At Stony Brook University’s Southampton Marine Sciences Center, a group of graduate students from universities across the United States participated in the Ocean Acoustics Summer in School program (OASIS) this summer. The weeklong training aimed to provide practical experience in underwater acoustics, moving students out of computer labs and into real-world environments.
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.”
OASIS, funded by the U.S. Navy, expanded upon a boot camp model started last year. The program was designed to foster interest in ocean acoustics among young scientists while giving them opportunities to collect and analyze data outside traditional classroom settings.
The event brought together about 25 graduate students and five faculty members, including experts from UMass Dartmouth, George Mason University, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, MIT, and Stony Brook University. Preparation included watching instructional videos created by faculty on hydrophone calibration and acoustic transducer design.
John Buck, Chancellor Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, described the unique appeal of fieldwork: “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. Several of the students from the 2024 camp returned this year to help as teaching assistants this summer.”
Students began their training in laboratories learning how to calibrate hydrophones and transducers—devices that function as underwater microphones and speakers. Working in small teams, they rotated between calibration exercises and designing acoustic arrays for detecting sound sources such as whale calls.
As the week progressed, experiments moved outdoors. Students tested their devices in tanks before deploying them off docks. By Thursday, they were aboard boats in Shinnecock Bay sending and receiving acoustic signals over distances exceeding one kilometer.
Singer highlighted the unpredictability inherent in field research: “The ocean is never still,” he said. “The boat’s moving, the water’s moving, and the data reflects that. It teaches students how much uncertainty there is in real measurements.”
Graduate students often have limited access to hands-on fieldwork since much research relies on pre-collected datasets provided by advisors. OASIS allowed participants to be involved throughout all stages—from initial design through deployment and collection.
“You start to appreciate the effort behind every dataset, every sample, every measurement,” Singer noted. “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.”
