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The University of Delaware will soon partner with Old Dominion University in Virginia in hopes of creating a new industry-centered engineering and oceanography research center. l PHOTO COURTESY OF ROB NICHOLSON[/caption]
LEWES — The University of Delaware is preparing to make waves with a partnership with Old Dominion University of Virginia and industry leaders as they work together to propose a new center focused on autonomous and robotic systems research.
Rob Nicholson, naval oceanography officer and strategic innovations partnership director for UD, told the Delaware Business Times that the cutting-edge program would continue the university’s efforts at honing in on its maritime research as it relates to engineering and robotics while also bringing industry-led research opportunities to students in the First State and attempting to create what the National Science Foundation calls an Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC).
Unlike traditional academic research centers, he said the IUCRC concept is unique in that industry members directly engage with the center, right down to helping to select projects and bringing expertise to the projects alongside students and professors.
“Some active IUCRCs across the nation also have multiple sites. Here, UD is the lead and we brought in Old Dominion as a second site. The center would allow us to concentrate our efforts and bring individuals with expertise to the table to make it more valuable for the industry members involved in the center,” he told DBT.
If awarded IUCRC status, the National Science Foundation would allocate $150,000 to the center yearly for five years, helping offset administrative costs needed to run the research center. Nicholson said from there, membership fees would also be collected from interested industry partners, affording both universities the opportunity to bring on graduate student participants, professors, researchers and other needs.
“Full membership could be, as an example, $55,000 per member per year. Imagine if we could get 25 members. 90% of that would be given directly to research. It could be $900,000 solely from membership fees and that would go toward ship time, covering the costs for graduate students to participate in projects, professor and researcher time and any lab space needed,” he told DBT.
“It’s like a co-op. If one company invests in research, it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he added. “But as a collective sharing in the costs, they are able to produce new techniques and new innovations that those companies can then reach into the university for and use royalty-free, allowing them to maximize their [research and development] output and access that technology.”
While the growing industry acts as the driving force behind the scenes, Nicholson emphasized that student growth remains at the heart of this type of programming.
“Any time our students can work shoulder to shoulder with our industry partners, the students are getting direct experience. A lot of times, they also have the opportunity to transition into a working role after graduation, too,” he told DBT. “There is an economic development stimulus to this, too, in the benefits of having an increase in research and development activity/partnership with industries. Let’s say one of their industry partners sends one of their engineers and spends time on our campus, they will then be purchasing things locally, grocery shopping, eating out, renting a room or securing a hotel stay.”
He said the center could be approved as early as March or April of 2025, allowing the schools to increase opportunities available to at least 15 to 20 students, along with the industry benefits of additional research, business development and talent access as their industry partners get to know the student researchers.
While Nicholson works out the economic development side of this new project, Dr. Art Trembanis has been hard at work ensuring the project’s success from the science end.
Trembanis, oceanographer, roboticist and deputy director for UD’s Center for Autonomy and Robotic Systems, told DBT that the proposed IUCRC could have a significant impact on current oceanography-related research.
“The big difference here is that the industry chooses the projects based on what is needed now. Our research thrust areas, or major topic areas, in which we have expertise and would incentivize industry members to become paid members of the IUCRC would include research in control and autonomy, perception, agility and endurance, artificial intelligence and data management, communications and cyber security, and technology, validation and certification,” Trembanis said.
He added that any number of those topics could translate into an impressive amount of research provided by the collective efforts of the students, professors and industry members.
“For example, if you have an underwater vehicle, or a UVV, it’s usually too far under the ocean to receive a signal from anything and the platform doesn’t know where it is. If you can’t reconcile your global position based upon data you just collected, then you have to decide what you’re going to do,” he explained. “Utilizing perception data pulled in by various sensors can improve localization of where I’m at right now. Through center-sponsored research, we have the ability to improve that technology, helping industry professionals have a more precise location based on typography and sensor fusion. Leveraging that perception data would aid in navigation. Center projects could help address these gaps.”
On the Old Dominion University side, research professor and Virginia Modeling, Analysis & Simulation Center Chief Technology Officer and Interim Executive Director Dr. Yiannis Papelis, along with his colleagues, will work to provide complementary expertise to the Center. One of their many contribution areas will include the ability to test uncrewed and autonomous maritime systems, ensuring they are safe to interact with other maritime traffic.
“As more and more vessels become autonomous, autonomy testing and certification is an area that concerns industry as they want to know that their systems can safely participate in the maritime environment,” Papelis said. “Using simulation and AI provides a cost effective way to perform this testing and the envisioned center will address this technology gap.”
Both Trembanis and Nicholson said the end result is designed to make an ocean of a difference for researchers across the marine and engineering realms as well as the students served at the two universities.
