Would you like a large shake with that little Mac?

SDSC researchers turn SeisMac feature on Apple laptops into an innovative learning tool

What began as a way to prevent damage to the hard drive from a dropped laptop has led to an innovative project that lets seismology and engineering students or researchers study, store and share data to better understand the science of structural dynamics — be it a gentle tap or a full blown temblor.

Researchers with the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Cyberinfrastructure Center (NEESit) at the San Diego Supercomputer Center created a new application by writing dedicated, open source software programs that combine the tri-axis accelerometer, or sudden motion sensor built into every recent Apple laptop, with the iSight video camera that’s used in newer Intel-based laptops for videoconferencing.

While free downloads of the SeisMac 2.0 software, developed under a separate grant from the National Science Foundation, are available to turn Apple’s OS X application laptops into real-time seismographs, the SDSC’s iSeismograph project was envisioned as providing researchers with a data acquisition system for acceleration measurement using a widely available, cost-efficient and compact platform — a laptop computer.

“We believe this initiative has strong potential as an educational and research tool to stimulate interest in engineering and science at the earliest levels, and to promote the development of future leaders, particularly in the field of earthquake research,” said Lelli Van Den Einde, assistant director of the NEESit program based at SDSC, an organized research unit at the University of California, San Diego. “In addition, the combination of commercially available technology and open source software creates an ideal environment for worldwide collaboration and access at the university and post-graduate levels.”

SDSC researchers have already conducted a pilot classroom project with about 90 UCSD students participating as part of an undergraduate earthquake engineering course. The students, who had little or no experience in measuring structural dynamics, benefited from the visual and quantitative demonstrations, enabling researchers to suggest curriculums for future classroom demonstrations and study.