Vessel Dynamics Lab at IEEE/MTS Oceans 2023

The Vessel Dynamics Lab had a fabulous time at IEEE/MTS Oceans 2023 in Limerick, Ireland, where graduate student researcher Vanessa Barth presented on “Gaze controlled underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to improve accessibility in maritime robotics” and undergrad researcher Sam Athapaththu presented his “Autonomous modular water collection system.”

On the vertical and horizontal integration of robotics within engineering and computing education

Barth, V., Berg, C., Costa, P., Cummings, M., Denham, W., Handler, R., Hayes, M., Karri, D., Kathir, N., McCue, L., Miller Hooks, E., Nowzari, C., Reagle, C., Rosenblum, D., Rostobaya, V., Sanders, Q., Shishika, D., Shortle, J., and Sinanovic, E., “On the vertical and horizontal integration of robotics within engineering and computing education,” IUTAM Symposium on Optimal Guidance and Control for Autonomous Systems, March 15-17, 2023, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Work-in-Progress: Development of a new hands-on STEM program for biologically inspired maritime robotics

McCue, L., Hagarty, A., Nowzari, C., Raz, A., Riggi, M., Rosenberg, J., Shishika, D., Smith, C., Nelson, J., “Work-in-Progress: Development of a new hands-on STEM program for biologically inspired maritime robotics,” Ocean and Marine Engineering Division, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June, 2022.

Operational measures for intact ship stability

Shigunov, Vladimir; Themelis, Nikos; Bačkalov, Igor; Begovic, Ermina; Boulougouris, Evangelos; Cichowicz, Jakub; Eliopoulou, Eleftheria; Hashimoto, Hirotada; Hinz, Tomasz; González, Marcos Míguez; Karolius, Kristian; Manderbacka, Teemu; McCue, Leigh; Rodríguez, Claudio, “Operational measures for intact ship stability,” First International Conference on the Stability and Safety of Ships and Ocean Vehicles, June 2021.

A case study on the practical use of low-fidelity modeling to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 amongst the underserved farmworker community

McCue, L., Knight, M., Driscoll, M., Jenkins, P., and Sorensen, J., “A case study on the practical use of low-fidelity modeling to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 amongst the underserved farmworker community,” La Matematica, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/s44007-023-00043-4

The receptivity to safety-related mobile apps among commercial fishing captains: descriptive exploratory study

Bulzacchelli, M., Bellantoni, J., McCue, L., and Dzugan, J., “The receptivity to safety-related mobile apps among commercial fishing captains: descriptive exploratory study,” JMIR Formative Research, Vol 6, Issue 11, 2022, https://formative.jmir.org/2022/11/e33638.

RobotX 2022 Wrap-Up email

Friends,

Thank you all sincerely for your role in getting Mason to the 2022 RobotX competition in Penrith, Australia. Our travel team consisted of six individuals – three undergrads: Emina Sinanovic, Damion Colgrove, and Orion Colgrove, one grad student: Vanessa Barth, one alum: Reginald Lockhart, and me. Due to global shipping challenges, we made a tactical decision a couple months out not to ship the boat, and to participate technically as a “documentation only” team. That said, RoboNation generously provided us on-site workspace, and we traveled with our UAV and sensing packages, joining a team of teams with Lake Superior State University and Queensland University of Technology. Mason was able to tick off two competition tasks – the heartbeat message and UAV search and rescue. It was exciting to see the onsite team work, as lead Reggie kept everyone on task, optimistic, and enthusiastic while rapidly tapping into resources from last year’s work, Emina and Vanessa rallied to make the heartbeat happen, and Orion and Damion successfully executed UAV waypoint navigation and perception, all supported by the months of effort students and alums put into the project over the last year, plus wonderful camaraderie from all on-site teams, particularly our LSSU/QUT newfound friends.

Over the course of the last year, we engaged 26 students from mechanical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and systems engineering and operations research in this maritime robotics opportunity. This was made possible by amazing faculty mentors from each of those departments: Greg Stein, Jana Kosecka, Lance Sherry, Ali Raz, Erion Plaku, Daigo Shishika, Cameron Nowzari, and Nathan Kathir who oversees the ME department’s capstone program, industry sponsors Gibbs & Cox, Beck Foundation, and the US Government, our volunteer “customer” and source of RobotX knowledge extraordinaire CAPT Dave Edwards, and the stupendous Mason support we received including, but not limited to, Ardiana Brahja for purchasing, Johnnie Hall with prototyping and machining, Melissa Perez and Zachary Machuga on export compliance and shipping, and Kim Goodwin-Slater and Kayla Hine on finance.

