May 30, 2024
Sound waves are the most effective and efficient energy form that travels and propagates in the ocean. Many undersea and marine technologies are developed based on acoustic theories and principles. These are exploited to extend the frontier of ocean science from the surface of the ocean to the bottom of the sea. Some of the latest ocean acoustic technologies, including the 3D Acoustic Telescope and acoustic autonomous vehicles, will be reviewed in this seminar, along with the sea trials where these state-of-the-art technologies were tested and utilized, including down to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest seabed of the Earth, more than 10.9 km below the sea surface.
In this seminar, the speaker, originally from Taiwan, will also share his American experience as an ocean science and engineering researcher, especially on the influence of blended American and Taiwanese culture on his transition from a theoretician to a fieldwork experimentalist.
Ying-Tsong (YT) Lin is a Professor in the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at the University of California San Diego. He is currently holding the Victor C. Alderson Chair of Applied Ocean Science. Prof. Lin’s primary research direction is ocean acoustics, and his most recent research focus is at distributed hydrophone array networks, which combines 3D acoustics, AUV technology, and high-performance signal processing for DCL (detection, classification and localization). Before joining SIO in July 2023, Prof. Lin was a tenured scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), where he led an engineering group winning a grand prize from the W.M. Keck Foundation to build the first Real-Time 3D Acoustic Telescope (AT), which enables higher dimensional underwater soundscape study.
Prof. Lin’s research vision includes (1) understanding the ocean, one of the last unexplored frontiers on Earth, (2) advancing knowledge through interdisciplinary study using acoustics, (3) enabling science through innovative technology, and (4) environmental stewardship and ocean awareness.
Prof. Lin received the prestigious A B Wood Medal from the Institute of Acoustics, UK in 2015, and the Medwin Prize in Acoustical Oceanography from the Acoustical Society of America, USA in 2018. He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and the 12th person in history and the first person of Asian descent to visit the bottom of Challenger Deep in June 2020.