OES-Environmental & ORJIP International Forum #2: Design and Application of Integrated Monitoring Platforms for Monitoring Around MRE Devices

OES-Environmental and ORJIP Ocean Energy invite you to join the first International Forum on MRE Environmental R&D that will present and review the latest in research and monitoring around marine renewable energy (MRE) sites. This forum consists of three different webinars, each running from 8am – 10am PT (3pm – 5pm UTC) on April 21, 22, and 23, 2020. The purpose of the forum is to share the most recent environmental research and monitoring results with a broad audience. The primary audiences we hope to reach will include regulators, MRE device and project developers, and other researchers. Each webinar will showcase four to five experts.

The first webinar, Update on Monitoring and Research Around Turbines, will be held 21 April; the second webinar, Design and Application of Integrated Monitoring Platforms for Monitoring Around MRE Devices, will be held 22 April; and the third webinar, Updates on Monitoring and Research Around Wave Devices, will be held 23 April. 

Webinar Facilitators:

Jennifer Fox, Aquatera Ltd.

Andrea Copping, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Webinar Presenters:

Adaptable Monitoring Platform - James Joslin, University of Washington 

• Dr. James Joslin is a senior research engineer at the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab and founder of MarineSitu, Inc. At APL, he has led the hardware development and deployment operations of for the Adaptable Monitoring Package since 2015. His research interests include the development of integrated sensor systems for marine monitoring, marine robotics, and hydrodynamic analysis. Through MarineSitu, James seeks to make the AMP technology more widely available to the marine industry by spinning it out of the university research lab.
• Presentation Slides

FLOWBEC - Benjamin Williamson & Beth Scott, University of Aberdeen

• Dr Benjamin Williamson is Lead Scientist at the Environmental Research Institute, UHI. Since 2011, he has developed novel multi-instrument monitoring platforms to measure interactions of fish, seabirds and marine mammals with marine energy devices. His research interests include robotics, sensor fusion and novel sensor platforms to investigate biophysical interactions in the marine environment, such as using UAVs to investigate behavioural associations of top predators with fine-scale hydrodynamic features.
• Beth Scott is a Professor in Marine Ecology at the University of Aberdeen.  She has a multi-disciplinary background in marine ecology, oceanography and fisheries. Her approach focuses on the functional linkages between fine scale bio-physical oceanographic processes, flexible individual life history traits and population dynamics of a range of fish and seabird species through both empirical data collection and modelling approaches.  Her focus has been the spatial and temporal identification of critical marine habitats where mobile predator and prey species interact. Recently she has been appointed Co-Director for the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Supergen Hub and is a member of the Scottish Government Offshore Renewables Research ScotMER). She has been a member of the Ministerial DEFRA Marine Protected Areas Science Advisory Panel and of Scottish Natural Heritage’s (SNH) Scientific Advisory Committee, as well as the Forum Coordinator for Marine Renewable Energy Forum, Marine Alliance for Science and Technology, Scotland (MASTS).
• Presentation Slides

SMRU Platform - Gordon Hastie, Sea Mammal Research Unit 

• Dr Gordon Hastie a Senior Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit. His research interests focus on how marine mammals utilise the dynamic nature of their environment. For example, in marine systems, tidal and meteorological processes, together with geographical features such as narrow coastal channels effectively create habitats that are in constant flux due to water movements. His research aims to understand the unique challenges and opportunities this creates for marine mammals using them. Further, as we see the increasing urbanisation of marine environments, He is interested in how marine mammals perceive and respond to novel anthropogenic sources in the ocean. In particular, the proposed installation of wind, wave, and tidal energy converters around the coast may be hazardous to marine mammals and understanding how they perceive and respond to them is critical to ensure that they can co-exist at the scales currently being envisaged for the industry.
• Presentation Slides

FAST Platform - Dan Hasselman, Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy

• Dan Hasselman is the Science Director for FORCE, supervising all monitoring and environmental research programs, and is the science lead for the Pathway Program. Dan has a PhD in Biology from Dalhousie University, has held Research Associate positions at the University of Washington and the University of California Santa Cruz.  Dan has over 10 years of experience engaging with the international research community, First Nations and various levels of governments and regulatory agencies in both Canada and the United States.
• Presentation Slides