Video: Student work: Scanning Santorini

By Mike Wood on Aug. 13, 2008, 5:36 p.m.

Princeton computer scientists are collaborating with archaeologists to develop an automated system to help reconstruct wall paintings that hold clues to the ancient culture of Thera, Greece.

For several decades, archaeologists in Greece have been painstakingly attempting to reconstruct wall paintings that hold valuable clues to the ancient culture of Thera, an island civilization that was buried under volcanic ash more than 3,500 years ago. This Herculean task -- more than a century of further work at the current rate -- soon may get much easier, thanks to an automated system developed by a team of Princeton University computer scientists working in collaboration with archaeologists in Greece.

Shattering art to reconstruct the past .

Destroying ancient Greek art has become something of a specialty for Hijung (Valentina) Shin. For her senior thesis at Princeton, Shin, a computer science major from Yongin, South Korea, is working to perfect her method for shattering stone frescoes painted thousands of years ago -- a technique designed to return the art to its former glory.

Code the ode: Center for Digital Humanities marries technology and humanistic studies .

The new Center for Digital Humanities — "a nexus of engagement with transformative technologies" that will foster and support interdisciplinary projects across the humanities, computer sciences and library sciences — will open with a reception at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, at the center's new home in Green Hall.

Women in Theory summer workshop .

Responding to the need for more women in theoretical computer science, Princeton hosted the Women in Theory workshop in June.

Global Learning in the Liberal Arts
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In the field, digital technology saves immense amounts of time and limits fruitless digging. In the classroom, VR recreations help bring the past to life.

Forensic engineering preserves art treasures by saving historic buildings .

Art such as frescos and mosaics are often inherent parts of the buildings that house them, making them vulnerable to the damage inevitably faced by aging structures. To save the works, researchers from Princeton University and the University of California-San Diego are using non-invasive technology to protect them, while preserving the buildings in which they stand. The work is part of a broader effort to analyze and protect two Italian UNESCO World Heritage sites in Florence, the Palazzo Vecchio and the Baptistery di San Giovanni.

Princeton program puts high school students on pathway to college .

From intensive lab work to SAT training to a tour of the United Nations, students in the Princeton University Preparation Program (PUPP) are on an excursion of learning that will help lead them to a college education.