Marsaxlokk

After completing the three sites by the Tas Silg temple, we still had some extra time before our van was scheduled to come pick us up so we took the opportunity to walk down to the nearby fishing village of Marsaxlokk. It is a fairly small town but is mentioned in many of the guidebooks as a place to visit for the many colorful fishing boats and general fishing atmosphere there.

We were not disappointed. Once we got through the tents set up selling souvenirs to tourists, we saw the many colorful wooden boats in the harbor set against the beautiful blue sky and typical Maltese style architecture.

It was also fun to observe the fishermen at work, tending to their nets, painting their boats and going about their daily routine. Before we headed back up to the temple site, we stopped at a small café for coffee and cake. In addition to the tasty food, it provided a good opportunity to spend some time together just soaking in the peaceful atmosphere and reflecting on our time in Malta (which has been busy and amazing and sadly coming to end).

Work Day and Beach Picnic

We decided to stay at the apartment on Friday and get a lot of work done. We each worked on something different as there were a lot of things that needed (and still need) to be done. I started to look at the data we collected from the AUV run the other day while others worked on documenting data and procedures, visualizations, and creating mosaics of the sonar scans from the cisterns (among other things). It was also exciting to see the first run of SLAM on the archives cistern and how our work is finally coming together.

For lunch, we decided to take a break and take a picnic lunch to the beach just a block from our apartment. It was a gorgeous day out and the sunshine and fresh ocean air were a welcome relief to all. We walked along the rocky shore and looked for fish, shrimp, crabs and other small marine life in the tide pools before settling down for lunch.

After lunch, Tyler, Chris and I took the opportunity to go for a short swim in the Mediterranean. The water was chilly but not too bad and we really wished we had brought goggles down with us to see more in the beautiful blue water. It was very relaxing out there though and interesting to note how much saltier the water here is compared to the Pacific ocean. As we were getting out, Tyler also helped a Maltese women pick some sea grass/plants from the side of the rock. She was very happy and told us that she cooks it and that it's good for her heart. Who would've known.

Inspiring the Next Generation - Teaching Robotics

Part of the ICEX goals this year have been reaching out to elementary school aged children and introducing them to robotics and inspiring them to go into science and technology fields. During the quarter back at Cal Poly, we visited two different 2^nd grade classrooms at Pacheco elementary school every Wednesday. We switched off between the classrooms and had hands-on lessons that talked about design, testing and programming. It was very successful. The kids seemed to really enjoy it and retain a lot of what we taught. We even got a book of thank you notes written by all the students afterward – a nice touch.

Originally, that was going to be the extent of our outreach. At the suggestion of Timmy though, we packed a suitcase full of little robots so we could continue the lessons at several Maltese grade schools. We started off with a brief lecture about different types of robots and introduced the robots we brought and the paper disks used to program them.

The disks we used were small circular pieces of paper (that we had to individually cut out beforehand). The robots have two sensors that read the disk as it rotates and determines if the 2 rows of squares are black or white. Depending on the combination of black and white, the robot will go forward, stop, or turn left or right.

We then broke the students into groups of 3-4 and let them each “program” the robot to navigate a simple maze we created on the floor with tape by coloring disks with black pencils and pens. Overall, the students were very excited about it and there were several students who even inquired about where they could get their own robot so they could do more on their own.

It was encouraging to be so enthusiastically received by both the students and faculty of the schools and in addition to being a good educational experience for the students there, it was a great experience for the ICEX team as well to be able to talk with so many students (who represented a variety of ethnic backgrounds).

Valletta - A Cultural Experience

As part of Jane’s last day in Malta, we spent the morning exploring St. John’s Co-cathedral in Valletta and briefly around the city. St. John’s Co-cathedral is dedicated to St. John the Baptist and was originally commissioned in 1572. It has gone through a number of redecorations and restorations (particularly after bombing attacks in WWII) but there is certainly a lot of history to soak up among the highly ornate walls.

