September 2018
Name: Caglar Erdogan
Department: Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences
School: Florida Institute of Technology
Project: The Application of a Modulated Impressed Current Cathodic Protection (ICCP) System to Aid Underwater Navigation on Steel Structures Using Passive Electric Sense
Research Advisor: Dr. Geoffrey Swain
Caglar Erdogan is a PhD student in the Department of Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology. He received a BS in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Yildiz Technical University, Turkey in 2010. He holds a MS degree in Ocean Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology. In 2015, he joined the Center for Corrosion and Biofouling Control (CCBC), a research group at Florida Tech that focuses on developing and applying innovative solutions for the control and prevention of corrosion and biofouling. His research focuses on the application of potential field sensing, as exhibited by sharks and rays, for the navigation of underwater vehicles on ship hulls and steel structures. In complex underwater environments with turbid waters, the reliability of vision based, sonar guidance, and magnetic field sensing navigation systems decreases. His research will investigate a new method for active electrolocation on steel structures by modulating the current output from impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) systems to create potential fields that may be used as a means for underwater navigation. Electrolocation sensors, inspired by the electric field sensing organs of marine animals, will be designed to measure the potential gradients generated by the IR drop. Algorithms will be developed to use these values for navigation. The system will be field tested on underwater vehicles located at the Florida Institute of Technology’s large scale seawater test site located at Port Canaveral.
Name: Beckett Colson
Department: Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (WHOI) and Mechanical Engineering (MIT)
School: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Project: Developing Precision Laser Spectroscopy Based Deep Sea In Situ Dissolved Inorganic Carbon Instrumentation
Research Advisor: Dr. Anna PM Michel
Beckett Colson is a PhD student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. His work focuses on ocean instrumentation, with the goal of developing the tools needed to expand scientific understanding of ocean systems. He received a BS in Mechanical and Ocean Engineering from MIT. As an undergraduate he endeavored upon a variety of projects, including building a tunable stiffness robotic fish to study the interaction between hydrodynamic wake vortices and a resonant structures, designing a submersible power system based off of a newly developed high energy density aluminum based fuel, and studying the higher order vibration modes of plates and structures. Beckett grew up around the ocean and has developed a lifelong passion for competitive sailing. He is excited about ocean instrument development because it allows him to work at the intersection of science and engineering.
With the support of the Link Foundation, Beckett will continue his PhD work developing a deep sea in situ Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) instrument. While there has been significant progress, current in situ DIC instruments cannot meet the necessary field precision, depth, and longevity required for adequate characterization of the ocean carbon system. Instead, ocean carbon researchers must rely on traditional bottle sample techniques, limiting the spatiotemporal resolution of measurements. Beckett’s instrument uses an alternate CO2 measurement technique, Tunable Laser Diode Absorption Spectroscopy (TLDAS).
Name: Troy Heitman
Department: Ocean and Resources Engineering
School: University of Hawaii
Project: Numerical developments in depth integrated dispersive wave models
Research Advisor: Dr. Kwok F. Cheung
Troy Heitmann is a PhD candidate in the Ocean and Resources Engineering (ORE) Department at the University of Hawaii (UH) at Manoa. The focus of his PhD research is on numerical developments in depth integrated dispersive wave models with applications in the analysis of coastal processes. Acknowledging the demand for coherent in-situ field observations with the intent of cross-validating numerical results, his project focus is on the development of a low-cost instrument composed of piezo-resistive pressure sensors and an inertial measurement unit capable of deriving flow depth and velocity. Successful implementation of his proposed methodology empowers conclusive remarks on the spatial diversity, interdependence, and dynamic stability of littoral cells identified in numerical simulations. In 2002, Troy was admitted to the Ocean Engineering Department at Florida Atlantic University where he was educated in a wide range of ocean engineering principles. In his senior level class on wave mechanics, he found a career path of interest that rekindled his childhood love of the water. Following the completion of his BS degree in 2007, he chose to pursue higher education with an academic focus in numerical wave modeling. Joining the ORE Department at UH Manoa, the power of numerical wave models quickly became evident as he found himself studying the effects of hurricane landfalls, tsunami inundation, and the global wave climate. With this newly acquired skill set, he completed his MS degree in 2010 with a focus on the near shore wave climate and its correlation to beach morphological parameters found in Hawaii. Diverse applications in numerical wave modeling were always academically stimulating, but his true fascination was rooted in the vast theoretical framework of numerical methods. Support from the Link Foundation will help facilitate his numerical developments in applied environments, where spatially coherent observations are of utmost importance.
Name: Eric Nieves
Department: Ocean and Mechanical Engineering
School: Florida Atlantic University
Project: Multi-vehicle collaboration for underwater target detection
Research Advisor: Dr. Pierre Philippe Beaujean
Eric Nieves received earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida and is currently on track to receive a PhD in Ocean Engineering at the Florida Atlantic University. During his time at FAU, he has teamed up with navy professionals from NAVAIR to provide signal processing and analysis support for magnetometer and acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP) data. Upon the completion of his MS degree, he was assigned to work with the Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC) group based in Panama City, FL to improve unexploded ordnance detection with autonomous ocean vehicles. His research involves multi-vehicle collaboration for underwater target detection. Although the overall objective is to use a heterogeneous vehicle (REMUS 100 and WAM-V) and sensor (magnetometer and side scan sonar) set-up, significant optimization is being geared towards using multiple magnetometers to expand the range of magnetic detection and increase the fidelity of simultaneous target detection. The objectives include developing techniques to accomplish innovative magnetic sensing, providing algorithms to efficiently navigate and map an environment among multiple vehicles, and communicating decisions among the multiple vehicles.
If you would like to find out more about the Link Ocean Engineering and Instrumentation Fellows and projects that have been funded in the field of Ocean Engineering by the Link Foundation, please visit the webpage at http://www.linkoe.org/.