Showcasing Advances in
Marine Science and Engineering
The morning after OCEANS ’10 IEEE Sydney, Bill Carey and I walked through the Sydney Convention Centre at Darling Harbour to find no evidence of the event that had occupied the space for the previous four days. And what an event it was …. The IEEE OES VP for Conference Operations, Rene Garello, judged OCEANS ’10 IEEE Sydney as BRILLIANT!
     The big thought of staging OCEANS in Sydney was seeded by Jim Collins at OCEANS 2001 in Hawaii. In May 2006, the RECON Committee representatives (Bob Wernli, Stan Chamberlain and Jim Collins) visited Sydney to assess its suitability to host OCEANS. The result was that OCEANS ’10 IEEE Sydney went from proposal (in May 2006) to approval (in September 2006) in record time.

People Deliver Outcomes
Although the OCEANS ’10 IEEE Sydney Conference and Exhibition was structured and managed according to the OCEANS Conference Operational Policy Manual (the JOAB “Bible”), it differed from traditional OCEANS conferences in that the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) had only eleven members; just enough to fill the executive positions of General Chair (Brian Ferguson), Publicity and Operations Chair (Phil Chapple), Technical Program Chair (Kam Lo), Student Program Chair (Stefan Williams), Tutorial Program Chair (Peter Gough), Finance Chairs (Paul Piperias and Gary Speechley), Exhibition Chair (Gary Speechley), Local Arrangements Chair (Jane Cleary), OES Liaison (Mal Heron), IEEE Australia and NSW Section Liaison (John Robinson), and CSIRO and National Oceans Programs Liaison (Nancy Jensen). The Honorary Cochairs (Bill Carey, John Riley and Hugh Durrant-Whyte) provided strategic guidance and advice to the LOC.

Bill Carey leading a tutorial on Shallow Water Acoustics
David Farrant presents a paper at a technical session.
Bill Kirkwood presents on AUV 2010.	Plenary speakers (L to R) Brian Ferguson, Mary O’Kane, Neville Smith, Craig McLean, and Bruce Kafer.

     The LOC’s priority was the delivery of a high quality topical technical program that was consistent with the conference theme of Showcasing Advances in Marine Science and Engineering. The pizzazz (or wow factor) and the business of organizing and running an international conference and exhibition were provided by the professional conference organizer, ICMS Australasia (Bryan Holliday, Emma Bowyer, Sandra Rae, Thomas Howden, Ashleigh Ockerby and Loren Revell-Karutz). It was this half of the OCEANS Sydney Team that ensured our event would be a welcoming, inclusive, enjoyable and memorable human experience underpinned by Aussie humor, hospitality and friendliness. ICMS Australasia attended to each and every detail of the conference enabling the LOC to avoid “traps for young players” and to enjoy its own conference. The OCEANS Webmaster (Todd Morrison) and Veraprise representative (Matthew Gelis) provided training and support for the web tools used for OCEANS conferences.
     Our major Patrons: Thales and DSTO came onboard early (in May 2006) with their generous support for the conference. The Australian Hydrographic Service, Seismic Asia Pacific Pty Ltd and CSIRO all funded significant initiatives that enabled us to promote and publicize the conference. Our Media Supporters willingly advertised our conference in their trade magazines: Sea Technology; Ocean Systems; Position Magazine; Asian Surveying and Mapping; Ocean News; Hydro International; and Maritime Executive.

OCEANS as an Opportunity
Australia welcomed the opportunity to hold the prestigious OCEANS conference and exhibition for the first time Down Under because it enabled us to:

• showcase internationally Australia’s capabilities in marine science, marine technology and ocean engineering,
  
• bring together Australian universities, industry, government R&D labs, and policy makers with our client base,
  
• learn from international experts about their successful applications of science and technology to the ocean domain,
  
• promote ocean science and engineering as professional pursuits worthy of young Australians.
  

Networking on an international level at OCEANS.	The exhibits at OCEANS provided an opportunity for companies to showcase their products.	Professionals could discuss needs and solutions, and possible collaborations, with like minded individuals in the field of ocean engineering.

     Peter Gough put together a Tutorial Program that coupled topical research subjects with internationally-recognized ­presenters: Bill Carey – Shallow Water Acoustics, Stuart Anderson – High Frequency Surface Wave Radar, Phillipe Courmontagne – Stochastic Matcher Filters for Sonar Signals, Stefan Williams – Localisation and Mapping, Marc Pinto – Overview of High Resolution Sonar, Roy Hansen – Synthetic Aperture Sonar, and Milica Stojanovic and Lee Freitag – Underwater Communications.     

Anne Gant and Beth Heron catch up at one of the social events.

