About
Summer Institute History and Vision
Developing the next generation of scientists and engineers to use the expanding global ocean observatories in the coming decade represents a critical need. Undergraduate marine science programs exist, however unfortunately, students rarely have the opportunity to 1) get hands-on experience using the new technologies that anchor the modern ocean observatories, 2) get only limited hands-on experience, and 3) rarely have the opportunity to work as a team peer to focus on solving real world problems in the oceans.
We formed a Rutgers Summer Institute for Ocean Observing Technology in summer 2008, which is focused on filling this void for undergraduates by offering hands-on training using the existing test-bed we deployed in the ocean waters off the Northeast United States. This approach has been extremely successful in entraining Rutgers undergraduates who now anchor trans-Atlantic robotic expeditions and helping deploy multi-frequency regional radar networks throughout the world. This approach has entrained international interest from Norway, Azores, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Canada, Taiwan and Spain.