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Rota Island, the southernmost island in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific, has the types of caves previously documented on the other limestone mantled islands in the Mariana Arc that have been investigated for caves: Aguijan, Guam, Tinian and Saipan. Caves developed at the edge of the fresh-water lens by zones of enhanced carbonate dissolution produced by fresh-water/salt-water mixing are most common. Among these mixing zone caves, flank margin caves dominate. Flank margin caves were found singly and in extensive horizons representing significant sea-level still stands. However, another type of mixing zone cave was found on Rota in numbers not documented on neighboring islands. Mixing zone fracture caves, apparently formed as zones of enhanced dissolution, produced fresh-water discharging from the lens along fractures, migrated vertically as sea-level changed. Some mixing zone fracture caves on Rota are developed in clusters from two to four caves. The mixing zone caves of Rota reflect the interaction of eogenetic limestone, glacioeustasy, local tectonics and enhanced carbonate dissolution via mixing of disparate waters. The development of mixing zone caves on Rota is in agreement with the Carbonate Island Karst Model (CIKM). Rota has a few caves developed along the contact between limestone and the insoluble volcanic rock that makes up the core of the island. The most important of these is Water Cave, a large spring that is the source for most of the municipal water on Rota. Rota also two extensive zones of vertical fissures developed along bedrock fractures; Fissure City and As Mundo Fissure Zone. In addition, Rota has one cave apparently developed along a fault; Gagani Cave. Some of the caves documented on Rota are difficult to classify and warrant further investigation.

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Macro Planning of construction projects is among the most challenging tasks faced by the project team. Decisions made during this process have a tremendous impact on the successful execution of the project from its early conceptual phases, through the project construction and completion. For a large majority of construction projects, the current planning practices remain manually based. General and project specific data are communicated among project participants through design drawings in a 2D paper-based format. Due to the interdependence between the different elements and the large amount of information that needs to be manually processed, the current manual implementation approach is very difficult to undertake, and imposes a heavy burden on the project team to carry out the planning process. Various research efforts have been undertaken in an attempt to capture current planning techniques and allow for the development of new innovative and automated ways in planning. The developed planning systems are characterized as responsive decision systems, relying mainly on programmed knowledge and heuristics for decision making, hence reducing or eliminating the role of the human planner. This research presents the framework for a new interactive planning environment called the Virtual Construction Environment (VCE) that supports the thinking process of the project team during the macro planning phase of design-build projects. Unlike previous responsive-type systems developed, the approach utilized in the VCE is supportive to the project team enabling them to be an active participant in the decision making process. The main purpose of the VCE is to assist the project team during decision making, by providing pertinent information necessary for making appropriate decisions in a structured format. This information may be organized, stored, and retrieved by the project team whenever needed during the virtual sessions. The VCE also provides the project team with appropriate tools to test different work execution and site layout planning scenarios early during project development. During the virtual sessions, the project team reconstructs the facility by bringing graphical elements together. The project team's movements and interactions are recorded to capture their thinking process on how to construct the facility (i.e. sequence of major assemblies). Other project participants can retrieve recorded decisions for further review or modification. The project team is also able to specify construction methods, and allocate resources required for the implementation of major assemblies. The VCE guides the project team to perform these interdependent planning functions interactively and concurrently. Using system graphical libraries, major equipment and temporary facilities can be superimposed and displayed as graphical objects for site layout planning. This enables the project team to visually check for space and accessibility conflicts during different virtual construction time intervals. In order to define required information in the VCE, the author has developed a MAcro Planning Information Classification (MAPIC) model under which information required for macro planning decision making could be classified and organized in a structured standardized format. The project team may then retrieve and utilize this information whenever needed during the virtual sessions. A prototype computer tool is developed to illustrate the framework of the VCE. The computer prototype is implemented using available commercial software tools. / Ph. D.

Can a prototypical process involving literature reviews, interviews, questionnaires, design charrettes, and advanced computer visualization tools, be applied to create golf facilities valid to the subjects involved in the process? The research attempts to create a prototypical process by exploring and applying various research schemes that attempts to solve a selected design issue. Thus, the issue selected: How can the golf course be designed to attract, accommodate, and educate today's youth? Children should be introduced to activities at an early age to build character and self worth. The golf course acts as a place for today's youth to build relationships, test and enhance their character, and expand their education. This research is a result of these ideals. It focused on creating a prototypical process to create a junior golf facility, using data collection methods inclusive to: literature reviews, interviews, questionnaires, and design charrettes. As an addendum to this prototypical process, these methods of data collection were validated through computer visualization. These preceding methods, along with the basic ideals of youths in golf, were the main focus in researching golf course design catered to the youth. The First Tee junior golf program was the model used to compare the conceptual golf facility prototype, because it is the leader in making golf accessible to the youth. The First Tee Program, established in 1997 by the World Golf Foundation, teaches kids of all backgrounds the game of golf, including fundamentals, etiquette, and sportsmanship: elements that are of value to our society. It also educates them on how to become a valuable member of his/her community. The goals of The First Tee are in two phases: to create one hundred golf facilities by the year 2000, and to reach 500,000 youths by the year 2005. While the First Tee program is successful, this research attempts to improve upon junior golf facility development by addressing the youths' interest in a customized, conceptual golf facility built upon the principles of a state-of-the-art facility created by programs like The First Tee. The results of this research could potentially serve as an addendum to junior golf development, and also act as a resource for future designers, by assisting to acquire user needs and demands for buildings, interiors, landscapes, and products. The conceptual golf facility was created from two major resources. Students in Montgomery County, Virginia, were the subject resources, while the available literature, designers, and superintendents were the professional resources. A research strategy was created to serve as a guide for better organization. As a result, the Conceptual Research Diagram was implemented to serve as the prototypical process of the research. The subjects were Montgomery County students of various ages, skills, physical dependents, and also of various cultural backgrounds. Although the subjects were randomly selected, it was necessary to have an adequate amount of subjects to each subject group for a well-formed response to the research. The subjects were given a questionnaire, asked to participate in a design charrette, and given the option to participate in the C.A.V.E. (Cave Automated Virtual Environments) experiment. The CAVE is a three-wall cell, each wall with a dimension of 10x10x9 feet in diameter, which uses a Silicon Graphics Machine, plus projection devices, to project three-dimensional computer images onto its walls and floor. As a result, life size, three-dimensional computer models are created for an experience in virtual reality. All of the data was complied to obtain requests and demands to create a custom golf facility in virtual reality. The youth input and site location was limited to the town of Blacksburg, Virginia, with an attempt of creating a prototypical process that can possibly be applied to any town or city around the world. / Master of Science

