Jerry Carroll, Chair of IEEE/OES Nominations and Appointments Committees
The OES Administrative Committee election closes on 29 June 2021. When you review the below candidates, I think you will agree that OES is truly becoming a major international society of IEEE, that includes participating members from students, Young Professionals to our Senior members. Be sure to cast your vote.
VOTE NOW at https://eballot4.votenet.com/IEEE
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The photos, bios and statements of our excellent slate of candidates follows. You can see their information on the voting site.
A. ATMANAND (M’97-SM’07) Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, India and Director (retd.) of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), India obtained his B.Tech. degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the University of Calicut in 1983. He took his M.Tech. and Ph.D. from the IIT, Madras in 1985 and 1997 respectively. From 1985 to 1997, he worked in the area of fluid flow measurement and control at the Fluid Control Research Institute, the standard laboratory for fluid flow in India. From 1997, he has been working at the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), in the area of deep sea technologies at various levels and retired as Director (two terms: 2009 to 2017 and 2018 to 2020). At NIOT, he was responsible for all the projects being executed by the Institute in the areas of Desalination, Ocean Energy, Deep Sea Technologies, Ocean Observations, Marine Sensors and Marine Biotechnology. He was active in policy making, preparation of vision documents, a dollar 600 million Deep ocean mission program of the Government of India in the area of Ocean Technology, to lead India as a major player internationally. After retirement in September 2020 from NIOT, he currently is a Visiting Professor at the IIT, Madras, where he has developed a new course on Instrumentation for Ocean Technology, mainly covering his vast experience at NIOT and is teaching graduate students.
He received the International Society for Ocean and Polar Engineers award in 2020, the prestigious MoES National Award of Excellence in Ocean Technology in view of the pioneering work done in the area of deep-sea technologies in 2020, the team National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) National Societal Innovation Award in 2018, for “Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle for Polar and Shallow Water Research” in 2019, the IEEE Oceanic Engineering presidential Award in 2016, the team National Geoscience Award 2010 from the Ministry of Mines, Government of India, for the work on Remotely Operable Vehicle under the category of Oil and Natural Gas Exploration.
He is the elected Chair of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Regional Committee for the Central Indian Ocean (IOCINDIO), Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO from 2016. He is a member of the Executive Planning Group (EPG) for the preparation towards the UN Decade of Ocean science for sustainable development (2021-2030).
He has to his credit nine patents (eight Indian and one German) and more than 150 research publications including in the IEEE, other international refereed journals and conferences.
He is currently an IEEE Senior Member of the Oceanic Engineering Society (OES), and the Instrumentation and Measurements Society (IMS). He has been active with the IEEE Madras Section in various capacities, the last being the Chair of the Section. He is the founding Chair of IEEE OES in India and organised the new OES Chapter under the India Council in May 2008. He has given technical talks in various countries, as part of the IEEE OES Chapters and otherwise at WHOI, Scripps institute of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, University of Edinburgh, Korean Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) etc., which were well received.
It was under his Co-chair ship that the IEEE Symposium on Underwater Technologies was held in India in 2015 successfully. The Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (SAVe) competition started under his leadership and has continued successfully for the past more than 8 years. The winners in this competition have been sent to compete in the AUVSI competition held annually in San Diego. He is currently one of the Associate editors of IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering. He is also the Technical Committee Chair of Underwater Cables and Connectors. He is a member, Editorial Board of the academic journal Underwater Technology of Society for underwater Technologies (SUT), UK. He is an elected member of SUT Council. He is serving as an elected member of the IEEE OES AdCom for 2019-2021. More details can be seen at : https://atmanand.co.in/
Statement: He has successfully bid for the IEEE Oceans conference for India to be held in 2022 and is a Co-chair for the same. It is all the more important that he is elected as an Adcom member to steer the conference through, being the first one to be held in India, especially under this trying Covid times.
The UN Decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development from 2021 – 2030 has just begun and IEEE OES has formed a subcommittee under him to undertake various programs under the major 7 heads of the UN decade action plan. It is proposed to hold thematic workshops, technical symposia and co-sponsored conferences with an additional motive of attracting new members to the OES. The specific problems in this part of the world with regard to ocean engineering will also be addressed. It is also proposed to evolve this subcommittee to a separate Technical Committee as the UN decade actions progress in the coming years. By virtue of being the Chair of IOCINDIO and member of EPG, it will be helpful to have a marriage between the IEEE OES and the UN Decade/IOCINDIO activities.
He seeks your support for election to the AdCom to achieve these important goals.
IGNACIO CARLUCHO (GSM’16-M’19) was born in Olavarría, Buenos Argentina. He obtained a B.S. degree in Electromechanical Engineering (2015) from the Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Engineering (2019) also from the from the iversidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, working under the direction of Dr. Gerardo Acosta. He is currently a Research Assistant in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Louisiana State University.
