ICEX Program featured in Think Magazine

The ICEX Program is featured in the new issue of Think Magazine. Think is the new quarterly research magazine that opens a window to the University of Malta. It tells the stories of students, alumni, researchers, and professors. Read the article at:

"Maps, Bots, and a Neolithic Site: The Underwater World Beneath Tas Silg" (pp. 40-46)

http://issuu.com/thinkuni/docs/think02

Continuing the Water Battle

In Dr. Gordon Knox’s article “Water – A Crisis?” published in October 2008, 2.5% of Earth’s surface water is in the form of freshwater, the rest is considered salt water. Of the 2.5%, 68.9% is locked in ice, 30.8% is groundwater and 0.3% is in lakes and rivers spread across the world. A very small amount of freshwater is available for the world, and we are running out.

The last few days in Malta were jam packed with information about Malta's position and future concerning water and the limited amount within the boundaries of the tiny country. The Malta Water Association is focusing on spreading the awareness about the critical condition that Malta is in. I was able to meet with 4 of the about 15 members of the Malta Water Association (MWA) and discuss their opinions.

In an interview, Mr. Julian Mamo, Water Engineer and Member of the MWA, described the decrease in knowledge about water scarcity. He described how his grandparents were very aware of the water levels, because they were required to use the rivers and cisterns spread throughout the island. When the three reverse osmosis plants that currently run were built, however, many people stopped worrying about water. Where as before you had to walk down to the local cistern or river, now all that needed to be done was turn the faucet on. Water became more accessible, more easily attainable, and therefore less of a concern.

According to the members of the MWA, Malta's freshwater aquifers will not last, with it even being predicted that it's end will be during our lifetime. There are two freshwater aquifers in Malta, the Perched and the Mean Sea Level. The Perched Aquifer sits above Malta's Blue Clay layer and the Mean Sea Level lies just under the island, above the very salty, very dense sea water of the Mediterranean and under the Lower Coralline Limestone layer.

In the recent past and today, the freshwater aquifers are being depleted faster than they can be replenished by rainwater, due to numerous boreholes that have been drilled through the layers of rock and clay and pump up unknown amounts of water daily. There are about 8,000 registered boreholes, with thousands of other unregistered, and unwatched. One would think that the solution, then, is simple; register all the boreholes and use technology to watch the amounts of water that are being pumped up through them. However, questions arise on how to do this. How would you find every unregistered borehole? Could you make people register something they don’t claim to have? How much money would have to go into a project like this to see a successful completion? The answer: a lot. Short of visiting every home in Malta, there is no for sure way to record how many boreholes there are or whether or not people have them.

According to “Water – A Crisis?” in 2007, the measured ground water that was being extracted through registered boreholes was about 13.4 million cubic meters per year. Estimating for the unregistered boreholes, add 16 million cubic meters and there is a grand total of about 29.4 million cubic meters per year being pumped up from the freshwater aquifers.

Another threat to the aquifers is contamination. The Perched Aquifer sits just below many farms and fields, and with the increasing use of pesticides and chemicals for growing crops is in danger of being contaminated. The chemicals used for plants and fertilizers seep down through the rock layers and into the Perched Aquifer, and as Dr. Gordon Knox stated during an interview, once an aquifer is contaminated, there is nothing you can do to clean it there. You would need to pump up the water and clean it through a plant, taking millions of dollars and a lot of time.

The Mean Sea Level Aquifer is also in danger of being contaminated, but by multiple factors. The first factor is the same as the Perched Aquifer, chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides. In the same way that the chemicals seep through to get to the Perched Aquifer, the Mean Sea Level Aquifer has chemicals dripping into it through the rock layers above. It has been estimated that it can take up to 40 years for the farming chemicals to filter through the rock layers and into the aquifers, which means that the chemicals that are reaching the aquifers now, are from the 1970s. Usage of chemicals and pesticides has only increased since that time, which would implicate that there are many more chemicals dripping through the rock and will infiltrate the aquifer in the near future.

As if this wasn’t concerning enough, another factor that plays a large role in the contamination of the Mean Sea Level Aquifer is the sea itself. The freshwater that sits above the dense, salty seawater is a lens, protected by the bottommost rock layer. Currently only the edges of the freshwater lens gets contaminated by the salt water, however as the freshwater is depleted, more and more freshwater is mixed with salt water, making the aquifer less and less usable for the Maltese without first going through the reverse osmosis plants, taking time and money.

