School of Computing Science

Prize for virtual unwrapping of the Vesuvius Scrolls

Paul Henderson of the  group received a $30,000 prize for his work on virtual 'unwrapping' of the Vesuvius Scrolls, a trove of ancient papyrus scrolls that were preserved during the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. An international competition aims to find novel methods to read text from 3D scans of these scrolls, which are too badly burnt to physically unroll. Dr Henderson developed a method blending deep learning and computational geometry techniques to automatically determine where the surface of the papyrus passes in the 3D scan volume, allowing it to be virtually flattened out into a 2D sheet.

First published: 31 January 2025