In accordance with the Oceanic Engineering Society’s Constitution and Bylaws, new Administrative Committee (AdCom) members are elected annually for a three year term by the society membership. The officers of the society are elected by the AdCom. Therefore, it is essential that the membership vote to have a governance body that will reflect the membership interests.
    Beginning this year the election will be accomplished by electronic voting. This should make the voting process more timely and easier to accomplish. Each member will receive a ballot via e-mail from IEEE. The electronic ballot will include the instructions to submit your choices. The results of the vote will be available in the fall.
    The statement of each candidate and their biographies are included below in this issue of the newsletter. Please vote in a timely manner.

M.A. Atmanand
Statement: As an advisory committee member, he proposes to enlarge the IEEE network of ocean engineers in India and neighbouring countries. In view of the large potential in terms of shipping, oil and gas and other offshore industries, it is essential to have a strong IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society in the Indian Ocean area.
    As has been done after the formation of the OES India chapter, it is also proposed to hold more workshops, technical symposia and co-sponsored conferences with an additional motive of attracting new members to the OES. Discussions are on for starting of Chapters or sub-Chapters at major Indian coastal cities in order to have more interaction among fellow members. The specific problems in this part of the world with regard to ocean engineering will also be addressed. A tie up with the leading academic institutes, such as the Indian Institute of Technology, in order to network the graduate and undergraduate students is another task to be undertaken.
    Finally one of the main programmes to be undertaken is to strengthen technology development between the Indian Ocean rim countries in order to warn against Tsunami and other natural disasters. To this end I intend to work closely with neighbouring OES Chapters and members. I ask for your support for election to AdCom in achieving these important goals.

Bio-sketch: M.A. Atmanand (M’97–SM’06) obtained his B.Tech. degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from University of Calicut in 1983. He took his M.Tech. and PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1985 and 1997 respectively. From 1985 to 1997 beginning, he worked in the area of fluid flow measurement and control at Fluid Control Research Institute, the standard laboratory for flow in India. From 1997, he has been working at National Institute of Ocean Technology, in the area of deep sea technologies, initially in the field of underwater instrumentation and power systems and ­currently as Project Director of a group developing underwater mining systems. This group has designed, developed and tested an in-situ soil tester at 5200 m water depth in the Central Indian Ocean Basin under his guidance, for the first time in India.
    He is a member of a UNESCO committee for Indian Ocean Tsunami warning and mitigation systems.
    Dr. Atmanand has to his credit one patent and twenty five research publications included in IEEE and other international referred journals. He also contributed a chapter on “Extensometers” for the electronic version of “Wiley Encyclopaedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering”, edited by John G. Webster, published by John Wily & Sons, Inc. – 2002.
    He is currently a Senior Member of the Oceanic Engineering Society (OES), the Instrumentation and Measurements Society, the Robotics and Automation Society and the Control Systems Society. He has been active with the IEEE Madras Section and as Secretary, organized various technical lectures in 2006. He was member of Executive committee in 2007 and Vice Chair of the Madras Section 2008 and 2009. He has organized the commencement of new OES Chapter under the India Council, which was approved in May 2008. He is currently the Chair of this OES India Chapter and has organised programmes including speakers such as Dr. James ­McFarlane of International Submarine Engineering, Dr. Sergey Sukonkin, of Experimental Design Bureau of Oceanological Engineering, Russia and most recently by Mr. Unnikrishnan of Underwater Research Laboratory (URA lab), University of Tokyo.
    The OES India Chapter was Technical Co-sponsor of the International Conference on Ocean Engineering (ICOE) in Chennai. Technical Co-sponsorship with IEEE OES of the International Symposium on Ocean Electronics, (SYMPOL) to be held in November 2009 in Cochin has also been approved.

James V. Candy
Statement: If elected to the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society, I would actively focus my attention on the technical aspects of the society and endeavor to motivate more technical participation especially from those colleagues in signal processing related areas (ocean acoustics, imaging, etc.). I believe that the heart of any technical society is its members and their technical efforts that lead to high interest both inside and outside OES (e.g. papers, conferences, workshops, etc.). I would like to see a more organized and focused effort on tutorials and education, since this is typically an area that our members seek to gain technical knowledge and direction especially when entering a new technical area. More Technical Committee participation should be pursued in order to recommend potential tutorial/short course instructors that actively engage in “educating” our OES members in areas of high interest.

