Nidhi Varshney on behalf of LoC, Photographers G. Pannerselvam and A. Ranjan
Introduction
OCEANS 2022 Chennai was the most sought-after event after long COVID dredges. It was held in the beautiful city of Chennai, which is a cosmopolitan city, playing an important role in the historical, cultural, and intellectual development of India where one can experience the enchanting ocean. OCEANS 2022 was a hybrid event keeping both the virtual and physical event spirit live. The event had a theme — Inspire, Innovate, Sustain, which was meant to inspire the new generation to strive and work in the field of Ocean technology, which needs innovations and a thought process to find sustainable solutions to harvest the ocean resources. IIT Madras Research Park served as an apt venue for the hybrid conference, situated in the heart of the city with greenery all around and having world-class infrastructure. This is India’s first University-based research park, which is a hub for R&D partners.
It was an amalgamation of technology building through collaborative learning, technical sessions, workshops, panel discussions, student activities, and a huge range of exhibitors showcasing the latest innovations in products and services from across the globe. There were 207 physical participants & 131 virtual participants from the host Country and 28 physical participants & 138 virtual participants from other countries. OCEANS 2022 was also endorsed by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).
Student Hackathon
OCEANS 2022 Chennai kick-started with a student Hackathon on 20 February, which aimed at Hardware Interface and Data Analysis (HIDA) for Unified Earth System Observation. Participants were invited to come up with new innovative prototypes or ideas that will help in efficiently solving one or more problems for the Earth system observation. There were two tracks for the event.
Track 1: HARDWARE INTERFACE focused on using hardware to provide the solution to the problem. Robust, flexible all-time 24×7, all-weather, and low-cost electronics and software to be the main goal to be applied to a variety of science missions for acquiring data and storing for both terrestrial and ocean applications.
This was a completely physical event having 44 students participating as 10 teams from various institutions. IIT Madras bagged the 1st Prize, Sri Sai Ram Engineering College – 2nd Prize and SRM University – 3rd Prize.
Track 2: DATA ANALYSIS involves using high-quality labelled data from prior missions to investigate natural and sensor/platform-induced signals. The problem statement will initiate a new thinking process among students to handle different types of data formats used in land and ocean observation and also involve them in producing logical codes to process the data based on the requirement.
Data Analysis was conducted through virtual mode on the same day. A total of 26 students participated from 7 institutions, where IIT Kharagpur bagged 1st Prize, IIT Bhubaneswar – 2nd, and IIT Madras – 3rd Prize.
Tutorials
As part of the pre-conference activity, eight tutorial sessions were conducted on 21 February, 2022. The tutorials were free of charge for registered participants. The sessions were held online on a virtual conference platform created exclusively for OCEANS 2022. Six half-day and two full-day tutorials were scheduled over the day, considering the time zone of the instructors being from different parts of the world.
- T1- Prof. R. Sundaravadivelu, IIT Madras, Topic: Deepening of ports in India.
- T2- Dr. B. Pranesh and Mr. Rahul Bharti, NIOT, Topic: Design in Nature and its Applications in Ocean Engineering
- T3- Dr. Pushp Bajaj and VAdm Pradeep Chauhan, National Maritime Foundation in New Delhi, Topic: Collapsing Marine Biodiversity and its Implications for the Blue Economy – How You Can Help Reverse This.
- T4- Dr. Anders Tengberg, University of Gothenburg/Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden Topic: Oxygen Measurements in Ocean.
- T5- Prof. Karl von Ellenrieder, Libera Universitá di Bolzano, Italy, Topic: Fundamentals of Marine Vehicle Control
- T6- Prof. Nikolas Xiros, the University of New Orleans USA Topic: Dynamical Systems for Harnessing Water Wave Power
- T7- Prof. Francisco Presuel-Moreno, Florida Atlantic University, Topic: Corrosion Control and Mitigation for Materials Used in the Ocean
- T8- Prof. P. Ananthakrishnan, IIT Madras, Topic: Study of Oceanographic Flows
Student Activities
The outdoor activities are opening up and hence a student mixer activity as is common to all OCEANS conferences was held. Student Luncheon and outing to an aquarium and beach were organized on the 21st providing an opportunity to chill and relax. After the outing, the group made a quick dash to the city for the ice-breaker dinner, which again was the time to socialize before the intense conference.
Ice breaker reception
Ice breaker reception was held at Hotel GRT and it was enjoyed by one and all. Mr. Christopher Whitt, IEEE OES President, interacted with the participants, sponsors, and students during the dinner.