     The result was a record number (representing a fourfold increase) of delegates participating in Tutorials Day on the Monday. During the evening, we held the Ice-breaker Reception where representatives from the global marine science and technology community come together in an informal, friendly and relaxed environment to exchange greetings and salutations, welcome new comers to our community, discuss novel ideas, and identify recent advances in marine science and ocean engineering.
     On Tuesday morning, the Conference Opening featured Matthew Doyle performing a traditional Indigenous welcome to country for our delegates where the significance of the ceremonial fire and smoke was to cleanse the space and people who are guests in our land, giving them the right of passage to visit our land and in particular the traditional land of the Gadigal clan of the Eora nation. Mary O’Kane, NSW Chief Scientist and Scientific Engineer, occasioned the welcoming address and reviewed Australia’s capabilities in marine science and ocean engineering. The keynote speakers set the scene for the conference with their plenary presentations: Craig McLean – Meeting Societal Challenges Using Marine Technology, Bruce Kafer – Understanding the Oceans – a Navy Perspective; and Neville Smith – Why Ocean Science Matters for Australia.
     Also on Tuesday morning, the OES President, Jerry Carroll, opened the Exhibition in the Bayside Grand Hall. Twenty-eight companies and organizations provided exhibits that enabled the delegates to see the latest sensors, systems, structures, services, information processing and display tools that are used to probe, measure, monitor, visualize and manage the world’s oceans. All the morning and afternoon tea breaks and lunches were held in the exhibition space to facilitate the integration of the exhibits with the technical program. The Exhibition Reception on Tuesday evening provided another opportunity for the delegates and exhibitors to network in a relaxed atmosphere with drinks and canapés.

The famous Sydney Opera House stands at the entrance to a busy harbor in the downtown area with ferries and boats of every description coming and going at all hours.	Sydney’s central business district was just across the harbor from the convention center.

The Harbor Bridge is another famous landmark of Sydney.	The Sydney Observatory, located near the Harbor Bridge, was a center of research in the early years of Sydney. The observatory served as a timekeeper, signal station and meteorology centre before it became the museum it is today.	A scenic overlook on Jamison valley was part of a favourite day trip for many conference attendees. The grand scale of the landscape helps to put things in proper perspective.
The Chinese Garden of Friendship provides a relaxing respite near bustling Darling Harbour, the site of the conference.	One of Sydney’s downtown parks has a place to play chess with giant size chess pieces so you can play without the need for spectacles.	This conference participant has been to one too many sessions and needs a nap.

     OCEANS ’10 IEEE Sydney had a strong technical program with many of the session chairs reporting attendance matching maximum seating capacity throughout the two-and-a half days that the technical program ran. The Technical Program consisted of 68 Technical Sessions, with a maximum number of five papers presented per session. The geographical breakdown of the authors in the technical program were roughly 40% Asia, 20% North America, 20% Europe and 20% Australasia. Underwater Vehicles and Underwater Communications attracted the most papers. The Special Topics showcased at OCEANS ’10 Sydney were Advances in Understanding of Marine Environments in the Western Pacific (Toru Sato, Yusaku Kyozuka, Beom-Soo Hyun and Dong-Jiing Doong), Advances in Exploration and Recovery for the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry (Jeanne Young), Advances in Underwater Imaging and Mapping (Marc Pinto), Advances in Marine Management (Peter Doherty) and Advances in Integrated Marine Observing Systems (Simon Allen), which proved most popular with the delegates. The Technical Program Committee was grateful to the 100 reviewers (the list of reviewers appears in the conference program) who conducted over 2,700 technical reviews of submissions to OCEANS ’10 Sydney.
     Stefan Williams and Norm Miller (OES Student Activities Coordinator) promoted and organized the highly-competitive student poster competition, which had 66 entrants from over 20 countries. The standard of the student submissions for OCEANS Sydney was extraordinarily high with the competition having to be limited to 21 finalists. The Office of Naval Research Global, as our Patron Supporting Young Scientists and Engineers, awarded a travel grant to each finalist to enable them to present their poster paper at OCEANS’10 IEEE Sydney. ONR Global (Joe Johnson, Andrew Davison and Tom Swean) are to be commended for the substantial contribution that enabled students from all over the world to travel to Sydney to present the results of their research. Each student in the competition was required to write a full paper for the conference proceedings, present their paper in a technical session and produce a poster that was displayed in the Exhibition. All the students in the competition received their finalist certificates from Norm Miller and Stefan Williams at the Gala Function awards presentation. The competition prize recipients were: Ariell Friedman (First); Anuj Sehgal (Second), Francois-Xavier Socheleau (Second); Gabrielle Inglis (Third), Lashika Medagoda (Third), M. Azizur Rahman (Third).
     The main social event was the Gala Function which was held at Luna Park. Two ferries were used to transport the delegates and exhibitors from the wharf at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre across Sydney Harbour to Milson’s Point, which sits in the shadow of the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge. Although the Gala Function was held in the Crystal Ballroom, outdoor activities included fun rides on the Ferris wheel and the Dodgems. Jerry Carroll recognized the elevation of Milica Stojanovic as an IEEE Fellow and Rene Garello presented a plaque to the OCEANS Sydney Conference Team.
     In closing, I am grateful to everyone who participated in the planning and implementation of the conference and exhibition and all the special topics chairs, delegates, students and exhibitors who made the journey so that they could be part of OCEANS in Sydney, thus ensuring its success. The spirit of OCEANS ’10 IEEE Sydney was captured by the photographic records of the Official OES Photographer (Stan Chamberlain) and ICMS Australasia (Loren Revell-Karutz).

Until next time ….
Brian Ferguson
General Chair, OCEANS ’10 IEEE Sydney