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Hong Kong Chapter
Hong Kong IEEE CE/OES Joint Chapter runs the Young Engineer Conference (YE-22) at IEEE TENCON 2022
Reported by Paul Hodgson (MIEEE) and George Woo (MIEEE)
The CT/OES Joint Chapter in Hong Kong has been organizing Young Engineer conferences since 2019. YE-19 was held in early 2020 and YE-21 in 2021. And in November 2022, as IEEE Hong Kong once again hosted the AP regional conference TENCON, a STEM Student Conference – YE@TENCON was included as a part of the program.
TENCON 22 was held in November at the prestigious Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. The STEM Student Conference took place on days 3 and 4 (November 3rd and 4th) of the main Conference.
Since we started the conference for secondary school students, momentum has been building in terms of number of presenters and schools involved. Y-19 had 16 student presentations, and YE-20 had 19. In YE-22, we had 100 students from 16 schools and organization participating, and they reported on 43 projects.
The STEM Student Conference at TENCON 22 was organized into two tracks. A junior track (the Pre-University student Forum, aka PUF) only submitted an A0 poster for display and gave a live presentation, reporting on their projects on stage at the Conference. A senior track (Young Engineers @TENCON, aka YE-22) in addition would also prepare a paper on their research projects for publication at ResearchGate.
The students worked either individually or in teams upto 4 members. They select a topic or a problem of interest and carried out a scientific study and/or built a device to solve the chosen problem. The selected project topic should be in-line with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainability Development Goals, and the students should apply advance technology to address the problems facing Humanity.
Notable PUF projects included AI based sound and motion detection to forewarn parents of possible SIDS, portable windmill for power generation, using vegetation as noise barriers, detection of people trapped in a fire site and microplastics in drinking water, addressing the storage needs for the elderly. Highlights of YE projects included in situ removing of heavy metals from marine sediment, portable Pelton Turbine, and evaluation of Tritium batteries, and MicroBit powered weather stations.
Subjects pertaining Oceanic Engineering included measuring fish density using underwater AI cameras, simple wave monitoring buoys, simple ways to real time monitor estuary river areas and detecting algae blooms (red tides). Other Consumer Technology projects included the evaluation of Edison and microbial (mud) batteries as well as temperature based symbolic AI COVID detectors for schools, typhoon proof wind turbines. Other presentations reported on studies in the general environment of Hong Kong, such as the deposits of Uranium and Thorium ore in the abandoned tungsten mine in Needle Hill, Hong Kong, meteorites in Hong Kong and evaluation on bio-degradable plastics.
All participants were issued with Certificates and Prizes were awarded for the best projects and best posters (the full list of presenters and topics and also the list of Winners on Projects and Posters are included later).
Event highlights:
Organizing TENCON 22 posed unprecedented challenges. Hong Kong has just lifted its COVID quarantine for incoming visitors, but it was too late for most overseas participants to make travel arrangements. And just as the Conference opened, a Typhoon struck, throwing further chaos to last minute preparations. We only just managed to put up all the student posters for display. Nonetheless the student posters displayed along the corridors leading the conference venue rooms brought a colorful angle to TENCON 2022.
The STEM Student Conference was opened by Joint Chapter Chair Dr. K.F. Tsang. Dr, Paulina Chan, TENCON 22 General Chair, also gave a motivating opening address online. Participants came from a broad spectrum of the Hong Kong Society, including those with international backgrounds and teams from China. Nearly half of the participants are girls and we also have many participants from ethnic minorities.
While the conference mainly addressed secondary students, we also have a talented young participant who is only 10 years old and presented on the detection of people trapped in a fire site.
