Laura Meyer (Chair, Ocean Decade Initiative, IEEE OES), Hari Vishnu (Member, Ocean Decade Initiative and Secretary, IEEE OES) and M. A. Atmanand (Member, Ocean Decade Initiative, IEEE OES)
The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) was taken up through the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. This global program encompasses all ocean sustainability enthusiasts world-wide. The Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) being the largest professional body in the world, its chapter, Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) has taken up many activities connected with this through its Ocean Decade Initiative (ODI). The Ocean Decade Fact Check Panel convened on September 26, 2024, during the OCEANS Halifax conference organized by the IEEE OES ODI. The overarching topic was to assess the progress of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, identifying gaps, assessing the impact of societies like IEEE OES and outlining future steps. While this is too large a task to do justice to in a single panel, the idea was to look at it through a few different lenses relevant to the panel’s expertise – the lens of technology, ocean engineering, the role of ocean observation systems, and the role of professional societies and networking groups. Dr. Hari Vishnu, Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore and member of the ODI, moderated the session and guided the six speakers through the event. The insights shared in the panel were expected to contribute valuable perspectives for the global ocean observing community and help shape future discussions and actions, including those of the professional societies gathered at the OCEANS Halifax conference.
The following speakers were on the panel:
- Anya Waite, CEO and Scientific Director, Ocean Frontier Institute; Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) co-chair 2020-2024; co-lead of the GOOS Carbon Exemplar and Associate Vice-President Research of Dalhousie University. Anya previously served as Head of Polar Biological Oceanography at Alfred Wegener Institute and Professor in the University of Bremen.
- Rene Garéllo, Professor Emeritus, President of IEEE France, Life Fellow IEEE, Past President of IEEE OES
- Brian Sellar, Reader at the University of Edinburgh specializing in the interfacing of field measurements, tank-testing and numerical simulations. He has led advanced multi-year in-situ measurement and wave-current modeling campaigns in tidal channels in the UK and Europe and has over 10 years of experience in this area.
- Malcolm Heron, Adjunct Professor at James Cook University and CEO of Portmap Remote Ocean Sensing Ltd, and an expert in electromagnetic wave propagation applied to ocean science, Life Fellow, IEEE and Exec-VP of IEEE OES
- Venugopalan Pallayil, Vice President for OCEANS at IEEE OES, Principal Research Fellow & Deputy Head at Acoustic Research Laboratory, National University of Singapore with considerable research experience in underwater acoustics.
- Ronnie Noonan-Birch, a marine socio-ecologist at the Ocean Frontier Institute, who focuses on the nexus of human well-being and ocean health. Her thesis on Canada’s blue economy operationalized the sustainable development goals to create an assessment framework for social equity, environmental sustainability, and economic viability of the ocean industry
The discussion centered on key accomplishments, identified critical gaps, and explored opportunities for enhancing ocean sustainability, particularly in areas such as marine pollution, renewable energy, data management, and coastal ocean safety.
At the outset, Hari outlined what the Decade was about, its seven desired Decadal Outcomes and 10 Decadal challenges, and what has been reported on the progress of the Decade so far in terms of numbers, drawing from the Ocean Decade Progress Report 2022-2023. This set the context for the framework within which to understand the panelists’ takes, and to get a feel of the quantitative assessment before discussing it qualitatively. In summary, the report mentions that as of June 2023, the Decade has endorsed 47 Programmes, 277 Projects, and 85 Contributions across 58 countries. These Actions have created over 25,000 knowledge products, capacity development activities have supported more than 200,000 beneficiaries, and 39 National Decade Committee’s activities have impacted more than 1 million people. The decade is now the Largest global ocean science initiative ever undertaken, and will continue to engage philanthropic entities, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs), including supporting regional task forces and coordination structures.
Achievements and Future Directions
Anya Waite started the discussion, focusing on the GOOS, which caters to Decadal challenges 7 and 8, and highlighting the gaps in current ocean observations. She noted that the Ocean Decade has successfully amplified communication around ocean science, sparking widespread conversations and projects. However, the initiative is now at a critical juncture where continued momentum depends on securing external resources. She compared the situation to a high-demand oxygen system—without sufficient input, such as funding from key contributors like the United States to IOC-UNESCO and the GOOS, the initiative risks stagnation. As the Decade progresses, the challenge is to not only maintain this momentum but also ensure efficient resource allocation and long-term sustainability. She invited a robust and diverse discussion on this topic from the panelists and audience.
Marine Pollution and Changing Ocean Relationships
Building on Anya’s insights, the discussion then moved the Decadal outcome #1: A Clean ocean, and the first decadal challenge of understanding and beating marine pollution. Rene emphasized the importance of reducing marine pollution and debris and highlighted that there are hardly any beaches to be found without plastic these days. Beyond pollution reduction, there is a broader need to change how societies interact with the ocean, ensuring its sustainable use. The diversity of expertise and solutions within the Ocean Decade—such as contributions from Ocean Environmental Solutions—is vital in achieving this transformation.
