By: Cassidy Delamarter, University Communications and Marketing
Faculty at the University of South Florida traded classroom lectures this summer for
international adventures, embarking on research projects to solve global challenges.
From unlocking the secrets of ancient civilizations in Italy to developing cutting-edge
technology in Africa, their innovative efforts reflect USF’s commitment to enhancing
the overall wellbeing of society by advancing research and supporting student success.
Greetings from…
Davide Tanasi, professor and director of the USF Institute for Digital Exploration, spent the summer in the Mediterranean with five graduate students. The team excavated
multiple sites in Malta and Sicily.
Malta
In Malta, they continued their exploration of the Roman city Melite, which is known
today as Rabat. They focused on the area west of the Roman Domus – a four-room house
that Tanasi and his students identified last summer that was extensively excavated. This summer’s efforts revealed the house was located
in a lively district with stores and other elegant mansions. The excavations uncovered
earlier phases of Roman occupation, beginning in the third century B.C.E., and highlighted
cultural exchanges between Romans and the Punic inhabitants.
The site was digitized using terrestrial laser scanning and digital photogrammetry
and is available to view online.
During their stay, the team was invited to the U.S. Embassy for a private tour with
Ken Toko, the U.S. deputy chief of mission in Malta. “He was very excited about our
work and very appreciative, knowing a group of Americans are so invested in doing
research in the island,” Tanasi said.
Learn more about this project here.
Sicily
In Sicily, the third excavation at the Roman Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina focused on the site’s medieval reoccupation.
In collaboration with Italy’s University of Bologna, the team found a 10th-12th century
settlement above the villa ruins, featuring houses with kitchens and storage rooms
containing two-handled storage jars. Two rare Arab metal amulets with Quranic prayers
and an adult skeleton were also found. The site and artifacts from previous excavations
were digitized using 3D recording for public outreach.
Tanasi will expand this research through new grants he was awarded from the International Catacombs Society and the Shelby White and Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications.
“Those two grants will open up new opportunities for international collaborations
and experiences for our students, as well as advance the knowledge of the Maltese
Archipelago in the context of the Roman Mediterranean,” Tanasi said.
The International Catacombs Society project will document and digitally map the Late
Roman cemetery of Binġemma near Mġarr, Malta, featuring hundreds of rock-cut tombs.
The project will use drone mapping and traditional excavation to uncover hidden features
and selected tombs. The project begins in September and will take approximately a
year to complete.
The grant from Harvard University’s Shelby White and Leon Levy Program for Archaeological
Publications will reassess UCLA’s 1983-1984 excavations at the Melita Esplanade in
Rabat, Malta. These excavations uncovered a Roman commercial district, but were never
published, and the artifacts were never studied. The project will use ground-penetrating
radar to survey the Melita Esplanade and the area between it, as well as the Roman
Domus to visualize the urban layout. The project begins in October and will run intermittently
for 12 months.
Madagascar
With funding from the National Science Foundation, a team of USF engineers and public health experts spent the summer in Madagascar. Since 2022, the interdisciplinary team, which
includes students, has been working together to improve water quality in Toamasina.
The port city has a population of about 280,000 and the water contains more than 10
times the recommended limit of lead. In a recent study, the team also found stored household water often gets contaminated with fecal bacteria
in Toamasina. By analyzing water samples from 10 households and testing three cleaning
methods, their findings revealed higher bacteria levels in stored water.
Each summer, the team has visited to develop a process to improve the quality and
safety of the city’s water after they identified the source of the lead: The locally
manufactured water pumps that were created with melted car batteries. This summer,
the team expanded their efforts by working directly with families to further purify
their water by removing disease-causing pathogens. They continued replacing the water
pumps, while also educating families on proper cleaning supplies.
The research team includes Mahmooda Pasha, associate professor of public health social marketing; James Mihelcic, professor and director of USF’s International Development Engineering Program; and Jeffrey Cunningham, professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering.
Pasha says they will continue to review their research and publish their findings
throughout the upcoming semester.
Learn more about their effort to replace water pumps.
Hawaii
After the 2023 Maui wildfire – a wind-driven disaster that destroyed more than 2,200
structures and caused about $5.5 billion in damages – Ratna Dougherty, assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs, began examining nonprofit responses and recovery perceptions among residents.
The research is being done in collaboration with Florida Atlantic University and the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte. With funding from the USF Humanities Institute and Natural Hazards Center, the team conducted field work and interviews to determine how cultural and social
norms may dictate response and recovery efforts.
The findings reveal that many of the residents stress the importance of preserving
the culture of Maui and directly helping the local residents.
“Throughout our time in Hawaii, we saw t-shirts, signs and art with messages of resilience
and community support,” Dougherty said.
The team will return to Maui mid-August, where their goal is to interview more non-profit
organizations and individuals who feel comfortable sharing their experiences and vision
for the recovery process. The team hopes to use the images they capture at gallery
events to encourage students to learn about recovery efforts and ways they can become
involved. This will be the photo component to their research-oriented expansion of
the idea that “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
The team consists of Christa Remington, assistant professor at USF; Kaila Witkowski,
assistant professor at FAU; and Lauren Azevedo, assistant professor at UNC-Charlotte.
Botswana
A group of USF students, consisting of six STEM majors and one social science major
from the St. Petersburg campus, spent the spring 2024 semester in Sarath Witanachchi’s lab testing a portable renewable energy source for rural Africa. The semester prepared
them for a trip to Botswana International University in June, where they trained local
students on the technology and conducted further experiments.
The NSF-sponsored project led by Witanachchi, professor and chair in the Department of Physics, combines solar energy and waste heat from burning coal to demonstrate increased
energy efficiency.
This is the third year the project is being conducted in Africa with different groups of USF students and
BIU students. Witanachchi said the Botswana students, while knowledgeable in basic
scientific concepts, have limited experimental experience, and were able to learn
from his students.
Joshua Townsend, a graduate student in physics, was the team leader. “It has become
a core experience of my own life,” Townsend said. “There are so many aspects of other
cultures that cannot be understood unless you are submersed in it. This not only gave
us clarity for the impact of the work that we do in our everyday research by seeing
the prevalence of renewable energy technologies in rural areas firsthand, but also
into the lives of fellow students and researchers in other parts of the world and
the challenges they must overcome on a day-to-day basis.”
Although this is the final phase of the four-year NSF grant, Witanachchi plans to
continue fostering respect for other cultures in a meaningful and practical way for
his students.
Read more about the project here.
Kenya
The key to understanding environmental governance policies is experiencing them in
the field, according to Dillon Mahoney, associate professor of applied anthropology. Through the USF Kenya Conservation and Sustainability Field School, Mahoney traveled with nine students to Kenya this summer to take an up-close look
at Kenya’s conservation and sustainable development practices.
The experience also provided students with the opportunity to learn a variety of research
methods and conduct surveys in biodiversity hotspots, including national parks Amboseli
and Chyulu Hills. They also visited one of East Africa’s largest cities, Nairobi,
which is known around the continent as a center for international development and
conservation efforts.
“Our goal was to put students into intensive learning situations overseas, where they
could learn directly from Kenyan academics, researchers and community leaders and
members,” Mahoney said. “The goal is not to come up with solutions for Kenya’s problems.
Rather, I think the students were struck fairly early by how much we can learn from
what Kenyans are doing on the ground.”
The field school will continue annually, aiming to immerse students in Kenyan conservation
efforts and sustainable development practices. To learn more about joining the field
school, please contact Mahoney or visit Education Abroad for more information.
Read more on their month-long adventure here.
