I-Corps Teams: Application of in situ Shallow Subsurface Soil Spectroscopy (S4) to the Discovery of Clandestine Human Burials

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是更快、更可靠地发现人类埋葬地点。拟议的产品将帮助市、县、州和联邦各级的执法人员发现秘密的人体埋葬，从而帮助解决犯罪和加强公共安全。同样，在军事领域的应用将使人们能够发现在行动中失踪士兵的遗骸、在种族灭绝期间造成的乱葬坑以及冲突中的其他伤亡人员。由于产品的技术具有非常通用的能力，基于相同硬件和软件的产品可以针对各种商业应用进行定制。这些措施包括：(1)环境制图和修复工作；(2)文化资源或遗产管理，例如记录美洲原住民的墓地；(3)农业综合企业土壤化学特征；(4)考古遗址制图。所有这些应用都将创造更大的需求，从而带来商业和就业机会。最后，由于成功的应用将受到媒体的关注，它们将提供机会教育公众关于科学的本质、科学研究对公共利益的价值以及产品所涉及的技术。这个I-Corps项目涉及对现有技术（光谱学、推探式土壤测试）进行新的改造，使其在法医学领域得到新的应用。这些技术的基本概念已经确立。该产品是一种机器人移动设备，在测试地点将探针推入地面。探测器有一个窗口，可以让土壤被可见光和近红外光照射。反射光由光纤收集，光纤将光传送到待分析的表面。每一种颜色的光被土壤吸收的比例代表了每一个地下位置土壤的化学成分。然后，这些数据被解释为腐烂产物（主要是脂肪酸），表明人类尸体的存在。π吗?S早期的研究成功地识别了在受控的模拟犯罪现场和在真实的法医环境中涉及被扰乱的人类坟墓的埋葬。拟议的产品将提供实时、可靠的数据解释，以指示“命中”的存在，这是该产品在执法应用中的价值主张的重要组成部分。这标志着对当前基于实验室的分析的一个非常显著的改进。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be quicker and more reliable discovery of human burial sites. The proposed product will help law enforcement officers at municipal, county, state and federal levels discover clandestine human burials thereby aiding in the solution of crimes and enhancing public safety. Likewise, applications in the military arena would enable discovery of the remains of soldiers missing in action (MIAs), mass graves created during genocide, and other casualties of conflict. Because the technology of the product has a very general capability, a product based on the same hardware and software may be customized for a variety of commercial applications. These include: (1) environmental mapping and remediation efforts; (2) cultural resource or heritage management, e.g., by documenting Native American burial grounds; (3) characterization of soil chemistry for agribusiness applications; (4) mapping of sites in archaeology. All of these applications would create greater demand with resulting commercial and employment opportunities. Finally, since successful applications will receive media attention, they will provide the opportunity to educate the public about the nature of the science, the value of scientific research to the public good, and technology involved in the product.This I-Corps project involves a novel adaptation of existing technologies (spectroscopy, push-probe soil tests) to a new application within forensic science. The basic concepts of the technologies are well-established. The product, a robotic mobile device, pushes a probe into the ground at the test locations. The probe has a window that allows the soil to be illuminated with visible and near infrared light. Reflected light is collected by fiber optics which carry the light to the surface to be analyzed. The fraction of each color of light that is absorbed by the soil carries the signature of the chemical content of the soil at each underground location. These data are then interpreted in terms of the decay products (mainly fatty acids) that indicate the presence of human cadavers. PI?s earlier research was successful in identifying burials in both controlled mock crime scenes and in real forensic contexts involving disturbed human graves. The proposed product will provide real-time, reliable interpretation of the data to indicate the presence of a 'hit', an essential part of the value proposition of the product for law enforcement applications. This marks a very significant improvement over current lab-based analyses.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.