涉入任何凉爽的地方, 清澈的威斯康辛内陆湖, and the movement of your legs will create small ripples that radiate out across the surface of the water, 缓慢而稳定地消散. 但在表面之下, 你的举动也引起了轰动, 当你制造的微型波浪在水中起伏时. 湖床上的沉积物被踢起，随着颗粒的上升和下降，水短暂地变成了云. 水下植被在微风中像沙丘草一样摇摆.
片刻之间，一切又归于平静，每一步都是一连串转瞬即逝的舞蹈. 无害. 现在想象一下，这不是你的两只脚, it’s a 400-horsepower engine on the back of a boat that has been specifically designed to direct its energy downward in order to create a large wake.
尾波滑板是威斯康辛湖上很受欢迎的娱乐活动. 不像滑水运动, 滑雪者被拖在船后面，沿着水面滑行, 滑水运动员来回摇摆, 攻击由船产生的尾流，飞到空中并表演特技. 产生的尾流越大，骑手能捕捉到的空气就越多. Wake surfing foregoes the tow rope altogether; the surfer rides a wave created by the boat as it cuts through the water. 同样，尾流越大，波浪越大，航行时间也就越长. 来制造这些波浪, watercraft manufacturers specifically design boats with downward-facing propellers and additional ballast to help weigh down the rear of the boat. 即使移动缓慢, 这些船似乎随时准备跳出水面, 由于电动机的能量被迫向下排开水.
MAKING WAVES
直到你放大地图, 北湖看起来像两个湖，被一条狭窄的南北陆地分开. A closer look reveals it to be a sand bar dividing the lake into a larger eastern body of water and smaller western quarter. It’s the northernmost of a handful of deep lakes scraped across western Waukesha County by glaciers. 北湖总面积为438英亩, 最深的地方有78英尺深, 并由大小奥科诺莫克河提供水源, 一条小溪和一条小河，从小小的康奈尔湖向南延伸. 根据北湖管理区(NLMD), 湖边有238个业主.
我敢打赌，他们都喜欢保持湖泊质量的想法. 湖周围的许多房屋都有自己的码头或码头, 天气好的时候，居民们出去享受湖上的美景——浮筒船懒洋洋地滑行, 渔船顺流漂流, a small flotilla of sailboats harnesses the breeze and swimmers dive from docks and clamber onto floating offshore platforms. Add in boats towing water skiers and people on floats and finally those wave-enhancing watercraft, 或者尾流船, 湖上有很多人为活动. All of which might raise a couple of questions: what is all that activity doing to the lake and how is it affecting water quality?
蒂姆·泰尔是湖边的业主之一. He said he’s seen a change in water quality over the years he believes has been caused by several factors, “其中之一是我们搅动了很多沉积物,” he noted. In 2017, a committee formed by the NLMD instituted safe boater guidelines and conducted annual surveys, 哪项研究强烈支持进行更全面的水质研究. The presence of wake-creating boats and the more powerful wave-enhancing boats is a controversial issue on many small inland lakes, 但目前还没有太多的研究来确定它们的实际影响. 人类的行为如何影响水体的质量?
Last year, 开展这类研究的多机构努力开始了, 检查水质, 北湖波浪传播与岸线侵蚀. The project was a collaboration between the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, 威尼斯游戏大厅. Terra Vigilis, 一家专门从事无人驾驶飞机系统技术的私营公司, 被招募来帮助收集数据.
卡罗尔的团队由乔·皮亚特(Joe Piatt)领导 环境科学麦克·莫滕森，卡罗尔的主管 航空科学与无人驾驶飞机系统 program. (莫滕森和提尔也为泰拉治安维持者工作.)
The project last year felt like a really good way to explore what sort of information – data – could be collected using drones, 莫滕森解释. 无人驾驶飞机系统, or drones, were used to help visually map out the lake and to photographically document any changes to its shoreline. Drones – both airborne and submersible – were also used to help collect water samples for further analysis, 研究湖底植被，测量水下波浪作用. 在教师的协助下， Pio Scholars' students participated in the gathering of data and in creating a report documenting the team’s findings.
一旦报告提交, there was a lot of interest among lake residents and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for a deeper dive into the data.
“The DNR asked Terra Vigilis to write a grant this year with goals that were more focused on some of the things we learned from last year – more on wave propagation and sediment movement,莫滕森说. Terra Vigilis负责今年的项目, 而卡罗尔学院的教职员工将进行大部分研究.
北湖居民蒂姆·泰尔和威尼斯游戏大厅教授迈克·莫滕森.
由无人驾驶飞机系统拍摄的北湖鸟瞰图.
生物化学专业的亚历克斯·纳文在卡罗尔的化学实验室里分析样品.
