Optical Character Recognition

Our project aimed to understand, utilize and improve the open source Optical Character Recognizer (OCR) software, OCRopus, to better handle some of the more complex recognition issues such as unique language alphabets and special characters such as mathematical symbols. We extended the functionality of OCRopus to work with any language by creating support for UTF-8 character encoding. We also created a character and language model for the Hungarian language. This will allow other users of the software to preform character recognition on Hungarian input without having to train a completely new character model

Managing Costa Rica\u27s Waste

In May 2010, Costa Rica passed the Law for the Integrated Management of Residues, which stated that lawmakers would pass specific decrees to improve solid waste management. We worked with GTZ and CYMA to provide recommendations for these decrees. We researched international programs and conducted a focus group and interviews with key stakeholders in order to determine feasible Market-Based Instruments to improve waste management. To this end, we recommend that Costa Rica gradually implement Eco-labeling, Pay-As-You-Throw, and Deposit-Refund