March 2019 OES Beacon

VPTA Report—Distinguished Lecturer Program

Malcolm Heron, OES Vice President for Technical Activities

We welcomed three newly appointed Distinguished Lecturers to the DL Roster on 1 January. DLs are appointed for a four-year term by AdCom with endorsement by one of the Technology Committees. At the end of their term DLs may nominate for re-appointment in response to a general call for nominations. It is significant that the three appointees were endorsed by Technology Committees that have not been previously represented on the DL roster.

Hanumat Singh is a Professor at Northeastern University and Director of the Center of Robotics and his nomination was endorsed by the Autonomous Marine Systems Technology Committee. He offers DL topics including Current and Future Issues in the Use of AUVs; Unmanned Aerial Systems for Polar and Oceanographic Applications; AUVs for research in the Arctic and Antarctic; Machine Learning for Underwater Imagery; High Resolution Optical and Acoustic Mapping with Underwater Vehicles; and The Role of Robotics in Fisheries Research.

Stefan Williams is Professor of Marine Robotics at the University of Sydney and Co-Director of Sydney Robotics at U. Sydney. His appointment as DL was endorsed by the Autonomous Marine Systems Technology Committee and he offers lectures on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles; Navigation and Mapping; Machine Learning; Planning and Applications in Ecology; and Geoscience and Archaeology.
Rick Spinrad is Senior Advisor to the Vice President for Research; Professor of Oceanography, Oregon State University and is President of the Marine Technology Society. He has held a wide range of positions in Technical Leadership; Program Management and Advocacy; Senior Administration; Research Innovation; and Teaching. His nomination was endorsed by the Ocean Observations and Environmental Sustainability Technology Committee. His Distinguished Lecture Topics include: Marine Technology (past, current, future); Ocean Policy; and Operational Oceanography (civil and military).

The DL Program has a modest budget that allows the Distinguished Lecturers to vary their schedules to provide technical talks to OES Chapters, IEEE Sections and other institutions as the opportunities arise. Look on the web site <ieeeoes.org> for topics and biographies. Communication is a 2-way stream but the DLs do not know what your Chapter or Section would like until you contact them. The DL Program is there for you to use—and the ball is in your court.

The current DL Roster is:


Call for Nominations:
Nominations are sought for three Distinguished Lecturers to commence their term on 1 January 2020. Nominations with brief CV and endorsement from one of the OES Technology Committees close on 31 July 2019 with the VP for Technical Activities. DLs who are seeking a new term should include their record of DL activity.

Contact e-mail address: mal.heron@ieee.org