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News Friday, 27 January 2023

Cooperation Project With Indonesian Partner University Strengthens Alumni Network

RWTH has a strong alumni network in Indonesia, which was clearly evident at the GetIn-CICERO Conference held in July 2022. About 120 people came to Yogyakarta, Java, to discuss battery recycling, geohazards, geothermal energy, and resources as well as water supply tasks at the “German-Indonesian Talk on Research for Society”. RWTH co-hosted this two-day conference with Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and its alumni there. The conference was intended to define the topics of further joint research after five years of development of the BMBF-funded research activities GetIn-CICERO.

The conference was opened, among other things, with a greeting by Science Attaché Annisa Fitria, representing the German Ambassador Ina Lepel, and the signing of an agreement on a student exchange program between the engineering facilities of RWTH and UGM. In their keynote presentations, Professor Ocky Karna Radjasa from the National Agency for Research and Innovation (BRIN) and Professor Nizam from the Ministry of Education and Culture explained the structures and programs of research and international higher education teaching in Indonesia. Accompanying the conference, Professors Klaus Reicherter and Jan Schwarzbauer conducted the practical part of a workshop on environmental pollution from flood deposits using the GetIn-CICERO Laboratory of RWTH at UGM. After two years of severe travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in the year of Indonesia’s G20 presidency, the conference highlighted RWTH’s strong presence in Indonesia and its networking in Indonesian academia through its active alumni network.

The day before the conference opened, the DAAD Jakarta Office held a regional meeting of former Indonesian Deutschlandstipendium holders in Yogyakarta, which was also attended by resident RWTH alumni. At this event, the Rector’s Delegate for Alumni, Professor Bernd Markert, and the Rector’s Delegate for Collaborations With Indonesia, Professor Thomas Rüde, spoke about the importance of alumni networks for collaborations between universities and business and about RWTH’s GetIn-CICERO research activities in Indonesia. Professor Markert and Dietrich Hunold, RWTH Alumni Coordinator, took the opportunity at this DAAD Alumni Meeting to present topics related to RWTH’s international alumni activities in more detail.

During their stay in Indonesia, Bernd Markert and Dietrich Hunold were able to meet with several more of their Indonesian counterparts. They accepted the invitation from the Directorate of Partnership, Alumni and Global Initiatives of the UGM to visit the campus of the partner university, where they could share and discuss more of their ideas in greater depth.

As a result of the mediation of RWTH alumnus Sjarif Hidajat, the two guests from Aachen also had the opportunity to meet another Indonesian alumnus, Otto Toto Sugiri, at a meeting in Jakarta. Sugiri graduated from RWTH with a degree in Computer Engineering in 1980 and he is currently President Director of DCI Indonesia, the country’s leading data center provider. In his home country, he is revered as a pioneer of entrepreneurship and digitalization. Otto Toto Sugiri has fond memories of his student days at RWTH: “Aachen is like a second home for me.” He is still in touch with people in Aachen to this day.

Link of the news are:
https://magazines.rwth-aachen.de/en/kip74/start/verbundenheit-durch-wissenschaft

RWTH-UGM Expert Conference in Yogyakarta successful

News Thursday, 11 August 2022

RWTH Aachen University together with Universitas Gadjah Mada brought together more than 100 experts from business, politics and science in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on July 25 and 26 under the title “German-Indonesian Talk on Research for Society”.

Discussions were held on the topics “Making Water Supply resilient for Future”, “Circular Economy of Metals” and “Sustainable use of Georesources: Mining – Managing Geohazards” with the aim of outlining joint research areas and describing a road map for future cooperation between German and Indonesian researchers.

On the opening day, high-ranking representatives of BRIN, the Indonesian National Research Agency, and DIKTI, the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, presented keynote speeches on the newly structured funding opportunities and priorities of the national research strategy.

In two further presentations, representatives of German and Indonesian industry explained the perspective on but also the problems with Indonesia’s current research ecosystem.

The event was another successful activity of the GetIn-CICERO project. The GetIn-CICERO project is the BMBF funded research presence of RWTH Aachen University at Gadjah Mada University.

Under the motto of the conference “Together for Future Collaboration”, the signing of a Student Exchange Agreement by deans of the cooperating faculties added another dimension, as joint research and science will also be accompanied by exchange in the academic training of young researchers.

Likewise, the graduates already produced by the cooperation of the two universities were not forgotten. The conference was preceded by an alumni meeting organized by DAAD, where besides the presentation of the work of the very successful GetIn-CICERO project, the foundation of a RWTH alumni club in Indonesia was prepared.

The Effects of Alteration Degree, Moisture and Temperature on Laser Return Intensity for Mapping Geothermal Manifestations

NewsresearchUncategorized Friday, 17 September 2021

Yan Restu Freski, Christoph Hecker, Markvan der Meijde, Agung Setianto

Abstract

Understanding alteration processes in geothermal systems through remote sensing can help assess the prospectivity of a geothermal field. As a result of which, alteration detection and mapping are vital in the early exploration stage. However, many geothermal surface manifestations, which are evidence of alteration processes, often occur in densely vegetated areas, particularly in tropical regions. Current lithological mapping techniques using passive remote sensing systems can have problems with vegetation canopy completely blocking the signal. LiDAR, an active remote sensing system, can be a solution since it can (partially) penetrate vegetation canopy. It collects information from the ground in 3D-coordinated points with laser return intensity (LRI) values. In this study, we test for the first time the possibility of differentiating hydrothermally altered rocks through their LRI values in a laboratory experiment. We scanned selected altered and unaltered rocks under different moisture and temperature conditions using a terrestrial laser scanner (at 1550 nm wavelength). Our results show LRI values follow the degree of alteration: strongly altered rocks have the highest LRI, unaltered rocks are at the lowest, and weakly altered rocks show an intermediate response. Varying moisture conditions decrease LRI values for all rocks, but the relative LRI order due to alteration remains intact. We recorded no significant temperature effect on LRI values for any of the alteration stages. Our results provide the first evidence that rocks with different hydrothermal alteration phases can be distinguished by their LRI values which opens up the potential for airborne mapping of geothermal surface manifestations with LRI.

