Using fiber-optic cables wound helically around the lighthouse\u2019s central stairway, Hampton\u2019s students instrumented the lighthouse in coordination with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory<\/a> and the National Park Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith fiber-optic sensing, we can monitor high-frequency and low-frequency deformations,\u201d Hampton says. \u201cLow frequency could be, for example, if there\u2019s any cantilever beam action from the wind or a big storm pushing against the structure. High frequency could be any sort of vibration from the ground or people moving through the building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nathan Opperman and Gowshikan Arulananthan are two geological engineering PhD students in Hampton\u2019s research group<\/a>. Opperman says the monitoring system yielded gigabytes\u2019 worth of data in the weeks since the researchers installed the fiber optic cables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The data shows a cyclical pattern that coincides with the daily rise and fall in temperature, (a type of low-frequency change as the structure expands and contracts). By looking at high-frequency acoustic data, the team can measure foot traffic through the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can see movement reflected in our data,\u201d Arulananthan says. \u201cYou can see people touring the facility and climbing the stairs all the way up to the top. We were curious to see if we could look at the data to find out how many events like that occurred in a given day, and we definitely can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The National Park Service preserves and maintains historically significant structures and cultural landscapes such as the Au Sable Light Station. There’s a chance the UW-Madison monitoring equipment may remain in place for up to 15 years, which would yield an unprecedented period of data collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat would be one of the only data sets in existence that really monitors climate impacts on a historic structure over a long period, especially with distributed fiber optic sensing,\u201d says Hampton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While on-site, the researchers used LIDAR to take 3D scans of the lighthouse, then used those scans to create extremely detailed\u2014using tens of millions of data points\u2014point cloud images of the structure. These images are being used to develop augmented and virtual reality site visits and inspections, allowing anyone to access scanned structures regardless of location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those scans also have value for monitoring the historic structure\u2019s health. \u201cLet\u2019s say, for example, there\u2019s a crack where the staircase connects to the wall. We\u2019d be able to tell over time that\u2019s an area that needs some attention,\u201d Opperman says. \u201cLIDAR is essential for us to locate where strains are happening because it\u2019s so sensitive. It\u2019s able to pick up things in the sub-millimeter range.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n National Park Service Historical Architect John Rosemurgy says the data collected at the 87-foot-tall brick masonry lighthouse tower will provide insight that has, so far, not been available. \u201cWe know that the structure has been resilient over the past 150 years but don\u2019t know to what extent it undergoes movement and correction from environmental forces such as storm events or even seismic activity,\u201d he says. \u201cThe collected data that Jesse and his team are analyzing will help us better tailor future preservation efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though the work is part of an ongoing research project with the Department of Defense<\/a>, Hampton also saw an opportunity to add a new dimension to his class, CEE\/GLE 534: Nondestructive Evaluation<\/em><\/a>. Typically, the class covers techniques like X-ray, ultrasound, acoustic emission and more. For the fall 2024 semester, Hampton took the class on a three-day field trip to set up nondestructive equipment at the site and later in the semester, ask the students to analyze the data they collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the things that\u2019s exciting about a class like this is they actually have exposure to real data that they collected,\u201d Hampton says. \u201cThey understand how it was collected. They can use that experience and develop different analytical tools that they\u2019ll use for a long time, even after they graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Opperman and Arulananthan both took Hampton\u2019s nondestructive evaluation course. The in-the-field experience was new for Arulananthan, who says he enjoyed it and the collaboration taking place among UW-Madison and its partners. Opperman, who did more field work earlier in his education, says Hampton\u2019s class was a unique experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJesse\u2019s taking a really bold approach, and a very admirable one, of having the class built into the structure of the research project itself,\u201d Opperman says. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of the class\u2019 first exposure to the type of data we\u2019re using, so kind of like throwing people into the deep end and expecting them to flourish in that. And I think that\u2019s a good way to teach, and leads to a lot of growth and development of people\u2019s research ability, project management and communication skills, because we\u2019re working in groups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past, Hampton has taught the course every other fall, but with the new design incorporating field trips and data collection efforts, he is transitioning it to being offered every fall (open for fall 2025). The class will incorporate similar projects, using bridges or other structures students can use for real-world experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Au Sable Lighthouse instrumentation is part of a larger project<\/a> with colleague Hannah Blum<\/a>, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. They\u2019re monitoring historic structures with support from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC-CERL).<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Three-dimensional](\"https:\/\/engineering.wisc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/lighthouse-buildings-scan-5x7-1-1024x731.avif\")