Bio-sketch: James V. Candy is the Chief Scientist for Engineering and former Director of the Center for Advanced Signal & Image Sciences at the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Candy received a commission in the USAF in 1967 and was a Systems Engineer/Test Director from 1967 to 1971. He has been a Researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 1976 holding various positions including that of Project Engineer for Signal Processing and Thrust Area Leader for Signal and Control Engineering. Educationally, he received his BSEE degree from the University of Cincinnati and his MSE. and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is a registered Control System Engineer in the state of California. He has been an Adjunct Professor at San Francisco State University, University of Santa Clara, and UC Berkeley, Extension teaching graduate courses in signal and image processing. He is an Adjunct Full-Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Candy is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and recently elected as a Life Member (Fellow) at the University of Cambridge (Clare Hall College). He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Phi Kappa Phi honorary societies. He was elected as a Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Candy received the IEEE Distinguished Technical Achievement Award for the “development of model-based signal processing in ocean acoustics.” Dr. Candy was selected as a IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for oceanic signal processing as well as presenting an IEEE tutorial on advanced signal processing available through their video website courses. He was nominated for the prestigious Edward Teller Fellowship at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Candy has recently been awarded the Interdisciplinary Helmholtz­Rayleigh Silver Medal in Signal Process/Underwater Acoustics by the Acoustical Society of America for his technical contributions. He has published over 225 journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports as well as written three texts in signal processing, “Signal Processing: the Model-Based Approach,” (McGraw-Hill, 1986) and “Signal Processing: the Modern Approach,” (McGraw-Hill, 1988), “Model-Based Signal Processing,” (Wiley/IEEE Press, 2006) with a fourth entitled “Bayesian Signal Processing: Classical, Modern and Particle Filtering” (Wiley/IEEE Press, 2009) in press. He was the General Chairman of the inaugural 2006 IEEE Nonlinear Statistical Signal Processing Workshop held at the Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. He has presented a variety of short courses and tutorials sponsored by the IEEE and ASA in Applied Signal Processing, Spectral Estimation, Advanced Digital Signal Processing, Applied Model-Based Signal Processing, Applied Acoustical Signal Processing, Model-Based Ocean Acoustic Signal Processing and most recently Bayesian Signal Processing for IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society/ASA. He has also presented short courses in Applied Model-Based Signal Processing for the SPIE Optical Society. He is currently the IEEE Chair of the Technical Committee on “Sonar Signal and Image Processing” and was the Chair of the ASA Technical Committee on “Signal Processing in Acoustics” as well as being an Associate Editor for Signal Processing of ASA (on-line JASAEL). He has recently been nominated for the Vice Presidency of the ASA. His research interests include Bayesian estimation, identification, spatial estimation, signal and image processing, array signal processing, nonlinear signal processing, tomography, sonar/radar processing and biomedical applications.

William M. Carey
Statement: My objectives if elected the AdCom will be to work for the advancement of the technical, literary, and educational aspects of the Oceanic Engineering Society as well as to stimulate the discussion and the development of high professional and ethical standards.
    As an Associate Editor of the Journal of Oceanic Engineering (JOE) and Co-Chair of Energy TC, I will use the role of an AdCom member to promote cooperation and exchange of technical information among OES members through our publications and meetings. The OES has a unique technology character and industrial participation is terribly important. As a member of the AdCom I would assist the Awards Committee under the cognizance of the Junior Past President to have a current list of OES members deserving of awards and/or promotion. It is terribly important that the selection of the Distinguished Technical/Service awards be carefully considered because of the significance to our members. As a member of the AdCom I would urge restructuring of the OES Fellows Committee to ensure a fair and balanced society approval of fellow nominations.

Bio-sketch: William Carey received the BS degree in Mechanical Engineering, the MS degree in Physics, and the PhD degree in Nuclear Science from The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, in 1965, 1968, and 1974, respectively.
    He was the Editor and currently serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Oceanic Engineering. He is also an Associate Editor for Underwater Acoustics, the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Currently he is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University, an Adjunct Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an Adjunct Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Previously, he was a Physicist with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Advanced Research Projects Agency assigned to the MIT Department of Ocean Engineering, where he taught graduate courses in Acoustics. He has also been a Research Physicist and Engineer at the Naval Underwater Systems Center, The Naval Oceanographic Research and Development Activity, and the Naval Research Laboratory. At the University of Chicago’s Argonne National Laboratory, he was an Associate Scientist and Section Manager of acoustic surveillance. He has been a consultant to both industry and government in the areas of nondestructive testing, nuclear science/environmental measurements, and applied ocean acoustics.
    Dr. Carey is an IEEE Fellow and has received the IEEE-Oceanic of Engineering Society’s Distinguished Technical Achievement Award, Distinguished Service Award, and an IEEE Millennium Award.
    Dr. Carey recently received the Pioneers of Underwater Acoustics Medal from the Acoustical Society of America and is Fellow of that society. He is also a full member of Sigma Xi, a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and a member of the Cosmos Club.
    He has served as Journal Editor and Associate Editor, member of the AdCom, IEEE Fellow Committee, and as Co-Chair of the Energy TC.