The project list
| PUF Projects | Name of project | Presenter(s) |
| PUF 1 | Railway energy consumption and service improvement | Li Kin Wa 李建樺, Chung Cheuk Yin 鍾卓延, Chan Ka Yin 陳嘉賢, Ko Ka Ying 高嘉瑩 |
| PUF 2 | Turning Magnetism into Electricity | Au Ying Hei, Ariel, Tam Chi Hin, Marco, Wong Ho Pui, Alvin |
| PUF 3 | Effect on Temperature of Microbial Fuel Cell | Lo Tsz Chun, Ricky |
| PUF 4 | Bineaqua | Lee Wing Hei, Hazel, Ho Wai Shum, Emma |
| PUF 5 | Portawind 2.0 | Fan Nga Shun, Li Chun Yik, Jessie, Wong Suet Nga, Cheung Hoi Lam |
| PUF 6 | Water Monitoring and Purification System | Chan Chun Hei, Angus 陳晉希, Huen Wai Tak, Donald |
| PUF 7 | The investigation on microplastics in drinking water from tap and bottled water | Au Yeung Shun Yu, Audrey, Ahmed Aisha Bi Bi |
| PUF 8 | Wastewater ReLIFE | Chau Man Qian, Chau Yat Chi, Lam Ching Yi |
| PUF 9 | Effectiveness of the Iot water quality probe in analyzing river water | Cheung Hei Yu Sabrina, Fung Yuet Kiu, Caron, Lor Tsz Man, Tiffany |
| PUF 10 | Alleviating anthropogenic eutrophication through detecting bio-luminescence | I Gede Surya Bhattarai, Li Sze Chai, Isaac, Poon Hong Ki albert |
| PUF 11 | Un-spilling Oil Spills | Wong Shun Wai Stephanie |
| PUF 12 | Growing of good quality crops – soil monitoring system, Sanity | Lam Joshua, Mak Ho Hin, Rylan, Kwok Yi Ching, Evians |
| PUF 13 | Warning Rubbish Bin | Ocean Kong, Sze King Tong, Clayton, Wong Lok Man, Jayden |
| PUF 14 | Detection to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome | Serene Ng, Sam Hui Yin, Chloe, Law Tsz Yan, Winky, Chan Nok Yiu, Kathy |
| PUF 15 | Space Management App with Space Optimization and Location Recall Functions | Chan Yuet Wah, Wong Yan To |
| PUF 16 | Protect our respectable firefighters and civilians | Lucas Wong |
| PUF 17 | Investigation on the Effectiveness of Vegetation in Noise Reduction | Tang Marcus 鄧正浩, Lou Pak Yin 劉柏言. Lee Ching Hong, Marcus 利政匡 |
| PUF 18 | Simplified RAT test kit to reduce plastic waste | Qin Bing Run Robin. Chan Man Tik, Li Yip Cheung Jeffery. Ng Siu Kit |
| PUF 19 | UV Toliet Sterilizer | Chow Cheuk Yee, Carlie, Iu Yuet Sang Prudence, Tang Cheuk Yee 鄧焯而, To Yuen Yin 杜宛燃, Yeung Oi Ying |
| PUF 20 | Energy hydroponics | Cheung Hei Lee, Hailey, Cheung Ka Ki, Kelly, Cheung Sum Wo, Joyce |
| YE Projects | Name of project | Presenter(s) |
| YE 1 | Application of Heavy Metal Bio-mediating Bacteria in Hong Kong Waters | SHEN, Winston Yuk Ting |
| YE 2 | To what extent are there radioactive substances inside the abandoned Needle Hill Tungsten mine in HK? | WYATT, George Robert |
| YE 3 | Bio-degradable Bioplastic | Isabel Lin, Arthur Zhang |
| YE 4 | Intelligent Traffic light system | Ng Tsun Kiu, Marcus 吳峻翹, Wan Pak Lam 温柏霖, Tsui Chi Tang 徐志騰, Wan Yu Yin 溫語嫣 |
| YE 5 | Portable Pelton Turbine in Hong Kong | Qiao Lok Hei, Kyle, Wong Yik Ka 王繹嘉, Chan Clinton Denzel Pak Hei, Choi Shin Hang Ian |
| YE 6 | Meteorites In Hong Kong | WONG, Joshua Cho Ho, CHENG, Sze Ming Joshua |
| YE 7 | Urban Water Runoff – Shing Mun River | AROSTI, Samuel Mauro |
| YE 8 | Water Quality Survey of Tai Hu Lake | 董梓涵, 高淑雯, 褚庭艳 |
| YE 9 | ROV for cleaning Marine Garbage | 黄熙媛 |
| YE 10 | Cost-Effective Arduino Wave & Current Sensor | Agastya Singh, Wu Kiu Chun, Aidan |
| YE 11 | Edison Battery | Tony Pang |
| YE 12 | Wind Power during typhoons | Cheuk Fung Lau |
| YE 13 | Simple COVID detector using temperature & AI suitable for school aged children | Peter Wan |
| YE 14 | Adolescent Bot | Carolyn Yu, Julia Shaw, Samuel Lin |
| YE 15 | How can we utilize a tritium light source in a battery | Sean Tam, Mathew Li |
| YE 16 | We Blow Bubbles | Mathew Chung, |
| YE 17 | Identification of boat type using U/W sounds | Colby Lin |
| YE 18 | Rescue lost Hikers through tracking cellphone | Chan, Hubert 陳灝, Lai Tin Yui, Tristan 黎天睿, Lee Pui Wing, Adeline 李沛穎, Tso Ka Yu, Justina 曹嘉瑜, |
| YE 19 | Smart Phone Holder | 王怡捷, 王子玉, 陈怡可, 黄沐妍 |
| YE 20 | Fish Counting with AI to Determine the Effectiveness of Marine Reserves | Daniel Park, Samion Suwito, Wu Shu-Hong |
| YE 21 | Investigating Water Quality in Hong Kong | LEUNG, Ping Thomas |
| YE 22 | ROV for cleaning Marine Garbage | 黄熙媛 |
| YE 23 | Micro:bit Weather Machine | Jonathan YungYat Hei |
