Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) and its Great Lakes Water Studies Institute (GLWSI) are entering into a new alliance with Grand Valley State University (GVSU) and the University of Notre Dame to develop a first-of-its-kind training program \u201cfocused on artificial-intelligence-enabled deployment of autonomous underwater vehicles.\u201d The partnership was made possible by a three-year, $873,634 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and represents a level-up for NMC in multiple ways, according to GLWSI Director John Lutchko.<\/p>\n
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Stuart Jones, executive director of GVSU\u2019s Annis Water Resources Institute, tells The Ticker\u00a0his program had been \u201creally interested in finding ways to partner\u201d with NMC ever since the announcement of Traverse City\u2019s new Freshwater Research and Innovation Center (FRIC), which officially broke ground on Friday. While GVSU has existing partnerships with NMC, including through the college\u2019s University Center, Jones says Annis and GLWSI hadn\u2019t worked together until now.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFRIC is going to be a great benefit; I think it fills a geographic gap, in terms of providing a platform for pursuing aquatic research in the state,\u201d Jones says. \u201cBecause of that, we’ve been in a lot of discussions about making use of that facility \u2013 and, in fact, a big part of this grant application was trying to find a tangible first step for us to partner with folks within NMC and in the community up there. We were lucky enough to be successful in that first attempt, and we hope this is a launching pad for other projects that would leverage that new center.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The grant comes from an NSF program called Experiential Learning in Emerging and Novel Technologies<\/a> (ExLENT), which Jones says aims to provide training programs in fields that are \u201cchanging rapidly because of emerging or novel technologies.\u201d The three partners are targeting the marine technology space, and specifically the growing importance of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and artificial intelligence (AI) in that sector.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Lutchko says the new training curriculum will represent multiple new frontiers for GLWSI, starting with the addition of AUVs to NMC\u2019s equipment \u201ctool bag.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u201cAUVs have been a huge piece of the industry for many years, but we’ve just never had the opportunity or the resources to have one in-house,\u201d Lutchko says. \u201cWe used to get the Michigan State Police to come in for one day and do a demo for us, because they have an AUV they use for search and recovery. But that one day was the extent of what our students got. Now, we’re talking about the opportunity for our students to have an entire academic course surrounded by that technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u201cThis grant will enable a transition from remotely operated vehicles, where the operators are out on a boat using remote controls to tell the robot where to go, which I understand has been the bread and butter of NMC\u2019s program,\u201d Jones says. \u201cThis enables the purchase of some autonomous platforms, which can be programmed to just go out and execute a task.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Adding AI into the equation, Jones continues, \u201callows for even more complex tasks to be defined\u201d for AUVs; \u201cfor modifications to the mission to be made autonomously by the underwater robot; and \u201cfor improving the efficiency with which those tasks can be completed.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, AI can take into account weather conditions and movement of water that might influence the path the robot should take,\u201d Jones says. \u201cIf you’re swimming upstream constantly against the flow of the water, that’s not going to be very efficient, and the battery of the robot might drain. With the AI piece, the robot can detect those conditions underwater and shift the course it\u2019s taking to be more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Another example: \u201cIt could be that we send out a robot to look for the source of some contaminant,\u201d Jones says. \u201cIf we have a sensor integrated with the robot, then with AI, the robot could essentially follow the scent of the pollutant like a bloodhound.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Each of the partners for the NSF grant brings something different to the braintrust. NMC has the immediate access to the Great Lakes, as well as what Jones describes as \u201ca nationally-known strength\u201d in marine technology. \u201cAnd here at the Annis Water Resources Institute at GVSU, we have a long track record of excellence in aquatic ecology research and management of water resources,\u201d he adds. Notre Dame, meanwhile, are the AI experts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The partners will spend the first year of the NSF grant period developing curriculum for a six-week training program, and the next two years running four 18-student cohorts through that course. \u201cFour of the weeks will be online, led by an instructor from NMC, with input and collaboration from GVSU and Notre Dame,\u201d Jones says. \u201cAnd then the last two weeks, where the students tackle the hands-on experiential piece of deploying the underwater vehicle, that’s going to happen in Traverse City.\u201d He adds that GVSU plans to bring one of its research vessels, the W.G. Jackson<\/a>, up north for the program.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Even beyond the three-year grant period, Lutchko says the project should pay dividends for NMC and the GLWSI. Not only will the college get to keep the new equipment, allowing for AUVs and AI to be incorporated into program curriculum long-term, but Lutchko also thinks \u201cthe optics of getting an NSF grant\u201d will put the GLWSI \u201con the map\u201d in a new way.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u201cThose grants are extremely competitive and heavily scrutinized,\u201d he says. \u201cGetting one shows that what we\u2019re doing is believed in at a very high level.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Lutchko also points to Notre Dame\u2019s participation in the project as big deal for NMC.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of FRIC, we are already looking at strengthening our relationships with existing partners \u2013 the GVSUs and Michigan States of the world,\u201d Lutchko says. \u201cBut having an institution that we’ve had no connection with before, like Notre Dame? That just expands our reach and expands our network. It\u2019s a huge opportunity for continuing to let people know who we are here at NMC, and what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) and its Great Lakes Water Studies Institute (GLWSI) are entering into a new alliance…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":225386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[691,738,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-225385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-technology","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115200983228489108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}