An interdisciplinary team of researchers and scientists introduced Old Dominion University’s new school of Supply Chain, Logistics and Maritime Operations (SSCLMO) to the international community by presenting research at the Oceans 2024 Conference held in Nova Scotia last week.
The event offered an opportunity to highlight ODU’s designation as a Maritime Administration Center of Excellence for Domestic Maritime Workforce Training and Education in partnership with the Maritime Institute, and to discuss current research initiatives as a Research 1 University designated by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
The conference’s theme, “Aligning Diverse Communities for Tomorrow’s Ocean,” reflected the need for the ocean science, engineering and technology industries to work together as they expand.
Elspeth McMahon, ODU’s associate vice president for maritime initiatives, said the conference provided the perfect setting to showcase the University’s accomplishments in maritime research, outreach, academia and industry partnership and to confirm that the University is an impactful leader in the “blue economy.”
McMahon, along with political science and geography professor Tom Allen and the Open Seas Technology Innovation Hub’s executive director Jerry Cronin, presented a half-day tutorial titled “The Role of Outreach and Education in Achieving the Full Potential of Ocean Technologies.” It provided an overview of the evolving societal, economic, technological and environmental needs of ocean education and outreach.
The education section of the workshop featured a discussion about the establishment of the SSCLMO and its extensive industry outreach, which includes internships, conferences, academic-industry partnerships and seminars. The ocean geospatial education segment of the tutorial included an overview of the pedagogy, technology and analysis of applied coastal-marine themed geospatial technology courses. The outreach section covered the support of marine technologists who develop innovations to address the hard problems facing the world.
Cong Wei, an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department, presented the project, “Ocean Flow Observation from Inter-Platform Measurement and Coordination for Lagrangian Floats.” The project aims to estimate ambient current velocities by assimilating the relative motion measurements collected from each float in a multi-float network. This approach enhances the network’s perception of currents and optimizes its mobility without the need for advanced current sensors.
With MAE associate professor Krishnanand Kaipa and Alexander Bochdansky from the Department of Oceanography and Earth Sciences, Wei also built a prototype of a tether profiler used to explore methane seeps in deep water. The prototype was tested in a small water tank along with other field tests.
Kaipa was the principal investigator and presented “Design and Depth Tracking of a Robotic Quadrotor-Float for Ocean Exploration Tasks” at the conference. He started the project in 2021 and was supported by Sebastian Bawab, professor and interim chair of MAE, in recruiting a team of undergraduate students who developed and tested the first generation of underwater guided vessels. The students working on the current prototype include Rob M. Stuart III, Alex Riehl, Adam Porter, Sam Zimmerman, Nathan Hanks and Kirstie Moore.
The robot, currently in a proof-of-concept phase, is designed to detect methane seeps at a lower cost than traditional methods. Bochdansky explained that traditional methane seep explorations use expensive submersibles and can cost up to $200,000 per day. Now that the prototype for shallow water applications is complete, plans are to move the project to the next stage of testing.