Big Blue World
The Global Newsletter of the Society for Underwater Technology
Issue 5, September 2022
Contents
Big Blue World™
Editor: Emily Boddy
emily.boddy@sut.org
Contact Emily to submit an article,
send in Corporate Member news,
member updates and photos, or to
find out about advertising and
sponsorship opportunities in Big
Blue World™.
www.sut.org
facebook.com/SUT.org
linkedin.com/company/sutuk
buzzsprout.com/1000288
instagram.com/societyforunderwater
twitter.com/SUT_news
youtube.com/SUTMedia
Welcome from the Chair of Council
Sue John
New Corporate Members
Publications UT2, Underwater
Robotics, MTS Journal
Forthcoming Events
SUT News
Educational Support Fund News
(page 4)
Gwyn Grif�ths Underwater Robotics
Award Winner
Captain Don Walsh Award for Ocean
Exploration Winner
SUT-US 2022 Scholarship Awards
Innovation
XOCEAN - A green approach to
collecting environmental data for a blue
economy
SUT Member News
Sonardyne Ranger 2 acoustic tracking
technology
C-Power - How Ocean Energy Sets
the Stage for Af�rdable Offshore Wind
Energy
C-Power - SeaRAY AOPS
Sonardyne - Pressure Inverted Echo
Sounder
Reports of Recent Events
SUT YES! Perth Evening Technical
Meeting
Aberdeen Subsea Awareness Course
Next Issue
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34
08
Sue John
SUT Chair of Council
& Vice President
Society for Underwater Technology
Welcome from the CEO
Welcome
It is October already and at last [hurray] SUT members are beginning
to reconnect with the outside world in person. It’s been a long and
challenging time.
Last month the Aberdeen Branch ran their frst face-to-face Subsea
Awareness Course, since the start of the pandemic. Te London and South
East branch also held a ‘Something Old, Something New’ presentation
evening. Te LSE’s infamous Quiz Night is being held on the 11th October,
so if you are in London or planning to be in London enter a team, join a
team, pop in and network. Singapore Branch, chaired by James Christie,
their technical evening presentations are back up and running with the
29th September as their frst since in person event since 2019. While SUT
Perth WA, are not only running training courses they are also hosting a Golf
Day. Houston Branch under the guidance of Tricia Hill, are flling up their
calendar, with training courses, including a Halloween Speed Networking
event! Not to mention other global branch events, courses and conferences.
You can’t say that SUT Branches are standing still.
Tank you all for having the steam and perseverance to continue hosting
events and training courses; as well as the foresight to plan for the future.
I’d also like to thank the people and organisations that sponsor SUT events.
Tank you.
It’s not only the time to come out of our home ofces, it is also the time for
new committees. Te North East of England branch elected a new chair,
Vahid Walker who has hit the road running and has started planning
their new event ably helped by the new committee. Vahid has taken over
from Martin Bingham, who I think has certainly earned his SUT t-shirt .
Tank you, Martin and your committee. Tis year’s SUT Annual General
Meeting, is being held on the 6th December, at the Institute of Physics in
London. If members of our various branches wish to attend, please email
Cheryl Burgess, at cheryl.burgess@sut.org
It is also worth a mention that if you are interest in standing for the SUT
Council please email Cheryl Burgess. Information on nominations,
application form and eligibility is on the SUT website in your members
area.
Not only is it a time for change for the Society but it is also a time of
change for the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, with the
unexpected death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Te Queen, was not
only the sovereign head of a nation, but she was also a daughter, a wife and
mother, grandmother and great grandmother to her family. We all know
what infuences that these roles play in people’s lives and the space that
they leave behind.
If like me the next couple of months are going to be busy, so please let us
know what you are all up to, or anything that you feel others would like to
read about in the next issue of Big Blue World please email Emily Boddy.
Big Blue World
SUT News
Big Blue World
Click here to �nd out how your organisation can join the SUT as a Corporate Member
and what bene�ts you could get.
Welcome to our new Corporate Members
Educational Support Fund News
Te judging committee of the SUT’s Educational Support Fund
reviewed a record number of applications from undergraduates
and graduate Masters students from several countries. Te
standard of applicants was very high. Te academic degree
programmes students were focusing on was diverse and the
career aspirations of the applicants inspiring.
SUT judging committee are delighted to announce the
recipients of the ESF 2022 are: Francesca Fehlberg and
Ryan Lin.
Francesca will be attending Bangor University, Wales working
on her MSc Marine Environmental Protection and Ryan will be
attending Imperial College to study in a MSc programme which
collaborates with Ramboll to support a design project for
foating wind turbines.
