UNO Computer Science Department Awarded $663,000 Navy Contract to Develop Mapping Systems
The University of New Orleans Department of Computer Science has been awarded a 5-year $663,000 research contract by the Naval Research Laboratory to develop next-generation defense mapping systems.
The principal investigators on the project are Mahdi Abdelguerfi, professor and chair of computer science, and John Finigan, IT director of the computer science department.
The project builds upon UNO's existing expertise in geospatial mapping systems, which refers to various types of map data including satellite photos, sea floor depth, land elevation and roads, according to Abdelguerfi.
The project is expected to use open-source software and commodity hardware—meaning hardware that is relatively affordable and generally compatible with other such devices—that will enable the Navy to process more map data faster and more cost effectively than the legacy systems that a lot of agencies are using, Abdelguerfi said.