List of Winners for Projects and for Posters:
Pre-University Forum
Best Project Awards:
1st Place: Detection to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome – SKH Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School
2nd Place: Portawind 2.0 – St. Stephen’s Girls’ College
3rd Place: Investigation on the Effectiveness of Vegetation in Noise Reduction – Diocesan Boys’ School
Best Poster Awards:
1st Place: Detection to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome – SKH Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School
2nd Place: Protect our respectable firefighters and civilians – Canadian International School Hong Kong
3rd Place: The investigation on micro plastics in drinking water from tap and bottled water – SKH Li Fook Hing Secondary School
Young-Engineers (YE-22)
Best Project Awards:
1st Place: Application of Heavy Metal Bio-mediating Bacteria in Hong Kong Waters – ISF Academy
2nd Place: Portable Pelton Turbine in Hong Kong – St. Paul’s Co-educational College
3rd Place: How can we utilize a tritium light source in a battery – Oceanway Corporation Limited
Best Poster Awards:
1st Place: How can we utilize a tritium light source in a battery – Oceanway Corporation Limited
2nd Place: Micro:bit Weather Machine – Oceanway Corporation Limited
3rd Place: Portable Pelton Turbine in Hong Kong – St. Paul’s Co-educational College
Judges Special Mention Awards
Pre-University Forum: Protect our respectable firefighters and civilians – Canadian International School Hong Kong
Young Engineer-22: To what extent are there radioactive substances inside the abandoned Needle Hill Tungsten mine in HK – ISF Academy
Special thanks and the YE-23
We are honored by and grateful to our judges. Professor Joseph Orimolade from the Caritas Institute of Higher Education served as the lead judge for the YE track. The lead judge for the PUF track was Mr. WONG Ming Yam, Honorary Fellow at the City University.
The IEEE Hong Kong Section sponsored and included the STEM Student Conference student conference as an integral part of TENCON-22. Their overwhelm support is very much appreciated.
Special mention and thanks for those people who made the event happen, particularly, George Woo, Jacky Liang, Min Ng and Edward Wan.
For those interested the web site with all of the details: www.ieeeye.com
The next Young Engineer’s Conference will be the YE-23 and the tentative date is the 11th and 12th November 2023. We have already started accepting projects for this conference and if anyone is interested please contact paulhodgson@ieee.org for more details.
Providence Chapter
The Marine Renewable Energy Collaborative (MRECo), the Bourne Tidal Test Site and the Marine Sensor Testbed
Reported by David Leslie, Chapter Secretary
A technical presentation on the subject of “The Marine Renewable Energy Collaborative (MRECo), the Bourne Tidal Test Site and the Marine Sensor Testbed” was made to the Providence Section, OE22 Chapter, on December 1, 2022, at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, USA. John Miller, the Executive Director of MRECo, provided background on the marine renewable industry, some of its challenges, and explained why this facility will solve some of them. Prior to founding MRECo, Mr. Miller led development of ocean renewable energy for the University of Massachusetts.
The Bourne Tidal Test Site (BTTS), located in the Cape Cod Canal in Bourne, Massachusetts, is the only permanent test stand in the world designed specifically for tidal devices such as turbines. This partial scale test site allows a transition from testing in university tanks to full scale, avoiding some of the failures that have happened when deploying larger prototype turbines too quickly. Sensors can be tested economically on the co-located Massachusetts Ocean Sensor Test Bed (MOST). Experiments have been conducted there to monitor water conditions and fish behavior. MOST provides a secure, stable platform for cost-effective, long term sensor testing with continuous power and real time sensor data. With this facility, Massachusetts has positioned itself among the leaders in the emerging tidal energy industry, part of the Blue Economy. This is a young industry that has many challenges, but also opportunities.
