Masanao Shinohara, Symposium General Co-Chair of UT23, OES Japan Chapter Chair
The IEEE OES international symposium on Underwater Technology 2023 (UT23) organized by IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (IEEE/OES), IEEE/OES Japan Chapter, Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), the University of Tokyo, and Earthquake Research Institute (ERI), the University of Tokyo, was held from 6 to 9 March, 2023, at IIS, the University of Tokyo. The UT23 was basically an in-person meeting, however, also had a webinar option. The venue was assigned to the conference hall named as “Haricot” on the second floor, and a meeting room on the third floor of the building An, IIS, the University of Tokyo. Originally the Underwater Technology was planned to be held in 2021 at IIS, the University of Tokyo. However, the meeting was postponed till March 2023 due to COVID-19. Although The Underwater Technology 2021 online (UT21 Online), which consisted of two special programs: two keynote talks and Underwater Video Competition was held, the international symposium on Underwater Technology was opened for the first time in four years.
There were 162 researchers, students and professionals from 20 countries appearing for this important gathering for the underwater technology community. In the symposium, one keynote panel and two keynote talks were given on the 7th and 8th in the late afternoon, respectively.
Two parallel sessions were arranged for the 75 talks such that the attendees could have the best coverage of participation at their own interest. Because the UT23 accepted online presentations, 14 presentations were performed through webinar. All the presentations were also broadcast via webinar. Student Poster Session was held online, however, in the hall “Foyer” positioned next to the “Haricot,” all 13 student posters drew the attendees’ attention about the young talents for the ocean, while nine booths demonstrated their up-to-date products and information for new solutions. The “Foyer” and several social places, including presentation venues, gave opportunities for refreshing old friendships from four years ago and establishing new connections.
The activity of UT23 started with the pre-event carried out in the afternoon on the 6th of March at the “Horicot” in IIS, the University of Tokyo by IEEE/OES Hong Kong Chapter and IEEE/OES Japan Chapter. The pre-event “Workshop on Career Path Benefits of AUV/ROV Competitions” aimed introduction of the AUV/ROV Competitions in Asian countries, Europe and America. Discussions on how the competitions improve the career opportunities in this area and how such competition and networking helps prepare for such a career to the competition participants (students and young researchers) were held. First, lectures and discussions leading by Co-Chairs Dr. Takumi Matsuda, Meiji University, and Dr. Paul A. Hodgson, City University of Hong Kong, were given. Then a demonstration was performed at the pool tank in IIS, the University of Tokyo, with a webinar by the University of Tokyo student team, the University of Tokyo team, and Hong Kong team.
UT23 started on March 7th, 2023, with the opening ceremony led by Dr. Chang-Kyu Rheem, General Co-Chair of UT23, professor of IIS, the University of Tokyo. The opening ceremony was also distributed using webinar to the world. At the opening, Dr. Katsuyoshi Kawaguchi, General Co-Chair of UT23, the Director of Engineering Department, Japan Agency for Marin-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Mr. Robert L. Wernli, General Co-Chair of UT23, and Professor Fausto Ferreira, IEEE OES VPWS, gave welcome messages to greet the guests.
Keynote talks
Keynote talks consisted of three sessions. Professor Yutaka Michida, Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo convened and led the keynote session “the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science” on the evening of the 7th. Prof. Michida, Dr. Vladimir Ryabinin, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (IOC-UNESCO), and Professor Dato’Dr Noraieni Haji Mokhtar, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, gave the keynote talk, and followed by a panel discussion. Dr. Vladimir Ryabinin joined the keynote talk through the internet. You can read the UN Decade panel report by Professor Michida in this issue.
The second talk was given by Dr. G.A. Ramadass, National Institute of Ocean Technology (NOIT), India, by webinar in the afternoon on the 8th of March. Title of his presentation was “Technology for the Deep Ocean Exploration,” and his talk included the introduction of underwater unmanned vehicles in NIOT, India. Finally, Prof. Karen Heywood, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, gave a keynote talk entitled as “Ocean Observations Using Autonomous Vehicles in Challenging Environments.” She also made a presentation and discussion through webinar. Although there were online speakers for all the keynote talk sessions, presentations and discussiosn with persons in the venue were conducted uninterruptedly.