James C. Collins
Statement: I have been involved with autonomous marine robotics since 1979. I see autonomous marine robots (AMRs) as doers and transporters of increasingly valuable instrument, sensor and effector based tasks. AMR’s currently include AUVs, chemically and wave energized gliders, autonomous sailing craft, amphibians and solar powered surface AMR’s. At the same time I see the OES with a growing Chapters structure around the world. These Chapters can help to nourish the peaceful development of AMR uses by providing a forum for the racing and design competition of classes of similar AMRs. The networking opportunity provided by this activity would be invaluable to both the participants and the OES worldwide.
    Internally it is time to do some OES housekeeping. We need to revisit our Constitution and Bylaws to ensure that the very substantial approved changes introduced in January 2006 are providing the best service to our members. Also a Policy and Procedure document, not yet written, is required for guiding the OES on a day-to-day basis and for ensuring that new volunteers can succeed in their new positions after a change of personnel.
    When is the last time you saw any information on the financial status and operation of the OES? Where does our revenue come from and where is it spent? I would like to have this financial data from IEEE OES more readily available in our newsletters.
    I am privileged to have served the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society as a volunteer in many capacities, currently as Vice President for Professional Activities. It is a pleasure to work with the other Administrative Committee members to provide OES members and the ocean community with valuable publicity, Chapter and student programs. I will continue to work with other members of the Society management to give you the programs you want for your continued professional and intellectual achievement.
    I ask for your support. If you have any questions please contact me at j.s.collins@ieee.org, JamesSCollins at Skype or Phone +1 250 595 6928.

Bio-sketch: Jim Collins has served as IEEE OES Vice President for Professional Activities since 2004 and is responsible for Membership Development, Chapters, Newsletter, eNewsletter, Website and Student Activities. He chaired the OES Constitution and Bylaws Committee which was responsible for a complete rewrite of the OES Constitution and Bylaws approved in 2006. Collins served as OES Vice President of Technical Activities in 1994–6, Membership Development Chair for 1998-2003 and elected member of AdCom from 1994 to 1999. As OES Chapters Coordinator he was instrumental in the formation in 2008 of an India Council OES Chapter and a Joint Chapter in New South Wales, Australia. He is OES Chapter Chair of the Victoria Section, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada as well as a member of the IEEE Women in Engineering affinity group.
    As Chair of the IEEE Victoria Section in 1984 he organized the creation of the Victoria OES Chapter. He chaired the 1993 OCEANS Conference in Victoria which was very technically and financially successful.
    In recognition of his service he received the IEEE Millennium Medal in 2000 and the OES Distinguished Service Award in 2002.
    Jim Collins received the PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle. In 1979 he joined the Department of Engineering at Royal Roads Military College (RRMC), Victoria and subsequently became Engineering Department Head. He is active in the development of AUV applications and owner and President of Collins Technologies Inc. as well as an Adjunct Faculty member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Victoria.

Barbara E. Fletcher
Statement: I have been privileged to be involved with a number of technical societies over the course of my 27 year career, and have found these activities to be invaluable resources to my career and personal growth. One of the most rewarding parts for me has been the teamwork between Government, Industry, and Academia that the societies have fostered. I would like to see this synergy continue to grow, bringing in the cross fertilization from different disciplines and groups. Working in the area of undersea robotics, I see many different societies and groups addressing this area, each bringing something a little different to the table. In this day of information overload, it can be very difficult to keep up with it all, even with the best of intentions. Coordination and Cooperation between these groups with conferences, meetings, and publications could greatly facilitate the information exchanges for all concerned. As a member of the OES AdCom and working as the OES site webmaster, I’d like to continue to work at broadening our inter-society relationships, bringing a fuller view of the resources available to the society membership.

