Image Note: In the left panel, Naomi Tack is defending her dissertation. In the right panel, Naomi stands with her iHARP mentors, (left to right: Dr. Becca Williams, Naomi Tack, and Dr. Don Engel).

Photo to the left: Pictured is Tolulope Ale defending his proposal.
Photo to the right: Pictured is Tolulope Ale standing with his committee. In the photo: Left of screen Left to Right: Dr. Vandana Janeja, Tolulope Ale
On Screen Top Right: Dr. Jianwu Wang, Bottom Left: Dr. Sudip Chakraborty, Bottom Right: Dr. Nicole-Jeanne Schegel
Right of Screen: Dr. Patti Ordóñez

Tolulope Ale, an iHARP Research Assistant, was a planning committee member for the 8th Annual Earth Day Symposium and UMBC's first-ever Earth Month. UMBC collaborated with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to organize 18 events throughout April.

The Earth Month activities concluded with the 8th Annual Earth Day Symposium on April 29th. The symposium covered various topics, including measuring the Earth system, theoretical studies, model forecasts and predictions, educational outreach, and community engagement. It featured presentations from esteemed speakers and included a poster session where graduate and undergraduate students shared their environmental research. 

iHARP congratulates and thanks Tolulope for contributing to UMBC's Earth Day Symposium and Earth Month celebrations!

To learn more about UMBC Earth Day and Earth Month please visit: 
https://sustainability.umbc.edu/home/earth-month/

To read the UMBC article featuring UMBC Earth Month please visit:
https://umbc.edu/stories/8th-annual-earth-day-symposium/

To learn more about the research being conducted at iHARP research center, or if you are interested in Polar and Data research, please visit: 
https://iharp.umbc.edu/

Photo Credit: Planning committee members for the Earth Day Symposium and other Earth Day events with President Valerie Sheares Ashby. Left to right: Sharad Pandey, Adeleke Segun Ademakinwa, Kamal Aryal, Tony La Luna, Roshan Mishra, Rhonda Plofkin, Valerie Sheares Ashby, Tolulope Ale, Erin Hammer, and Maurice Roots. (Image by Zhibo Zhang)

Abstract

Polar science studies many aspects of the north and south poles, and glaciers. In order to better understand the internal structure of ice sheets and how they are impacted by climate change, ice penetrating radar is used. This radar captures the layers inside the ice sheet which can then be used to understand layer behavior and flow inside the glacier. Layers can be picked out of these radargrams and then visualized to give an indication of the internal topology. We explore two areas in which these radargrams are used, namely analysis of machine-picked layers and immersive visualization of these layers. Analysis of machine picked layers is achieved through the development of quality metrics which are independent of number of layers. We present these metrics and analysis of their utility. Immersion is accomplished through WebXR, inspired by recent research in both polar science and other scientific fields. We present the system, its controls and limitations, and evaluations to be performed on this system. 

Committee Members

Professor Don Engel (Co-chair), Professor Rebecca Williams (Co-chair), Professor Tejas Gokhale

Image Note: In the left panel, Naomi Tack is defending her dissertation. In the right panel, Naomi stands with her iHARP mentors, (left to right: Dr. Becca Williams, Naomi Tack, and Dr. Don Engel).