Law heads up a team of researchers from Carleton University, Hong Kong University, and Canada's National Research Council. Their goal is to come up with a device to detect the length and quality of these nails without removing them from the soil. This determines the length of the nail. Law has been involved with preliminary tests of a new device at Hong Kong University this summer, but he says that there is still work to be done to improve the accuracy. This fall, researchers at Carleton will build a model of a slope in a lab on campus and will begin testing prototypes to refine the device.
Law is very optimistic about the outcome of the project.