Meteorite Image Analysis System – VCU

INSTITUTION

Virginia Commonwealth University

CLASS

Cobalt Class (2019 – 2020)

STUDENT TEAM

George Constantine, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Charles Dietzel, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ismilsys Priede Armesto, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Scientific & Technical Guidance

Dr. Laurence Garvie, Research Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration, ASU
Dr. Tim McCoy, Chair, Smithsonian Curator of Meteorites

ACADEMIC GUIDANCE

Dr. Bennett Ward, Director of Project Outreach, Associate Professor, VCU
Dr. Gregory Triplett, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, VCU

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Meteorite experts use their knowledge to recognize the inclusions in meteorites based primarily on color, texture, and reflectivity. A major challenge of this project is to translate this human knowledge to an automated recognition system the can replicate the human expertise. To work towards this goal, teams are working to create software to do planimetric analysis of images of iron meteorite samples to help determine their bulk chemical compositions. An additional challenge to this project is how to process and store large numbers of very large image files.

This work was created in partial fulfillment of Virginia Commonwealth University Capstone Course “EGRE 402”. The work is a result of the Psyche Student Collaborations component of NASA’s Psyche Mission (https://psyche.asu.edu). “Psyche: A Journey to a Metal World” [Contract number NNM16AA09C] is part of the NASA Discovery Program mission to solar system targets. Trade names and trademarks of ASU and NASA are used in this work for identification only. Their usage does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, by Arizona State University or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of ASU or NASA.