Day 2 – More tools in the toolbox

What a day.. Dr. Lipo, of “The Statues that Walked” fame, gave an excellent lecture that clarified many misconceptions that people have about science, scientific method and common sense. He was clear to point out the usefulness of common sense and science, but clear about how not to confuse the two. I am definitely still digesting the lecture, but it certainly gave me plenty of food-for-thought.

Many new concepts were introduced, too numerous to list, but I particularly liked the idea of phenomenological vs. ideational. I think it is common that because we have given a name to most things that we then believe those things are fixed and permanent (the example Dr. Lipo gave was a dog), but in reality the thing (dog) is only what we have defined as a dog “in this slice of biological time.” I thought about my own dog, who does not use our language to classify things, so he may understand this concept better. Because to him, another dog is just the idea that makes up what we know of a dog, comprised what he sees, smells, etc…

The lecture definitely stimulated interest and conversation among the students.  Pertaining to the word science, I am curious to find out about how scientific method has been, and can be, applied to answering archaeological questions.

Then to shift gears, Professor Lee delivered an excellent lecture on remote sensing that gave an overview of its major concepts. Even though I have taken remote sensing, this lecture was still very interesting because it helped solidify some of the things I have already learned. Plus, it is always nice to hear another professor’s iteration of the same concepts. Dr. Lee then introduced us to many of the remote sensors we will be using “hands on,” such as the hexacopter, Gatewing, GoPro, Ricoh and others. We also discussed the different satellite platforms and the strengths and weaknesses of them all. I walked away with a much deeper understanding of remote sensing and the various types of resolution. It will be great to see the UAV’s in action this week and throughout the program, especially some of the modifications made by Dr. Lipo and others.

Gatewing X100

After the lectures, we heard several demos that gave us a basic understanding of how to use the ERDAS software for digital image processing. We got to take a 100-year-old map of O’ahu, Hawaii and georectify it with a current satellite image. The implications of using remote sensing seem to be endless!

Historic map of Oahu overlaying a modern-day satellite image of the same location

After a day of intense learning, some of the group had pizza, while others gorged on sushi. We continue to get along famously and are having a great time in and out of the classroom. Can’t wait for  day three, where we will fly some of the UAV’s.