What is a Cultural Collage? It is what is happening in Jordan today; different people from different backgrounds come to one piece of land looking for any refuge and hope. I wanted to create a building for this phenomenon. This is a building where people could come to and meet at to drink coffee and smoke hookah and share their stories. The characters that played the role in the Surrealist Movement in Paris in the 20s were my inspiration to design this building. The Artists came together in a time of war. The first World War was in action and yet, they met at a small coffee shop in Paris to discuss what they felt like discussing and at the end of the day an art movement was born. Storytelling. In these small rooms, the meeting rooms, or even the coffee house on the first level, people meet. As they order their coffee and move into the next room they can sit and socialize, tell stories and make art. As they move up to the next level the spaces become bigger and more open. The whole building starts telling a story. / Master of Architecture

This thesis presents a new 3-dimensional (3D) user interface system for a Cave Automated Virtual Environment (CAVE) application, based on Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Tangible User Interface (TUI). We explore fundamental 3D interaction tasks with our user interface for the CAVE system. User interface (UI) is comprised of a specific set of components, including input/output devices and interaction techniques. Our approach is based on TUIs using ARToolKit, which is currently the most popular toolkit for use in AR projects. Physical objects (props) are used as input devices instead of any tethered electromagnetic trackers. An off-the-shelf webcam is used to get tracking input data. A unique pattern marker is attached to the prop, which is easily and simply tracked by ARToolKit. Our interface system is developed on CAVE infrastructure, which is a semi-immersive environment. All virtual objects are directly manipulated with props, each of which corresponds to a certain virtual object. To navigate, the user can move the background itself, while virtual objects remain in place. The user can actually feel the prop's movement through the virtual space. Thus, fundamental 3D interaction tasks such as object selection, object manipulation, and navigation are performed with our interface. To feel immersion, the user is allowed to wear stereoscopic glasses with a head tracker. This is the only tethered device for our work. Since our interface is based on tangible input tools, seamless transition between one and two-handed operation is provided. We went through three design phases to achieve better task performance. In the first phase, we conducted the pilot study, focusing on the question whether or not this approach is applicable to 3D immersive environments. After the pilot study, we redesigned props and developed ARBox. ARBox is used for as interaction space while the CAVE system is only used for display space. In this phase, we also developed interaction techniques for fundamental 3D interaction tasks. Our summative user evaluation was conducted with ARDesk, which is redesigned after our formative user evaluation. Two user studies aim to get user feedback and to improve interaction techniques as well as interface tools' design. The results from our user studies show that our interface can be intuitively and naturally applied to 3D immersive environments even though there are still some issues with our system design. This thesis shows that effective interactions in a CAVE system can be generated using AR technique and tangible objects. / Master of Science

No / Excavations in the 1920s and 1970s at the Sculptor’s Cave, North-East Scotland, revealed that the site was used for mortuary rituals during the Late Bronze Age (c. 1100–800 BC) and Roman Iron Age (late first to fourth centuries AD), whilst a series of Pictish symbols carved into its entrance walls suggest that the cave’s importance continued into the Early Medieval Period. A new programme of analysis has utilised advanced 3D digital documentation and 3D metrology (specifically, 3D laser scanning) to enable this inaccessible site to be appreciated by wider audiences and analysed remotely. Detailed in situ recording of the Pictish symbols was undertaken using macro-level structured light scanning and the high-fidelity digital models blended with terrestrial laser scan data of the cave interior to show the location and detail of the carvings. This chapter examines the value of emerging digital approaches in the analysis, presentation and management of the Sculptor’s Cave, from the elucidation of additional carved details and the monitoring of surface degradation, to the dissemination of this difficult-to-access site to the wider public via online platforms. / Historic Environment Scotland provided funding for scanning work. Collaborators Visualising Heritage and Fragmented Heritage at the University of Bradford, funded by HEIF (via the University of Bradford) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/L00688X/1), respectively.