His main research interests are intelligent control techniques for marine robotics. Particularly, the use of reinforcement learning for the control of autonomous underwater manipulator vehicles. During his PhD he worked on hybrid reinforcement learning techniques for low level control. During his postdoctoral studies he was part of DARPA’s Angler program for the advancement of autonomous marine operations. His latest research focus on data-driven techniques for the control of underwater manipulators under variable payloads. He has published in multiple high impact international journals and conferences.
He became a member of the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society and the IEEE young professionals in 2016. In addition, he has been a secretary of the Argentinian chapter of the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society for the past two years, were he played a prominent role in organizing different activities in the chapter.
He is currently an instructor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Louisiana State University. He has also served as a reviewer for important conferences and international journals of high impact.
Statement: I have been a member of the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society and the IEEE young professionals for the past five years. As a consequence of my involvement with the community, I have been elected as a secretary of the OES Argentinian chapter, a role I have been fulfilling for the past two years. I have so far enjoyed the meetings and work done by IEEE and therefore I would like to increase my involvement with the community.
While I am impressed with the work done by IEEE and the OES, I still believe that there is more that can be done. Currently, the OES is facing an increased worldwide interest in oceanic systems, with governmental efforts towards mitigating the negative effects of climate change and reducing the pollution caused by humans. In this context, I believe the OES should play a primordial role, leading the way towards positive change. However, the difficulties we have seen last year during the pandemic will force the society to adapt to a new normality, and will require new ways of communicating and organizing.
In this sense, there are three main points which I consider my involvement of importance:
- IEEE OES presence in South America. I would like to help the society with the current activities performed in Latin America. Particularly, the conferences, such as Rio Acoustics and the Latin American Symposium, assuring that they are occurring periodi- cally. Thus, giving a chance to Latin American researchers to publish and expand their circles, securing a growing community in the continent. Additionally, I would like to work in the student branch chapters, particularly the one in Argentina, to make sure students are in contact and are aware of all the possibilities to organize events within the soci- ety. And more importantly are in contact with the important research and developments carried out by the IEEE OES.
- Virtual presence. I am also interested in working to make the online presence of the IEEE OES stronger. This past year has shown a tendency that may re shape the way the society works and consolidating the web presence is a must. Furthermore, improving social media presence can bring the activities of the society to young students and engineers, involving new people into the topics related to oceans and technology.
- Oceans conferences. I would also like to volunteer myself to work in the flagship conferences of the OES. Particularly, I would like to participate in the Reconnaissance Committee (RECOM), as an international minded person, I can collaborate by bringing new insight, and assuring that different regions of the world are represented.
JAMES S. COLLINS (M’66-S’68-M’74-SM’97-LS’08) Jim earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1973. Prior degrees are from Dalhousie University, Halifax. He has been an Adjunct Professor in the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Victoria since 1983. After holding a position as a computer consultant with the Ministry of Health in British Columbia he joined the Engineering Department of Royal Roads Military College (RRMC) in Victoria in 1979. He was Head of the Department from 1988 to 1995 when the College closed due to government cutbacks.
Jim has contributed professionally as a Registered Professional Engineer in British Columbia since 1973. His IEEE contributions began in 1984 as IEEE Victoria Section Chair. He was also Founding Chapter Chair of the IEEE OES Victoria Chapter.in 1985. In 1993 he was General Chair of the IEEE OCEANS Conference held in Victoria with 280 papers and a surplus of C$99,600. He served many OES positions including VP for Professional Activities, 2004-2009, 2018-2019 and VP for Technical Activities, 1994-1998. He also served on the OES Elected AdCom, 1995-2000, 2010-2015. He Chaired the Committee responsible for a complete rewrite of the OES Constitution and Bylaws approved in 2006.
Jim was Co-Chair of the first Canadian Dept. of National Defence Military Robotics Applications Symposium held in 1987 at RRMC. His research area was acoustically sensitive mechanical mounts for narrow beam transducers suitable for communications use on AUV’s. The work is featured in the 1993 IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference Video Proceedings.
Major awards received are the IEEE Millenium 2000 Medal and the 2002 IEEE OES Distinguished Service Award.
Statement: OCEANS Conferences have operated largely unchanged since the implementation of the two OCEANS per year policy in 2005 and continually thereafter from 2007. This activity has been focused solely on the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins with typically one OCEANS Conference in each basin annually plus a variety of smaller symposia and workshops. With more than two billion people living in the countries bordering the Indian Ocean plus immense economic activity and a new Chapter in India, the Indian Ocean area was overdue for an OCEANS level conference. Sponsorship of a UT Symposium at NIOT in Chennai and cosponsor ship of several SYMPOL Symposiums in Cochin have shown the viability of holding conferences in the area. I am pleased to say that an OCEANS is scheduled for Chennai, India in 2022.