多学科方法
亚历克斯·纳文，威尼斯游戏大厅的大四学生主修 biochemistry 辅修无人驾驶飞机系统, slips on a virtual reality headset and maneuvers an underwater drone away from his position on a pier on North Lake. 亮黄色的无人机, 大约一盒早餐麦片的大小, 在他的命令下潜入水面. 的潜水器, 配备明亮的灯光，能够拍摄视频和照片, 只是纳文学会使用的一系列工具之一吗, 除了驾驶无人机.
当他进入卡罗时没有人在他的监视范围内. 这个人说:“皮亚特教授去年给一群学生找了一个项目,纳文回忆道。. 他提到有很多无人机参与其中.” Navin, 谁对计算机科学和技术感兴趣, 立即表示了兴趣.
Piatt jokes that Navin’s experience playing video games has helped prepare him to operate drones. Indeed, 的潜水器, 在前辈的熟练指导下, 敏捷地划破水面, 追逐偶尔好奇的鱼. 在他的辅修课程中, Navin已经学会了操作潜水器和各种无人驾驶飞机系统. 但教训远远不止于此, 因为他已经学会了编程, 通过各种机载传感器甚至航空法进行数据收集和分析.
纳文打算毕业后从事法医或环境科学方面的工作, and he’s excited about the way the skills he is learning in the program can be utilized in either field. 他说:“我认为这些技能与许多其他领域相结合的方式很酷.
“我学到了很多不同的技能，”他后来回忆道. “我从未想过在本科学习期间进行无人机研究. 当我试图研究其他学校做这类事情的时候, well, 并不是很多. 这将使我在职业生涯中具有竞争优势, 能够操作这些系统，能够编写代码. 它汇集了我本科学习的很多领域，比如计算机科学.”
The interdisciplinary possibilities presented by this minor are both numerous and intentional, 莫滕森说, 这是该项目专注于无人机技术收集数据的结果. 近年来，这种用法呈爆炸式增长, as technological advances have resulted in an expanding variety of sensors that can be carried as drone payloads. 携带在空中的传感器可以分析植物和水的健康状况, search for the presence of specific chemicals and record and measure plumes of sediment created by watercraft. The potential for data collection is immense – as are the varieties of information that can be collected.
环境科学教授Piatt, 北湖研究项目是一次成功的合作，激发了他的思考. “我看着所有这些设备,” he said, “and thinking about how it can impact my teaching and how we can use this new technology in our chemistry labs.” Traditional biochemistry laboratories rely upon bench equipment – large and often expensive machines. “但这些微型传感器是未来的发展方向.”
At Carroll, 是哪个国家急匆匆地进入了信息时代, 强调数据收集和分析是至关重要的. 该大学宣布数据素养是所有毕业生必备的一项重要技能.
Dr. 胡里奥·里维拉，威廉·B. 商学院应用商业分析学教授, points to this research project as further proof of the interdisciplinary role to be played by 数据分析 skills across campus. 北湖研究小组已与 商学院 关于ArcGIS的使用, 一个地理信息绘图应用程序, 帮助分析和可视化地显示收集到的数据. “现在说我们被数据淹没是老生常谈了，”里维拉说. “它从每个角落涌向我们.无人机代表了另一个重要的数据流.
“我们对无人机技术的商业应用非常感兴趣，”里维拉说. “ArcGIS (as well as other GIS programs) allow users to take data (from drones or other sources) that is large, messy, and in incompatible formats and transform it into understandable analysis in the form of maps, images, charts, and tables.”
讲述数据的故事
At North Lake, 研究小组收集了水样, 测量由各种船只产生的水下波浪的深度和强度, visually recorded changes to the lakebed and shoreline over the course of the summer and generated a LOT of data. Three-dimensional maps were also created to allow the researchers to run simulations and collect additional data.
他们也收集了他们的好奇心. 莫滕森说，该组织听取了船主的意见, 船制造商和其他湖泊组织, 都对这项研究感兴趣. He is careful to explain that this is a research project only – that it will be up to others to interpret that data and craft any policy.
For all involved, that means honestly and accurately telling the story that lives within the data. “关于数据收集和分析，我们想了很多. Julio (Rivera)谈了很多关于战略性数据可视化的内容——如何呈现数据?“你需要有人告诉你这些数据意味着什么.
That’s how a collaborative project between the 航空科学与无人驾驶飞机系统 and 环境科学 departments also involves computer science, 信息技术, 数据分析, 甚至是平面设计.
莫滕森说:“威尼斯游戏大厅的做法是正确的. “我们在正确的时间推出了这个项目. 五年前, you didn’t have the numbers of off-the-shelf sensors you could put on the drones to do this sort of research. 但现在是可行的. 谢天谢地, Charlie Byler (former arts and sciences dean) and Kevin McMahon (chair of the department of computational and physical science) and others saw that we were in the position at the right time. 它还会增长.”