Recent Dissertations and Theses

2024

Wingsail Design Methodology and Performance Evaluation Metrics for Autonomous Sailing
Blake Ian Barry Cole, Ph.D., 2024
Peter Traykovski, Advisor
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor

Adaptive Robotic Search and Sampling of Sparse Natural Phenomena
Jessica E. Todd, Ph.D., 2024
Dana Yoerger, Advisor

Processes of Stratification Breakdown and Restratification in Antarctic Coastal Polynyas
Yilang Xu, Ph.D., 2024
Weifeng (Gordon) Zhang, Advisor

Enabling Human-Multi-Robot Collaborative Visual Exploration in Underwater Environments
Stewart C. Jamieson, Ph.D., 2024
Yogesh Girdhar, Advisor

Survey Techniques to Examine Morphological Evolution of Coastal Regions
Seth Ammons, MS., 2024
Britt Raubenheimer, Advisor
Steve Elgar, Advisor

2023

Enabling Robotic Manipulation in Remote Environments with Shared Autonomy
Amy Phung, S.M., 2023
Richard Camilli, Advisor

Perceive, Predict, and Plan: Robotic Expeditionary Science in Oceanic Spatiotemporal Fields
Victoria Preston, Ph.D., 2023
Anna Michel, Co-Advisor
Nicholas Roy, Co-Advisor

Lifelong, Learning-Augmented Robot Navigation
Kevin Doherty, Ph.D., 2023
John L. Leonard, Advisor

2022

Developing the Next Generation of Autonomous Underwater Gliders
Peter Ventola, S.M., 2022
Richard Camilli, Advisor

High Frequency Acoustic Propagation and Modeling in Stratified Estuaries
Nicholas Swanda, S.M., 2022
Andone Lavery, Advisor

Mechanisms of Tidal Dispersion in a Salt Marsh Estuary
Adrian Garcia, Ph.D., 2022
W. Rockwell Geyer, Advisor

Oceanic Ambient Noise in the Arctic on the Chukchi Shelf: Broadband Characteristics and Environmental Drivers
Kathryn Fung, S.M., 2022
Julien Bonnel, Advisor

Balancing Exploration and Exploitation: Task-Targeted Exploration for Scientific Decision-Making
Genevieve Flaspohler, Ph.D., 2022
John Fisher, Co-Advisor
Nicholas Roy, Co-Advisor

A Practical Search with Voronoi Distributed Autonomous Marine Swarms
Nicholas Evans, S.M., 2022
Michael Benjamin, Advisor

In-situ Characterization of Sea State with Improved Navigation on an Autonomous Underwater Glider
Gregory Burgess, S.M., 2022
Richard Camilli, Advisor

Query-Driven Adaptive Sampling
Benjamin Ayton, Ph.D., 2022
Brian Williams, Co-Advisor
Richard Camilli, Co-Advisor

Human-Autonomy Teaming for Improved Diver Navigation
Jesse Pelletier, S.M., 2022
John Leonard, Co-Advisor
Lee Freitag, Co-Advisor

Advances in Passive Acoustic Detection, Localization, and Tracking Applied to Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
Kristen Railey Kita, Ph.D., 2022
Henrik Schmidt, Co-Advisor
Dino DiBiaso, Co-Advisor

The Effect of Attenuation from Fish on Long-Range Active and Passive Acoustic Sensing in the Ocean
Daniel Duane, Ph.D., 2022
Nicholas Makris, Advisor

2021

Environmental Effects of the Beaufort Lens on Underwater Acoustic Communications during Arctic Operations
Daniel Goodwin, S.M., 2021
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor

Multi-path Penalty Metric in Underwater Acoustic Communication for Autonomy and Human Decision-Making
Bradli Howard, S.M., 2021
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor

A Virtual Ocean Framework for Environmentally Adaptive, Embedded Acoustic Navigation on Autonomous Underwater
Eeshan Bhatt, Ph.D., 2021
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor
Video of Thesis Defense