Te SUT is pleased to announce that from 2023 doctoral post-
graduate applicants will be able to supply for ESF support with
the Bil Loth Memorial Grant. Bil, a past President of the SUT
and well-known international academic was passionate about
education; an advocate or young engineers and loved attending
the ESF awards and meeting the recipients.
Te Society for Underwater Technology would like to thank
those who have contributed to fund-raising for this grant as
well as those who may wish to do so in the future supporting
the work of doctoral students (www.justgiving.com/
fundraising/bil-loth).
For more information on the Educational Support Fund and
making donations, please contact jane.hinton@sut.org.
Francesca Fehlberg
Ryan Lin
The Society offers enhanced communication with other companies,
government, organisations and individuals working in the area of underwater
technology in specialist disciplines.
Society for Underwater Technology
Publications
UT2/Underwater Robotics - The magazines of the SUT
Click to read the latest issues
Society for Underwater Technology
Te Marine Technology Society Journal is the
fagship publication of the Marine Technology
Society. It publishes the highest caliber, peer-
reviewed papers, six times a year, on subjects of
interest to the society: marine technology, ocean
science, marine policy, and education. Te Marine
Technology Society has published the MTS
Journal under its current title since 1969.
Click to read the latest issue.
Marine Technology Society
Journal (MTSJ)
Big Blue World
Forthcoming Events & Dates for the Diary
OCTOBER 2022
YES! Subsea Industry Career Panel
5 October 2022
SUT+ Site Visit – Verlume Operations Facility
10 October 2022
Verlume Operations Facility, Aberdeen UK
London & South of England Branch –
Return of the Annual Pub Quiz
11 October 2022
Ye Olde Watling Pub, London UK
SUT+ Webinar: The Consequences of
Insulation Resistance Failure in Subsea
Umbilicals
12 October, 2022 | Webinar
SUT-Perth 2022 Annual General Meeting
12 October 2022 | Parmelia Hilton Perth
Perth – October Evening Technical
Meeting
12 October, 2022 | Parmelia Hilton, Perth
Norway – Subsea Awareness Course
25-27 October 2022 | Horsøy, Øygarden, Bergen
Perth – Subsea Controls Down Under
2022 Conference
25-27 October 2022
SUT Member News
Society for Underwater Technology
Forthcoming Events & Dates for the Diary
OSIGp – Decommissioning Event
25 October, 2022 | Te Melbourne Hotel
Perth – Subsea Controls Down Under
Ice-Breaker Function – The Raft
25 October 2022
11th International SUT (China) Technical
Conference
28 October - 31 October, 2022 | Qingdao, China
ADIPEC 2022
31 October - 3 November, 2022 | Abu Dhabi
NOVEMBER 2022
MASTS 12th Annual Science Meeting:
Supporting Delivery of the Blue Economy
Vision
9-10 November 2022
Perth – The Lifecycle of Flexible Risers &
Flowlines Course
09-10 November 2022 | Parmelia Hilton, Perth
The Energy Field of the Future
10 November 2022 | Aberdeen
Perth – SUT 18th Annual Dinner
25 November 2022
DECEMBER 2022
SUT AGM
06 December, 2022
Institute of Physics, Islington, London
SUT Middle East – Emergency Pipeline
Repair Systems (EPRS)
13 December, 2022 | Khalifa University
For more information on SUT events go to
www.sut.org/events
Big Blue World
SUT News
Gwyn Griffiths Award for
Underwater Robotics
2022
‘Te standard of entries for the SUT’s Gwyn Grifths Award for Underwater Robotics was extremely
competitive this year, and the nominees of high calibre, which challenged the judges to select this year’s
winner,’ said Neil Bose, Chair of SUT’s Underwater Robotics Panel, and Vice President (Research), Memorial
University, Newfoundland and Labrador’s University. ‘On behalf of the Panel, the judges and SUT we would
like recognise the talent, innovation and qualities of all the entrants working in underwater robotics.’
Te Panel is delighted to announce the winner of the GGURA, Rustom Jehangir from Blue Robotics Inc in
Torrance, California.
On being informed of the Award, Rustom said, “Wow! I’m honoured and humbled to receive this award
bearing Gwyn Grifths’ name, given all that he accomplished and contributed to the feld of marine robotics.
‘I consider this award to be an honour for my whole team.”
Getting to know Rustom we asked:
What inspired your interest in subsea engineering?
