New Brunswick, NJ — Rutgers University is supporting Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Lab2Market Oceansprogram by contributing operational expertise and direct practitioner insight to the program’s customer discovery activities.
As part of this effort, Masoud Salamni, a PhD student at Memorial University participating in Lab2Market Oceans, met with Hugh Roarty and David Aragon of Rutgers University. Both Rutgers researchers bring extensive hands-on experience in the deployment and long-term operation of marine sensor systems.
The discussions focused on real-world operational challenges associated with sustained ocean observing, including battery replacement cycles, maintenance logistics, field reliability, and long-term operating costs. The purpose of these conversations was strictly exploratory and educational: to validate research assumptions and better understand practical pain points encountered in active marine deployments. The engagement was not a sales or product-promotion activity.
“Speaking with operators who manage systems over long time horizons provides invaluable perspective,” Salamni said. “These conversations help ground our work in operational reality and highlight where assumptions made during early development may not hold in the field.”
Rutgers’ participation reflects its broader role in advancing translational ocean science by sharing operational knowledge with emerging innovators. By engaging directly with Lab2Market Oceans participants, Rutgers researchers help ensure that commercialization pathways are informed by practical experience and realistic cost considerations.
The Lab2Market Oceans program, led by Memorial University, is designed to help ocean innovators assess market needs, refine hypotheses, and reduce risk through structured customer discovery. Cross-institutional interactions such as this underscore the importance of collaboration between academic researchers and operational practitioners in strengthening Canada and United States ocean innovation ecosystems.