Field-Portable Dissolved Gas Sensing and Perspectives in Aqueous Microplastic Detection
Morgan Blevins, S.M., 2021
Anna Michel, Advisor

Barrier Island Groundwater Dynamics
Rachel Housego, Ph.D., 2021
Britt Raubenheimer, Advisor

Ambient Acoustics as Indicator of Environmental Change in the Beaufort Sea: Experiments & Methods for Analysis
Rui Chen, Ph.D., 2021
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor

Computational Approaches for Sub-Meter Ocean Color Remote Sensing
Ryan O'Shea, Ph.D., 2021
Samuel Laney, Advisor

2020

A Planned Approach to High Collision Risk Area
John Li, S.M., 2020
Michael Benjamin, Co-Advisor
John Leonard, Co-Advisor

A Method for On-line Water Current Velocity Estimation Using Low-cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
Christopher Dolan, S.M., 2020
Michael Jakuba, Co-Advisor
Erin Fischell, Co-Advisor

Modifiable Stability and Maneuverability of High Speed Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) Through Bioinspired Control Fins
Nastasia Winey, S.M., 2020
Michael Triantafyllou, Co-Advisor
Dana Yoerger, Co-Advisor

Morphological Approaches To Understanding Antarctic Sea Ice Thickness
M. Jeffrey Mei, Ph.D., 2020
Ted Maksym, Advisor

Towards Basin-Scale in-situ Characterization of Sea-Ice Using an Autonomous Underwater Glider
Zachary Duguid, S.M., 2020
Richard Camilli, Advisor

Signal Absorption-Based Range Estimator for Undersea Swarms
Brendan O'Neill, S.M., 2020
Erin Fischell, Co-Advisor
John Leonard, Co-Advisor

Stochastic Acoustic Ray Tracing with Dynamically Orthogonal Equations
Michael Humara, S.M., 2020
Pierre Lermusiaux, Advisor

Enabling Human-Robot Cooperation in Scientific Exploration of Bandwidth-Limited Environments
Stewart Jamieson, S.M., 2020
Yogesh Girdhar, Advisor

2019

Adaptive Sampling of Transient Environmental Phenomena with Autonomous Mobile Platforms
Victoria Preston, S.M., 2019
Anna Michel, Co-Advisor
Nicholas Roy, Co-Advisor

Development and Deployment of a Novel Deep-Sea in situ Bubble Sampling Instrument for Understanding the Fate of Methane in the Water Column
Andrew Johnson, S.M., 2019
Anna Michel, Advisor

Robust Non-Gaussian Semantic Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
Kevin Doherty, S.M., 2019
John Leonard, Advisor

Coordinated Tracking and Interception of an Acoustic Target Using Autonomous Surface Vehicles
Ryan Conway, S.M., 2019
Erin Fischell, Advisor

Dense, Sonar-Based Reconstruction of Underwater Scenes
Pedro Vaz Teixeira, Ph.D., 2019
John Leonard, Advisor

Underwater & Out of Sight: Towards Ubiquity in Underwater Robotics
Nicholas Rypkema, Ph.D., 2019
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor

Advancing the theory and applications of Lagrangian Coherent Structures methods for oceanic surface flows

Margaux Filippi, Sc.D., 2019
Irina Rypina, Co-advisor
Thomas Peacock, Co-advisor

Automated Open Circuit Scuba Diver Detection with Low Cost Passive Sonar and Machine Learning

Andrew Cole, S.M., 2019
Carl Kaiser, Co-advisor
Andone Lavery, Co-advisor

Observing Microbial Processes at the Microscale with In Situ Technology

Bennett Lambert, Ph.D., 2019
Roman Stocker, Advisor

Perception-Driven Optimal Motion Planning Under Resource Constraints

Thomas Sayre-McCord, Ph.D., 2019
Sertac Karaman, Advisor

2018

Statistical Models and Decision Making for Robotic Scientific Information Gathering

Genevieve Flasphohler, S.M., 2018
Yogesh Girdhar, Advisor

Demonstration of Passive Acoustic Detection and Tracking of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

Kristen Railey, S.M., 2018
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor

