partnership with UNESCO and funded my National Geographic. In the following two weeks I worked with the local Department of Archaeology to document the most at risk temples in an effort to prepare them for physical conservation. I worked with six professionals from the Department of Archaeology, four architecture students from the University of Mandalay, and five engineers from the Aeronautical Institute of Mandalay, and three professionals from the Department of Architecture of Rangoon. Across nine sites we covered terrestrial laser scanning, photogrammetry, UAV photogrammetry, panoramic photography, and metadata organization. The last portion of the workshop covered a suite of software programs that took them from RAW data to scaled models, architectural drawing, and elevations.

As part of my National Geographic Young Explorers Grant I provided a workshop to professors and graduate students from the Univeristy of Haifa, Jeruselem University and the Department of Maritime Antiquities. During this workshop, participants were trained to documents sites with terrestrial LiDAR, underwater LiDAR, and photogrammetry. After the data was collected, I instructed a selection of the participants to process the data into one complete dataset using a suite of software packages.

In the snowy winter of 2015, I traveled to Armenia to work with the amazing students of TUMO on heritage documentation and the use of 3D capture technologies. For the project, we chose to use Geghard Monestary for our case study.Over the next three days, the students documented the site with over one hundred and twenty LiDAR scans, over one thousand photos, and fifty high detail structured light scans of the intricately carved reliefs. Regardless of language barriers, new technology, tourist crowds, and snow, the students’ enthusiasm and interest never floundered. This includes: pointcloud registration in Autodesk Recap and Faro Scene, point cloud editing and 3D animations in Bently Pointools, architectural drawings in AutoCAD, panorama virtual tour creation in PTGui, 3D modeling in 3Ds Max, video editing in Adobe Premiere, and general data analysis.

During a documentation project in Mexico City in 2016, we expanded the scope of our work at Templo Mayor to encompass training staff the the Museo del Templo Mayor. We went over basics of terrestrial laser scanning and structured light scanning. With this they can re-fabricate artifacts throughout the museum and make reproductions for those who need textile engagement, such as the blind community.

With the skills learned in our first workshop with the DGAM as foundation, I lead two more workshops spaced out over a year to ensure a full understanding of the process and provide additional methodologies. In both of the following fourteen day trainings participants were taught to use the data they had collected for a larger variety of conservation outputs, learn new reality capture techniques, and get more hands on experience with oversight.