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Providence Chapter – A Social Event and Two Technical Meetings
Reported by David Leslie and Sandy Williams
An Afternoon of Sailing, August 3, 2019
The Liberté is a magnificent 3-masted schooner which plies the beautiful waters of Cape Cod and the Chesapeake Bay. During the summer it ties up at the Clam Shack, just inside the mouth of the harbor in Falmouth, MA. The vessel has a length of 74 feet overall (65 feet on deck), with a beam of 18.5 feet. This staysail schooner carries 1700 sq.ft. of sail, spread over six sails and can cruise under diesel power at 8.5 knots.
The IEEE Providence Section, in cooperation with the OES Chapter, chartered the Liberté for a 3-hr afternoon sail. The plan was to sail within the general area of Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds, but the course taken is decided by the captain and depends on the wind and tides encountered on the day of the event. In 2018 our cruise was cancelled at the discretion of the captain because of foul weather. This year the sea state was moderate and winds were brisk from the southwest. From Falmouth we sailed south across to Martha’s Vineyard and viewed the harbors of Vineyard Haven and Oaks Bluff from the sea. There was ample time on board for conversation with old and new friends from the OE chapter and the broader Providence section. A total of 17 IEEE members and 21 guests were on board. All hands were accounted for when we tied up back in Falmouth.
Dr. Chris Chapman, August 19, 2019
Large, underwater earthquakes generate many types of waves – elastic P and S body waves, surface Rayleigh and Love waves or normal modes, acoustic waves in the ocean (T phase) and ocean gravity waves (tsunami). The latter are often the most devastating and cause the greatest loss of life. On Boxing Day, December 26, 2004, a magnitude (Mw) 9.1-9.3 megathrust earthquake occurred with an epicenter off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. It was the third-largest earthquake in recorded history, lasted 9 minutes, and released as much strain energy as all other earthquakes combined over the previous 15 years. The associated tsunami propagated across the Indian Ocean where communities surrounding its coasts were greatly affected. Major disruptions occurred in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. The tsunami killed an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries. At the time of the earthquake Chris Chapman was vacationing with his wife on the coast of Sri Lanka.
Chris Chapman is the Emeritus Honorary Professor of Theoretical Seismology at the University of Cambridge, UK. He has held academic positions at the University of Alberta, the University of Toronto and Cambridge University. He has conducted research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and has worked as a Scientific Advisor for Schlumberger Cambridge Research. He is the author of the textbook “Fundamentals of Seismic Wave Propagation” (CUP, 2004). Our OES chapter hosted Professor Chapman at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, to hear his presentation on the physics of waves from an underwater earthquake and his personal experiences of the tsunami from the Boxing Day 2004 Sumatra earthquake. Professor Chapman presented data from all the types of waves emanating from this event. He described the basic physical features of the excitation and propagation of the tsunami together with the properties that made this tsunami so devastating, and he explained how the other waves can be used to issue tsunami warnings. Professor Chapman was kind enough to break away from his New England sailing vacation to make this presentation, which was attended by 7 IEEE members and 11 guests.
Dr. Rupp Carriveau, October 16, 2019
The Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment Research Institute (WindEEE RI) was established in 2011 in order to pursue novel opportunities in wind research at Western University, Canada, related to the emergence of the world’s first three-dimensional testing chamber, the WindEEE Dome. The Institute has promoted innovative research and extensive collaborations nationally and internationally. The areas of research at WindEEE target the three EEE’s: wind Engineering, Energy and Environment. Main topics of research relate to: impact of non-synoptic wind systems (such as tornadoes and downbursts) on buildings and structures, optimization of wind farms and wind turbines, physical modelling of flow over rough surfaces, urban canopies, complex topography and forestry, outdoor and indoor air quality, and wind driven rain and snow.
Dr. Rupp Carriveau is the Director of the Environmental Energy Institute and a Director of the Turbulence and Energy Lab at the University of Windsor in Ontario Canada. He is Chair of the IEEE Ocean Energy Technology Committee. His research activities focus on energy systems futures, and include collaborative research that makes use of the WindEEE facility.
Multipurpose floating platforms are now being considered for renewable offshore energy generation, energy storage, desalination, agriculture, aquaculture, and habitation. While lessons can be learned from the oil and gas industry, design constraints of these platforms make direct comparison difficult. A generic model offshore platform is currently being tested in WindEEE; a unique hexagonally domed facility capable of producing scaled tornadic, downburst, and highly sheared wind profiles. In his presentation, Dr. Carriveau discussed observations from early analysis of the data and challenges encountered during scaling, measurement, and mooring of the experiment. Initial results indicate that the extreme wind cases of tornado and downburst produced very significant motion for the platform. The lecture at WHOI was attended by 6 IEEE members and 3 guests. Coincidently, and as if to further demonstrate the relevance of wind research, Cape Cod was struck by a “Bomb Cyclone” late on the evening of this meeting, as atmospheric pressure fell by 43 millibars within 24 hours. There was widespread flooding, downed trees and power outages.
Seattle Chapter
Reported by Skip Denny
Student Marine Technology Spring Mixer
In May, the University of Washington’s Ocean Technology class students requested members of the OES and MTS local chapters to provide review and comment on the students’ year-long projects. After the presentations, the students provided a pot-luck dinner and a networking mixer. This has become an annual event since the Ocean Tech class began a couple of years ago. Students are required to build and document a simple sensor that gets deployed in the water, and an evaluation of its merits is presented to the invited professionals. The sensors range from simple temperature/conductivity cells, to acoustic tracking, and to optical AUV docking systems and software. Input from the professionals has made for an evolutionary sophistication of the individual projects as well as networking contacts for jobs and graduate direction.