Inauguration
OCEANS 2022 was formally inaugurated on the Feb 22nd by Mr. Madhu Nair, Chairman cum Managing Director, Cochin Shipyard Ltd., who was the chief guest. Other Dignitaries being, Dr. G. A. Ramadass, Director, NIOT – Patron, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras – Patron, Mr. Christopher Whitt, President IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society, Padmashree Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Chief Executive, IITM Research Park.
As always OCEANS 2022 had a huge range of exhibitors showcasing the latest innovations in products and services from across the globe. Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies and former Secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, inaugurated the exhibition. An exhibitor’s dinner was held in the venue itself on the 22nd with live counters preparing authentic Indian cuisine. Our sponsors and the exhibitors were also felicitated during the dinner. 28 Exhibiting Companies were present physically and 31 companies were virtual. There were 4 Platinum Sponsors, 9 Gold Sponsors, 14 Silver Sponsors, and 2 Exhibitors. The Exhibition hall was excellently renovated. Marine Technology Society, Sea Technology, and Hydro International were the Media Partners. IIT Madras, NIOT, IITM Research Park, Naval Research Board – DRDO were Patrons. Ocean Society of India, SOCERS, SUT, and Ocean Energy Systems were the Technical Sponsors.
Plenary Sessions
The event hosted plenary talks by eminent scientists and researchers from across the world on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Prof. R. Sundaravadivelu, Emeritus Professor IIT Madras, was the chair for the plenary-1 session on the 22nd.
Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Director Institute of Advanced Studies, physically presented the talk. Topic: Towards Heralding an Era of Blue Economy.
Dr. Sameer Kamath, Director General Naval Systems & Materials (NS &M) from DRDO. Topic: Virtually on Technologies for Secure Seas – Current and Futuristic Perspective
Vice Admiral Sandeep Naithani, Chief of Material of the Indian Navy. Topic: Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Naval Ships
Dr. Margaret Leinen, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Vice-Chancellor – Marine Science of University of California San Diego. Topic: The UN Ocean Decade and COP26 Ocean Action: an important synergy
Prof. Peter M. Haugan Former Chair – Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, UNESCO, Programme Director – Institute of Marine Research, Professor – Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen. Topic: The role of science and technology in transformation towards a sustainable ocean economy.
Dr. G. A. Ramadass, Director, NIOT chaired the 2nd Plenary Session on Wednesday, the 23rd.
Dr. Katsuyoshi Kawaguchi, Director–General, JAMSTEC, Visiting faculty member of Center for Integrated Underwater Observation Technology, Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo. Topic: Earthquake and tsunami surveillance system in seafloor and social implementation of real- time data.
Mr. Craig McLean, Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (NOAA Research). Topic: If not now, when? A lifetime’s opportunity in this moment
Dr. Gary Brassington, Australia’s Leading Researchers in the Operational Ocean Prediction, Bureau of Meteorology’s Senior Principal Research Scientist for Ocean Modelling. Topic: Operational global ocean forecasting – how the international community is organised, the status of current systems, performance and comparison
Mr. Liu Feng, Secretary General of COMRA. Topic: COMRA’s Deep Seabed Nodule Mining Test Project
Screenshot of the virtual platform
Technical sessions
The complete event was on hybrid mode with participants presenting papers physically in 4 parallel sessions and participants presenting papers virtually in 5 parallel sessions, all at the same time.
The event had 33 hybrid and 51 virtual technical presentations on a large number of topics viz Underwater Acoustics and Acoustical Oceanography, Sonar signal/Image processing and communication, Ocean Observing Platforms, Systems and Instrumentation, Remote Sensing, Ocean Data Visualization, Modeling and Information Management, Marine Environment, Oceanography and Meteorology, Optics, Imaging, Vision and E-M Systems, Marine Law, Policy, Management and Education, Offshore Structures and Technology, Ocean Vehicles and Floating Structures, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Petroleum Engineering and many more.
There were some parallel events like GOOS MTS Ocean Dialogue and Panel Discussion, Women in Engineering Session and Young Professionals’ Program in Hybrid mode.