Bio-sketch: Barbara Fletcher is an ocean engineer and project manager at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center – San Diego (SSC), specializing in unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) applications. She is one of the co-authors of the US Navy’s UUV Master Plan (April 2000) and Master Plan Update (Nov 2004), providing the guidelines for the Navy’s future use and development of unmanned undersea vehicles. Currently, she is the project manager for the SSC portion of the Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle project, working in league with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to build an 11,000 m capable vehicle. As a vehicle expert, she has performed vehicle, sensor, and mine sweeping studies for a variety of Navy users. From 1993–1998, she was a founding member and systems engineer at Imetrix, Inc., a small marine sciences company. During her previous 10 years at the Naval Ocean Systems Center in San Diego, CA and Kaneohe, HI, she worked in areas of underwater security, mine countermeasures, deep submergence, and ocean surveillance. She has a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of California. She has been active in a range of professional societies since 1982, joining the IEEE Oceanic Society when she was the Arrangements Co-Chair for the highly successful OCEANS 2003 conference in San Diego. In addition to serving on the OES AdCom, she is the webmaster for the OES website, and she is currently serving as the chair of the San Diego Chapter of the Marine Technology Society.

James M. Gant
Statement: OES, like all other professional societies, strives to provide venues facilitating meaningful technical exchanges among its members. These venues include written publications like the OES journal and newsletter and meetings such as the OCEANS conferences where members are able to meet and network and exchange technical knowledge. The society and its outlets serve as a social lubricant enhancing the data flow and therefore furthering the theory and practice of electrotechnology in all waterborne environments. Therefore, both the opportunities and challenges facing the society are defined by ways to enhance and promote the free exchange of new ideas, old ideas, salty experience, and a strong social network among all the practitioners of the art and science of ocean engineering.
    An important aspect of what we should be doing is to reach out and be as inclusive as possible in all that we do; not to say that this is a shortcoming, but it must remain a high priority. All that are involved in the work that we do have different insights that can be shared to further our goals. We must continually reach out to encourage an open, vigorous, and yet respectful dialog to ventilate these ideas. Another area that we should pay attention to is to include and encourage the exchange of day to day practical experience so that we are not restricted to purely academic discussions.
    The steps to advance the OES, therefore, are to continue and expand the avenues of technical data exchange that have been established and to widen the participatory audience of these discussions, debates, and presentations thereby leaving our legacy and experience to the next generation of engineers, technicians, and other practitioners.

Bio-sketch: With over 28 years experience in the design, operation, testing, and maintenance of complex electromechanical systems and components, Jim Gant is an experienced systems engineer, project manager, and line manager. He has over 20 years of experience as a Systems Engineer and Project Manager involved with the design, fabrication, and testing of deep sea systems, specializing in the development and management of test programs for these systems. Prior to that, he was a submarine officer in the US Navy.
    Jim was born into a military family. As a child he lived in various locations in the US, Germany, and Okinawa. By the time he reached high school his family had settled near their extended family in Oklahoma. He attended the University of Oklahoma where he met his wife, Anne Marie, and earned a BS in Nuclear Engineering.
    Upon graduation in 1979 he was commissioned in the US Navy and became a submarine officer. After completing the required training in Naval nuclear propulsion and basic submarine training he served on the USS Norfolk (SSN-714). After completing his submarine qualifications and engineer qualifications Jim deployed with the ship to the Mediterranean Sea. Upon their return Jim was transferred to San Diego, CA where he served on the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle Avalon (DSRV-2). Here he qualified as a deep submergence Pilot and made numerous dives on the DSRV for submarine rescue training and object recovery missions.
    After completing his tour on DSRV Avalon in 1987, Jim resigned his commission and began a second career as a Systems Engineer with Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Annapolis, MD. During the next fourteen years Jim worked as a systems engineer on a variety of integrated systems functioning in the ocean environment containing a variety of sensors and electromechanical components. He specialized in the verification and testing of highly integrated systems that were deployed at sea. In this capacity he planned and executed system test programs at the factory and then led teams of field engineers in the final verification and validation of the system in the working environment. During this period Jim earned a master’s degree in Ocean Physics from the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. Following this Jim became an adjunct faculty member at the Anne Arundel Community College teaching a course in oceanography. The course was a multidisciplinary survey of physical, chemical, meteorological, biological and geological aspects of the oceans.
    In 2001 Jim joined Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, OH. For the last several years he was a systems engineer and project manager in the Equipment Development and Mechanical Systems product line. His work served a variety of US Navy customers including ONR, NAVSEA, and USSOCOM.
    Jim joined IEEE and OES in 2008 and now serves as the newsletter editor. Jim and his wife live near Columbus, OH and have four children, now scattered to the four winds. Their hobbies include gardening and brewing their own beer and wine.