Measurements and Dynamics of Multiple Scale Bedforms in Tidally Energetic Environments

Katie Jones, S.M., 2018
Peter Traykovski, Advisor

2017

MEMS IMU Navigation with Model Based Dead-Reckoning and One-Way-Travel-Time Acoustic Range Measurements for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

James Kepper, S.M., 2017
James Kinsey, Advisor

Field Observations and Numerical Model Simulations of a Migrating Inlet System

Julia Hopkins, Ph.D., 2017
Steve Elgar, Advisor

Multi-Modal and Inertial Sensor Solution to Navigation-Type Factor Graphs

Dehann Fourie, Ph.D., 2017
John Leonard, Advisor

Low Frequency Active Sonar Performance in the Arctic Beaufort Lens

Scott Carper, S.M., 2017
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor

Wave-, Wind-, and Tide-Driven Circulation at a Coastal Ocean Inlet

Anna Wargula, Ph.D., 2017
Britt Raubenheimer, Advisor

Extraction of Uranium from Seawater: Design and Testing of a Symbiotic System

Maha Haji, Ph.D., 2017
Alexander Slocum, Advisor

2016

Graphical Model Driven Methods in Adaptive System Identification

Atulya Yellepeddi, Ph.D., 2016
James Preisig, Advisor

2015

Distributed Autonomy and Formation Control of a Drifting Swarm of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Nicholas Rypkema, S.M., 2015
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor

Navigation and Manipulation for Autonomous Underwater Dismantling of Offshore Structures

Christian Welch, S.M., 2015
Franz Hover, Advisor

Hydrodynamics of a Multiple Tidal Inlet System: Katama Bay, Martha's Vineyard, MA

Mara Orescanin, Ph.D., 2015
Steve Elgar, Advisor

Real Time Bottom Reverberation Simulation in Deep and Shallow Ocean Environments

Thomas Miller, S.M., 2015
Henrik Schimdt, Advisor

Physical Control of the Distributions of a Key Arctic Copepod in the Northeast Chukchi Sea

Stephen Elliott, S.M., 2015
Carin Ashjian, Advisor

Characterization of Underwater Target Geometry from Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Sampling of Bistatic Acoustic Scattered Fields

Erin Fischell, Ph.D., 2015
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor

Quantification of the Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Stratified Shear Instabilities at High Reynolds Number Using Quantitative Acoustic Scattering Techniques

Jonathan Randall Fincke, S.M., 2015
Andone Lavery, Co-advisor
Rocky Geyer, Co-advisor

Scattering of the Low-Mode Internal Tide at the Line Islands Ridge

Maha Haji, S.M., 2015
Thomas Peacock, Advisor

Controller Design for Underwater Vehicle Systems with Communication Constraints

Brooks L. Reed, Ph.D., 2015
Franz Hover, Advisor

Autonomous & Adaptive Oceanographic Feature Tracking On Board Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Stephanie Marie Petillo, Ph.D., 2015
Henrik Schmidt, Advisor

Passive Wake Detection Using Seal Whisker-Inspired Sensing

Heather Rachel Beem, Ph.D., 2015
Michael Triantafyllou, Advisor

2014

The Development and Application of Random Matrix Theory in Adaptive Signal Processing in the Sample Deficient Regime

Milutin Pajovic, Ph.D., 2014
James Preisig, Advisor

Evaluation of Vector Sensors for Adaptive Equalization in Underwater Acoustic Communication

Matthew Lewis, S.M., 2014
James Preisig, Advisor

Coastal Ocean Variability off the Coast of Taiwan in Response to Typhoon Morakot: River Forcing, Atmospheric Forcing, and Cold Dome Dynamics

Jennifer Landry, S.M., 2014
Pierre Lermusiaux, Advisor

A Computational Approach to the Quantification of Animal Camouflage

Derya Akkaynak, Ph.D., 2014
Ruth Rosenholtz, Advisor

Toward Autonomous Underwater Mapping in Partially Structured 3D Environments

Mark VanMiddlesworth, S.M., 2014
John Leonard, Advisor