Weber State student developing tech that could benefit Hill Air Force Base, Great Salt Lake
Dec 14, 2024, 6:34 PM
Weber State University graduate student Gavin Messerly works on a ground-penetrating radar unit. Messerly is developing a technology that appeals to both military personnel and researchers studying Great Salt Lake. (Benjamin Zack, Weber State University)
(Benjamin Zack, Weber State University)
OGDEN — Weber State University graduate student Gavin Messerly is harnessing his engineering expertise to develop a radar technology that appeals to both military personnel at Hill Air Force Base and WSU researchers studying Great Salt Lake.
Messerly earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering at WSU in 2023. Now he’s a project lead in the 309th Software Engineering Group at Hill Air Force Base, and is testing a new kind of ground-penetrating radar.
This technology will use software-defined radio to generate high-resolution images used to see objects underground.
“Ground-penetrating radar, as the name implies, is supposed to be radar that is designed to see subsurface objects, or discontinuities, or basically just to look at things underground,” Messerly said.
The problem with most ground-penetrating radar systems, Messerly said, is the sheer size of the technology.
Usually, the units are either like pushcarts — Messerly said to imagine a lawn mower with antennas — or handheld, metal detectoresque machines.
“(Ground-penetrating radar) has been around since, like, the 1920s,” Messerly said. “Scanning areas with (Ground-penetrating radars) can take a long time. There’s been a lot of interest in drone-based (ground-penetrating radar) — or attaching a (ground-penetrating radar) onto a small, flying drone to be able to take surveys to speed up this process.”
Please read the entire article and more from author Logan Stefanich at KSL.com.