There are numerous other opinions and questions that arise when discussing the Malta water situation. However, one detail has come up time and time again, something must be done. The MWA specifically is trying to spread awareness about the increasingly concerning situation. The educational system has also begun to put effort into changing this lack of awareness, by adding a new chapter to the teaching curriculum and teaching young children about water and Malta. Thus the process has begun, but its not enough. For people to simply be aware isn’t enough to solve the problem, action must be taken and taken quickly.

The future of Malta at this moment is cloudy. There is no way to confidently predict what will happen when. So whether Malta will be able to begin saving its aquifers and using its own water or whether the reverse osmosis plants will be run at full power and glass bottles of water will be continually shipped from Italy, is uncertain. At the rate that Malta is going, it seems that rescued aquifers are a long shot and the reverse osmosis plants will need to increase production to serve the islands of Malta.

A History of Post-Secondary Maltese Engineering Educations

Last week, the ICEX faculty had the opportunity to meet Professor Carmel Pulè, faculty in the Department of Electronics Systems Engineering at the University of Malta. Dr. Pulè has played an influential role in the development of engineering education in Malta during the last 45 years. He graciously shared his contact information with the faculty, and I contacted him by email earlier this week to ask him about the similarities and differences of the engineering educations provided by MCAST and University of Malta.

His response was fiery and passionate, but well informed and based on an experience with the Maltese education system that few others have had. I’m lucky to be able to hear his story, and am excited to share it. The following is a summary of his account of the history of the Maltese engineering education. It largely focuses on the history of the development of the different engineering degrees offered today by the University of Malta and the Malta College of Arts, Science, and Technology (MCAST). In my next and final blog post, I will discuss some of the statistics concerning the two post-secondary schools and elaborate on the ways in which this history has affected each institution.

**Some comments about the Institutions of Education in Malta by Professor Carmel Pulè (18 Mar 2012), summarized by Erik Nelson **

Malta lived under British rule for around 150 years (up until 1964), so most of the economy was devoted to establishing and maintaining a skilled workforce for military needs. The British established their own schools in Malta that trained Maltese students in naval studies, military technique, and other similar forms of education. Of these schools, the Dockyard Naval School at Senglea was the best, manned by extremely qualified British teachers. Most students graduating from this school followed a six-year trade apprenticeship and the best students were given an opportunity to go to Britain and proceed to work at Chatham, Devonport, and Portsmouth. Some of these highly skilled Maltese would then return to Malta. (Note: The important role of the Dockyard Naval School as a site of technical education had previously been highlighted for us by Timmy Gambin during our tour of the Maritime Museum the first week.)

In addition to the post-secondary educational opportunities provided by the British military, in the time period prior to independence in 1964, there was the old University of Malta, which had been established by the Knights of Saint John 400 years earlier. At the time, the university focused on arts, culture, and education in the traditional professions of law, medicine, and religion. It offered no Engineering courses. (Research prior to our trip indicates that the size of the student population at the University in the 1950s was approximately 200 students per year.) This lack of attention to technical education was mirrored in Maltese teacher training colleges and at the Lyceum – the “junior college” that students attended in between secondary education and enrollment at the University of Malta.

Since the University of Malta did not provide any engineering degrees, pathways to technical education that were not provided by the British military were largely apprenticeship-based. A number of vocational schools were established beginning in 1945. However, these trade schools were not primarily focused on producing academically trained engineers. (An exception to the lower-level vocational-only focus was the Technical College at Paula, which offered Ordinary and Higher National Certificates and Journey Men Certificates and produced students who were able to compete successfully against other students in the British Commonwealth and whose degrees were recognized abroad.)

Up until 1960 (aside from the years of World War II), life in Malta was tranquil. The country had gotten used to its tie to Britain, and had sufficient economic influx to maintain its peaceful lifestyle. However, circa 1960 it became clear that Britain would not be able to continue financial support for its ‘oversea empire’, including Malta. Maltese politicians and educators became aware of this, and realized that secondary and post-secondary education should be shifted in such a way that the product of the University of Malta would be a labor force for a self-supporting nation. This labor force would be, by necessity, largely composed of engineers. The University of Malta did not agree with this outlook, and continued to offer its traditional degrees while rejecting the development of courses in engineering.