I would like to address the long period of tenure of our Presidents and I suggest they be limited to one two-year elected versus two two-year elected terms. This will increase the opportunity for an expanded pool of potential leaders. Presidents can and have been holding office a total of twelve years with Junior and Senior Past Presidents’ automatic appointments. Shifting one of these Past President positions forward to a new President Elect position merits discussion.
If elected I would like to better align the OES structure with the IEEE structure which emphasizes two activity areas, Technical Activities, and Membership and Geographic Activities. Chapters are an entity which network OES members on a geographic basis and not so much a Technical Basis. At the moment Chapters are treated as entities under the OES VP of Technical Activities. I propose Chapters be moved to the purview of the VP Professional Activities for more effective management.
These are just two of the topics I hope to address, the first complex and the second not so much.
I am privileged to have served the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society as a volunteer in many capacities. It is a pleasure to work with the other Administrative Committee members. I will continue to work with them and other members of the OES for the betterment of our Society.
VINCENZO FRANZITTA (M’13) Associate Professor of Environmental Technical Physics. The research topics are: environmental control, energy saving, use of energy sources, electrical energy production of from sea. Author of over 160 works, mostly published in international journals and/or presented in international conferences concerning renewable energy, wave energy, efficient use of energy in buildings. Present in the main International Scientific Databases such as Google Scholar, ISI-Thomson and Scopus where is indexed with 98 Documents, 1843 citations, Hindex 31. Significant experiences in the management of institutional relations, successfully promoting and assisting relations with opinion leaders, policy makers, institutions and stakeholders.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
1997 Degree in Electrical Engineering with 110/110 cum laude
2000 Post-Graduate School of Specialization in Environmental Monitoring and Control Engineering
2001 PhD in Environmental Technical Physics
2002 Post-Doc
2005 MASTER IN ADVISOR EXPERT IN EUROPEAN PROJECT DESIGN
ACADEMIC CAREER
2002 – 2018 Researcher in UNIPA
2018 – present Associate Professor in UNIPA
June – September 2019 VISITING PROFESSOR in USP – University of South Pacific
September 2020 Head the UNIPA ERASMUS+ Program KA107 with the FIJI
October 2020 Director Post-graduate specialization course for Acoustics Expert
November 2020 SCIENTIFIC QUALIFICATION OF FULL PROFESSOR, in TECHNICAL PHYSICS
TEACHING ACTIVITY
Currently teaches: Wind and Sea Wave Energy in UNIPA, Environmental Technical Physics in UNIPA, RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN SMALL ISLANDS. THE USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY AND SEA WAVE ENERGY IN DESALINATION APPLICATIONS in University of South Pacific (FIJI)
MAIN ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Since 2018-2019 GUEST EDITOR of many Special Issue about Sea Wave Energy topics, like the following “Renewable Energy from the Sea” in SUSTAINABILITY”
Since 2019-2020 Member of the following Scientific Advisory Board in the Int. conf. SDEWES 2019 DUBROVNIK – CROATIA, SDEWES BUENOS AIRES – ARGENTINA, SDEWES 2020 GOLD COAST – AUSTRALIA, SDEWES COLOGNE 2020 – GERMANY
Since July 2019 Chair of the Italian Thermotechnical Association (A.T.I.) Sicily section
AWARDS FOR SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
2015 won “Best paper award” in IEEE-IECON 2015 Montreal (Canada), for the paper: “A small scale prototype of a wave energy conversion system for hydrogen production”
TECHNOLOGICAL TRANSFER
Since 2016 – present Co-founder and Vice-CEO of “EngCoSys S.r.l.”, academic Spin-Off of UNIPA. The Spin-Off works in research, development, engineering sector in production of innovative systems for electricity production from sea and other renewable sources
Patent owner and inventor n°102021000001292 25.1.2021 “LINEAR GENERATOR WITH PERMANENT MAGNETS FOR SEA WAVE ENERGY CONVERSION”
MAIN EDITORIAL AND CONFERENCES COMMITTEES ACTIVITIES
Member of the Editorial Board of several international scientific journals including: Journal of Shipping and Ocean Engineering, Sustainability, Energies, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, Session Chair in IEEE IECON 2012, MTS/IEEE OCEANS’2013, MTS/IEEE OCEANS’2014, MTS/IEEE OCEANS’2014, MTS/IEEE OCEANS’2016.
MAIN RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Since 2011 to 2016 headed the research project “IMPETUS (Marine Hydrogen from Sustainable Sea Wave Energy)” funded by the Italian Ministry of the Environment.
