Congratulations to Anthony Ventresque, Lero @ UCD, who has been awarded an NIIF grant from UCD. The New Interdisciplinary Initiatives Fund (NIIF) provides practical ‘seed’ support for new interdisciplinary projects and ideas that are challenging and ambitious. The title of the project is "Advancing Computational Archaeology: Onsite Digital Capture and Analysis of Megalithic"

Ireland is a rich source of megalithic symbols such as those found at Newgrange. Archaeologists use digital techniques to record images of these symbols in the field; however, these techniques can be prohibitively expensive as they often require specialist expertise. The aim of this project is to develop robust, affordable and user-friendly technologies to empower field archaeologists to conduct their own high quality digital capture and analysis. This project will involve collaboration between leading Computer Scientists and Archaeologists within UCD and across Europe working in areas such as Computer Vision, Data Analytics and Software Engineering; Neolithic Art, ritual, symbolism and Monumentality. The award will enable the development of a proof-of-concept technology, and support potentially groundbreaking advancements in field archaeological data capture using advanced image processing and data analysis techniques.