I went to school for mechanical and aerospace engineering and was initially interested in drone aircraf. I
worked in that feld for several years at a start-up company developing a large multicopter helicopter for military
applications. While doing that, I stumbled into subsea engineering. At the time (around 2013), a friend and I
were both looking for a fun robotics project to do on the weekends and decided that we would make a solar-
powered robotic surfoard that could cross the ocean. We thought we could achieve that on a small budget and
we dreamt of sending it from California to Hawaii, a trip that would take several months at the slow pace we
could maintain with solar power.
We started working on this project and we found all of the components that we needed, like the solar
panels, GPS, microcontroller, and satellite radio, but struggled to fnd thruster motors to propel it. We could
only fnd very inexpensive options that wouldn’t survive for long in the ocean, and very expensive options
designed for military-grade applications. We scoured the internet for options and couldn’t fnd anything,
Society for Underwater Technology
SUT News
but we did fnd a lot of other people looking for the same thing. Some of them were on robotics teams and
some were hobbyists. At that moment we decided to solve that problem and design an afordable, capable
thruster for marine robotics that anyone could use. We were successful and launched Blue Robotics through
a Kickstarter campaign in 2014!
So, to answer your question, I was initially inspired by our solar surfoard project and then jumped headfrst into
subsea engineering by starting a company. At the time I had no experience with subsea engineering and had to learn
quickly! Eight years later, we have made over 70,000 thrusters and have a team of 55 people designing and building a
wide range of products that enable marine robotics applications.
How did you become involved in robotics?
I’ve been interested in robotics since I was young. I watched a recorded documentary about the AUVSI
International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) many times and dreamed of being a robotics engineer
someday. I got actively involved in university when I joined an IARC team. We never actually competed, but
it re-sparked my interest and taught me many of the basics.
What advice would you give to someone interested in a career in this �eld?
Great question! I have a few pieces of advice. (1) Expose yourself to a diversity of experiences and classes to be well-
rounded. Tis is particularly important in robotics because it doesn’t fall into any of the traditional mechanical,
electrical, or sofware paths, but rather into all of them. I took sofware engineering courses in school and learned
electrical engineering on the job and it was critical for my current role. And (2), don’t feel excluded from this
industry if you’re not an engineer or scientist - we need people of all diferent backgrounds and specialties. We
have engineers designing our products, but we also have marketing team members, assembly technicians, human
resources, graphic design, and many more. All of those skills and expertise are necessary to our business and
contribute to our mission.
Any advice on innovation and starting your own company?
Yes, my biggest piece of advice on this is to fnd a “blue ocean market” in which to start your business. Let
me explain that. What I ofen see with people starting companies is that they look at the market and existing
successful companies and they try to imitate
them or do things a little bit better than them
to capture market share. You shouldn’t be
looking for who you want to compete with but,
rather, you should look for holes in the market
where there is a need but no competition at
all. Tis is a “blue ocean market” and it’s much
easier to start a company if you can fnd a
space like that to work in. We found this with
our original thruster product. Tere were no
similar products at the time but there were
many interested customers. We didn’t have to
compete with anyone - we just opened up new
market possibilities. I encourage you to try to
do the same.
What’s next for you and Blue
Robotics?
We’re eight years into our journey and I’m
having more fun than ever! I truly believe in
our core mission of making afordable, capable
components and systems to enable people to
do more with marine robotics and we’re going
to keep doing that. We’ve learned a lot and we
can keep doing it better and better. Te ocean
is a big place and there’s a lot of room to grow
and a lot of opportunities.
10
10
Big Blue World
SUT News
SUT and MTS Announce Winner
of the 2022 Captain Don Walsh Award for
Ocean Exploration
A leader in her �eld and a pioneer in applying new technologies, particularly
marine technology, to challenging research questions.
Her work post-Deepwater Horizon proved critical to the understanding of
microorganisms in degradation of oil
Te Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) and Te Marine Technology Society (MTS) are
proud to announce that the 2022 Captain Don Walsh Award for Ocean Exploration has been won by
the internationally recognised oceanographer Samantha (Mandy) Joye, a Regents’ Professor in the
Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, USA, whose work has revealed unexpected
connectivity between elemental cycles, unanticipated feedbacks between geological elemental and
microbial dynamics, and fundamental controls on microbial populations and their activity.
Joye is an internationally recognized educator, deep ocean explorer, oceanographer, and
environmental advocate. She is an expert in ocean biogeochemistry and microbial ecology and her
work has focused on the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California, and along the North American
Atlantic Margin. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on deep water habitats and extreme
environments and tracks the cycles and fate of hydrocarbons, nutrients, sulfur, metals, and trace
Samantha (Mandy) Joye