UOIT researcher receives funding for bloodstain pattern analysis

Oshawa, ON - A leading researcher at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) has been awarded new funding to advance research in the field of bloodstain pattern analysis at crime scenes.

Over the next three years, Dr. Franco Gaspari, assistant professor, Physics in UOIT's Faculty of Science will receive $148,700 in funding from Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) through the Canadian Police Research Centre (CPRC), a program managed by Defence Research and Development Canada - Centre for Security Science (DRDC CSS), to develop a software package that will lead to a comprehensive, quantitative and scientific understanding of all components related to impact-induced blood pattern analysis.

"We aim to improve the investigative process to allow experts to make quick assessments of likely scenarios from particular bloodstain pattern at a crime scene," said Dr. Gaspari. "This will require sound physics concepts but also knowledge of statistics, math, and computer programming. We look at a blood spatter picture from a statistical point of view in order to obtain, eventually, a simple picture that can be used as input into a computer database to extract possible scenarios that might have caused the blood spatter. Although the project itself involves several research areas, the end result will be user-friendly."

"Enhancing the operational effectiveness of law enforcement is a priority for CPRC," said Steve Palmer, Executive Director, CPRC, DRDC CSS. "This project will foster the development of an important tool that will provide investigators with improved accuracy in crime scene measurements by constructing a more precise recreation of the crime scene."

As the principal investigator of the project entitled Improved Physical Models and Software for Bloodstain Pattern Analysis, Dr. Gaspari's research is being supported at UOIT by three Faculty of Science colleagues: Dr. Dhavide Aruliah, associate professor, Mathematics; Dr. Shari Forbes, associate professor, Forensic Science; and Dr. Faisal Qureshi, assistant professor, Computing Science. A UOIT Master of Science student (Modelling and Computational Science) along with a PhD student (Computing Science) will also contribute to the research.

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