Head the research group in Energy production from the Sea and since June 2014 head the LA.SI.TEC.MA. LAB (Marine Systems and Technologies Laboratory)
Since January 2020 head the UNIPA unit in partnerships with C-PED and the Engineering Dept of ROMA TRE University, about the development of technologies for the exploitation of wave energy potential.
Since 2020 head NEEMO research (New Electrical Energy from Marine Oscillation) funded by UNIPA
MAIN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH ACTIVITY GROUP
Since 2017-present head UNIPA unit in research “Hydrogen Production from Renewable Energy Sources for the public transport in Fiji (HPRES)”, founded by Fiji Government.
Since 2018-present head UNIPA unit in research “Development of Technologies for the Exploitation of Wave Energy Potential”. Research partner is Engineering School of the Royal Melbourne Technology Institute (New Zeland).
Since 2018 head UNIPA unit in research “Introduction of a renewable energy mix in microgrids and control optimization to promote the economic growth in small islands”, funded by the Fiji Government.
Statement: If I will have the honor of serving the Administrative Committee, I will utilize my know-how and expertise to increase the knowledge and attention in various issues characterizing the topics of the OES chapter, in particular those relating to production of electricity from the sea (sea wave, tidal, current, OTC, salinity gradient, etc) and its use for example in small islands where the problem of energy supply is important.
It will be important to enhance the attention and research on technologies of sustainable ocean energy systems in order to develop and disseminate systems totally sustainable and cheap for offshore energy production and its use for human activities, but also the environmental monitoring and protection of the marine ecosystem activities.
This promotion activity of research in the typical sectors of the OES Society topics will be realized with technical sponsorship and the creation of webinars, events and conferences.
Impetus will be given to the involvement in these activities of local authorities, institutions, universities as well as research organizations and students, who could thus be involved more generally in the activities of the Association, but also. The Italy OES Chapter could make a great contribution to the Society’s activities due to the great interest that Italy is showing both in the field of research but also in the field of legislation and industrial development regarding the typical topics of the OES such as monitoring of the seas, underwater acoustics, production and use of energy from the sea.
Many results are being obtained in scientific production as well as experimentation and my activity could help to implement them.
Considering also the geographical position of Italy within the basin of the Mediterranean Sea where there are many small islands with energy characteristics similar to those of other small islands in the world, and where there are numerous countries where the sea represents a reality and could represent an important resource, my presence at the service of the Committee could be very useful.
STEPHEN M. HOLT (M’00-SM’01) received his B.S. in Mathematical Physics from Wilmington College (Wilmington, Ohio, USA), and his B.S. in Electronic Engineering from Franklin University (Columbus, Ohio. USA). He also completed his M.S. in Engineering (with emphasis in Ocean Engineering and Underwater Acoustics) from The Catholic University of America (Washington, DC, USA) and Graduate Certificates in Engineering Management from The Catholic University of America (Washington, DC, USA) and Project Management from The George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia, USA).
Steve is currently employed with SGT/KBR, Inc. of Greenbelt, Maryland, USA as a Senior Systems Engineer working with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He has also supported the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with many meteorological and oceanic programs. He joined the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) and was first elected to its Administrative Committee in 2000. He was later elected to the grade of Senior Member to the IEEE in 2001. He was also one of three Executive Co-Chairs for the MTS/IEEE OCEANS 2005 Conference in Washington, DC and was the Secretary for the MTS/IEEE OCEANS’15 Conference in Washington, DC. Steve was the elected member to the OES Executive Committee as its Secretary for ten years, from the beginning of 2001 to the end of 2010. In 2007, he was awarded the IEEE OES Distinguished Service Award (DSA).
Steve presently serves as the IEEE OES Webmaster, where he maintains the integrity of and implements new technology initiatives related to the web site. Additionally, Steve is the Chair for the OES Promotions Committee and he serves as a member of the MTS/IEEE Recon Committee. His technical interests include image, radar, and sonar signal processing, optical systems engineering, as well as the remote sensing of the atmosphere and oceanic environments.
Statement: If elected, my goal is to stay engaged with OES activities as a Member of the Administrative Committee. As the OES Webmaster, I will continue to strive to make our web site a strong and effective tool for conducting our business efforts, as well as conveying the importance of our Society to the global oceans community. With our web site, I would like to expand our promotional activities to more effectively advertise and sell our brand and increase our membership. I would also like us to more effectively use the latest tools in social media to expand our message to a more diverse, younger and international audience. I am especially interested in expanding our outreach activities whereby we become even more effectively engaged with educators and students alike. In addition, I would like continue to expand our efforts in the area of Promotions with a variety of oceanic engineering magazines that I interface with on a wide range of oceans related topics.
In addition, I have been interested for a long time in the educational activities already used by many of the other IEEE Societies and Councils who have utilized the services and tools of the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) and the IEEE Resource Center (IRC). These resources have yet to be utilized by our Society and I would strive to encompass these capabilities into our web site. These resources include interactive courses, tutorials, lectures, research papers, etc. which could then be available to IEEE members directly from our web site.
