SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology, a new research center dedicated to advancing submarine technology, will be co-led by University of Rhode Island and University of Connecticut faculty, according to a Tuesday announcement by Rhode Island’s flagship research institute.
The co-leaders – Arun Shula; URI Simon Ostrach Professor of Mechanical, Industrial and Systems Engineering; and Richard Christenson; UConn professor of civil and environmental engineering – will direct projects which collaborate with local manufacturing giant General Dynamic Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., additional Rhode Island-based educational institutions as well as the U.S. Navy’s Connecticut base.
In a statement, Shukla said: “The institute will educate the next generation workforce for the shipbuilding industry transitioning not only technologies, but a solid knowledge base to advance the next generation and next platforms of undersea vehicles.”
A three-year, $1.3 million Office of Naval Research Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) grant jointly awarded to the center in August is already under way, preparing students for the shipbuilding industry.
Located on UConn’s Avery Point campus in Groton, Conn., researchers will be in close proximity to Electric Boat, the U.S. Navy’s Groton, Conn. base, also in Groton, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Middletown and the Naval War College in Newport.
It is the university’s hope their proximity will be in their favor when these institutions seek research or development partners.
Kurt Hesch, chief operating officer at General Dynamics Electric Boat, believes this will be the case going forward. He said in a statement: “The intellectual horsepower and the state-of-the-art research facilities at the universities provide the tools necessary to research technologies so that industry partners can transition them for integration onto undersea vehicles.”
Examples of URI, UConn and U.S. Navy collaborations dating back to 2007, according to the release, include:
- Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, rational design of advanced polymeric capacitor films.
- Blast performance of marine composite and sandwich structures and experimental investigation of free field and shock-initiated implosion.
- Exploring uncertainty in real-time hybrid substructuring of marine systems.
- Sensor networks for multiple target tracking.
- Automated 3-D target reconstruction and classification using distributed passive sensors for persistent surveillance.
- Development and testing of undersea gliders.
- Low-cost acoustic transmitters.
- An interactive wave sediment profiler.
URI president David M. Dooley, in prepared remarks, added: “As Land Grant and Sea Grant institutions the University of Rhode Island and the University of Connecticut are uniquely positioned to undertake cutting-edge research, in collaboration with our close partners, and then assist in the development of our innovations to improve national and global security.”
Emily Gowdey-Backus is a staff writer for PBN. You can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey or contact her via email, gowdey-backus@pbn.com.
