More than two dozen graduate students from universities across the United States took part in the Ocean Acoustics Summer in School program (OASIS) at Stony Brook University’s Southampton Marine Sciences Center this summer. The weeklong training, funded by the U.S. Navy, aimed to give participants practical experience with underwater acoustics beyond what is possible in traditional computer labs.
Andrew Singer, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook University, said, “This is often the first time students get to actually design, deploy and test acoustic equipment themselves. It’s very different from just working with files on a computer.”
The OASIS program builds on a boot camp model started last year. Its goal is to generate interest in ocean acoustics among young scientists while offering rare opportunities for hands-on data collection and analysis outside the classroom environment.
Approximately 25 students and five faculty members participated in this year’s session. Faculty included experts from institutions such as UMass Dartmouth, George Mason University, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, MIT, and Stony Brook University itself. To prepare for the intensive week, students viewed instructional videos produced by faculty covering topics like hydrophone calibration and acoustic transducer design.
John Buck, Chancellor Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, described the appeal: “The intellectual challenge of science combined with the physical challenges of working at sea is addictive — a certain kind of ‘action nerd’ personality gets hooked by these experiences.” He also noted that several students from last year’s program returned this summer as teaching assistants.
During the initial days of OASIS, students worked in laboratories learning to calibrate hydrophones and transducers—devices used underwater to detect and transmit sound. Small teams rotated between calibration exercises and designing their own acoustic arrays for detecting sources such as whale calls.
Later in the week, experiments moved outdoors. Students tested their devices in a tank behind the station before deploying them off a dock. By Thursday they were on boats in Shinnecock Bay conducting tests over distances greater than one kilometer.
Singer highlighted some of the challenges faced during fieldwork: “The ocean is never still. The boat’s moving, the water’s moving, and the data reflects that. It teaches students how much uncertainty there is in real measurements.”
For many graduate students whose experience often involves working with pre-existing datasets provided by advisors, OASIS offered exposure to every step of research—from design through data collection—in real conditions.
“You start to appreciate the effort behind every dataset, every sample, every measurement,” Singer said. “It changes how you see the work.”
Buck added: “For me, the best part is working with the students as they get their hands wet. Seeing them get excited as we approach the field test reminds me of how excited I was for my first ocean field work as a student.”