Panel Discussion
A Panel Discussion with topic Climate change solutions & the Ocean Decade was conducted in hybrid mode with moderators Mr. Craig McLean, NOAA; Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. A special address was given by Dr. Vladimir Ryabinin, Executive Secretary of IOC/UNESCO. The panelists were:
- Bjornar Selnes Skjaeran, Minister of Fisheries & Ocean Policy, Norway
- Michel Jean, President INFCOM WMO, Geneva
- Boram Lee World bank
- Nisha Mendiratta, head CCP and Women Scientists Programme, DST
- V. Sundar, Professor Emeritus, IITM
- Danish DR Project Scientist II Global water & climate Adaptation Centre, IIT Madras
Concluding Remarks were given by HSH Prince Albert II, Sovereign Prince, Principality of Monaco. Dr. R. Venkatesan, Dr. S. A. Sannasiraj, Meredith Kurz and Theresa Keith were the organisers.
GOOS MTS Ocean Dialogue with panelists Emma Heslop, UNESCO IOC; Peer Fietzek, M/s Kongsberg Maritime; Donna Kocak, L3Harris; R Venkatesan, NIOT; George Mathew, M/s Norinco Pvt. Ltd. India; moderated by Zdenka Willis, MTS President, was also organized as one of the side events of OCEANS 2022 Chennai.
Women in Engineering session was conducted virtually in the Morning and as Hybrid in the Evening on 23 February, inspiring young women to advance in their careers.
The panelists in the morning session were:
- Ira Didenkulova, Asso., Prof. University of Oslo
- Purnima Jalihal, Scientist G, NIOT
- Nimmi Nair, Naval Physical & Oceanographic Laboratory
- Milica Stojanovic, Professor, NE University
- Ananya Sengupta, Asst. professor, University of Iowa
- Brandy Armstrong, IEEE OES
- Vinti Nayyar, IIT Delhi
- Nidhi Bisla, IIT Delhi
The panelists for the evening session were:
- K. Murali, Professor, IITM
- Zdenka Willis, MTS President
- Malini V Shankar, Vice-Chancellor, IMU Chennai
- V G Idichandy, Chairman, Naval Research Board
- Timothy A Gonsalves, Professor Emeritus, IITM
- G. Latha, Scientist G, NIOT
- Sheeja Janarthanan, Associate Professor, IMU Visakhapatnam
- Ligy Phillip, Institute Chair Professor, IIT Madras
- Anandavalli N, Director, CSIR
Young Professionals Program with panelists Dr. T.Asokan, Mr. Antony Jacob Ashish, Acoustics and Non-destructive Evaluation, Planys Technologies, Dr. Nikola Miskovic, Professor at University of Zegreb (Croatia) and Director of LABUST and Ms. Jill Zande, President/Executive Director of Marine Advanced Technology Education Inspiration for Innovation, California, was also held.
Gala dinner
A fun-filled Gala dinner was organized on the 23rd with a cultural program showcasing art forms of the southern part of India. Young girls performed an Indian classical dance called Bharatnatyam. Also, the traditional art forms, nadaswaram (wind instrument), thavil melam (drums), poikaal kudhirai (dance with hoofs like cow), mayilatam (peacock dance) and karagatam (balancing on the head – dance form) were performed. There were games for kids and youngsters. The prizes for the Student Poster Competition (SPC) were announced during the function. The SPC prizes were sponsored by ONRG.
Student Poster Competition
Abstracts were received and 19 were selected for Student Poster Competition. The prize winners’ details were announced at Gala Dinner. The winners are:
- Weng Yang, University of Tokyo, Japan – 1st Prize, called as Norman Miller Award
- Yang Zhiding, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada – 2nd Prize
- Bozzi Fabricio, University of Algarve, Portugal – 3rd Prize
The prizes are sponsored by Schmidt Ocean Institute. Special prize for host country was sponsored by LoC to Ms. Nandhini Tata, Sri Sairam Engineering College, Chennai, India. The SPC judges were: Prof. V. Sundar, Prof. T. Asokan, Dr. N Vedachalam, Dr. P. Muthuvel.
The closing
OCEANS 2022 Chennai was a great event and was the result of unstinting efforts of the Local Organizing Committee, who have worked tirelessly for past many years witnessing many ups and downs due to COVID. The event ended with a hot wash meeting with LOC, Dr. John Watson, IEEE OES President, Christopher Whitt, and the liaison officers Dr. Venugopalan and Dr. Donna Kocak. The chairs of OCEANS 2022 Chennai, Dr. M. A. Atmanand and Prof. S. A. Sannasiraj, formally congratulated everyone for the grand success.
