Venugopalan Pallayil (Venu), OES AdCom Member
When Bob asked me to write for the column ‘Who is Who in OES’ in the BEACON Newsletter, I kept thinking what would the readers want to know about me and why should they bother with who I am? People who would want to know my official side of things can always take a look at my work-related website or Google for it. And sometimes even personal things could also pop up (Recently I was surprised to see many of my personal details, including the date of my marriage on a website apparently hosted somewhere in Russia. Some of my personal information leaked from my desire to be listed under ‘Marquis Who is Who’ for which I had registered a few years back). In this column I wish to share some things that I want you to know about me, which will hopefully be of interest.
508 sensor array exposed (bottom).
About me: I was born in Kerala, widely known as Gods Own Country, which is a land of coconut trees, backwaters, mountains and beaches. It is the southernmost state of India and our mother tongue is Malayalam (it reads the same both ways when written in English). I graduated with a Masters in Physics and a PhD in Microwave Electronics from Cochin University of Science and Technology. However, I ended up working at much lower frequencies, though at the same wavelength. I worked as an R&D scientist in the Defence Research and Development Organisation, India, for 11 years with major contributions in the field of air-borne ASW systems. Prior to joining DRDO, India, I also underwent a one-year Electronics Fellowship Course, attended by 50 select graduates at all India level annually. In 1998, I moved to Singapore and joined the Acoustic Research Laboratory (ARL), Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI), National University of Singapore (NUS) as a Research Fellow. Currently, I am a Senior Research Fellow and deputy head at ARL. For 5 years I also served as Manager for Operations at TMSI, supporting my then Director to manage both finance and facilities.
My work at ARL: You can read all about my research at ARL from the website www.arl.nus.edu.sg. But, I would like to share with you a couple of my achievements, which I am proud of. One of them is the project ROMANIS (Remotely Operated Mobile Ambient Noise Imaging System) initiated by Dr. John Potter when he was the head of ARL. This is a broadband acoustic camera, which uses snapping shrimp noise for imaging underwater objects. It was a big challenge building ROMANIS considering we started to work on the system in 1998 (or even before) and when there was no off the shelf technology available to build a Gigabit/sec data acquisition system. Nevertheless, we built a custom solution and the first prototype in 2003. In 2009 we rebuilt the whole system based on Gigabit Ethernet and currently we have a system that can stream data at 1.6Gbps from 508 sensors and form images in real-time. ROMANIS won the Defence Technology Prize, a prestigious award instituted by the Ministry of Defence, Singapore, in 2004 for the best engineering project. See a recent publication related to this project in JOE, January 2016 issue.
The second project that needs mention is the development of a Digital Thin Line Array (DTLA) system, specifically developed for underwater research using small autonomous underwater vehicles. The array, 15 to 20mm in diameter with 12 to 24 acoustic channels has found itself a place on many AUV platforms for research purposes. These include Ocean Explorer, from CMRE, Italy, SEACAT from Atlas Electronik, Germany, STARFish from ARL, Singapore, and lately REMUS 100 from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA. It was destined to make a trip to the Arctic this year for a collaborative experiment with SIO, San Diego, California, for measuring ice calving noise. Unfortunately, the trip was postponed and the array is now expected to take a dip in the cold waters of the Arctic next summer.
at the New England Mud Patch.
I have been part of many research cruises, some of them on naval vessels prior to coming to Singapore. After coming to Singapore, I have been ‘fortunate’ to be part of three overseas cruises, viz., AsiaEx in 2001 in the South China Sea, TREX-13 in 2013 off the Florida Coast and SBCEX in 2017 at the New England Mud Patch. Each of these cruises lasted between 10 to 15 days and was exciting in different ways. This was a great opportunity for me to work together with international scientists from different areas of acoustic and oceanographic research and learn from them. The SBCEX 2017 cruise was more challenging as we had to work at sub-zero temperature (see figure) and under stormy conditions (30-35 knots wind). Out of the 15 days at sea we could deploy our AUV-array system only on the last day and collect data for a couple of hours. On two occasions we had to make our way back to the WHOI dock due to severe weather conditions.
Me and IEEE OES: I have been a member of IEEE for 21 years, becoming a senior member in 2004. The Singapore OES Chapter was started in 2002 and I was among the first to serve the committee. I served the chapter in various capacities such as its treasurer, Chair, etc., and continue to engage myself in an advisory role. In 2006, when Singapore hosted the first OCEANS conference, I was assigned the role of Finance Chair. Under my initiative the local chapter gave shape to an annual industrial workshop, a half-day event, where the industry representatives were given a venue to showcase their product and capabilities to the researchers. This unique event has been a successful one so far and helped to build a closer relationship with the Chapter and the local industry. In 2013, our chapter organized the first AUV international student competition and I served as vice-chair and also as chair for sponsorship. In 2014, I also served as the chair for this event. Annually, I help to generate money to the tune of $35-40K to run this event and that made me the ‘default’ chair for sponsorship until the 2019 event. In addition, I help to organize a workshop as part of this event where speakers who are experts in the field of marine robotics deliver lectures and participate in panel discussions with students. In 2014, I got an opportunity to be part of the Offshore Technology Asia (OTC Asia) conference. I have been serving on the Technical Programme sub-committee as a member, co-Chair and Chair respectively in the years 2014, 2016 and 2018. Apart from organizing technical sessions, I was also leading the organization of special and panel sessions on behalf of the IEEE OES with great support from Mr. Bill Kirkwood. I got nominated to the IEEE OES AdCom in 2015 and served for a year (Thanks to Dr. Rene Garello). In 2017 I got elected as an AdCom member to serve the society from 2018-2020. This would not have been possible without the encouragement from many senior IEEE OES colleagues. I must thank specifically Mr. Jerry Carrol, Dr. Mal Heron and Mr. Bob Wernli for encouraging me to run for the AdCom when I contested and lost for 4 times. Yet another responsibility that I have undertaken is to run the OCEANS 2020 Singapore conference successfully, and I believe that with support from a very strong and dedicated LOC this will be achieved. My special thanks to Dr. Sandy Williams, VP, Conference Development, IEEE OES, who has been an inspiration and advisor at many stages.
My hobbies: I love many sports activities and have tried my hands at Cricket, Shuttle Badminton and Table Tennis. Due to the onset of sciatic pain in recent years, I had to give up most of the sports activities including weekend running. I go for occasional brisk walks around the parks and started to spend most of my leisure time now cooking Kerala food. On average, I spent two to three hours each day in the kitchen cooking for me and my family. Otherwise, IEEE OES and other scientific volunteer work keeps me busy. I also like to get together with friends over a drink and enjoy some evenings.
My family: This article is about me, but it may not be complete without mentioning something about my family. Maya (Google the meaning), my wife, holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering and is currently a senior lecturer in one of the Polytechnics in Singapore. We have two sons, Gautam and Govind. Gautam is a PhD student at Caltech, USA, having completed his BS and MS in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India. Govind is currently pursuing a double degree in mathematics and computer science at the National University of Singapore. We have travelled together to many parts of the world, exploring those locations and enjoying the food and culture there.
If you still wish to know more about me, you can find me at some of the forthcoming OCEANS conference events. I will probably be busy manning the Singapore booth promoting the OCEANS 2020 Singapore conference, so look for me there. Let me know if you need a shot of ‘Singapore Sling’ when you visit the booth.
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.