Meanwhile, Britain (in conjunction with UNESCO) decided to finance a new technical institution in Malta called the Malta College of Arts, Science, and Technology (MCAST). The goal of this new college was the same as the goal of the aforementioned Maltese politicians: to produce workers whose skills would be useful to a competitive independent economy post-independence. The subjects included were mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, tourism, finances, accounting, and economics.

After independence in 1964, the Maltese government did force the University of Malta to offer degrees in engineering. Students who could meet the admittance qualifications at the University of Malta – which involved Religious and Maltese Language qualifications – were able to earn B.Sc degrees in engineering at the University. Students who did not meet the Religious and Maltese Language qualifications were able to earn a Diploma in Engineering at

MCAST instead by taking the same coursework. Professors from MCAST – such as Professor Pulè, who had returned from England in 1969 to take a leadership position at MCAST – were required to teach the B.Sc as well as the Diploma students, but were not offered any additional compensation for doing so (in contrast to the medical doctors at St. Luke’s who also taught at the University and received additional salary). For Professor Pulè, who was the first Maltese to earn a PhD in engineering, this continued lack of respect for academically focused engineering education by the University was incredibly frustrating.

Thus, while the University had yielded to the government in a sense, it still refused to shift its focus from the arts, culture, and traditional professions of medicine, law, and religion to the work that Professor Pulè and the Maltese government had identified as necessary – producing a highly skilled, technically focused workforce for an independent Malta. The University also continued to refuse to offer degrees in finances and accounting or to increase attention to the training of secondary teachers who were qualified in technical fields.

The situation came to a head in 1978, when the Maltese government (under the leadership of Prime Minister Mintoff) cut funding to the University of Malta because of its refusal to make these changes. The “Old University” literally disappeared from the map. MCAST was shut down at nearly the same time, and its entire staff, all of its students, and its subjects were transferred to the “New University of Malta.” The New University had roughly ten times as many students as the Old University (a total of 10,000 students), and initially focused only on offering degrees with direct economic benefit (such as engineering and tourism). As Professor Pulè put it, “the modern professors [had] stepped in to University surroundings.” Many faculty members from the Old University left Malta and took positions in England and Saudi Arabia.

Beginning in the 1980s, the (New) University of Malta began to expand its focus to teach all the old subjects plus the new subjects of Engineering, Science, Mathematics and Computer Science. Today, the University has many associated subject institutes focused on topics such as sustainable energy. However, in Professor Pulè’s opinion, even the technical courses in today’s University of Malta have become too soft and theoretical, with not enough emphasis on hands-on work and hardware. Its engineering degrees have less lab-based courses than most other universities, and the work with computers largely focuses on accounting, economics, banking, video games, and personal media communication rather than embedded systems, image processing, and robotics. According to Professor Pulè, this means that Malta has recently lost out on investing and manufacturing opportunities with international companies such as Lufthansa.

Thus, Professor Pulè began to work in the 1990s for the opening of a new MCAST that would provide more hands-on education. The goal of this process was to produce high-caliber engineers who have a firm technical and hands-on background. His desire came true, and the “New MCAST” opened in 2000.

However, Professor Pulè is not entirely satisfied with the new MCAST. According to him, the new MCAST had a slow start due to the fact that it was under staffed and poorly funded. Initially, instructors from the old trade schools were hired, many of whom did not have proper university qualifications. Additionally, Professor Pulè believes that the examination standards of MCAST are not sufficient. While MCAST offers ample hands-on training, Professor Pulè has found the opposite problem from the new University of Malta: the coursework of MCAST is not theoretical in the least. For example, MCAST’s course in Plant Maintenance does not include thermodynamics – a topic necessary to the class. While Professor Pulè was excited that Professor Maurice Grech was brought in to take over MCAST approximately five years ago, he is concerned that the degrees awarded by MCAST are not equivalent to engineering degrees at other universities. More broadly, Professor Pulè is concerned that the standards of admission to both MCAST and the University of Malta, and examination while at university, are too low.

Today Professor Pulè remains hopeful about the development of his vision of high quality engineering education in Malta. He continues to believe that Malta must produce high-caliber, technically focused, creative engineers, educated via a combination of theoretical and hands-on training in order to create a truly independent and successful Malta. At the same time, Professor Pulè sees a continued role for vocational training. Above all, Professor Pulè wants Malta, its government and its citizens, to commit to the hard work of the development of a practical workforce and to maintaining high standards in its educational system.