As part of the admission, we were given audio guides that explained a lot of the history and significance of different parts of the church, which definitely helped in appreciating the smaller details. There was also a museum part with old church robes, choir books, tapestries and several famous paintings, including 'Salome with the Head of John the Baptist' by Caravaggio. I found it particularly interesting to see the old choir books with a very different method of depicting the musical notes and rhythms than I am used to seeing. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in that area though. Below is a view of the highly decorated front of the church.

Afterward, we took some time to wander around Valletta briefly. It's a very interesting city and I love the look of all the narrow streets and old buildings.

Another view of Valletta below. The gates open up to the harbor and a spectacular view across the water.

As we were leaving the city to catch a bus to our next destination, we found the entrance somewhat blocked by a group demonstrating for peace in Libya. It was a fairly small group and their demonstrations were not wild or dangerous, but there were Maltese police there just in case to watch over the event. It was interesting to witness a current event play out firsthand as opposed to just reading it all in the news. A link to an article about it: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110224/local/anti-gaddafi-demonstration-set-for-saturday-in-valletta

Gozo

In addition to collecting information at various sites throughout Malta, we’ve been able to go to several sites on the smaller island of Gozo. Gozo is only 14km long and 7km wide and has approximately 31,000 residents. It is known as being much more green compared to Malta and the industry is more focused around agriculture. Below is a view over part of the island, as seen from the citadel in Victoria (also called Rabat) which is the capital city of Gozo.

Our sites on Gozo (on Monday) were focused on water galleries (as opposed to cisterns or wells). It was a neat change of pace to see the lay out horizontally instead of relying completely on sonar and video data from the ROV to get an idea of the layout and general structure of the cistern.

We did two sites on Monday. The first one, Ghar Ilma (Water Cave), was at a private residence and was apparently very important in supplying most of the water for the citadel back when residents of Gozo would have to sleep within the protected walls of the citadel (to stay safe from pirate attacks). I was surprised at the extent of this gallery. There were several different passageways and the main one extended for over 900 ft. We collected data for a lot of it, but were unable to map everything due to the limited length of our cable (only 250 ft) and the fact that there was a pile of debris blocking part of the main passageway.

Our second site was another private residence in someone’s garden. We set up in a small grove of tangerine/orange trees and ran the cable down to the water gallery. The depth readings on our control box were still not working properly, but we were able to get good sonar scans for the entire gallery.

After we finished collecting data, we packed up quickly and drove to the ferry in order to catch it on time (so we could meet our driver on the other side at the scheduled time). We got there in time, but almost missed the ferry anyways due to complications getting all of our equipment (a large generator, several large robot boxes, and various other bags and toolboxes) into a luggage container. We did end up making it, enjoyed the beautiful ride back to Malta and concluded another successful day of data collection.

Karnival ta Malta

We were fortunate enough to be in Malta for Carnival (il-Karnival ta' Malta in Maltese). Carnival is a period of festivities before Lent and is most common among Roman Catholic communities. According to one of the people we talked with here, the Carnival festivities in Malta are the 5th largest in the world. Pretty impressive for such a small country. During Carnival, there are parades with colorful floats, dance events, various booths set up and many people dressed in costume.

Valletta (the capital of Malta) has one of the bigger carnival festivals in Malta so we made our way there on the old buses. Upon arrival near Valletta, we noticed lots of very brightly colored floats by the entrance to the city in preparation for the big parade that evening. Our group wandered around the town some, taking in all the sites and interesting costumes and stopped at a restaurant for an early dinner. We decided to try some traditional Maltese food including rabbit. I only tried a small piece, but we all agreed that it was not that different tasting than other meats like turkey or pork. It was interesting to see the whole chest cavity and some of the internal organs though.

After our meal, we watched the parade briefly as it began to pass by. All of the floats (and a number of the costumes as well) were bright neon colors and it was interesting to see, although definitely not what I was expecting initially.

Our group split up and continued exploring around Valletta. We talked for a while with several guys who had an adorable puppy. They were very friendly and offered a diverse perspective -- one was from France, another from Spain, another from England, and the puppy was from Malta. We took turns holding the puppy and listened to their stories and advice about things to see and places to go.