Thus, if elected, again my hope is to continue these efforts for the Society to strengthen the activities of the OES Administrative Committee in any way I can!
MICHAEL LAMOUREUX (S’95-M’99-SM’09) Michael Lamoureux is Spend Matters Consulting Lead Analyst on Strategic Procurement Technologies and Advanced Technology Applications. As an expert in Algorithms, Analytics, Optimization, and Logistics [which depends heavily on ocean freight and] for Global Supply Chains [which include F&B supply chains that depend heavily on sustainable oceans], he’s primed to evaluate, and advise on, the most advanced and innovative software applications on the market today.
He’s also a scholar, researcher, solution engineer, optimization guru, writer, leader, futurist, anti-prophet, and “the doctor” of Sourcing Innovation — one of only two blogs that had been covering the Sourcing and Procurement Supply Chain subspace for over a decade when he paused to take on the Lead Analyst role on S?pend Matters.
He’s been leading innovation in web technologies, e-Commerce, e-Procurement, Optimization, Analytics, and even AI for the last two decades in various roles which have included Chief Architect, Chief Research Scientist, CTO, Assistant Professor, Blogger, and Technology Analyst. His PhD in Computer Science combined with his deep industry background and extensive knowledge about Supply Management gives him unique insights into not only what is driving innovation today but what will be driving innovation tomorrow, which have allowed him to write foundational white papers on the core technologies in his area, usability, and AI.
He currently lives on the east coast of the Great White North (which is what is officially called Canada), in a place call Halifax that sits smack dab in between the West Coast of the US and the UK (and lives in a time zone that seems to be foreign to the rest of the world that thinks time jumps from North American Eastern Time to Greenwich Mean Time).
Statement: We all know that when it comes to volunteer support, societies have gotten the short end of the stick for decades in IEEE. I want to change that. As a volunteer who fought for years for better tools to support volunteers and guided their creation (vTools, OU Analytics, Event Finder) when I finally had the chance as a past MGA Board Member, I want to see that the IEEE does more for society volunteers and members. Now that we have some relatively modern platforms in place and lots of web-based modern tools available to us, with the right support, we can do better for everyone!
As a professional who is also very interested in the advancement of key disciplines relevant to my work – mathematical modelling (for finance chains), information science (for information chains), and, most importantly, oceanic science (as the vast majority of supply chains are powered by the oceans) – it’s imperative that our societies be able to operate as efficiently as possible so we can spend less time on overhead and more on the advancement of sustainable oceanic science below and above the surface.
As a key, but often under-supported, society to IEEE’s mission and vision, my goal is to capture the operational needs of the Oceanic Engineering Society, determine how existing IEEE processes and platforms could be improved to support our needs, and work with the appropriate parts of IEEE to make it happen. Now that we will be increasingly asked to work virtual, it’s more important than ever that we get the right tools and process to support us. I will use my experience working with IEEE HQ to not only convey these needs but do what I can to see that they are addressed, with the appropriate priority and funding, over time. And in doing so help support the Oceanic Engineering Society in growth, great conferences, and the advancement of new initiatives.
LIAN LIAN (M’98-SM’13) is the Vice Dean of Institute of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She received her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering, and the PhD Degree in Technology Management from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She has become a full professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University since 1998, and served as a member of Expert Group of National Hi-Tech Program (863 Program) from 1999-2011, a member of Expert Group of National Science Foundation of China from 2008-2011, a member of Expert Group of National Key Research and Development Program since 2016 the Deputy Director of Marine Equipment Technology Committee of Chinese Society of Oceanography since 2017.
As a senior member and Shanghai Chapter Chair (since 2011), Lian served as a member of IEEE OES Administrative Committee from 2015-2019, the General Chair of OCEANS’16 Shanghai. Now she is a member of RECON Committee.
Dr. Lian’s research mainly focuses on underwater vehicles, marine observation. She has been leading her team concentrating their efforts on Underwater Vehicles, such as ROVs, Deep-Sea Towing Systems, Underwater Gliders, Multimodal Vehicles, underwater sampling and tooling systems, and has built the first series of Chinese brand Working-class ROVs including HAIMA-4500, the China’s first Working-class ROV capable of operating at a depth of 4,500 meters. By using these ROV systems, scientific progress and discoveries have been achieved, such as the discovery of “HAIMA Cold Seep”.
Statement: I have been an active member of OES for more then 20 years, and have been serving as the Chair of IEEE OES Shanghai Chapter since 2011. The experiences of serving the society have gave me a deep understanding of the fundament goal of the society and the role we should play as the society leaders. With the various new challenges the world is having today, I am fully aware that as a premier professional oceanic society, the importance of the work the AdCom does. I believe It is important to keep strong commitment working with our volunteers, but more importantly, to develop opportunities for people with different backgrounds all over the world and bringing them together. Thereby I decided to apply serving another term on the AdCom committee.
