Connor Webb has been working the mu-Net lab since 2019, and he has been the main researcher integrating acoustics with autonomy for our EcoMapper AUVs. On June 22, he successfully defended his thesis, "Integrating Acoustic Communications with Underwater Autonomy." After formally graduating in August 2022, he will work for Lockheed Martin. Congratulations to Connor for graduation and job placement!
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Since last October, Dr. Song and his students, Brodie Alexander, Anika Cho, and Emily Briggs, have been mentoring the robotics team at the local Northridge High School (NHS), which has a group of amazingly talented students. With our support, the NHS students learned robotics/electronics basics, soldering, waterproofing, buoyancy, etc. During the 2022 spring semester, the team designed and built their own unique underwater robots, namely remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). They participated in the 9th Annual Northern Gulf Coast Regional Competition for the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) program from April 29 to May 1, 2022. In the three-day competition at Dauphin Island, they piloted their ROVs through a series of simulated science missions in a swimming pool. They showcased their robotics design through engineering presentations. Combining the technical demonstration and engineering presentations, the two sub-teams of the NHS won the following two awards: NHS H.O.W.A.R.D. Inc.: the first place in the Navigator class (intermediate level) NHS PureTide: the second place in the Ranger class (advanced level) We thank Mrs. Fuller for sponsoring the robotics team. Without her support, we would not have had this trip. We thank the undergraduate researchers, Brodie Alexander and Anika Cho, for their support/help around the clock. I proudly announce two students awards in the mu-Net lab:
Good pieces of news come in pairs. Congratulations to Anika and Aswanth.
March 2022: PhD students from Georgia Tech, Scott Maryberry and Jinzhi Cai, delivered the second EcoMapper to the University of Alabama for the NSF CCRI project. On March 5, we conducted a joint experiment at the lake of Tuscaloosa. After installing an acoustic modem on the second vehicle, we tested navigation/acoustic communications, both with success. During the same experiment, we demonstrated acoustic control of the first EcoMapper.
Another season of MATHCOUNTS has ended with success. Five local middle schools with 43 students participated in the 2022 MATHCOUNTS competition at the University of Alabama, MSB building. The MATHCOUNTS organizing team devoted tremendous efforts: Dr. Chuntian Wang, Prof Shan Zhao, Dr. Yuanzhen Shao, Rachna Agrawal; Thank you all! I thank the support from multiple units of the University of Alabama. Division of Community Affairs, Dr. Samory Pruitt, the Center for Community-Based Partnership Mrs. Andrea Ziegler, the College of Engineering, the Department of Mathematics for their support. Thanks to our partner: Tuscaloosa School District (Dr. Daria and Ken Webb). Thanks to our generous sponsors, T-Town Friends, ASPE -Tuscaloosa, Nucor Inc. Our wonderful volunteers made the event possible, thank you all.
Dr. Song delivered a plenary talk on Nov 23, 2021, "Mobile Underwater Sensor Networks: Challenges and Opportunities " during WUWNet'21; see https://wuwnet.acm.org/2021/Highlights.htm. Dr. Song presented the following technical presentation in the 181st ASA meeting on Dec 3,
Aijun Song, Xiaoyan Hong, Fumin Zhang, Zheng Peng, Zhaohui Wang, "µNet: Community-shared infrastructure for mobile underwater acoustic networks," 181st Acoustical Society of America, Seattle, WA, Dec. 2021. Since Sept 2021, Dr. Song's lab has been supporting the robotics team at the Northridge High School. Three undergraduate students, Brodie Alexander, Anika Cho, Emily Briggs, have been working with the high school students every week and teaching them to assemble ROVs. At the end of semester, a pool/ROV/pizza party was organized to test the ROVs in water. Four graduate students, Qiang Fu, Connor Webb, Shuai Dong, and Long Li, joined and provided various help. It took a big group to make this party possible. We thank Mrs. Fuller for her strong support and appreciate Dr. Sevgi Gurbuz's help. Thanks to everyone involved! Congratulations to Zheng Joshua Guo on his Ph.D. graduation with his dissertation, "In-band full-duplex acoustic communications." Zheng totally deserves the doctoral degree with his hard work and significant contributions.
Zheng Guo passed this dissertation defense, titled "In-Band Full-Duplex (IBFD) Underwater Acoustic Communications," on Oct 1 (Friday), 2021. Nicely done! Congratulations to Zheng.
This new semester of fall 2021, we welcome our new members: Kayla Hamilton and Aswanth Sampathkumar, to join our lab as PhD students.
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Author: Dr. Song @ muNet lab
Dr. Aijun Song is an experienced researcher in subsea communications, intelligent signal processing, and marine robotics. He has published more than thirty journal papers on underwater technologies. Active in the professional societies, Dr. Song served as the General Co-Chair of the 2018 NSF Workshops on Underwater Wireless Communications and Networking. He was the General Co-Chair of the 14th International Conference on Underwater Networks & Systems. Dr. Song is a recent recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2021). Archives
October 2023
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