References:

[1] Pulè, Carmel. "A Few Questions about MCAST vs. University of Malta." E- mail interview. 18 Mar. 2012.

Ethnic Studies 410 Cultural Project - Water and Society

My cultural project relates to the water resources here on Malta. In ES 410, before we left, we learned about the limited water resources that are effecting Malta today and we looked into a little bit of how the government and people were dealing with the insufficient amount of freshwater. Coming to the island, I've been able to get a first hand look at the severity of the shortage and Maltese opinions on it.

Malta's water history is very interesting. The islands of Malta and Gozo is composed of five principle layers; Lower

Coralline Limestone, GlobigerinaLimestone, Blue Clay, Greensand, and Upper Coralline Limestone. Just under the Lower Coralline Limestone layer and above the impermeable Blue Clay level sits two natural freshwater aquifers, the Main Mean Sea Level Aquiferand the Perched Aquifer, respectively. Historically, Malta has used these aquifers for their freshwater, however, today the water is being used faster than it can be replenished by rain and natural permeability of the layers. (Source #1)

Malta's population has grown significantly in past years and continues to grow today.

Just under 400,000 people populate this tiny nation, with a growth rate of 0.42% in 2005, according to the CIA World Factbook. (Source #2) All those people inhabiting the islands require freshwater and lots of it. About one third of Malta's freshwater comes from three aging desalination plants that use Reverse osmosis to extract the salt out of the saltwater from the Mediterranean. Another third is taken from the rapidly shrinking aquifers through manmade boreholes that drill down to the aquifer and pump up water completely free of charge. About one quarter is received through the Water Services' boreholes and the rest comes from small, private reverse osmosis plants or from the islands plentiful private cisterns that collect and store the meager amount of annual rainfall. (Source #3)

In Malta, I've talked briefly with Ph.D student, Keith Buhagiar, a local archeologist interested in the ancient and medieval water management systems spread throughout the islands. He discussed about the differences between wells and cisterns and their creation. Wells are the most ancient water system, and was man's attempt to obtain water by digging vertically down below the spot where water is required. Usually, these wells are circular or square shape vertical shafts. This picture shows a dried up well found in Sicily. (Source #4)

Alternatively, cisterns are more for the collection and storage of water. They were built either through rock-excavation or built at ground level through the use of masonry. Above ground cisterns were not as popular because of their consistent need for maintenance and repair. (Source #4) The picture shows a sonar mosaic of the inside of the Ta-Silg cistern in Malta. Ta-Silg is one of the oldest places with a cistern dating back about 3000 years and living through multiple occupations from the original Temple People to the Phoenicians to the Romans. Some cisterns are quite complicated, like the Ta-Silg cistern, with many rooms and tunnels, while others are simply bell-shaped or circular or rectangular shafts cut into the ground. Sometimes multiple cisterns are clustered together and are connected through small channels. (Source #5)

The situation in Malta changes severity depending on who is giving the opinion. Some don't see the scarcity of water at all while others are being hit very hard with it. Some private homes and farms still use the cisterns and wells settled on their property for various purposes from agricultural water to filtering it for daily use, however, most still rely heavily on the reverse osmosis plants and the shrinking aquifers. With Malta's dependence on tourism and it's increasing population, one thing is for certain, whether the water scarcity is felt by all or not, something must be done to conserve or collect freshwater for the future of Malta. Within the next few days, I am meeting with four members of the Malta Water Association for interviews on this topic. I am hoping to get some good information on their opinions on the water shortage and where this small, heavily populated country is headed.

Sources:

#1 - Malta Water Association (http://maltawater.org/index.php/themes/geological-habitat-of-maltas-aquifers)

#2 - CIA World Fact-Book (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mt.html)

#3 - Malta Takes Control, IEEE Article (http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/environment/maltas-smart-grid-solution/0)

#4 - Keith Buhagiar Presentation on "Maltese Ancient and Late Medieval Water Management Systems" on 3/4/12

#5 - Tour of Ta-Silg Temple Site by David Cardona on 3/13/12

Picture Sources:

Picture #1: British Geological Survey (http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/quality/Malta.html)

Picture #2: Malta Takes Control, IEEE Article (http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/environment/maltas-smart-grid-solution/0)

Picture #3: Picture Taken on Site at Gozo Citadel on 3/12/12

Picture #4: Picture Taken on Site in Palermo, Sicily on 3/6/12

Picture #5: Ta-Silg Mosaic Constructed by Erik on 3/13/12

Picture #6: CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mt.html)

Maltese Engineering Education Update

This past Tuesday, professor Simon Fabri from the University of Malta came to a site that we were mapping with two of his upper division students. They were working on similar robotics projects, and visited to check out how we were collecting data. Midway through the day Brent and I stepped aside with them to ask a few questions about our respective research projects.

