Publications

Organizations

Publications

This page is meant to be a storehouse for publications that reflect activities of interest to AUVAC and its members. If you have publications that should be added to this list please let us know and we will include them.

Case Study – Why the Professor Went to Prison

November 1, 2012 via – Business Week

He’s the only university professor or administrator ever prosecuted for violating the Arms Export Control Act (AECA). Convicted in federal district court in Knoxville in 2008 of using graduate students from China and Iran on U.S. Air Force research that was off-limits to foreigners, and taking a laptop with restricted files to China, he exhausted his appeals up to the Supreme Court, which declined last year to hear the case. He began serving a four-year prison sentence in January.

The AECA has been around for 36 years; that it’s being used for the first time against a 75-year-old man epitomizes the growing tension between national security and academic freedom. American universities have long forged relationships with their counterparts abroad and attract hundreds of thousands of foreign graduate students and professors, especially in engineering and science. At the same time, universities are doing more defense-related research limited by the act to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. As China, Iran, and other countries chase U.S. technological secrets, federal enforcement agencies see universities—and globe-trotting professors such as Roth—as a weak link. “The open environment of a university is an ideal place to find recruits, propose and nurture ideas, learn, and even steal research data,” the FBI said in a 2011 report. “It is unknown how the Chinese used the information they obtained from Roth, but because they invited him to visit China and he had a sensitive report e-mailed to him while there, it should be assumed they were interested in his research and planned to utilize it.”

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Modification of a Military Grade Glider for Coastal Scientific Applications

October 14, 2012 via – IEEE/MTS Oceans 2012

Exocetus Development, LLC of Anchorage Alaska has recently purchased the assets, IP, and manufacturing technology for the ANT Littoral Glider [now called the Coastal Glider] developed with ONR funding during the past 6 years. The glider technology developed under this program is now being modified to be more readily deployed in near coastal scientific applications. The glider is capable of self-ballasting from essentially fresh to full ocean water, and has a variable speed capability to allow it to handle near shore currents up to 2 knots. The glider is currently being modified to include a dedicated science computer and improved communications and survivability. This paper describes the prior and current development of this vehicle, describes the vehicle’s capabilities and specifications, discusses initial applications, and describes plans for future development. Additionally, some of the testing conducted during the past two years by GA Tech, NPGS, NUWCI-Newport, and KORDI in Korea is presented.

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Glacier expedition a success for NUWC Division Newport and NASAGlacier expedition a success for NUWC Division Newport and NASA

October 1, 2012 via – NUWC Newport

The mission: determining the utility of AUVs for collecting data on the rapidly receding Helheim Glacier.

They needed to determine [1] how an underwater vehicle could reach the glacier, [2] find a sonar system that would work with both glacial and arctic ice, and [3] understand the operational challenges inherent in such an isolated environment. The team also needed to assess operational logistics for future AUV operations through the deployment of glider AUVs for oceanography and an assessment is also needed for a multi-narrow beam sonar for iceberg profiling and for the creation of future obstacle avoidance algorithms.

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