New Year, New Member Opportunities
Brandy Armstrong, VP of Professional Activities It’s been a busy few months in my new role as VP of Professional Activities. Fortunately, I was able…
Marine Debris Indicators: What’s Next? – Workshop Summary Report
An IEEE OES event 16-18 December 2019-Brest, FRANCE René Garello, OES Junior Past President This workshop was sponsored by: THE WORKSHOP The workshop on “Marine…
From the Vice President for W&S
Philippe Courmontagne, Vice President for W&S By the way of loans to support the startup of a conference/workshop/symposium, or grants to support student participation or…
The Science We Need for the Ocean We Want
Regional Planning Workshop for the Northern/Central Indian Ocean countries as well as ROPME sea area towards the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development…
Welcome to COA 2020!
2nd IEEE/OES China Ocean Acoustics Conference -COA 2020, Harbin, China, 27-30 July 2020 *Updated The 2016 IEEE / OES China Ocean Acoustics Symposium (COA2016), initiated…
Offshore Technology Conference
Jerry C. Carroll, Senior Past President, OTC Board of Directors Founded in 1969, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) organizes the world’s foremost events for…
A Blast from the Past! . . . And a Look at Our Future
Bob Wernli – Beacon Co-Editor-in-Chief, photos by Stan Chamberlain Many of our OES members are, how shall I say it . . . “very experienced.”…
OCEANS 2019 Seattle – A Success
Fritz Stahr, Ph.D., Chair, OCEANS 2019 Seattle More than 1700 people attended OCEANS 2019 Seattle, October 27th through 31st, at the Washington State Convention…
Underwater Robot Convention in JAMSTEC 2019
Takumi Matsuda, The University of Tokyo, IEEE OES Japan Chapter Introduction Underwater Robot Convention 2019 was held in JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and…
Who’s who in the OES (September 2019)
Ken Takagi, RECON Committee, Associate Editor of JOE I’m writing this article during a short summer vacation in my hometown of Osaka. I was…
OCEANS 2019 Marseille
Philippe Courmontagne, General Chair After fourteen years, the international biennial OCEANS conference came back to France. Indeed, for this 64th installment, this co-sponsored conference, by…
OceanObs’19 Conference, An Ocean of Opportunity
Jay Pearlman, Christopher Whitt and Mal Heron OceanObs is a conference held every 10 years to celebrate the successes of the past decade and to…
The European Robotics League (ERL) Emergency 2019
Gabriele Ferri1 and Fausto Ferreira2 1 ERL Emergency 2019 Director 2 OES AdCom 2018-2020 NATO-STO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) has been organizing…
Jean-Pierre Hermand MEMORIAL Session – OCEANS 2019 Marseille, France
James Candy, OES AdCom member The special session entitled the “Jean-Pierre Hermand Memorial” was held at OCEANS 2019 Marseille and was co-chaired by his…
Underwater Technology 2019 (UT’19) Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 16–19 April, 2019
Chau-Chang Wang, Technical Program Committee Co-Chair of UT’19 The IEEE OES international symposium on Underwater Technology 2019 (UT’19) organized by IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (IEEE/OES),…
“FROM LITTLE THINGS, BIG THINGS GROW” (Paul Kelly, 1992) IEEE/OES 12th CWTMA Workshop, San Diego 10–13 March 2019
From Mal Heron, Sandy Williams and Hugh Roarty A brilliant success! Under the auspices of the CWTMA Technology Committee, the twelfth Currents, Waves, Turbulence Measurements…
Presenting the European Robotics League (ERL) Emergency 2019
Gabriele Ferri1, Fausto Ferreira2 1ERL Emergency 2019 Director 2OES AdCom 2018–2020 Background NATO-STO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) has been organizing robotics competitions…
OCEANS 2019 Seattle
Seattle’s connection to maritime exploration, commerce, and innovation goes back to the first humans who settled by its shores. The Duwamish people, European settlers, and…
Reflection for Singapore Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge – the Comparison Between SAUVC and a Competition Held in Japan
Kenichi Fujita, Yuya Hamamatsu and Hiroya Yatagai (The University of Tokyo) University of Tokyo students challenged the SAUVC for the first time supported by OES…
Welcome Message from General Chair of OCEANS 2020 Singapore
Dear Research and Industry Colleagues, Greetings from Singapore! After a gap of 14 years, Singapore is set to host again OCEANS Conference during 6–9 April…
Breaking the Surface—International Interdisciplinary Field-Training for Experts, End-Users and Students
Zoran Vukić, Nikola Mišković, Antonio Vasilijević, Ivana Mikolić. BtS point of contact: bts@fer.hr BtS (bts.fer.hr) was approved as an OES Initiative Activity on March 2019.…
2018 IEEE 8th International Conference on Underwater System Technology: Theory and Application (IEEE USYS’18)
Khalid Isa and Mohd Rizal Arshad The 2018 IEEE 8th International Conference on Underwater System Technology: Theory and Application (IEEE USYS’18) was held in Wuhan,…
2018 IEEE OES AUV Symposium, Porto, Portugal, November 6–9, 2018
João Tasso de Figueiredo Borges de Sousa, LSTS—University of Porto, Chair The IEEE OES AUV Symposium is organized every other year to bring together those…
A Blast From the Past
Bob Wernli—Beacon Co-Editor-in-Chief, Photos by Stan Chamberlain
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.
Dr. Marcia Isakson received a B.S. with a double major in engineering physics and mathematics from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1992. Upon graduation, she was awarded the Hertz Foundation Fellowship for the study of atomic and molecular physics. She earned her M.A. in atomic and molecular physics from The University of Texas at Austin in 1994. From 1994 to 1997, Isakson served as an officer in the United States Army at Fort Hood, Texas. In 1997, CPT Isakson was honorably discharged. In 2002, she earned a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin. In the summer of 2001, she began work on acoustics at Applied Research Laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin.
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. Albert J. Williams 3rd (Sandy) received his AB in Physics from Swarthmore College in 1962 and his Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University in 1969. He spent his entire career at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, becoming Scientist Emeritus in 2002. A Fellow of IEEE, he received the Distinguished Technical Achievement Award of the IEEE/Oceanic Engineering Society in 2000 and is presently VP Technical Activities for OES. His research interests are microstructure and mixing, flow measurements, oceanographic instrumentation and measurements, sediment transport, and turbulent boundary layers. He designs and manufactures acoustic travel-time current meters for measurement of current, waves, and turbulence.
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.