We finished our evening adventures with some more exploration of Valletta including sitting in on part of a Catholic church service, trying some Maltese desserts at a small cafe that was recommended to us, and more observation of the Carnival parade. Overall, a very full evening and an interesting insight into Maltese culture.

Mdina, Round 1

Our site for Wednesday was within the walled city of Mdina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mdina). The first cistern was located in a restaurant called Bacchus, which was not open for the day yet.

This caused our time for exploration to be slightly shortened, as we had to be out before they opened. After arriving, during setup and some of the time spent in the cistern, about half of the team was able to wander around the restaurant with the owner getting a bit of a history lesson. There was much history to discuss since the room was built between 1657 and 1660! Since it was before business hours, many people transporting supplies for Bacchus were filtering in and out of the front entrance where we were located. Many stopped momentarily to see what we were doing, and were very interested in our sonar maps of the underside of the restaurant as well as the images we were receiving from the VideoRay.

In an effort to rotate drivers during different sites, Christina watched closely as I drove the VideoRay through this site so she could become familiar with the logging process and hopefully gather useful data. After gathering data for awhile, the ToughBook lost communication with the control box. After a quick bit of unsuccessful troubleshooting, it was about time to leave, so we headed to the next location.

The next spot was The Mdina Experience, right down the street. There was very limited space here, and it was during normal business hours.

There was actually a tour group passing right through our site when we arrived. They watched as we brought in and setup all of our equipment, but weren't interested enough to ask any questions. We switched to the Samsung backup since we thought the problem was with the ToughBook and did not have time to continue troubleshooting it on-site. Slightly different connections had to be made when using the Samsung, since it lacked a serial port, but everything worked out and we got the VideoRay through the small entrance and into the water.

Space was limited, so team members not directly involved couldn't really be present, so exploration presented itself again!

Another restaurant was our final location of the day. The cistern here was located in the basement. We had to walk through the restaurant which caused for some further stares of the other patrons. There was an extremely narrow passageway leading down to the site, and our equipment had to make it carefully down the long staircase. To add a bit to difficulty, the passageway was lined with wine bottles so there was little room for error. Luckily, Tyler and I made it all the way down successfully.

After making it downstairs and setting up, the data collection process began. Christina drove for for the first time on this site, and did an awesome job grabbing sonar scans and video for the cistern we were on top of. This cistern was composed of a large circular room and a narrow hallway that didn't lead to anything. We ended our day here, and loved the view off the balcony behind the restaurant!

Taste of Maltese Culture

We had our first set of cistern explorations at Gomerino Palace on Tuesday. While waiting to get into the area though, we got a chance to walk down the road and explore a little. In addition to the beautiful landscape and lots of old rock walls and structures, we met an elderly Maltese man who invited us into his garden to show us the statue of St. Paul we had seen from outside earlier.

Beautiful Maltese countryside. There were walls like this all over

Lots of beautiful flowers in bloom and no shortage of interesting buildings.

Shrine/statue of St. Paul in the Maltese persons garden. He saw some of us looking over the low, stone fence and he invited us into his garden to get a better look. Most of the group went to Gomerino to go look at the cisterns as we had just got access to the site, but Brig and I stayed behind briefly to see what the guy had to share.

Side of the shrine. There is a small door (can be seen here somewhat) which leads inside to a small circular room

Inside there were several shelves of religious items set up. It was very interesting to see and brought to mind the statistics we had learned about the large religious presence in Malta.

Talking to the Maltese man. He was very nice but spoke next to no Engligh (only Maltese). It made communication a little hard but with some hand gestures and a charades-like guessing of meanings, we were able to understand the general idea. It was great to meet some of the locals already and it was encouraging to be treated so nicely by someone who was a complete stranger not long before.

Research Project Discussion at Backstage - 2/15/11

So I got one picture...

Hopefully it's an okay summary of our meeting with Timmy Gambin and the awesome insights he was able to give into our individual research projects and also just some useful general knowledge about Malta.

Can't wait to talk with him more!

The Pool!

Just wanted to share that we got the ROV in our pool and drove it around with the joystick and toughbook today. Yay!

