Ocean Technology Internship
The Ocean Technology Research Program utilizes innovative ocean technology to accomplish various interdisciplinary scientific goals through expertise in sensors, autonomous assets, field operations and engineering. We also generate and disseminate physical, chemical and biological data to facilitate the study and management of our local coastal environment by researchers and agency resource managers. Ongoing projects in the program include routine environmental monitoring of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico using autonomous buoyancy-driven underwater vehicles (Slocum gliders) that relay measurements of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a fluorescence, CDOM fluorescence and particle backscatter via satellite communications, and development, production and deployment of Programmable Hyperspectral Seawater Scanner (PHySS) instruments in coastal Southwest Florida, capable of detecting the presence of various phytoplankton taxa, including the toxic red tide-producing Karenia brevis. The college student intern will work with Ocean Instrument technicians, engineers and other scientists to maintain and deploy AUVs, interpret and report data, and assist with advanced ocean instrumentation fabrication, testing and implementation. The student should have technical experience and be able to work from boats and in water.