Venugopalan Pallayil, Vice President for Technical Activities, IEEE OES
As my term as VPTA ends on 31 December 2022, it is appropriate that I provide a summary of the OES activities under my care during this period and reflect on how we can, as a society, do better in the future towards achieving our goals and mission. The activities that VPTA currently leads include DL programme, Chapter activities and Technology Committee activities. VPTA is assisted by the TC Coordinator and Chapter Coordinator for the associated activities. TCs are expected to assist VPTA in identifying and recommending DLs under the DL programme.
Distinguished Lecturer Programme (DLP)
Distinguished Lecturers are experts in their fields of study and the purpose of the DL Programme is knowledge dissemination among the OES community through lectures given by the DLs. DLs have been organized in the past through in-person lectures at the request of chapters or OES members. Often, this is clubbed with the travel by the Distinguished Lecturers to a conference or some technical event and delivered to a select group. However, last two years this has not been possible as most of the technical activities have been through virtual platforms owing to the restrictions imposed by the Pandemic. Some DLs utilized this opportunity to reach out to a larger OES community by giving virtual talks.
Currently, OES has 13 Distinguished Lecturers who are experts from various fields of oceanic engineering including underwater acoustics. A record five appointments were made in the year 2021, but only two DLs expressed interest to join the programme in 2022. Despite the large number of DLs, the DL activities were limited to a select few in the last two years. Both virtual and hybrid DLs delivered were well attended, and all the talks were recorded and made available on the OES YouTube Channel. To make this programme more attractive and relevant to OES members, it is recommended that DLs reach out to the OES community by announcing the titles of their talk and their availability on the OES website rather than having to wait for an interest from OES members/chapters. DLs are more aware of emerging and cutting-edge research topics in their own fields of study and hence in a better position to understand the need to disseminate such knowledge among the OES community. Such an approach would make the programme more meaningful and generate sufficient interest among the members. Chapter coordinator can also help to facilitate DL programme by announcing them to the chapter chairs. DLs are encouraged to continue delivering virtual talks, whenever an in-person talk is not feasible. There are many new student branch chapters (SBC) who might also be interested in organizing DLs. This is an area less explored. With travel possibilities opening up, there may be more opportunities for engagement between the DLs and OES members in future during conferences and symposia. Thanks to all the DLs for continuing to support the DL programme.
Chapter Activities
There are 23 chapters, 16 joint chapters and 14 SBCs as listed under the IEEE Organisational Unit (OU) Analytics. This is somewhat different from the statistics we have on our OES website. Neither Australia nor Japan is listed under OES Chapters but are figuring out under joint chapters. Japan has 8 to 9 joint chapters under various Sections. I would recommend the Chapter coordinator to work with IEEE to understand how this classification has been arrived at. Is there a way we can merge members of some of the joint chapters in Japan to form a proper OES Chapter? Something to be pursued for our future operations.
Not all chapters have been very active during 2021-22 period as per the activity reports available via IEEE vTool. It is possible that some chapters would have organized activities, but were not reported under the vTools, which is necessary for recognizing a technical event. Chapter coordinators may also want to follow up regularly on this and ensure these are updated so that relevant chapters get both the chapter rebate as well as the chapter funding support from OES. This year chapter funds to the tune of $20K are available for disbursement. As per the current technical activity Policy and Procedures (PnP), proposals for technical events were to be sought from the chapters and funding was then provided to accepted proposals on completion of the event. Due to uncertainties associated with funding availability for the last two years (with no funds available for 2021), it was not possible to follow this approach. Hence, it has been decided that funds currently available could be distributed to chapters who have been proactive during 2022 in the organization of events. An amount of $5K has been provided to Houston Chapter (towards OTC contribution) and $2K to Providence Chapter to the Alvin Milestone event. The balance of $13K will be distributed to chapters based on the technical events they have organized in 2022 and reported both in IEEE vTool and the Beacon Newsletter. This exercise is planned to be completed by 30 Nov 2022.
Chapter Engagement on IEEE OES UN Decade of Ocean Initiative (New Activity)
Proposals were sought from Chapters towards UN Decade of Oceans Initiative funding 2022. The objective was to get the chapters engaged in the theme ‘The science we need for the oceans we want’ and contribute to the UN Decade 2021-30 objectives. The following chapters put up their proposals and were funded
Singapore Chapter ($2k) – UN Decade of Oceans discussion panel during AUV 2022 symposium
Canadian Atlantic Section Chapter ($2k) – Panel discussion to increase visibility of ocean decade in Halifax and CCECE professionals (workshop)
ETITC, Columbia ($1.95k) – Challenges in implementing Ocean Decade solutions for Columbia
IIT Delhi SBC ($2k) – Student hackathon on ocean sustainability (marine pollution as specific topic)
Funding is also expected for 2023 and proposals for the same will be called by late 2022 or early 2023.