Technical Sessions
Professor Toshihiro Maki chaired the technical program committee. The 125 submitted abstracts were peer-reviewed, and 99 papers including 13 posters were selected by the technical committee for presentation categorized into the following topics:
- Environmental Monitoring
- Marine Construction
- Marine Robotics
- Acoustics and Communications
- Sensors
- Observatory and Disaster Mitigation
- Special Topic: Remote Observation and Cloud Computing
- Marine Mineral Resources
- Fishery Engineering
- Renewable Energy
Finally, 89 papers were submitted including 13 posters. Therefore two-parallel sessions were adopted to make all presentations in three days. We can recognize that the topics related to marine robotics are popular due to the number of submissions. Reflecting the frequent occurrence of disasters in Japan, many papers corresponding to the field of observatory and disaster mitigation were submitted.
Student Poster Competition
The student posters were put on stands for the attendees to visit during the period of the conference in the exhibition hall “Foyer” where many attendees walked around for registration, exhibition and coffee breaks. There were 13 student posters. However, discussion with the poster presenters was performed on the internet using internet utility to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Poster sessions were held on the 7th and 8th of March online for one hour and fifteen minutes. During the poster sessions, the judge group visited every poster on the internet space, and listened to the authors and inspired them with the potential applications or insights of their work. Discussion through the internet was smoothly completed because the tool for communication was well-developed and there was much experience for discussion using internet tools for both students and the judges.
After careful evaluation and discussion of their work, the first place was won by Mr. Ling-Ji Mu, National Taiwan University, for the paper entitled as “Development and Sea Trail of the Floating Kuroshio Turbine.”
The second place went to Mr. Yuki Sekimori, the University of Tokyo, on the paper “Observability analysis of acoustic positioning for multi-agent underwater vehicles” and Mr. Tien-En Hou, National Taiwan University, for the paper “Hydrodynamic Parameter Estimation of A 20 kW Floating Kuroshio Turbine Operating in Steady State.” There were two winners for the video prizes. Mr. Ling-Ji Mu, National Taiwan University, for the video “Development and Sea Trail of the Floating Kuroshio Turbine” and Mr. Jeremy Paul Coffeltm, University of Bremen, for the video “Marine Snow Simulation and Elimination in Video” won the prize.
Exhibition
There were nine local and international companies and agents setting booths for promotion and two companies appeared on the internet. They are: OCEANWINGS, MARIMEX JAPAN, Shoshin, JAMSTEC, IDEA Consultants, Hydro Systems Development, SHIMADZU, FullDepth, NIPPON KAIYO, Nortek Japan, and Sonardyne Asia. The exhibition was held in the hall “Foyer” positioned next to the “Haricot.” Because the registration desks, student posters, and coffee breaks were positioned in the hall. many participants appeared in the hall and visited the exhibitions.
Before the closing of UT23, Professor Fausto Ferreira, IEEE OES VPWS summarized past workshops and symposia sponsored by OES in 2022, and announced OCEANS 2023 Limerick, 5-8 June and OCEANS 2023 Gulf Coast, 25-28 September. Then closing remarks were given by Professor Masanao Shinohara, General Co-Chair of UT23, ERI, the University of Tokyo, and Mr. Robert L. Wernli, General Co-Chair of UT23.
This meeting with the webinar option was the first experience for the executive committee and was different from both previous onsite events and online meetings. Although inexperienced situations appeared frequently during preparation, solutions could be found for the meeting. The executive committee expresses gratefulness for all persons and companies who cooperated in the preparation and management of UT23. Through this experience, we believe that there are many advantages for a hybrid meeting. There was no barrier at the present for discussion between participants at the venue and in the network due to development of network tools. A participant who stays in a long distant or have not enough time can easily join a meeting and make a presentation using online tools. From these merits, there is a possibility that a hybrid meeting becomes standard meeting style in the future. Finally, the executive committee of UT23 appreciates your participation and is looking forward to seeing you at a future underwater meeting.
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.