Marinna Martini
Statement: I have been attending OCEANS conferences for most of my 23 year career, and have found these meetings to be valuable to being effective in my job and to my professional development. I would be honored to continue my contribution to an organization that has helped me so much. In my work with the USGS, I have gained considerable experience in long and short term project management, field operations and last minute problem solving. I can contribute effectively in either a leadership or support role.
    During my 2006–2009 AdCom tenure I have served on the organizing committee for the Current Measurement Technology Conference (CMTC) as the treasurer and on other steering committees for nationwide USGS meetings. Other highlights of my AdCom contributions have been to help with student poster competitions and scholarships, and experimenting with a “lost instrument” web site at my own expense. I will become the electronic newsletter editor this year, gradually expanding my involvement.
    Having seen the OES from the administrative side, I am convinced that OES is perfectly positioned as a bridge between academia, government and industry internationally. If re-elected
I will concentrate my time on efforts that provide tangible benefit to the membership and the profession, such as marketing of the scholarship program, working towards better visibility of the OES on and offline, and continued service to workshops and meetings such as OCEANS and the CMTC. I see online visibility efforts in particular (such as Linked-In groups) as particularly useful to networking members who are spread across the globe.

Bio-sketch: As the lead engineer for sediment transport instrumentation and field operations at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Woods Hole Science Center, I provide technical consulting services to USGS scientists nationwide in support of physical oceanographic and sediment transport studies. This work includes mooring design, electronics, instrumentation, software development, leading scientific field operations and coordinating with engineers and scientists nationwide. Our office often receives requests for information and advice from other science organizations worldwide. I have also contributed to field work and scientific meetings at the international level. My credentials include an M.S. from the University of New Hampshire, (ocean engineering, instrumentation), a B.S. from the, United States Merchant Marine Academy, (marine & systems engineering), a current U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Marine License, 3rd Assistant Engineer, unlimited horsepower. I completed the Engineer in Training Exam in 1987. I am in my third year as a contributing member of the OES Administrative Committee (AdCom).

Robert Wernli
Statement: My involvement within the professional societies has been driven by a desire to excel, especially in the international conference circuit. I’ve had the pleasure to chair 14 international MTS and IEEE/OES conferences where we initiated the first conference tutorials, web page, CD ROM proceedings, CD ROM Advance Program, DVD Proceedings and also took the ROV conference to three international locations (Aberdeen, Scotland; Bergen, Norway; Vancouver, BC). I am now chairing the OES Reconnaissance (RECON) committee where my goal has been to create a process that allows a group of society volunteers to effectively and efficiently plan and run OCEANS conferences around the world. This process has resulted in the initiation of upcoming OCEANS conferences in Germany, Australia, Spain, Korea and Norway. I’ve been active in working with other society members in creating documentation and refining the process of initiating and running future conferences. I feel my experience will help IEEE/OES fulfill its goal of developing a successful international conference program that not only showcases the breadth of our technologies but also encourages and promotes future international networking and cooperation. As a prior AdCom member (’03–’08), I welcome the opportunity to again join the AdCom in advancing the goals of the Oceanic Engineering Society.

Bio-sketch: Robert L. Wernli (M’97-SM’06) received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of ­California Santa Barbara in 1973 and the M.S. degree in engineering design from San Diego State University, San Diego, CA in 1985. He retired in 2005 from his career at a navy laboratory in San Diego where he specialized in the field of underwater robotics research and development. As president of First Centurion Enterprises, he has begun his second career as an underwater technology consultant and a writer. His most recent technical publication is The ROV Manual; in fiction, he published his second novel in 2008. He has over 30 technical publications and was also editor and co-author of the book Operational Effectiveness of Unmanned Underwater Systems, published on CD-ROM in 1999 by MTS.
    He has been actively engaged in promoting the oceans, including the use of remotely operated vehicles, by creating and chairing the first 10 Remotely Operated Vehicle conferences (ROV ’83-ROV ’92), and co-chairing the following: OCEANS MTS/IEEE ’95, ’03, the upcoming OCEANS MTS/IEEE ’13 (San Diego), Underwater Technology ’04 (Taiwan), ’07 (Tokyo) and ’09 (Wuxi, China).
    Mr. Wernli is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Oceanic Engineering Society, and a member and fellow of the Marine Technology Society (MTS). He is a recipient of the MTS Special Commendation and Award and the MTS ROV Committee’s Chairman Award. During his career with the government he received the Exemplary Service Award, the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the prestigious Lauritsen-Bennett award for Excellence in Engineering.