Geology

Since 2013, freelance artist Laurie Hughes ’79 has been thinking small, very small.

Over the past year, she has been building her tiny house: a 6 ½-by-14-foot home and studio built on a towable trailer. For the former Allegheny geology student, this micro, movable home reduces her impact on the environment and offers liberating practicality.

Without the commitment of a mortgage and laborious maintenance of a traditional home, Hughes is free to explore, visit friends, and spend more time focusing on her artwork, which she will sell along her travels in her adorable abode.

Hughes has been detailing her experience on her blog, LHGrowingatinyhouseonwheels.blogspot.com, sharing photos and memories of the building process, which has become something of a community affair: “Numerous friends and acquaintances have helped me in various ways with my project,” she said, mentioning that friends have donated everything from insulation to windows to their company and talents.

“My good friend Kyle Meadows has been the homebuilder extraordinaire on the project, and his wife, a blacksmith, created a gorgeous hammered copper shower pan for me,” said Hughes. “Although I have only had a handful of group workdays, my experience of building the house is definitely one of community. Not only did my father and my mother each, through their estates, provide me with some of the wherewithal to help me finance the project, but countless friends, acquaintances, and perfect strangers have had their ears bent for advice, information, ideas and favors.”

The result of this community effort is Laurie’s 138-square-foot home and studio, fully wired with basic amenities, and complete with glass display cases and an empty six-foot tall wall to showcase her artwork. Now, with the exterior of the house complete, Hughes and her team are beginning to install repurposed furniture and cabinets to finish the interior.

Before moving in, Hughes also must face the daunting chore of giving away or getting rid of all items that would create clutter in the new house. “My process of minimizing has been slow; I am virtually certain my tiny house will be finished before my apartment is empty!” Hughes admits.

Her collection of art books and some of her artwork will be housed with various friends and she plans to rotate art supplies in and out of a storage unit in Covington, Ky., though the thoughtfully designed spaces within her home will store all of the necessities that complete her mobile home and studio. There is storage for supplies hidden in and above the window seat, the design of the kitchen allows for silk dyeing, even the bathroom accommodates her artistry: the compostable toilet unit can be moved to make way for a pottery wheel.

Hughes and her cat, Minnie, are planning to hit the open road in their tiny house in the coming months, visiting friends, family, and Gators on a loop through Kentucky and Ohio, upstate New York, western Massachusetts, Connecticut, and through Pennsylvania (with a hopeful stop in Meadville), all with the peace of mind that, “I see my tiny house as a nest, really, providing me with essential shelter and workspace. With my tiny house, barring catastrophe, I will always have somewhere to call my own.”

More about Hughes’ tiny house can be found on her blog along with photos of the construction progress and the adventures along the way.

— Elizabeth Donaldson ’15 

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Allegheny College’s newest piece of technology offers students a chance to roll up their sleeves and act like a kid again — a combination of sands and smarts. This augmented reality sandbox, located in the basement of Alden Hall, arrived in late January and creates three-dimensional topographical maps based on the way students physically shape the sand.

Read more.

Tyler Pecyna is the fact-checker for Pittsburgh Magazine. This article appeared in Pittsburgh Magazine’s Great Minds newsletter.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Allegheny College’s newest piece of technology offers students a chance to roll up their sleeves and act like a kid again — a combination of sands and smarts. This augmented reality sandbox, located in the basement of Alden Hall, arrived in late January and creates three-dimensional topographical maps based on the way students physically shape the sand.

Read more.

Tyler Pecyna is the fact-checker for Pittsburgh Magazine. This article appeared in Pittsburgh Magazine’s Great Minds newsletter.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Katherine Heckman, ’07, is an exemplary model of what she believes alumni ought to represent: she spends time with students in the geology department, goes on field trips and offers the occasional internship connection; she volunteers with the Timothy Alden Council Executive Committee, a group involved with financial opportunities for Allegheny students, and she cares deeply about the value of her degree from Allegheny College.

In short, she believes that a healthy relationship between alumni and the alma mater constitutes a degree of reciprocity. She hopes to see this relationship strengthen particularly between Allegheny College and young alumni.

“If we can show alumni that they are an important part of a student’s experience, the more they will think of Allegheny when they are able to give financial contributions,” said Heckman. “My personal goal is to try to establish this feedback loop: when a student receives guidance, their next responsibility is to give guidance.”

Read the full story.

Tyler Stigall is a contributing writer for The Campus.

Photo: Katherine Heckman (front right) studies bedforms with other geology classmates during her junior year at Allegheny. Photo by Katherine Heckman.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Katherine Heckman, ’07, is an exemplary model of what she believes alumni ought to represent: she spends time with students in the geology department, goes on field trips and offers the occasional internship connection; she volunteers with the Timothy Alden Council Executive Committee, a group involved with financial opportunities for Allegheny students, and she cares deeply about the value of her degree from Allegheny College.

In short, she believes that a healthy relationship between alumni and the alma mater constitutes a degree of reciprocity. She hopes to see this relationship strengthen particularly between Allegheny College and young alumni.

“If we can show alumni that they are an important part of a student’s experience, the more they will think of Allegheny when they are able to give financial contributions,” said Heckman. “My personal goal is to try to establish this feedback loop: when a student receives guidance, their next responsibility is to give guidance.”

Read the full story.

