There has been a lot of activity in the society over the past few months that has direct impact on all members. Jim Collins and his committee have completed their update on our Constitution and By-Laws. A society vote on the revised documents will take place this summer. Everyone should participate in that vote as they concern the efficient running of our society. The committee has spent considerable time and effort to develop the documents so that the mechanics of the society can be easily understood and implemented.
Norm Miller is leading a study to determine the procedures to establish an OES scholarship to encourage students to become engineers that have an orientation to ocean related platforms and systems. We welcome any input that the society members feel is appropriate. For example, is it better to award several small stipends or just a couple large ones? What procedure should be established to select the recipients?
Todd Morrison has done yeoman’s work sheparding the development of web tools to assist conference committees to have readily available such things as a conference web page , electronic abstract handling, session configuration and in the near future registration on the web.
As usual the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) was a huge success bringing over 51,000 attendees to the Reliant Center at Reliant Park in Houston, Texas. This represented the highest attendance since 1985 and represented 110 nations. The event is scheduled for 1-4 May 2006 at the same venue with the theme being “New Depths, New Horizons”.
Rene Garello and his conference committee ran a successful meeting in Brest this past June. The event was both a technical and financial success. This was the second time we held an OCEANS conference in Brest and the hospitality of the city showed through. Special treats were the cruise on the sailing ship Recouvrance and the visit to Oceanopolis. The Mayor was especially gracious in supporting our awards lunch in the City Hall.
The society is one of a team of six IEEE society sponsors for an IEEE new initiative to support the design and development of the all electric ship concept. A symposium is planned for 25-27 July in Philadelphia at the Renaissance hotel located near the airport. As of this writing there are approximately 160 attendees registered, representing a cross section of interested countries. Other organizations serving as technical sponsors include IMarEST, ASNE, and ONR.
The Smithsonian Natural History Museum is in the process of developing an OCEAN Hall and the society has been invited to participate in the planning process. The project is expected to be completed by 2008. We have suggested the use of some of the human powered submarine entries for the exhibit portion of the hall. The concept includes the use of models, simulations and computer based games as one of the highlights. Please contact Tom Weiner or me if you have any thoughtful inputs for the hall.
The society is one of four from IEEE that are involved with the design and development of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).These four formed a Committee for Earth Observations (CEO) that has as its focus the establishment of standard measurement units for the myriad parameters, computer architecture for data storage and processing, and display techniques to enable the efficient presentation of the information to the disparate users. Anyone interested in lending a hand should contact me.
Our next event is OCEANS 2005 MTS/IEEE Americas—Washington D.C. to be held 19-23 September at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in downtown Washington D.C.. This promises to be an outstanding event situated in the seat of power for the United States. In addition to an excellent technical program put together by the conference committee the city is a tourist delight with sites too numerous to mention for all family members. September in Washington can be very enjoyable weather allowing for fine sightseeing.
On a sad note the society and many of its members lost a friend and colleague this past May as Fred Fisher passed away. We will miss his jovial style and willingness to help our society. He was a past editor of our journal and an active member of the community. Please see the detailed background on page 21.
Jim Barbera
IEEE/OES President