Notre Dame faculty members and graduate students from the school of architecture and department of physics are working on a project to create a 3-D map of Belvedere Courtyard in Vatican City.

The team will use Leica 3-D high speed, long range, laser scanners to document the courtyard.

Physics students will take samples of the materials used in the courtyard.

Both will be used to create a plan to preserve and protect the iconic courtyard.

"This will help them later to better able to identify which pieces need to be restored back, and which will be kept intact. And that's the new restoration that they'll be doing in the coming years," said Krupali Uplekar Krusche, Associate Professor of Architecture.

The Notre Dame team has done similar work at other world heritage sites.