My research topic aims to examine the similarities and differences between engineering educations awarded from Malta's two main tertiary academies: University of Malta and Malta College of Arts, Science, and Technology (MCAST). I was able to compile a few facts about each school from research done in the states, but was crippled by the distance between myself and primary resources who could tell me their first hand accounts of trends in my topic. Now that I'm here, things the research is coming along quickly.

Professor Fabri told me that being a professor at University of Malta, naturally, he had more experience with the education offered there. He said that the department of engineering was broken into 6 majors, with 2 different BS degrees offered. Mechanical, Manufacturing, and Materials/Metallurgy fed into a Mechanical Engineering BS, while Electronics, Electrical Power, and Systems fed into an Electrical Engineering BS. University of Malta also offers a 'masters by research' degree, which takes ~13 months to complete. At the moment there are about 30 students per faculty member in that program. Normally, a degree from U of M takes 4 years, but in special cases (such as the case of the two students accompanying Prof. Fabri), a degree can be completed in 3.

From what I have heard and read about the two universities, University of Malta offers traditional engineering degrees, while MCAST is a polytechnic university that offers degrees to fill a gap at the technician level. MCAST was not created for this reason, but because it is a new university it is still in the process of stabilizing itself. I have an interview lined up with Professor Carmel Pule, a professor at University of Malta who led the division of the two universities in 1978. Hopefully I will have much more information on the matter with the arrival of his response.

One thing that stood out from the interview with Professor Fabri was that engineering students at the University of Malta do not have any general education courses. Their coursework is entirely engineering based, and all of their general education is provided by the two years of school prior to tertiary education. As a student from a polytechnic university who takes one or two general education courses every quarter, to me this was quite a different way of completing a degree.

This is a rough synopsis of my research in Malta so far, and in the next blog post I will dive into more depth with some of the statistics comparing the two universities.

Computer Science and Information Technology in Malta

On one of the sites we were mapping, we had the pleasure of meeting the head of the Engineering Department from the University of Malta and two students in order to let them view our data collection process. Erik and I got to interview them about our cultural research projects for our ethnic studies class.

My cultural research project is on the role of Computer Science and Information Technology in Malta. The idea of my project came from the startling fact that Malta has very few natural resources. One of the papers I was reading reported that there are "four extractive industries on which manufacturing might be built-- mining,forestry, fishing, and agriculture"[1]. It concluded that Malta has an insufficient environment for any of these industries[1]. Having few local resources for manufacturing severely limits what Malta's economy can do.

This challenged me to think of possible major industries for Malta. I came up with the idea that if the country couldn't base it's economy on making physical products then why can't it make information based products?

Upon talking to the students and the department head, I was informed that unlike Cal Poly, Computer Science is not part of Engineering but is part of their relatively new department of Information and Communication Technology. This didn't affect the quality of the information that they gave me.

They told me that there is heavy investment in Computer Science and Information Technology. In the latest Business Research and Innovation report from the National Statistics Office of Malta, they reported that 29.47% of all intramural research and development expenditures in 2004 were in computer and related activities[2].

Also, Maltese government research and development expenditures have increased from €4.1 million to €15.7 million in 2010[3]. Research and development specifically in Engineering and Technology has doubled since 2008 making it the most funded major field of science in Malta. This can be seen in the graph below.

The idea of heavy investment in Computer Science and Information Technology wasn't only reaffirmed by them but was also mentioned by Timmy Gambin who has been helping coordinate our research in Malta. He informed me that the University is constructing a building dedicated to Information and Communication Technology. Upon further research I found that the University was awarded a sum of €17.3 million for the project from the European Regional Development Fund[4]. It was said to be built because of the high demand for Information and Communication Technology graduates[4].

This is some of the information I have come across and I will be reporting on more very soon.

Works Cited

1. Young, B. S. "SocietyThe Maltese Islands: Economic Problems and Prospects for Industrial Development." Geographical Review 53.2 (1963): 263-86. Print.