Typical Student Project
OES Seattle Section Support for OCEANS Conference
The main thrust of the chapter members for the bulk of the year has been participation in the preparation and execution of the OCEANS 2019 conference held in Seattle on 27-31 October. Member participation ranged from the Local Organizing Committee (which had meetings starting at once per month in January to weekly intervals for the 6 weeks prior to the conference) and its various subcommittees, serving to review posters and papers, and a variety of volunteer activities during the conference. This level of tasking left little time for the regular chapter meetings – indeed we had to decline an offer of a talk by a Distinguished Lecturer due to overloaded schedules. An offshoot of conference participation was new linkages with other, somewhat geographically close, chapters to look at future joint meetings and collaboration. Work with chapters in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia has been done in the past for other related societies, e.g., Acoustical Society of America local chapters.
Canadian Atlantic Chapter
Underwater Communications: From Theory to Experimentations
Reported by Mae Seto and Christopher Whitt
On December 5th, 2018, a talk was given on underwater acoustic communications at Dalhousie University by Dr. Jean Francois Bousquet. This talk was co-sponsored by the SP-MTT chapter. This talk focused on the physical layer design that enables underwater communication networks and systems as well as the effects of the acoustic channel.
Talk on Marine Robots
Reported by Ferial El-Hawary and Mae Seto
On December 12th, 2018, a talk titled Marine Robots: A Manifestation on the 4th Industrial Revolution in the Ocean Environment was given at Dalhousie University by Dr. Mae Seto. This talk was focused on the exciting research in marine robotics at the Dalhousie University Oceans Hub. A tour was also given of the new EMERA IDEA building at Dalhousie University.
Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduate Conference
Reported by Ferial El-Hawary
On April 9th, 2019, the OES chapter supported the annual electrical and computer engineering graduate conference. There were approximately 100 attendees with many of the OES student members in attendance.
Underwater Communications Talk
Reported by Mae Seto and Christopher Whitt
On April 15, 2019, Dr. Martin Siderius gave a technical talk titled Underwater Communications: Challenges of the Acoustic Propagation Channel. The talk included a primer on underwater acoustic propagation and its impact on underwater communications and navigations. As well, modelling techniques were presented that gain insight into the underwater communications channel and how to work within its limitations. The talk was held at Dalhousie University and was attended by approximately 25 members and guests.
Talk on Auditory and Behavioral effects of noise in marine mammals
Reported by Mae Seto and Christopher Whitt
On April 30, 2019, the Chapter organized a talk and networking event with world-renowned researcher Dr. Brendon Southall on Auditory and Behavioral effects of noise in marine mammals. Marine mammals use sound for many critical life functions. Human sound in their environment can interfere with communications, affect their hearing, influence behavior and cause non-auditory physiological effects. Recent work on both auditory and behavioral effects of noise was presented. As well, Dr. Southall discussed how the results from this work is integrated into defining noise exposure criteria and applied in regulatory decision-making and mitigation of noise impact on marine mammals.
The talk was hosted by the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship (COVE) in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, and attend by around 50 people.
Talk on Passive Acoustics for Ocean Observations
Reported by Mae Seto and Christopher Whitt
On October 15, 2019, Christopher Whitt gave a talk on Passive Acoustics for Ocean Observations, sponsored by the Chapter and in coordination with the Dalhousie University Oceanography Department’s Seminar Series. Passive acoustic monitoring is a powerful tool to study the ocean with. Long-term underwater acoustic recordings capture the distribution of human activity and marine life and provide insight into changes in physical oceanography. Directed measurements help to understand the impact of activities ranging from geophysical surveys, shipping traffic to marine construction. Several recent projects were discussed as case studies to showcase the state-of-the-art. The talk was attended by about 40 people, including Chapter members, graduate students and several guests.
Malaysia Chapter
Visit Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an China
Reported by Khalid Isa and Mohd Rizal Arshad
On 14 – 17 August, 2019, the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society (OES) Malaysia Chapter organized a visit to Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xi’an, China. The main activity was to discuss the collaboration between IEEE OES Malaysia Chapter and NPU for organizing the 2020 IEEE 9th International Conference on Underwater System Technology: Theory and Applications (IEEE USYS 2020) in Xi’an, China. Others activities included a session meeting for research collaboration and an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle lab visit. There are many opportunities given by NPU to IEEE OES Malaysia Chapter. The discussion unleashes the expertise of professionals in a friendly discussion and the potential for collaboration between NPU and IEEE OES Malaysia.
Reported by Khalid Isa
On 16 August, 2019, the School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xi’an, China organized an Invited Talk Session to the postgraduate students. The first invited talk was given by Ts. Dr. Khalid Isa, Chair of IEEE OES Malaysia. He gave a talk about IEEE OES at a glance and autonomous underwater glider. The second talk was provided by Prof. Ir. Dr. Mohd Rizal Arshad. Prof. Rizal presented a talk regarding acoustic technology. It was an excellent platform for the invited speakers, staff and postgraduate students to discuss and share their insights on the trends, issues, possible solutions to prevailing concerns in the field of Ocean Engineering. The talk attracted more than 30 students and staff.
Reported by Herdawatie Abdul Kadir
On Thursday, Oct 17th, 2019, a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Programme was held at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), Johor. This program is an effort for intensifying efforts to bridge the gap between science, technology, engineering and mathematics achievement in major examinations between urban and rural schools. It involved four selected secondary schools with a total of 47 participants. The participants are exposed to basic electronic & electric circuit experiments, and finally, learn to program the Arduino robots. The participants have shown extending interest in and understanding of STEM. Each participant was awarded a certificate of attendance and souvenirs.
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.