A critical problem that the world faces today is that not enough energy is derived from renewable sources, and much of that power is intermittent. Historically, New England was built using renewable energy, from the wind that drove clipper ship transport, to the water that drove mills, to the unsustainable use of biofuel in the form of whale oil. In modern times the demand for energy has grown hugely. In the USA alone demand in the early 21st century was on the order of 4000 TWHr/yr. The resource available from wind, wave and tidal was estimated to be about 900, 260, and 110 TWHr/year respectively. But the predictability of each of those sources varies considerably, being hours vs days vs centuries respectively. Tidal energy is very dependable and suitable for the provision of base load energy.
Mr. Miller reviewed several classical approaches to extracting energy from waves. Water driven “overtopping” devices funnel water through a device such as the Kaplan Turbine, while oscillating water columns can be used to drive air through Wells Turbines. Wave terminating devices contain stationary components, and components which move in response to the water. These devices may take the full force of wave motion. Point absorbers include buoys and flexible structures, which transform energy from their bobbing or bending motion. New approaches and commercial devices for extracting energy from waves and currents include surge capture (Resolute), pressure wave driven bladders (M3), wave and current driven cylinders (Arrecife) and cycloidal motion capturing rotational blade systems (Atargis).
For tidal power extraction a variety of underwater turbines have been developed. Some of these are helical foil systems oriented with horizontal axes, parallel to the flow, and others with vertical axes. Both open blade and shrouded configurations have been developed.
The critical challenge for all of these devices is survivability in the harsh ocean environment, and the research and development investment necessary to bring technologies forward follows a characteristic rising and then falling cost path through “technology readiness levels.” Costs are relatively low during the research phase of modeling and wave/flume tank tests. They increase through the development phase of partial scale ocean testing, where tidal and river turbines now find themselves, and they reach a peak in the demonstration phase of full-scale ocean tests. Costs begin to decrease during the subsequent deployment phase where technologies such as geothermal energy, offshore wind and biomass utilization lie, and are lowest for mature technologies such as onshore wind and hydroelectric power plants.
Regulations requiring environmental testing and governmental permitting contribute to the development costs of marine energy technology. The Bourne Tidal Test Site is a pre-permitted test site for mid-scale (3m diameter) devices. It provides a controlled, stable platform for testing turbines and sensors, with minimum wave interaction, no blocking that distorts fluid flow, and water velocities up to 2 m/s. The site is easily accessible and flexible in its scheduling and use. Similarly, the Massachusetts Ocean Sensor Test Site for marine instrumentation is stable and secure. Tidal flow through the canal insures variable water conditions.
Mr. Miller noted that there are a number of full-scale testing facilities around the world, such as PacWave for harnessing wave energy in the Pacific, and areas for extracting energy from tidal flow, such as the Fundy Ocean Research Centre in the Bay of Fundy, and at MeyGen in the Pentland Firth in Scotland. However, the case for early partial scale testing at the BTTS facility appears quite compelling.
Malaysia Chapter
IEEE OES – UMP STEM Carnival 2022: Underwater Robotics Workshop
Reported by Zainah Md. Zain & Mohd Shahrieel Mohd Aras
The IEEE OES Malaysia Chapter has conducted an Underwater Robotics Workshop for primary and secondary students in the UMP STEM Carnival 2022 on the 5th of October 2022. A total of 60 students from various schools in Kuantan and Pekan participated in this workshop. In this workshop, the students were introduced with theory, concept and steps in the development of low-cost remotely operated vehicles (ROV).
Underwater Robot Challenge 2022
Underwater Robot Challenge 2022 was sponsored by the IEEE Pre-U STEM Grant. This challenge was held on 3 December 2022 at Universiti Malaysia Pahang, organized by IEEE OES Malaysia Chapter, Universiti Malaysia Pahang and Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka. The Underwater Robot Challenge 2022 had 2 categories: primary schools and secondary schools, where 5 teams from primary schools and 21 teams from secondary schools around Malaysia have participated in the competition. This program also got the permission from Ministry of Education Malaysia and approved as National level activity for students.