Tyler Stigall is a contributing writer for The Campus.

Photo: Katherine Heckman (front right) studies bedforms with other geology classmates during her junior year at Allegheny. Photo by Katherine Heckman.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Allegheny senior Kristy Garcia rolled up her sleeves and dug right into the sandbox, piling up clean, white sand to form a mountain.

Senior David Olson joined in as well, using his fingers to dig a trench at the base of the mountain.

As they watched the colors change from deep reds and oranges to bright greens to blues, they braced themselves for the fun part – placing their hand over the camera overlooking the sandbox to “make it rain.”

“That is so cool!” the wide-eyed environmental science majors said in unison as virtual rain washed over the mountain and sloshed into the trench.

It’s a common reaction when someone first sees Allegheny’s newest piece of technology, the augmented reality (AR) sandbox, in the basement of Alden Hall.

The AR sandbox, which arrived at Allegheny in January, combines the playfulness of a child’s sandbox with advanced technology to create a learning tool that can be used by students of all ages. When students shape the sand, a Microsoft Kinect 3-D camera and a projector with powerful software detect the movement and display a three-dimensional topographic and colored elevation map in real time.

According to Sam Reese, lab technician for the geology and environmental science departments, unlike street maps, topographic maps display 3-D characteristics of an area using lines, called contours, to represent elevation above or below sea level. Using topographic maps, engineers know where best to build a road, scientists know where rainwater will flow after a storm and hikers know where a trail is steepest.

“By using this technology, students can actually see how a topographic map portrays a 3-D world. Sometimes people don’t grasp that concept on a flat 2-D map,” Reese says. “The beauty of the sandbox is the simplicity of the model, as it tells a very complicated story.”

Reese explains that the College acquired the materials to construct the sandbox through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Allegheny carpenters built the actual box, and Craig Newell Welding in Cambridge Springs, Pa., built the metal apparatus that holds the camera and software in place. Dave Wagner, network and systems administrator in computer science and information technology services, set up the operating system and installed the software.

The idea for the AR sandbox came from a group of Czech researchers who posted a YouTube video displaying an early prototype that included elevation maps and a basic form of fluid movement, Reese says. A team at the W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences (KeckCaves) at the University of California Davis then added the topographic contour lines and improved the simulated fluid flow to create the current prototype. UC Davis provides the blueprints to build the system as well as the necessary software free of charge on its website.

Reese estimates that only a couple dozen AR sandboxes exist, mainly at museums. “It’s so new. The day our sandbox went live – Jan. 21 – an article appeared in the New York Times about augmented reality,” he says. “It’s really cutting edge for Allegheny to have this.”

In addition to the geology and environmental science departments using the sandbox in labs and for independent research projects, the computer science and biology departments also plan to incorporate the technology into their class curricula.

College students won’t be the only ones digging in the sand. Creek Connections, a partnership between the College and K-12 schools that focuses on hands-on watershed education, plans to incorporate the AR sandbox in activities that explore topographic maps, watersheds and stream geology.

“People are used to street maps and Google maps that are very flat. But when we talk about watershed delineation and where rain will go, the concept becomes much easier when you can use a 3-D topographic map like this,” says Wendy Kedzierski, director of Creek Connections. “With the sandbox, you can see it as the sand builds up and the colors change. It makes the connection so much easier.”

Student Kristy Garcia, who works as a project assistant with Kedzierski and the Creek Connections program, agrees. “It’s definitely easier to understand topography when looking at the sandbox,” she says.

Kedzierski believes another benefit is that the sandbox will give students who prefer hands-on activities another opportunity for learning.

“The education that we provide in schools is a lot different from what they do every day in the classroom. Some of the children who have a hard time with traditional lecturing react differently when we do our Creek Connections activities,” Kedzierski says. “This is another tactile experience for those students.”

Reese believes that the AR sandbox is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hands-on education.

“I believe virtual reality is going to augment the augmented reality,” he says. “It will be interesting to see how the AR software upgrades will add more bells and whistles to the sandbox over the next year or two.”

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Geology majors Marie Takach ’16 and Mary Statza ’16 presented results of their summer 2014 summer research with Professor of Geology Bob Schwartz at the national Geological Society of America conference in Vancouver, BC, using high-resolution photography and detailed field analyses to document estuary and tidal-dominated shore systems preserved in Early Cretaceous strata in western Montana.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Professor of Geology Ron Cole and Professor of Physics Dan Willey gave an invited presentation in an educational strategies session at the national Geological Society of America conference in Vancouver, BC. The title of their presentation was “Enhanced Diversity and Retention of Undergraduate STEM Majors at Allegheny College: Outcomes of a National Science Foundation S-STEM Program.” Cole also presented results of NSF-funded scientific research including new hypotheses on volcanism in southern Alaska with contributions by Marie Takach ’16 and colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey, National Taiwan University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Bucknell University, and Lehigh University.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Professor of Geology Bob Schwartz presented a paper at the national Geological Society of America conference in Vancouver, BC in collaboration with Susan Vuke of the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. Their paper documents one of the earliest known Cretaceous seaways in western Montana.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Professor of Geology Bob Schwartz presented a paper at the national Geological Society of America conference in Vancouver, BC in collaboration with Susan Vuke of the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. Their paper documents one of the earliest known Cretaceous seaways in western Montana.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research