Full paper link.

Cavity Registration using Structure from Motion

News Friday, 3 September 2021

Malte J. M. Gurgel, M. Sc. | Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Preuße
September 2021

Modern, integrated methods are increasingly being used for the three-dimensional acquisition of underground cavities. In addition to active methods such as LiDAR, photogrammetric methods like Structure from Motion (SFM) could provide significant value for image-based visualization.

Ongoing research at the Institute for Mine Surveying, Mining Subsidence Engineering and Geophysics in Mining at RWTH Aachen University is dealing with the implementation of high-resolution and survey-precise cavity registration for planning, decision-making and visualization purposes, by providing georeferenced point clouds and meshed 3D models. The research is carried out as a funded doctoral project by Malte J. M. Gurgel.

 

Backgrounds of photogrammetry and structure from motion

In the past, cavities were mostly surveyed using conventional methods and instruments such as levelling devices, theodolites, or total stations by measuring individual, discrete points.

Modern methods such as photogrammetry or LiDAR enable the complete three-dimensional mapping of a cavity. While active methods like LiDAR scan the cavity, photogrammetry works passively. For this purpose, acquired measurement images are aligned to each other. The mathematical-geometrical description of the relative position and orientation in object space is called a photogrammetric model.

New methods like structure from motion allow this image alignment process to be performed largely without ground control points, since common image areas can be reliably detected automatically using feature extraction and feature matching algorithms. In further processing steps, the oriented measurement images can be used to generate dense point clouds and high-resolution, textured 3D models.

 

Research at Institute for Mine Surveying

The current research focuses mainly on the development of an integrated capturing system based on Structure from Motion, which meets the increased requirements of underground cavities. The harsh operational conditions, difficult lighting situation, and the lack of satellite-based localization capabilities require further research for such an operational environment.

Suitable geo-referencing options as well as an initial assessment of the achievable accuracy in the single-digit centimeter range were undertaken as part of a 2019 master’s thesis. (see Fig.1)

Fig. 1. Generated dense point cloud of parts the RWTH Aachen University’s mining building. (Gurgel and Preusse, 2021, see [2])

Another case study is now being evaluated based on data acquired in the former lead ore mine “Grube Wohlfahrt” in the German Eifel region. In this context, data fusion of different acquisition methods and ways of clear visualization using augmented reality are investigated. Fig. 2 shows a point cloud generated by Structure from Motion in the above-mentioned mine.

Fig. 2. Detail view of a dense point cloud of former lead ore mine “Grube Wohlfahrt” in German Eifel region. (Gurgel and Preusse, 2021)

Further research is addressing the following topics:

  • Implementation of robust geo-referencing
  • Options for a structured accuracy estimation (for single-sensor and multi-sensor acquisition systems)
  • 4D visualization of cavities that are subject to dynamic changes (monitoring)

 

Benefits of a 3-D cavity registration and possible use cases for Indonesia

The described methodology can in principle be used for a wide range of applications. Detection and monitoring of underground cavities is of great interest for active mining operations as well as for possible post-utilization concepts. In Germany, several research projects are currently looking for sites in existing or newly created underground cavities for storing energy and different media.

Such a three-dimensional survey could also be considered for other cavities, such as natural caves or other underground facilities related to water supply.

These models could be used, for example, to generate a comprehensive description of the cavity geometry as well as to determine precise values for volumes or cross-sections, e.g., to answer hydrogeological questions related to subsurface discharge systems.

Besides the wide range of applications, photogrammetric methods offer the great advantage that the evaluation process is detached from the image acquisition. This means that the image evaluation can be performed again at a later time with more powerful hardware and software and without having to acquire new image material. The original material is thus preserved for further research and can continue to be used for qualitative assessment, like characterization of surface texture.

A future extension of this research to Indonesian case studies is therefore seen as promising.

 

Selected recent publication

Specific aspects of integrated cavity registration have been discussed in the following selected publications and conference papers:

  1.  Gurgel, M. J. M. and Preusse, A. “Concept of an Integrated Capture and Evaluation Approach for a Georeferenced Visualization of   Underground Cavities“. In: Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Ground Control in Mining. Ed. by Klemetti, T. et al.   Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME), 2021.
  2. Gurgel, M. J. M. and Preusse, A. “New opportunities and challenges in surveying underground cavities using photogrammetric methods”. International Journal of Mining Science and Technology, Volume 31, Issue 1, 2021, Pages 9-13, ISSN 2095-2686, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmst.2020.12.005.

 

Contact

Malte J. M. Gurgel, M. Sc. (gurgel@ifm.rwth-aachen.de)
Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Preuße (preusse@ifm.rwth-aachen.de)

Institute for Mine Surveying, Mining Subsidence Engineering and Geophysics in Mining
(IFM)
RWTH Aachen University

Wuellnerstr. 2
52062 Aachen
Germany

Four Steps to Successful Higher Education Cooperation

NewsUncategorized Monday, 7 December 2020

Find here the article Four Steps to Successful Higher Education Cooperation by Dr. Doni Prakasa Eka Putra published in the 27/2020 edition of NADI Magazine in which he writes on his thoughts how to collaborate with two well-known institutions in Germany, namely RWTH Aachen and Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung (ZMT).

The full NADI magazine can be downloaded from the DAAD Jakarta website here.