Reported by Zainah Md. Zain & Mohd Shahrieel Mohd Aras
Winner (primary school) – SK Pelak, Pekan, Pahang(below)
The IEEE 9th International Conference on Underwater System Technology: Theory and Applications (USYS’22)
Reported by Zainah Md. Zain & Mohd Shahrieel Mohd Aras
The conference was held in collaboration with International Islamic University of Malaysia and Northwestern Polytechnical University, China on the 5th to 6th of December 2022. This conference aims to provide a platform for researchers, scientists, engineers, academicians, as well as industrial professionals from all over the world to share, discuss and disseminate their current R&D activities and experiences related to the field of underwater system technology, including relevant theories as well as applications. A total of 31 papers have been submitted to this conference. After the reviewing process, the best 26 papers are accepted for oral presentation which is organised in hybrid mode (face to face and online platform presentation). 2 keynote speakers; Prof. Dr. Ning Wang, School of Marine Engineering, Dalian Maritime University and Prof. Dr. Huiping Li, School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University presented their keynote in USYS 2022.
Japan Chapter
The 5th Workshop on Scientific Use of Submarine Cables & Related Technology Hybrid
Reported by Harumi Sugimatsu
SSC workshop
We had the fifth domestic workshop on SSC (Scientific Use of Submarine Cables & Related Technology) in a hybrid style on the 8th of December, 2022, at the convention hall of the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo. In this workshop, we focused on the application of the submarine cable system to science, social implementation and commercial purposes. Speakers and audiences, approximately 150 attendees, were enjoying a variety of talks and discussions. The discussed topics were as follows:
- Future vision of utilization and application of geoscientific data acquired by submarine cable system
- Development of N-net: Nankai Trough Seafloor Observation Network and Tsunamis
- Application of CTBT International Monitoring System to Earth Science – Underwater acoustic observation by Hydrophone-Array
- Development of ultrawide-area seafloor observation by undersea fiber optical cable
- Tsunami prediction by assimilation of tsunami data using offshore submarine cable observation network – Case study of Hunga volcanic eruption
- Flowing Data and Competing Powers: Dimensions of submarine cable security
- Effective maintenance standards for prolonging the life time of armored submarine cables
- Development of expandable flexible optical mesh network on the seafloor
- Recent development and prospects for high-capacity fiber optical cable technology
School of Marine Engineering, Dalian Maritime University
IEEE OES Japan Chapter Awards Ceremony
Following the SSC workshop, the IEEE OES Japan Chapter Awards Ceremony was held and moderated by Prof. Kazuo Ishii, OES Japan Awards Screening Committee Secretary. IEEE OES Japan Chapter runs these three programs for students and young researchers to enhance their research and career activities.
- IEEE OES Japan Chapter Youngster Robocon Support Program Award in 2022. The program supports student travel to challenge the SAUVC 2022. The winner was the “HIT-Robotics” team from Hiroshima Institute of Technology. Jonghyun Ahn, a supervisor, and the team expressed their joy in receiving the award in a video message.
- IEEE OES Japan Chapter OCEANS Student Support Program 2022 (OSSP 2022). The program supports student registrations to present the excellent paper to the OCEANS 2022 Hampton Roads. Four students were certificated.
- IEEE OES Japan Chapter Young Researcher Award 2022. This program awards a young researcher who presented an outstanding paper at the IEEE OES sponsored conferences, OCEANS 2022 Chennai, OCEANS 2022 Hampton Roads and AUV2022 Singapore. Yang Weng was awarded for his distinguished work in the paper “Time Synchronization Scheme of Underwater Platforms Using Wireless Acoustic and Optical Communication,” presented at AUV2022 Singapore.
Details are on the OES Japan Chapter website (URL: https://www.ieee-jp.org/section/tokyo/chapter/OE-22/). Hope we can have many excellent candidates for the programs in 2023.
United Kingdom & Ireland (UK &
I) Chapter Share Stand at Subsea Expo in Aberdeen
Reported by Brian Horsburgh, UK & L Chapter Secretary
Subsea Expo 2023 was held in Aberdeen, UK, from 21 to 23 February. The organisers, Global Underwater Hub, provided OES UK & I Chapter with a complimentary stand space to promote OES membership. Secretary of UK & I Chapter Brian Horsburgh approached the Limerick OCEANS LOC to offer them an opportunity to share the stand and promote attendance at the upcoming OCEANS conference in Limerick, Ireland. Deborah Tudge and Anthony Weir, the Exhibit Co-Chair, attended the Aberdeen show and manned the stand jointly with members of the UK & I Chapter committee, Prof. John Watson, Prof Prabhu Radhakrishna and Brian Horsburgh.
A number of useful contacts for potential exhibitors, delegates and presenters were achieved by the Limerick team. Limerick is building on its 40 confirmed exhibit stand spaces; with active contacts they expect 50 exhibitors. Projected attendance at the conference is at 600. The UkK& I team gained several new member contacts, and promoted information on other upcoming OCEANS conferences.
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.