易胜博官网

A team of 易胜博官网 alumni has won the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE,听a global competition to advance deep-sea technologies for ocean floor exploration. The GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni Team 鈥� alumni and industry partners and advisors听based at 易胜博官网鈥檚 鈥� prevailed against teams from around the world to win the top prize of $4 million for their concept.

The award was presented at a ceremony at the in Monaco Friday, May 31, 2019.听

鈥淭his Shell Ocean Discovery challenge asked us to develop better ways of mapping the seafloor. We and other teams have succeeded,鈥� said team leader Rochelle Wigley, director of听易胜博官网鈥檚听听(General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans) ocean bathymetry training program, in her acceptance speech. 鈥淲ith all of you, we will now contribute towards mapping our oceans.鈥�

The includes 16 alumni of 易胜博官网鈥檚 Nippon Foundation/GEBCO program: Evgenia Bazhenova (Russia), Aileen Bohan (Ireland), Mohamed Elsaied (Egypt), Andres Fitzcarrald (Peru), 易胜博官网 data analyst Tomer Ketter (Israel), Christina Lacerda (Brazil), 易胜博官网 graduate student Jaya Roperez (Philippines), Azmi Rosedee (Malaysia), Ivan Ryzhov (Russia), Hadar Sade (Israel), Sattiabaruth Seeboruth (Mauritius), Masano Sumiyoshi (Japan), Neil Tinmouth (South Africa), Rochelle Anne Wigley (U.S.), Yulia Zarayskaya (Russia) and Karolina Zwolak (Poland). Most team members attended the award ceremony, as did CCOM director Larry Mayer and many of the team鈥檚 industry advisors.

鈥淕etting to this point has been a truly international effort. Our diverse nationalities, backgrounds, and specialities have been our greatest asset, and are the reason we made it this far,鈥� Wigley added. 鈥淲e are the result of The Nippon Foundation鈥檚 investment in training a new generation of ocean mappers at the University of 易胜博官网 for the last fifteen years.鈥�

The team鈥檚 winning concept utilized the SEA-KIT uncrewed surface vessel (USV) Maxlimer, alongside the Kongsberg Maritime HUGIN autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) system. Pairing the HUGIN AUV, rated to operate at depths of up to 4,500 metres, with the SEA-KIT USV (designed by the team), which has the ability to autonomously launch and recover the AUV and acts as a communication link during subsea survey operations, made for efficient, safe and cost-effective seafloor mapping.

The system delivers significant potential benefits over traditional mapping missions using multibeam echosounder technology, which typically require large research ships with full scientific crews on board, resulting in costs of tens of thousands of dollars per day. The USV/AUV model has demonstrated that high-quality bathymetric data can be obtained inexpensively with little to no human involvement at sea. This approach supports the goals of The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 project to map the entire seafloor by 2030; currently less than ten percent of the world鈥檚 oceans have been mapped to high resolution.

The GEBCO-NF Alumni Team entered the competition in July 2016, successfully making it to the semi-final stage and qualifying for the final round, which saw them travel to Kalamata, Greece, to compete against the other finalists in a 24-hour ocean mapping challenge. This involved producing a five-meter horizontal resolution bathymetric (ocean floor) map as well as high-definition images of biological, archaeological and geological features of the ocean environment, which are critical to understanding the oceans and will help inspire the next generation of educators, students, policymakers and investors to care about ocean discovery, resource development and protection.

The project was based at 易胜博官网鈥檚 Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM/JHC). The team鈥檚 entry into the competition was funded by The Nippon Foundation and alumni worked closely with partners such as the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Hushcraft Ltd., Ocean Floor Geophysics Inc., Earth Analytic, Teledyne CARIS, Raitt Orr and Associates, ShipOwners and OmniAccess as well as equipment supplier Kongsberg Maritime AS to develop and advance the team concept created for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE.

The Nippon Foundation/GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans) ocean bathymetry training program brings young scientists from around the world, primarily from developing countries, to 易胜博官网 to become experts in deep-ocean mapping. Since its inception in 2004, the program has graduated 84 scholars total, the vast majority of whom are working in the marine industry in their home countries.

The team鈥檚 SEA-KIT vessel USV Maxlimer was named after 易胜博官网 Nippon Foundation/GEBCO training program alumna Maxlimer Anziani Vallee, who passed away following a car accident in January 2017. Since being used in the team鈥檚 XPRIZE entry, the vessel has completed the world鈥檚 first international commercial uncrewed transit, successfully negotiating the world鈥檚 busiest shipping lane to deliver a box of oysters from the UK to Belgium on 7 May 2019.

鈥淭he Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE challenged us to develop effective, efficient, and better ways of mapping the seafloor. We chose to meet the challenge of XPRIZE by forming a team that transcended borders, on land and at sea. We are privileged to have competed against so many excellent teams, and we have all succeeded in the challenge,鈥� says Wigley. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 wait to see what the future holds for us and for our technology.鈥�

Team Concept Video:

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