Suleman Mazhar has been working as a professor in Information & Communication Engineering at Harbin Engineering University (China) since July 2019. He did PhD from Tokyo University (Japan) and postdoctorate from Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA). He had BS-CS from FAST-NUCES (Lahore) and MS from GIK Institute (Pakistan). He is TYSP young scientist fellow (Ministry of Science & Technology China) and have won several research grants from international organizations such as DAAD (Germany), ICIMOD (Nepal), NRPU (Higher Education Commission Pakistan), WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature) Pakistan. His research focus is deep learning and signal processing applications for environmental monitoring, with particular focus on underwater acoustics, and marine mammal conservation. He is a reviewer for professional journals such as Journal of Acoustical Society (America), IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, IEEE Sensors Journal, Applied Acoustics, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Peng Ren is a full professor with the College of Oceanography and Space Informatics, China University of Petroleum (East China). He is the director of Qingdao International Research Center for Intelligent Forecast and Detection of Oceanic Catastrophes. He received the K. M. Scott Prize from the University of York, the Natural Science award (first rank) from China Institute of Electronics, and the Eduardo Caianiello Best Student Paper Award from 18th International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing as one co-author. He has served as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.
Mohd Rizal Arshad is a full professor at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia, where he specializes in ocean robotics technology and intelligent system. He received his B.Eng. in Medical Electronics & Instrumentation and PhD in Electronic Engineering from University of Liverpool, UK in 1994 and 1999, respectively. He completed his MSc. in Electronic Control Engineering from the University of Salford, UK in Dec 1995. He has supervised many postgraduate students and published extensively in local and international publications. He is a senior member of the IEEE, and was awarded IEEE OES Presidential Award in 2019.
Itzik Klein is an Assistant Professor, heading the Autonomous Navigation and Sensor Fusion Lab, at the Charney School of Marine Sciences, Hatter Department of Marine Technologies, University of Haifa. He is an IEEE Senior Member and a member of the IEEE Journal of Indoor and Seamless Positioning and Navigation (J-ISPIN) Editorial Board. Prior to joining the University of Haifa, he worked at leading companies in Israel on navigation topics for more than 15 years. He has a wide range of experience in navigation systems and sensor fusion from both industry and academic perspectives. His research interests lie in the intersection of artificial intelligence with inertial sensing, sensor fusion, and autonomous underwater vehicles.
John R. Potter (IEEE M’94, SM’02, F’18) graduated in the previous century with a joint honours Mathematics and Physics Degree from Bristol and a PhD. in Glaciology and Oceanography from Cambridge, UK studying Antarctic ice mass balance, where he spent four consecutive summers. This work helped underscore the non-linear fragility of polar ice to climate change and led to him receiving the Polar Medal from Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.
Nick is a Visiting Fellow at the UK National Oceanographic Center, Southampton His nomination was endorsed by the Underwater Acoustics Technology Committee. He had worked as a Research Associate and Lecturer at University of Birmingham and has been working as a Research Scientist at the Applied Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin. He has also served as a Program Officer at the Office of Naval Research Global. He is a senior member of IEEE (OES) and a Fellow of Acoustical Society of America (ASA). Nick has also been serving as Assoc. Editor for IEEE JoE and JASA. He is widely acknowledged for his expertise are seabed acoustics, parametric array modeling, sonar beamformer, underwater signal processing.
Maurizio Migliaccio (M’91-SM’00-F’17) is Full professor of Electromagnetics at Università di Napoli Parthenope (Italy) and was Affiliated Full Professor at NOVA Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL (USA). He has been teaching Microwave Remote Sensing since 1994. He was visiting scientist at Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Lüft und Raumfahrt (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. He was member of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) scientific committee. He was member of the ASI CosmoSkyMed second generation panel. He was e-geos AdCom member. He was Italian delegate of the ESA PB-EO board. He was Member of South Africa Expert Review Panel for Space Exploration. He serves as reviewer for the UE, Italian Research Ministry (MIUR), NCST, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong Research board. He lectured in USA, Canada, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Italy. He was Italian delegate at UE COST SMOS Mode Action. He is listed in the Italian Top Scientists. He is an IEEE Trans. Geoscience and Remote Sensing AE, International Journal of Remote Sensing AE, and was IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering AE Special Issue on Radar for Marine and Maritime Remote Sensing, IEEE JSTARS AE of the Special Issue on CosmoSKyMed, Member of the Indian Journal of Radio & Space Physics Editorial board. His main current scientific interests cover SAR sea oil slick and man-made target monitoring, remote sensing for marine and coastal applications, remote sensing for agriculture monitoring, polarimetry, inverse problems for resolution enhancement, reverberating chambers. He published about 160 peer-reviewed journal papers on remote sensing and applied electromagnetics.
