Abstract:

Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs) represent a paradigm shift in maritime operations, offering autonomy and eco-conscious design to redefine traditional vessel operations. This keynote, from a start-up perspective, illuminates key technologies, applications, achievements, challenges, and the projected trajectory of USVs.

Fueled by state-of-the-art technologies and a dedication to sustainability, USVs showcase remarkable adaptability and versatility. The integration of AI-driven decision-making algorithms and advanced sensor fusion underscores their potential for autonomous efficiency. Going beyond technology, the keynote offers insights into their progression of USVs, highlighting milestones achieved and challenges facing. Additionally, it provides perspectives on USV advancements and their wide-ranging applications.

Speaker's Bio:

Wenwen Pei is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a co-founder of Marine Thinking. She is honoured to lead a dedicated team of professionals who strive to create positive change for the marine industry through artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Together, they have developed an AI-driven control and communication system that provides intelligent performance and self-operation capabilities to crewed and uncrewed surface vessels (USV).

With a Master of Applied Science (M.A.Sc.) in Civil Engineering and a Master of Engineering (M.Eng) in Environmental Engineering, Wenwen's educational background has been instrumental in shaping her career. Her professional experience encompasses a range of fields, including engineering, optimization modeling, water/wastewater treatment, project management, and academic research.

Abstract:

Marie-Chantal Ross is the Program Director of the NRC's Ocean Program, a seven year, multimillion dollar program to support Canada's blue economy growth (ocean health, ocean wealth) in the areas of Coastal Resilience, Intelligent Marine Assets, Pollution Remediation and BioAssets. It is believed that in supporting the development of new technologies and business models where the outcome is a cleaner ocean and healthy economic activity, Canada can lead in its blue recovery.

Speaker's Bio:

Marie-Chantal brings almost 25 years of research and development experience from both the public and private sectors. She started her career in the high tech sector as a thermal engineer specializing in Computational Fluid Dynamics. Ten years later, she transferred her skills to the public sector with an aim to work on climate change policy. Since, she has championed research and innovation initiatives at Natural Resources Canada, Transport Canada and now the National Research Council where her program is exceeding all its key performance indicators. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science, Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and a Masters of Engineering, Engineering Management from the University of Ottawa.