And we had the IVER in and doing missions. Yay!

Pics:

Jennifer took a couple of the ROV (I think...) but I don't have those ones.

HMS Russell - British battleship to Maltese shipwreck

Abstract

Malta’s unique location in the Mediterranean has made it a strategic and coveted spot for many years. Because of this, military endeavors have played a big part in shaping its history. In addition, because of its nature as a small island nation, Maltese culture and industries have a strong connection to the sea. Due to both of these facts, it is important to have an understanding of some of the naval history related to the island of Malta. There are a number of shipwrecks off the coast, which provide a good starting place for this. The HMS Russell – which is the ship the ICEX team will help investigate – was a British battleship built in 1901 and served in WWI before hitting a mine in 1916 and sinking off the coast of Malta. Because of the deep resting place of the HMS Russell today, no dives to it were attempted until 2003. The ship lies upside down and the stern section is missing, but there is still a lot of history intact on the wreck and presumably much more to discover.

Annotated Bibliography

1. "Duncan Class Battleship." World War 1 Naval History. 1998-2011. Web. 06 Feb. 2011. .

This article gave a good overview of the 5 Duncan class ships and gives dates, figures and specifications on these and how they differed from other ships of that time period. It also gives a brief overview of the service that each of the ships performed in WWI, which is less detailed than some other sources, but provides a good comparison. Given there are a number of other resources which cover some of the specific events in more detail, I thought this source was still helpful at giving that broader perspective.

2. Grech, Herman. "Throwback to WWI: Diving Team to Try and Locate HMS Russell."The Times21 Aug. 2001: 44. Web. 05 Feb. 2011. .

This is a newspaper article from 2001 about the proposed dive that the Starfish Enterprise did to the HMS Russell. I thought it was interesting to hear the story before the dive and what kinds of things they already knew about the wreck and be able to compare that to the information after the dive. One of the other resources I found documented the dive that they talked about in this article, so it provides a good connection. I think this is also a good source to use because the facts are much more likely to be confirmed and accurate (compared to most of the other information on this topic, which is just from various websites). It also shows that this shipwreck was of importance to Britain still to make it into their newspaper.

3. "HMS Russell." Shipwreck Films. 2006. Web. 05 Feb. 2011. .

This source gives a brief background history or the HMS Russell and then goes into much more detail about the first dive (by the Starfish Enterprise team) to capture video and identify the ship. This is very helpful as we will be doing something similar (only with robots instead of divers) so we can compare their methods and results and have an idea of what to expect. There were also helpful details related to this including the visibility in the water at various depths, which is essential to know given our AUV can't dive all the way to where the wreck lies on the bottom. In addition to the written description and some pictures, there are also two videos from their dives to the HMS Russell, which I feel would be good to show to the other ICEX participants (again to get an idea of what to expect and see what almost 100 years underwater has done to such a magnificent battleship).

4. "MaritimeQuest - HMS Russell Message Board." MaritimeQuest. 2009. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .

This source is actually a message board from the MaritimeQuest – a website dedicated to naval and shipping history. I would normally be skeptical of using such a source since anyone can post whatever they want, true or not. However, one of the members posted several scanned newspaper clippings from the London Times as well as telegrams from the year of the shipwreck which talk about the incident. I think those would be very valuable sources to include as they give a historical perspective and a firsthand look at what people thought about the incident during that time.

5. Rickard J. "HMS Russell." Military History Encyclopedia on the Web. 5 Nov. 2007. Web. 06 Feb. 2011. .

This source is very helpful in giving a more detailed history of the HMS Russell’s service during WWI before being sunk 1916. It also gives a nice, quick overview of the ship and it’s specifications in a table laid out at the end of the article. However, it is missing much in the way of history from when it was first built in 1901 and when it served in 1914. It also doesn’t say much about the actual wreck or what happened that made it sink near Malta. Given most of that information is readily available in other sources though, I think that is a valuable resource to include to get the WWI time period (prior to the sinking of it) covered.

More pictures from the pool

Sorry for the delay, but here are the pictures I took from the day at the pool