As a candidate from the People’s Republic of China, if elected, I will continue to work on broadening the participation from individuals with diverse backgrounds, to improve the student participation, to build up the connections and cooperation with local societies, to promote volunteering services, and to expand the influence and international presence of IEEE OES in China. I believe that my sustained service to OES would be an asset to the society, and as always, I feel honored to be an OES AdCom member.
ANDREAS MAROUCHOS (M’10) Andreas is a Principal Research Engineer and Research Group Leader in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) National Collections and Marine Infrastructure (NCMI) business unit. Andreas provides engineering and technical support to scientists and industry working the marine and atmospheric domains. In addition to providing technical guidance in the deployment of projects, Andreas and his group specialise in the design of bespoke science systems and platforms. This includes the design and manufacture of ship-based systems and instrumentation, autonomous platforms, and oceanographic moorings. In addition, Andreas is involved the development of novel technologies and methods to meet present and future engineering challenges. The Engineering and Technology program has a strong track record for delivering technical solutions to address challenging science problems in the field. Andreas also leads domestic and international collaborative efforts on technology development with a variety of research partners specifically targeted towards addressing fundamental technical and operational challenges in the advancement of ocean observing science platforms. The fields of study include ocean science and monitoring, mooring development, advanced materials, system autonomy and environmental technology to support aquaculture science and industry. Andreas’ technical background includes a broad range of engineering fields including aerospace, aero-structures, technologies for the environment, audio-visual engineering, optics, ocean engineering, autonomous systems and engineering systems modelling and simulation.
Andreas is active in both the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society and was recent appointed to the OES AdCom. Andreas is the Tasmanian sub-section chair in the Australian Chapter of the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society and actively engages the extensive marine technology community in Tasmania with talks and supporting visits from field experts. Andreas is also the Chair of the OES Polar Oceans Technical committee and has been active in the planning and execution in a series of technical workshops on polar technology development. The third event in the series, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Forum for Science and Technology (ASOF-Fest) workshop is scheduled for August 2021 and will bring together researchers across both science and technology domains to discuss emerging challenges in conducting southern-ocean research. Over his twelve years working in the marine industry Andreas has also regularly attended and presented papers at IEEE Oceans conferences (over 18 in 12 years).
Statement: As we move into the next decade designated by the UN as the Decade of the Oceans we are poised to see significant change in the method and technologies being deployed in our oceans. The operational challenges of localisation, persistence and scale faced by the marine sector will become more acute as operations of all sorts venture into more remote regions, deeper waters and further off-shore. Autonomy is the future of ocean operations. Advanced unmanned platforms working both at the surface of the oceans and below, combined with advances in machine learning and sensor technology will change the way ocean operations are conducted in support of both research and commercial activities. These technology drivers will demand new engineering skills, legal and regularity frameworks, business models and standards and the next generation of marine and ocean engineers will need to embrace a new set of skills to succeed.
The Ocean Engineering Society (OES) has the opportunity to play a central role in helping enable and lead this change but not without challenge. Engineering activities in the sector will become increasingly multi-disciplinary and requiring a more diverse set of skills. Interactions between disciplines are also likely to become more nuanced and require the creation of new sub-disciplines in engineering curricula. This presents an opportunity for OES is to help engage with students and emerging engineers in the field helping to provide a framework (and subsequently a home) for new members who may increasingly find their new skills at odds with traditional marine engineering curricula. Continued investment in student engagement though workshop and conferences is critical in this regard.
As part of the IEEE, OES in in the unique opportunity to provide guidance on setting of standards and contribute to the development of best practice and subsequent discussions informing regulatory frameworks. This is particularly necessary in the context of autonomous or unmanned systems. Outside of the engineering discipline, OES has an opportunity to engage with the broader science community to create strong working groups around key science theme areas; helping break free the constraints of siloed expertise in particular domain areas and encourage interaction and idea sharing across disciplines. An example of this is the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Forum which mixed science presentations with engineering discussions around the challenges faced by conducting science operations in the Southern Ocean. Is it envisioned that along with it’s sister conference (the Arctic and Northern Ocean Forum) that bridges could be formed by specialist groups working at opposite poles to address often similar technical challenges.
MAURIZIO MIGLIACCIO (M’91-SM’00-F’17) is Full professor of Electromagnetics at Università di Napoli Parthenope (Italy). He was Affiliated Full Professor at NOVA Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL (USA) and now is affiliated to the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Roma (Italy). 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 has been serving for the University AdCom for four terms. 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, South Korea, Ecuador, 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.
