Instead of food, alcohol and music, Giulio Mariotti’s tailgates feature a whole lot of science.
Mariotti, a Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences assistant professor, is planning a tailgate booth for Nov. 19. He and College of the Coast and Environment graduate students will man the booth, which will feature a wave tank demonstrating how ripples quickly form on sand beds, salty water colored with food dye to illustrate how water stratifies in the ocean and several other exhibits.
The booth will be set up before the Florida game, on the west side of the University’s Energy, Coast and Environment Building. Mariotti plans to run the booth from 8 a.m. to about noon.
“It’s an opportunity to see some of the research that has been done, to look at some interesting hands-on experiments that can be done with things as common as water and sand and mud,” Mariotti said. “And it can be an opportunity to learn about some of the simple processes that determine the fate of coastal Louisiana.”
Mariotti chose to start running the booth with the goal of educating the general public about issues surrounding Louisiana’s coast. But he said the tailgate is about more than just educating the public. It’s about “raising their curiosity about science and their interest in the science that is used to study and protect coastal Louisiana.”
The experiments that will be conducted at the booth are simply small-scale demonstrations of the processes that happen every day on Louisiana’s coast, Mariotti said.
“That’s the idea,” he said. “Waves and sediments are constantly moved. We show a very similar process on a smaller scale.”
Coastal erosion is one of the biggest issues Mariotti and many other coastal science researchers face.
“The challenge of [coastal] science is understanding the processes behind [erosion], so that predictions can be made about the future and strategies to mitigate erosion can be implemented,” Mariotti said.
His research on coastal erosion is conducted in three parts.
“I tackle this big question with different approaches,” Mariotti said. “I mostly do models of coastal erosion where I try to represent the major aspects of tides and rivers and waves to predict how the coastline will change. But I also do experiments in the lab to try to understand those processes that then go on in the model, to try and understand waves and how they move sediments around. And I do that so that the process can be very well-constrained and measurements can be done very precisely. So you get those equations that you can use to make predictions. I also do some work in the field.”
At the previous two tailgates, tailgaters of all ages stopped by the booth to look at the exhibit and ask questions about coastal processes and erosion. A few stuck their hands in the sand and mud, “experiencing first person the processes that shape coastal Louisiana,” Mariotti said.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Courtesy of The School of Coast and Environment

Children attend one of Giulio Mariotti's tailgates during a gameday during the 2016-2017 football season.