Aquatic Robots: Engineering the Future of Ocean Science

Hear from engineers and researchers at MIT and WHOI about how advances in robotics are unlocking new tools for understanding our oceans.

Oceans play a crucial role in supporting life on earth – regulating the climate, driving global weather systems, and harboring over 80% of Earth’s biodiversity. In an age of planetary crisis, understanding our oceans has never been more vital. Recent advances in robotics are expanding the frontiers of ocean science, offering new tools to explore, monitor, and understand marine environments with unprecedented precision and reach. This event brings together experts from both engineering and marine science to examine how robotic technologies can be designed and deployed to meet the specific and evolving needs of marine research.

Speakers include Raphael Zufferey, a Swiss engineer and recently appointed professor at MIT, whose work focuses aerial-aquatic bio-inspired robots; Dana Yoerger, Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), with extensive experience in underwater vehicle systems; and Annette Govindajaran, Research Scientist at WHOI, whose research centers on data integration in ocean observation, with a focus on biodiversity.

Through presentations and a discussion, the speakers will explore current gaps in marine research infrastructure, the opportunities and limitations of robotic systems in ocean science, and the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between technologists and marine researchers.

Program

  • 5:30pm – Doors open
  • 6:00pm – Welcome remarks
  • 6:05pm – Presentation & discussion
  • 6:50pm – Q&A
  • 7:05pm – Apéro

Event start time

Speakers

Partners