Julianna Smith and the whole team at RoboNation and Kelly Cooper at ONR – thank you so much for this opportunity and rolling with us when we made our tactical shift. Travis Moscicki, thank you for your patience and coaching on the heartbeat. Justin Hechinger at Camzilla, thank you for making sure our drone would have power once we got to Australia. To the volunteers from the Model Aeronautical Association of Australia – thank you for keeping things safe and lively. And to the best volunteer embedded judge a team could ask for – Julie Young, big thanks for your wisdom, positivity, and reminders to take lots of photos and enjoy the experience. On the topic of photos, attached are two of my favorites – the Mason team on site and the LSSU/QUT/Mason megateam.

Thank you all, and looking forward to 2024!

Respectfully,
Leigh

Samuel Athapaththu

Samuel Athapaththu is an undergrad at Mason starting his senior year this fall in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently working as a research assistant studying ways to acquire water samples on autonomous underwater vehicles. He enjoys building and designing solutions to challenging problems, and in his free time enjoys working out, spending time with family and friends, and exploring new places.

Vanessa Barth

Vanessa joined the Vessel Dynamics Lab as a PhD student in Spring 2022. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from George Mason University, where she loved the environment so much she decided to stay for graduate school. Her research interests include autonomous systems, dynamics and controls, and machine learning. She is currently working on accessible control of an ROV using an eye tracker. Outside the lab, Vanessa enjoys cooking, solving jigsaw puzzles, and playing with her dogs.
Vanessa Barth

Mason PEP Team Takes 2nd Place in Unmanned Category of Electric Boat Competition

Mason PEP Team Takes 2nd Place in Unmanned Category of Electric Boat Competition

Congratulations to the Mason PEP team on their 2nd place finish in the “unmanned” category of ASNE’s Promoting Electric Propulsion competition held at the 2021 Multi-Agency Craft Conference (MACC). This represented the culmination of three senior design team’s efforts – a hull team and propulsion team in the 2019-2020 academic year, and a holistic team to pull it all together in the 2020-2021 academic year. Despite pandemic, these students’ hard work paid off the minute their boat entered the water. Proud of y’all. Well done!

Undergrad researcher Cheryl Blanchard wraps up commercial fishing sleep monitoring device prototyping effort

Cheryl did great work during the Spring term of 2021 looking at developing a purpose-built device to measure sleep aboard a fishing vessel, taking into consideration constraints we’ve seen with commercial off the shelf devices. Check out her presentation at: https://celebration.oscar.gmu.edu/development-of-a-prototype-sleep-monitoring-device-for-use-in-the-commercial-fishing-environment/.

Vessel Dynamics Lab Growing – Now Seeking Post-Doc

The Vessel Dynamics Laboratory is looking to add a post-doctoral researcher to the team. The ideal candidate would have expertise in agent based modeling and/or smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), past work experience with human subjects, and an enthusiasm for occupational safety research. If this sounds like you or someone you know, please contact Leigh!

Moises Angulo joins research team!

Moises Angulo joins research team!

Moises is a senior studying Mechanical Engineering at George Mason University. He is currently working on doing high speed planing hull simulations to represent the Generic Prismatic Planing Hull (GPPH). After graduation, he plans on going to grad school to pursue a PhD in Aerospace Engineering. Outside of academia you can find him reading fiction novels, playing super smash bros, and working out.

Vessel Dynamics Laboratory

Vessel Dynamics Laboratory

As we get ready to kick off the 2019-2020 academic year, I’m thrilled to be settling into new lab space at GMU’s Potomac Science Center.  While furniture is still on order, computing power has arrived along with enough SeaPerch and SeaGlide kits to last us through some kickoff STEM outreach activities.  If you’re in the neighborhood, come by and visit: 1203 Potomac Science Center, 650 Mason Ferry Ave, Woodbridge VA!

Fishing Vessel Safety Apps – what’s that all about

Fishing Vessel Safety Apps – what’s that all about

 

This video gives a short overview on the history and thought process behind the fishing vessel safety apps SCraMP and FVdrills. App Store links for the apps are:

To purchase a copy of Beating the Odds on Northern Waters by Jensen and Dzugan, visit: https://www.amsea.org/booksandcurricula