Ocean Engineering

The MS in Ocean Engineering is a research degree for engineers who want to work on machines and structures that operate where nobody can reach them. Two years, a thesis, and a great deal of time in the basin.

What you study

Underwater robotics and autonomous marine systems form the technical core, with data analysis alongside. The thesis dominates the second year and is expected to involve something that gets built and tested rather than only simulated.

The group's particular interest is in autonomy that admits uncertainty. A vehicle cannot use satellite positioning below the surface, cannot be reached by radio, and cannot be recovered quickly. Every decision it makes, it makes alone, from sensors that drift and a map that may be wrong. A vehicle that recognizes it is lost and surfaces is a success. A confidently wrong one is how expensive equipment is lost.

The test basin

Thirty meters long, five deep at one end, with a wave maker and a movable false floor. Graduate work has priority outside teaching hours. The point of the facility is that failure happens on a Tuesday afternoon with everyone watching, rather than offshore where it costs a day of ship time and leaves no evidence.

Sea trials aboard R/V Cascadia Strait follow basin work for projects that get that far.

Where it leads

Subsea and offshore engineering, autonomous vehicle manufacturers, defense and survey contractors, national laboratories, and doctoral study. Graduates are hired on the strength of having built something that worked, which is why the thesis expectation is what it is.

What to expect

Long hours, wet equipment, and a research group that treats a failed deployment as data. Coming in with programming beyond the minimum makes the first year substantially easier.