Editing Final Report/Thesis 2015 (section)

===Motivation===
[[File:Somerton_Man_Code_Photo.png|thumb|200px|right|'''Fig. 1:''' Photograph of the letters making up the Somerton Man Code <ref>J. Fettes. (2013). Professor’s 15-year search for answers seeks to crack the secret code to the death of the ‘Somerton man’ found on an Adelaide Beach [online]. Available: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/portrait-may- hold-key-to-somerton-man-beach-mystery/story-fni0ffnk-1226674957043</ref>]]
On the 1st of December, 1948, the body of a man was found at Somerton Beach, South Australia <ref>The News. (1948, December 1). Dead Man Found Lying on Somerton Beach [online]. Available: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/129897161</ref>.  There was no evidence to show the man’s identification and the cause of death <ref>The News. (1948, December 1). Dead Man Found Lying on Somerton Beach [online]. Available: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/129897161</ref>, however, there were 5 lines of capital letters, with the second line struck out, that were found on a scrap of paper in the dead man’s trouser pocket <ref>The Advertiser. (2005, March 9). Death riddle of a man with no name [online]. Available: http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/tamanshud/advertiser_mar2005.pdf</ref>.  A photo of the paper containing the letters can be seen in Figure 1.  It was later discovered that the scrap of paper was torn from a book known as the ''Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam'' <ref>The Advertiser. (1949, June 9). Cryptic Note on Body [online]. Available: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/36371152</ref>.  These letters are considered vital to the case as it is speculated that they may be a code or cipher of some sort.  As engineers, we have the ability to help investigators in solving the case.  With that in mind, this project is being undertaken to attempt to decrypt the code in order to help solve the cold case.

The South Australian Police stand to benefit from this project not only from the decoding technology developed for this case, but it also may be able to be applied to solve similar cases.  Historians may be interested in gaining further historical information from this project since the case occurred during the heightened tension of the Cold War, and it is speculated that this case may be related in some way <ref>Hub Pages Author. (2014, August 30). The Body on the Beach: The Somerton Man - Taman Shud Case [online]. Available: http://brokenmeadows.hubpages.com/hub/The-Mystery-of-the-Somerton-Man-Taman-Shud-Case</ref>.  Pathologists may also be interested as the cause of death may have been an unknown or undetectable poison <ref>Cleland. (1949). Coroner's Inquest [online]. Available: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/130195091</ref>.  This project stands to benefit the wider community as well as extended family of the unknown man to provide closure to the mysterious case.  Professor Derek Abbot also stands to benefit as he has been working closely with honours project students for the past seven years in an attempt to decipher the Somerton Man code.