He has developed various types of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and related application technologies including navigation methods, a new sensing method using a chemical sensor, precise seafloor mapping methods, a precise seabed positioning system with a resolution of a few centimeters, a new sensing system of the thickness of cobalt-rich crust; and more. He has shown, by using these technologies that AUVs are practicable and valuable tools for deep-sea exploration.
Donna Kocak has had an outstanding career in defense and scientific projects developing and applying solutions in subsea optics, imaging and robotics. She graduated with an M.Sc in Computer Science in 1997 from the University of Central Florida; an MBA in 2008 from the University of Florida; and M.Sc in Industrial Engineering in 2011 from the University of Central Florida. She is currently a Senior Scientist, Advanced Concepts Engineering, and Fellow at the Harris Corporation in Melbourne, Florida, where she has developed novel optical imaging and communication solutions for under-sea defense and scientific projects. Prior to 2008 Donna Kocak was Founder and President of Green Sky Imaging, LLC (GSI) who developed laser/video photogrammetry software for underwater inspection and survey. Her earlier career positions were with Naval Training Systems Center, Florida; Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Florida; eMerge Interactive; and the Advanced Technologies Group in Florida.
John Potter has a Joint Honours degree in Mathematics and Physics from Bristol University in the UK and a PhD in Glaciology and Oceanography from the University of Cambridge on research in the Antarctic, for which he was awarded the Polar Medal in 1988. John has worked on polar oceanography, underwater acoustics, ambient noise (including imaging), marine mammals, communications, IoUT, autonomous vehicles and strategic development. He has 40 years’ international experience working at the British Antarctic Survey in the UK, NATO in Italy, SIO in California, NUS in Singapore and most recently at NTNU in Norway. John is a Fellow of the IEEE and MTS, an Associate Editor for the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, IEEE OES Distinguished Lecturer, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer & an International Fellow of the Explorer’s Club.
Dr. James V. Candy is the Chief Scientist for Engineering and former Director of the Center for Advanced Signal & Image Sciences at the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Candy received a commission in the USAF in 1967 and was a Systems Engineer/Test Director from 1967 to 1971. He has been a Researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 1976 holding various positions including that of Project Engineer for Signal Processing and Thrust Area Leader for Signal and Control Engineering. Educationally, he received his B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Cincinnati and his M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is a registered Control System Engineer in the state of California. He has been an Adjunct Professor at San Francisco State University, University of Santa Clara, and UC Berkeley, Extension teaching graduate courses in signal and image processing. He is an Adjunct Full-Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Candy is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and elected as a Life Member (Fellow) at the University of Cambridge (Clare Hall College). He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Phi Kappa Phi honorary societies. He was elected as a Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Candy received the IEEE Distinguished Technical Achievement Award for the “development of model-based signal processing in ocean acoustics.” Dr. Candy was selected as a IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for oceanic signal processing as well as presenting an IEEE tutorial on advanced signal processing available through their video website courses. He was nominated for the prestigious Edward Teller Fellowship at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Candy was awarded the Interdisciplinary Helmholtz-Rayleigh Silver Medal in Signal Processing/Underwater Acoustics by the Acoustical Society of America for his technical contributions. He has published over 225 journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports as well as written three texts in signal processing, “Signal Processing: the Model-Based Approach,” (McGraw-Hill, 1986), “Signal Processing: the Modern Approach,” (McGraw-Hill, 1988), “Model-Based Signal Processing,” (Wiley/IEEE Press, 2006) and “Bayesian Signal Processing: Classical, Modern and Particle Filtering” (Wiley/IEEE Press, 2009). He was the General Chairman of the inaugural 2006 IEEE Nonlinear Statistical Signal Processing Workshop held at the Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. He has presented a variety of short courses and tutorials sponsored by the IEEE and ASA in Applied Signal Processing, Spectral Estimation, Advanced Digital Signal Processing, Applied Model-Based Signal Processing, Applied Acoustical Signal Processing, Model-Based Ocean Acoustic Signal Processing and Bayesian Signal Processing for IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society/ASA. He has also presented short courses in Applied Model-Based Signal Processing for the SPIE Optical Society. He is currently the IEEE Chair of the Technical Committee on “Sonar Signal and Image Processing” and was the Chair of the ASA Technical Committee on “Signal Processing in Acoustics” as well as being an Associate Editor for Signal Processing of ASA (on-line JASAXL). He was recently nominated for the Vice Presidency of the ASA and elected as a member of the Administrative Committee of IEEE OES. His research interests include Bayesian estimation, identification, spatial estimation, signal and image processing, array signal processing, nonlinear signal processing, tomography, sonar/radar processing and biomedical applications.