2. Malta. National Statistics Office. Business Research and Innovation 2004-2006. 2008. Print.

3. Malta. National Statistics Office. Expenditure on Research and Development in the General Government Sector: 2008-2010. 2011. Print.

4. "New ICT Facilities Building at University of Malta." Gozo News. 17 May 2009. Web. 17 Mar. 2012 .

Conquering 9 Cisterns and Welcoming Princeton Students!

It was a very warm day in Gozo today. We got to the farms outside of Victoria, set up our equipment and generator and proceeded to run through 9 cisterns, quickly and efficiently gathering sonar and video and then pulling back up to start again!

Some of the cisterns were quite exciting, like Cistern #1 which we found the hard way was filled with roots! As the ROV was pulled out of the cistern, a blanket of roots covered the entire body. A local farmer helped us to pull the roots out of the motors and off the ROV.

By the last cistern, we were on a roll. We were able to set up, deploy the ROV, scan, and pull the ROV back up in less than 10 minutes! We did have one bump in the road on this cistern, where we forgot to record our scan data, but it was quickly resolved.

When we got home to the apartments, three of the four Princeton Students were already there. We were introduced to Drew, Austin and Yingxue and were informed that Anna was out on a

quick trip to the University of Malta with Jane. The Cal Poly students and the Princeton students decided to take a quick trip to the rocky shore down the road from our apartments and jump in the water. Besides the freezing water, all Cal Poly students and faculty, minus Billy and Jane, managed to get in, even if for just a few seconds.

We returned to the apartment, washed up and ate a great dinner with all 14 of us! Afterwards Timmy came to say goodbye to Zoe and Jane, for the were leaving in the morning. They are very sad to be leaving during such a great time, but they are quite excited to be able to go home again.

Quite a busy and fun day! More tomorrow!

Leaving Sicily

Hello all!

Thursday afternoon/evening (3/8/12), it was decided that we would be leaving Sicily early due to an incoming storm. We decided to leave on Friday afternoon instead of taking the chance of

being stuck in Sicily until Monday or later.

So Friday morning we woke and packed up the rest of our belongings as well as all the robot stuff and headed to the Ferry that would take us back to Malta. It was about a 4 hour bus ride, but we stopped at a small mall and had lunch and Gelato!

We arrived at our destinatio

n with all of our stuff about an hour and a half before the ferry arrived.

Being dropped off at an empty dock we did wh

at all good, patient tourists do, we played frisbee. Erik supplied a flexible, neon green frisbee and we all took a turn determining how hard it really was to throw and catch a frisbee in the wind. Tim was by far the greatest by playing while carrying all of his luggage.

After a while, a nice man from security informed us that we needed to be on the other side of the dock to check in on foot. We carried all the robotic equipment and our luggage over to the other side and then proceeded to check in and wait inside a small building fo

r the ferry.

On the ferry ride, Tim, Tyler, Billy and Erik played multiple intense games of hearts, while Zoe, Jeff, Brent and I talked about as many topics as we could think of and Jane got hooked into her book on Malta during WWII.

Once in Malta's harbor the ferry took quite a while to dock due to increase speeds in wind. We waited, quite patiently, for a tugboat and proceeded to exit once docked.

Skipping ahead, we checked into our hotel (the Imperial Hotel) and got situated. Jane, Tyler, Brent, Tim, Billy and I went out for a quick dinner at a local cafe/restaurant and the rest went straight to bed. There were really strong winds all night, hints to the impending storm and we are really interested to see the storm as it passes over Malta!

Until later!

ROV Deployment and Technical Update

Yesterday was very exciting as we got to go out to a local site in Carini (in the province of Palermo, Sicily) and drive the ROV in two different cisterns. The first site was called Case di Cuetitta and the second was small enough that it didn't have an actual name, but it was also very cool. During the first drive of the ROV I cataloged the location of the cistern through lots of photographs and in the second cistern, I was able to get a sonar scan! it was very interesting and fun to learn about the history of the two sites and to be able to really see the outputted sonar and video scans of both cisterns!

As for my project, I am currently uploading files to complete the website's special actions. Also, Keith, a Maltese archeologist with us, has agreed to do an interview with me about his position on water and society and the importance of cisterns in Malta! So by tonight I hope to have the website files uploaded and good to go and an interview from Keith!