Two virtual meetings (to cover the time zones) with the chapter chairs were organized by the chapter coordinator, Gerardo Acosta, and OES volunteer Amy Deeb. During these meetings the Chapters were briefed about various activities they can be part of and different funding opportunities. Both meetings were well attended. There needs to be more engagement with the Chapters. Chapters come under Sections for operational purpose. It has been noticed that there is a disconnect between some of the chapters and their sections. For example, some chapters are unaware of chapter rebates and incentives that are being received into the Sections for the use of their activities. Similarly, sections have a responsibility to monitor and manage the chapter activities and support them. Sections are also responsible for making sure that the annual election for the administrative office of the chapters are held and the same is reported to IEEE. I would like to recommend that the chapter coordinator work with the Section and Chapter Chairs to bridge this gap. If need be, the VPTA/VPPA or the President of the Society could step in to facilitate this interaction. It is recommended that at-least two to three meetings are held annually to engage the chapters on OES technical activities and promote interaction of chapter members at an international level.
Technology Committees
There are 11 TCs at present under OES. One of the TCs, Underwater Cables and Connectors, has been inactive for few years and hence was decided to be dissolved by VPTA in discussion with TC Coordinator and the relevant TC Chair. But this is yet to be implemented. Two virtual meetings of the TCs were held to discuss activities for the year 2022. It has been observed that all the TCs have seen a significant increase in the number of sign-ups by the society members. However, these members are required to be engaged with TC activities such as in the organization of workshops and symposia more regularly if we would like to build a stronger technical community. Their services could be used in the review of conference manuscripts, organizing special sessions at OCEANS, etc. Many TCs have identified co-chairs, who could also succeed as future chairs. TCs play an important role in identifying DLs and I would like to request an active participation of all TCs in this regard. This is an area of activity that needs improvement.
Ocean Science Meeting (OSM22) (New Activity)
This year some TCs were active in organizing virtual technical sessions and plenaries at the Ocean Science Meeting (OSM) and all the sessions were well organized and attended. The theme for the technical sessions was in support of the UN Decade of Oceans where the science meets engineering. More TCs could explore this avenue to engage with ocean scientists who may have an interest in oceanic engineering and eventually become members of OES. OSM2024 may be the next opportunity to connect with OSM community in-person.
A call for new TC Chairs has been sent out to the OES community as the term of the current TC chairs expire by the end of this year. The responses received so far have been lukewarm. This is concerning as the TCs are considered as the driving force for the technology areas for our society and they form the science and engineering foundation of OES. The policy allows the current TC Chairs to be considered for another term if they had expressed interest in continuing. Alternatively, they could propose names of their co-chairs or other suitable candidates from their TC members list. Self-nomination of OES members is also encouraged if they meet the requirements for the TC chair. A list of new TC chairs will be finalized by the end of this year and after approval from AdCom will be appointed for a period of 3 years starting from 01 Jan 2023.
Volunteering
Before I close this report, a word about volunteering. Why should we volunteer? First and foremost, it is a unique opportunity for engagement with your OES community at a personal level. It is an opportunity to serve them and support the society activities. You agreed to volunteer because you have identified availability of some of your time for the said purpose and one would expect you to honour that decision. To me, taking up a volunteer position is a commitment as well and not something ‘I will do if I have the time.’ We all have a job, which pays us, and a family that needs your valuable time. This could at times compete with your volunteering time. But if this happens regularly, then there is an issue with your time management, which you need to fix. You do not need to be a member of AdCom or ExCom to serve your OES community. There is a whole suite of other avenues where OES needs help from volunteers. You can serve on the Chapter committee, OES Ocean decade initiative activities, YP Boost, WIE, many workshops and symposia which we organise, Beacon and Earthzine publications, etc. ExCom and AdCom are leadership positions, and one should expect to shoulder more responsibilities than merely attending the meetings. You may want to reflect on how you have been valuable to OES as an AdCom member and what more you can do to serve the OES community.
Finally, I would like to welcome Dr. Shyam Madhusudhana, the new VPTA for the period 2023-24. As the newly elected VP for OCEANS, I shall now turn my attention towards helping organising OCEANS in more useful ways. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the OES members for supporting me during my time as VPTA and look forward to even more support in my new role.
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.