IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador
Oceanic Engineering Society Chapter

NEW (30 Nov 2010):The Conference Presentations and Videos are now available here
The Conference Schedule is now available here

A two-day workshop will take place Thursday and Friday October 21 and 22, 2010 at the National Research Council Canada (NRC), Institute for Ocean Technology (IOT) in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Please note that these dates were chosen to take place in the same week as the 2010 Ocean Innovation Conference which will also take place in St. John's, from Sunday to Wednesday, 17 to 20 October; for details see http://www.oceaninnovation.ca which has as its theme "Underwater Vehicles - Engineering, Education, Exploration and Enterprise".

The NRC-IOT workshop will be a forum for specialists from industry, university and research organizations. We anticipate having presentations that address the following five major topics.

1. Multi-agent vehicle systems - what hardware and software is required to make this happen, who is working in this area, what progress has been made, what are the major challenges, where are the opportunities for collaboration?
2. Autonomous "gateway" or "beacon" vehicles as part of a "fleet" of autonomous submerged vehicles -fleet path planning and optimization, role of COTS software.
3. Under-ice navigation and tracking - inter-vehicle communications while submerged.
4. Vehicle technology (gizmos) - what's new, what's over the horizon, what will be the next "technology enabler"?
5. Customer applications - tracking, monitoring, surveillance and inspection for the Department of Fisheries &Amp; Oceans, National Defence, Canadian Coast Guard and the oil and gas industry, and, other commercial interests.

Each participant will be expected to contribute to the presentations and discussions. The discussions will focus on areas of synergy and mutual interest. Presentations should be a statement of "work in progress" rather than a formal reviewed paper, although the written version could be a paper presented elsewhere, recently.

The duration of each presentation should be a maximum of 25 minutes, which will allow five minutes for questions, discussion and change-over. The intent is to have a total of 20 presentations organized into four half- day sessions of five presentations each. These will all be plenary sessions; there will be no parallel sessions.

A computer-based projection system will be the primary method for making your presentation so please have your presentation prepared on a compact disk or memory stick. Our seminar room seats about 100 people; a lapel microphone and laser pointer will be provided.

The workshop will feature the Iver2 AUV and the ocean gliders from the Canadian Centre for Ocean Gliders (CCOG). Also available for viewing is the new Autonomous Ocean Systems Laboratory in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN). Included as part of the Ocean Innovation Conference on Wednesday 20 October 2010, is an opportunity to go on-board the M/V Anne S. Pierce in Conception Bay and to view the new Marine Base classroom, shops and research facilities at Holyrood. You may have some suggestions for the development of a sea trials capability, site and infrastructure that would be needed for the Holyrood facility.

There will be no registration fee for this workshop since attendance will be by confirmed invitation only. Financial support for this workshop is provided by the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Technology Industries (NATI), OceansAdvance Inc. (Newfoundland's Ocean Technology Cluster), the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the MUN Genesis Centre, the Newfoundland &Amp; Labrador Section of IEEE, the NL Chapter of the Oceanic Engineering Society, and, Marport Deep Sea Technologies Inc.

Coffee and sandwich lunches will be provided each day. The workshop "proceedings" will be provided in a three- ring binder containing copies of the summaries and papers. On-site black and white photocopy services will be available to make last-minute photocopies of presentation material, hand-outs etc. After the workshop the presentations will be complied onto a CD or DVD which will be mailed to all participants.

If you wish to participate in this workshop, please submit a one-page summary that describes your intended presentation, by Monday 13 September 2010. You will be notified soon thereafter of our acceptance of your proposal in the form of a confirmed invitation.

Please submit your one-page summary via:

• a. email to: 'Christopher.Williams@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca' or 'Bachmayer@mun.ca'
• b. fax to: 709-772-2462
• c. paper mail via postal service to:
  National Research Council Canada,
  Institute for Ocean Technology
  Box 12093, Station 'A'
  St. John's, Newfoundland, A1B 3T5
  Attention: C.D.Williams
• d. courier service to:
  National Research Council Canada,
  Institute for Ocean Technology,
  4 Arctic Avenue, Memorial University Campus
  St. John's, Newfoundland, A1B 3X5
  Attention: Front Desk, 709-772-4284

Please plan to submit your completed presentation, in presentation-ready format, by Monday 11 October 2010, either (a) on a compact disk or memory stick, or, (b) as an attachment to an e-mail message; MS Word or OpenOffice or PowerPoint or PDF documents are preferred. This will provide us with one week to assemble the "proceedings" of this workshop and thus make them available for you at the Registration Desk. Please make your own arrangements for accommodation and air travel. Flights to St. John's (YYT) are provided by Air Canada (www.aircanada.ca) and other carriers. We can supply a list of conveniently-located accommodations including both hotels and bed-and-breakfast places.

In conjunction with our workshop, there will be a scholarship offered to undergraduate students of Memorial University of Newfoundland including the Marine Institute, as well to students of the College of the North Atlantic. The purpose of the scholarship is to encourage students to pursue an interest in autonomous marine robotics. The scholarship will be awarded on the basis of a written proposal for a Senior Year Design Project which addresses an application in the area of autonomous marine robotics. These proposals shall be submitted by Monday 18 October 2010, and will be evaluated by the Workshop Organizing Committee. The project is to be completed by 30 April 2011. The principal criteria for the award are originality in scope and a realistic plan that would allow the project to be completed with a report by 30 April 2011. The scholarship will be valued at $1,000.

Yours sincerely,
Christopher D. Williams, PhD, PEng
tel: 709-772-4021 - with voice mail
Research Engineer, Underwater Vehicle Projects
fax: 709-772-2462
National Research Council Canada, Institute for Ocean Technology
NRC-IOT email: Christopher.Williams@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Ralf Bachmayer, PhD
tel: 709-737-6793 - with voice mail
Associate Professor
fax: 709-737-4042
Canada Research Chair for Ocean Technology
MUN e-mail: Bachmayer@mun.ca
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science