Statement: The IEEE OE Society deals with the technologies for marine environment, a large set of challenging and leading-edge multidisciplinary activities. Activities that are undertaken a large body of people with very different background and affiliation. It is therefore very important to promote the Society within the professionals and academic people working on marine ICT. An action that could be sustained by small topical meetings. The advance of the IEEE OE Society will take great benefit by the flagship OE journal promoting special issues on brand new scientific topics and by involving young and motivated Associate Editors. New geographical opportunities of the OE Society should be sustained by a larger number of Chapters that can take benefit of the online opportunities even during the pandemia. It also very important to support the young professional activities and the sense of community by some awards regarding the Journal and the main Conference.
In summary, a set of mentoring actions taking benefit of the expert leaders in our Society to involve more and more young professionals and researchers.
In my view the greatest opportunities and challenges are given by the forthcoming green technologies that will revolutionize our future and the way we move in the sea, we produce energy at sea and we observe and contribute through the sea of the Earth environment. New scientific and technological challenges that must see our Society at the center by exploiting at the best the tools we have and by visionary contributes.
In my vision OES can have a prominent role in the green future.
HARUMI SUGIMATSU (AM’04-M’08-SM’12) Harumi Sugimatsu has been contributing to the society as the Editor-in-Chief of the OES BEACON Newsletter since 2015, delivering the latest OES news to all members of the network four times a year. She has contributed to the expansion of the International Symposium on Underwater Technology (UT) around the Asia-Pacific Rim, with 10 symposia held since 1998 in Japan, Taiwan (2004), China (2009), India (2015), Korea (2017), Taiwan (2019), with UT21 Online (Japan) scheduled in March 2021. In particular, UT21 was reorganized as an Online Event and introduced new initiatives such as the Underwater Video Competition that can be safely delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Harumi was one of the key organizers of OCEANS ’04, ’08 and ’18 in Kobe and helped bring the OCEANS conference in Asian Countries such as Korea (2012), Taiwan (2014), and China (2016) as a member of the OCEANS reconnaissance team. In addition, her work promoting AUV competitions in Japan have led to their significant expansion, and she was secretariat for the highly successful AUV2016 workshop in Tokyo. Her efforts have contributed to foundation of the OES Japan Chapter in 1998, which has led to the creation of a network of OES Chapters in Korea, China, Taiwan, and India. She is Senior Member of the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society, and has served two terms as an elected member of the OES Administrative Committee. Her contribution to international conferences and workshops was recognized through her being awarded the 1st OES Presidential Award in 2014, and the prestigious OES distinguished Service Award in 2016.
Harumi Sugimatsu is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Industrial Science of the University of Tokyo, Japan, specializing in whale and dolphin echolocation with application to cetacean observation systems, and seabed mineral resource survey using AUVs. Her work in international collaborative projects to monitor Ganges River dolphins was featured in the May 2016 issue of IEEE Spectrum. She was awarded the Fujisankei Communications Group Award of the 25th Grand Prize for the Global Environment Awards in 2016 for her contribution to conservation of the endangered freshwater dolphins through the use of acoustic monitoring using advanced underwater technologies.
Harumi Sugimatsu earned a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Humanities, Gakushuin University, Japan. She is a member of the Marine Technology Society, the Japan Art History Society. She is also an accomplished artist credited with numerous exhibitions (http://sugimatsu-artgallery.world.coocan.jp/).
Statement: The activities of academic societies, organizing conferences and symposia, gathering participants, and attending these events are key to the formation and growth of research communities. Face-to-face contact with researchers with differing backgrounds is as important to advance a research field as publishing research papers in journals. While it is important to leverage the recent phenomenon of Social Networking Services (SNS) to bring our community closer together, it is more critical than ever for researchers to meet face-to-face and communicate in order to understand our different backgrounds and cultures. What is “face-to-face” communication during the restriction of a pandemic? As the Editor-in-Chief of the BEACON Newsletter, I had several opportunities to get in touch with OES members from different backgrounds and the various activities are involved in. Perhaps in normal times, we wouldn’t choose to “get in touch” through an internet call, but in fact, with the right attitude and motivation, we can still feel close even though we are far away. Recently, many conferences, symposia and chapter activities are operated in virtual or hybrid modes, but there are many lessons to learn from this and use to form new visions about how we manage academic societies during and after a pandemic. The OES Japan Chapter has played a central role in organizing the Symposium on Underwater Technology (UT), which was established to strengthen the network of ocean researchers especially in Asia. COVID-19 changed the situation, however reorganizing the UT21 symposium as an online event, making us think about new way and opportunities to present and communicate at the conference leading to initiatives like the Underwater Video Competition. These OES activities will continue to provide a stage for both face-to-face (of course we like it) and virtual communication, and through its continuing growth and development contribute to strengthening and expanding all OES members network on a global scale.