Kenneth Foote is a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from The George Washington University in 1968, and a Ph.D. in Physics from Brown University in 1973. He was an engineer at Raytheon Company, 1968-1974; postdoctoral scholar at Loughborough University of Technology, 1974-1975; research fellow and substitute lecturer at the University of Bergen, 1975-1981. He began working at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, in 1979; joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1999. His general area of expertise is in underwater sound scattering, with applications to the quantification of fish, other aquatic organisms, and physical scatterers in the water column and on the seafloor. In developing and transitioning acoustic methods and instruments to operations at sea, he has worked from 77°N to 55°S.
René Garello, professor at Télécom Bretagne, Fellow IEEE, co-leader of the TOMS (Traitements, Observations et Méthodes Statistiques) research team, in Pôle CID of the UMR CNRS 3192 Lab-STICC.
Professor Mal Heron is Adjunct Professor in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and is CEO of Portmap Remote Ocean Sensing Pty Ltd. His PhD work in Auckland, New Zealand, was on radio-wave probing of the ionosphere, and that is reflected in his early ionospheric papers. He changed research fields to the scattering of HF radio waves from the ocean surface during the 1980s. Through the 1990s his research has broadened into oceanographic phenomena which can be studied by remote sensing, including HF radar and salinity mapping from airborne microwave radiometers . Throughout, there have been one-off papers where he has been involved in solving a problem in a cognate area like medical physics, and paleobiogeography. Occasionally, he has diverted into side-tracks like a burst of papers on the effect of bushfires on radio communications. His present project of the Australian Coastal Ocean Radar Network (ACORN) is about the development of new processing methods and applications of HF radar data to address oceanography problems. He is currently promoting the use of high resolution VHF ocean radars, based on the PortMap high resolution radar.
Hanu Singh graduated B.S. ECE and Computer Science (1989) from George Mason University and Ph.D. (1995) from MIT/Woods Hole.He led the development and commercialization of the Seabed AUV, nine of which are in operation at other universities and government laboratories around the world. He was technical lead for development and operations for Polar AUVs (Jaguar and Puma) and towed vehicles(Camper and Seasled), and the development and commercialization of the Jetyak ASVs, 18 of which are currently in use. He was involved in the development of UAS for polar and oceanographic applications, and high resolution multi-sensor acoustic and optical mapping with underwater vehicles on over 55 oceanographic cruises in support of physical oceanography, marine archaeology, biology, fisheries, coral reef studies, geology and geophysics and sea-ice studies. He is an accomplished Research Student advisor and has made strong collaborations across the US (including at MIT, SIO, Stanford, Columbia LDEO) and internationally including in the UK, Australia, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, India, Sweden and Norway. Hanu Singh is currently Chair of the IEEE Ocean Engineering Technology Committee on Autonomous Marine Systems with responsibilities that include organizing the biennial IEEE AUV Conference, 2008 onwards. Associate Editor, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 2007-2011. Associate editor, Journal of Field Robotics 2012 onwards.
Milica Stojanovic graduated from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, in 1988, and received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, in 1991 and 1993. She was a Principal Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 2008 joined Northeastern University, where she is currently a Professor of electrical and computer engineering. She is also a Guest Investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Milica’s research interests include digital communications theory, statistical signal processing and wireless networks, and their applications to underwater acoustic systems. She has made pioneering contributions to underwater acoustic communications, and her work has been widely cited. She is a Fellow of the IEEE, and serves as an Associate Editor for its Journal of Oceanic Engineering (and in the past for Transactions on Signal Processing and Transactions on Vehicular Technology). She also serves on the Advisory Board of the IEEE Communication Letters, and chairs the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society’s Technical Committee for Underwater Communication, Navigation and Positioning. Milica is the recipient of the 2015 IEEE/OES Distinguished Technical Achievement Award.
Dr. Paul C. Hines was born and raised in Glace Bay, Cape Breton. From 1977-1981 he attended Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, graduating with a B.Sc. (Hon) in Engineering-Physics.