Offshore Renewable Energy and Data Management
One of the key contributors to ocean pollution is carbon dioxide from fossil fuel-based power plants. Dr. Brian Sellar then shifted the focus of the discussion towards engineering interventions such as ocean energy observation systems. Offshore renewable energy, particularly wave and tidal energy holds great potential for the sustainable energy transition. However, Brian highlighted the complexities of obtaining the right data—at the right place, at the right time, and at the right cost. Multidisciplinary collaboration and open data-sharing models are essential for overcoming these challenges. Furthermore, there is a pressing need for capacity building, ensuring that available resources are maximized while additional capabilities are developed. As an example, Brian pointed out the dire shortage of professionals and students in his research region in Scotland.
Sustainability and Safety in the Coastal Ocean
The panel then moved to the 7th and 8th Decadal challenges. Malcolm Heron discussed advancements in ocean observation sensors and platforms, and the gaps in best practices, standards, and access to reliable science. He pointed out that there is also a surge in unreliable literature being published based on beliefs rather than real science. For instance, despite common belief, tropical cyclones are decreasing in Australia, as the data shows. Thus, there is a need to improve the reliability of published scientific literature. He also noted that tsunami warning systems are underdeveloped, and valuable data is often underutilized. Moving forward, technologies such as artificial intelligence and distributed acoustic sensing could play a crucial role in addressing these gaps, and he outlined these two technologies as enablers in the coming years.
Role of Professional Societies
Transitioning from engineering interventions, the moderator pointed out that the Decade is not just about science and technology, but also about connecting or activating people and groups of people. With this in mind, the next panelist, Venugopalan Pallayil, was introduced to present the impact of professional societies such as IEEE-OES on the Decade. Venugopalan discussed how the OES has been able to play a central part in connecting networks of experts to present viewpoints to society and contributing to science communication, capacity building and information dissemination via several activities. These include, but are not limited to, activities at OCEANS conferences, community-level activities and Ocean educational content generation led by OES chapters across the world, and student ocean technology competitions, thus touching upon the 9th and 10th Decadal challenges – skills, knowledge and technology for all, and to change humanity’s relationship with the ocean.
Ocean Observing and the ECOP Blue Economy
Ronnie underscored the critical role of ocean observation in the success of the Ocean Decade. Proper ocean observing systems, co-designed with stakeholders, are necessary to meet societal needs. Ronnie specifically touched upon how the concept of co-design is crucial to the Decade. While enthusiasm for ocean science has generated excitement, the challenge now is to convert this into a sustainable investment. Ronnie also brought to the panel the voice from the ECOP community, which although has been highly activated, connected and collaborative during the Decade, is stretched thin with too many voluntary commitments during this time. Transitioning from volunteer efforts to funded initiatives is essential for continued progress.
The ensuing questions and discussions highlighted the following additional challenges, gaps and potential solutions/enablers for the Decade:
Challenges, Gaps and Solutions
Innovation and Co-Design: One key challenge is the need for interoperable systems that enable effective data exchange across regions and sectors. There is also a strong need for improved communication of regional expertise and differences, ensuring that co-designed solutions are tailored to local needs.
Funding and Sustainability: Funding continues to be a major obstacle. Engaging the industry, particularly in ocean tech, banking, and insurance sectors, is vital. There is also potential for philanthropic funding and stronger industry-academic collaborations. The GOOS, which holds one of the most comprehensive ocean data sets, is critically underfunded. A proposed solution is a “GOOS tax” to ensure continuous funding and operations.
Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement: Collaboration is key to the Ocean Decade’s success. Identifying and engaging the right stakeholders, such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) operators, can help optimize resource sharing. Building sustainable partnerships across sectors—academic, governmental, and industrial—will be crucial to address resource shortages and ensure the continuity of long-term projects.
Translating Data for Decision-Makers: A critical gap exists in translating scientific knowledge into actionable insights for decision-makers. Many legal frameworks governing ocean and climate policies are outdated. Updated scientific findings must be communicated to legal and policy experts to prompt necessary regulatory changes.
At the end of the panel, the moderator pointed out that this discussion and stock-taking exercise should continue robustly throughout the Decade to guide action and change, and mentioned that this exercise would be undertaken over the next few OCEANS conferences too. He invited the audience to provide their input on what they thought were the scientific/technological/operational gaps that needed to be tackled in the Ocean Decade, via an online poll. The responses from the audience were instructive and included broad themes such as indigenous engagement, building communities of practice, gathering consent for renewables, engagement with the law, successful collaboration, interested tool sharing, ocean literacy, effective science communication, increased tool sharing, interoperability, shared purpose and bridging the skills gap. These were reflective of the themes identified for the Decade itself under its Outcomes and Challenges.
Conclusion
The Ocean Decade Fact Check Panel highlighted significant progress in ocean science and sustainability but also identified pressing challenges—particularly in securing funding, utilizing data effectively, tackling biased science and influencing policy. Multidisciplinary collaboration, industry engagement, and innovation in data management and renewable energy are key to sustaining the momentum of the Ocean Decade. Technology enablers, such as distributed acoustic sensing and artificial intelligence, have been taking centre-stage in managing the technological needs of the Decade, but face challenges in terms of adoption and operationalization. As it moves into its second half, the initiative must focus on turning excitement and voluntary efforts into funded, actionable programs that will drive long-term positive outcomes for ocean health and resilience.
Video on OCEANS Halifax showing the different events, including the panel: https://youtu.be/0APQLZf0jqA?feature=shared
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.