Instead of being “close but far away”, I believe there is a path for us to be “far away but close” through networks like OES, where ever we are in the world!
ROBERT L. WERNLI (S’97-SM’06) received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1973 and the M.S. degree in engineering design from San Diego State University, San Diego, CA in 1985. He retired in 2005 from his career at a navy laboratory in San Diego where he specialized in the field of underwater robotics research and development. As president of First Centurion Enterprises, he has begun his second career as an underwater technology consultant and a writer. His most recent technical publication is The ROV Manual, 2nd edition; in fiction, he has published three novels. He has over 30 technical publications and was also editor and co-author of the book Operational Effectiveness of Unmanned Underwater Systems, published on CD-ROM in 1999 by MTS.
He has been actively engaged in promoting the oceans, including the use of remotely operated vehicles, by creating and chairing the first 10 Remotely Operated Vehicle conferences (ROV ‘83-ROV ’92), and co-chairing the following: OCEANS MTS/IEEE ’95, ’03, ’13 and ’21, all in San Diego, and Underwater Technology ’04 (Taiwan), ’07 (Tokyo), ’09 (Wuxi, China), ’11 (Hawaii with OCEANS), ’13 (Tokyo), ’15 (Chennai, India), ’17 (Busan, S. Korea), ’19 (Kaohsiung,Taipei) and ’21 (Tokyo – virtual).
Mr. Wernli is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Oceanic Engineering Society, and a member and fellow of the Marine Technology Society (MTS). He is a recipient of the MTS Special Commendation and Award and the MTS ROV Committee’s Chairman Award and the OES Distinguished Service Award. During his career with the government he received the Exemplary Service Award, the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the prestigious Lauritsen-Bennett award for Excellence in Engineering.
Statement: My involvement within the professional societies has been driven by a desire to excel, especially in the international conference circuit. I’ve had the pleasure to chair 23 international MTS and IEEE/OES conferences where we initiated the first conference tutorials, web page, CD ROM proceedings, CD ROM Advance Program, DVD Proceedings and also took the ROV conference to three international locations (Aberdeen, Scotland; Bergen, Norway; Vancouver, BC). As a member and chair of the OES Reconnaissance (RECON) committee for over 15 years, my goal was to create a process that allows a group of society volunteers to effectively and efficiently plan and run OCEANS conferences around the world. This process was successful, resulting in OCEANS conferences in Germany, Australia, Spain, Korea, Italy, Norway, Taiwan, China, France, Canada and Scotland. During my two terms on the OES Executive Committee as VP for Conference Development, I worked with other society members to create documentation and refine the process of initiating and running future conferences. Most recently, I completed two terms as VP for Professional Activities where I was responsible for membership, chapters and the promotion of the society, which includes the website and Beacon newsletter. I feel my experience in these positions will help IEEE/OES fulfill its strategic goals of continuing to develop a successful international conference program that not only showcases the breadth of our technologies but also encourages and promotes future international networking and cooperation. As a prior AdCom member (’03-’08, ’10-’12 and ’18-‘20), I welcome the opportunity to again join the AdCom and offer my experience in advancing the goals of the Oceanic Engineering Society.
GLENN A. WILSON (M’15-SM’16) received the B.App.Sc. degree in physics from Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia, in 2000, and the Ph.D. degree in microelectronic engineering from Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, in 2003. He is currently Product Manager – Subsea Solutions with Halliburton in Houston, Texas, USA; and recently led the launch of Halliburton’s OdasseaTM Subsea Fiber Optic Sensing Solution for topside distributed acoustic sensing of subsea wells. He previously held technical and managerial roles at TechnoImaging, Rock Solid Images, BP, CSIRO, and The University of Utah. Between 2014 and 2018, he was an adjunct associate professor of petroleum engineering with The National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Engineering. He is an Associate Editor – Rock Physics and Borehole Geophysics for the journal GEOPHYSICS, is a member of the SEAFOMTM steering committee that promotes the growth of fiber optic solutions in the upstream oil and gas industry, is a senior member of the IEEE, and is member of the AGU, EAGE, OSA, SEG, SPE, and SPWLA.
Statement: The IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society occupies a unique space in the greater oceans and related technical communities. Ocean engineering has significant relevance to the energy transition, whether in offshore energy generation and transmission, carbon transport and storage, and oil and gas production. This will occur upon in an environment of heightened environmental, social and governance (ESG) scrutiny. Our professional response to the transition will require collaborations across multiple societies internal and external of the IEEE, but our society can have a significant role in driving the broad ocean engineering agenda to ensure technical knowledge generation, capture, and transfer. My motivation to serve on the AdCom is to increase the society’s exposure, engagement, and responsibilities within the energy transition.
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.