Fast facts: Ocean science & technology

Q What are some deeply interesting facts about ocean science & technology?

Ocean science & technology is where passion, innovation, and sustainability converge. RPS is always working where development meets with the marine environment, right on that edge. The marine environment is fascinating and full of complex features. Our modelling work leads us to a greater insight or understanding of this fundamental part of our natural world. Working in this field offers a chance to make a tangible impact on environmental issues and encourage sustainable development. 

Ocean science & technology projects not only necessitate a level of curiosity, imagination, and flexibility, but often require a multidisciplinary approach. Bringing together specialists and perspectives from different fields, makes solving complex problems much more effective.
 
A little-known fact about ocean science & technology is that RPS tools have been used to help save many lives over the past 20 years. When someone or something goes missing at sea, be it through the Asia-Pacific, USA, or many other countries, RPS software is used to help plan the search and rescue operation. In fact, RPS’ software was used by the Australian Government agencies during the search of the infamous missing Malaysian Airlines MH370, which remains one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.    

Q What’s the most engaging task/s in the field of ocean science & technology?

• Being a data detective: we’re always looking at numbers, vectors, and graphs to understand what they are saying about ocean waves, currents, and tides – and how those conditions could influence a variety of client projects. This means we constantly need to read, analyse, and interpret ocean data, and then essentially translate that information, so that we can reach our project goals.

• Understanding the ocean’s patterns: recognising how energy and mass are transported across our oceans and using that information to improve people’s everyday lives.

• Getting to know a specific location: Each project requires a deep dive into a specific area that may be new to you and getting up to speed with that spot.

• Working in the 24/7 Emergency Response team: being called upon to provide critical information on the location of pollutants accidentally discharged in the ocean, or locating objects and/or people lost at sea. 

Q Career vs reality: what’s ocean science & technology really like?

Working in ocean science & technology involves a lot of meticulous research, data analysis, and collaboration, as well as many deadlines for a lot of projects. However, the driving force behind this career is the opportunity to contribute to meaningful environmental outcomes. We not only support the development and advancement of technology, but we also contribute to economic and social growth that is environmentally sustainable.

We spend a lot of our time programming to develop codes that can help us understand our data and results and look at what the implications to specific client projects may be, as a misstep could lead to unwanted results.

At an individual level, this is a career that requires time dedicated to research, study, and ways to improve scientific methodologies, optimise computational resources, and accurately interpret results – to ensure we are keeping up with industry best-practice. So, in essence, it’s a career that holds a balance between industry work, and research and science. The career offered in ocean science & technology is really commensurate to each individual ambition and growth rate. 

A typical day consists of… 
A mixture of tasks that changes depending on the nature of the project. However, the first order of business often involves checking the progress of ongoing simulations and hoping no model crashes happened overnight! Once simulations are underway, we spend a good chunk of time investigating the results, looking for patterns, trends, and anomalies that tell us a story about a local environmental phenomenon. Collaboration plays a crucial role as well, with team meetings to discuss findings, troubleshooting issues, and generally bouncing ideas off each other. Throughout the day, we are flexible in switching focus, as priorities might shift, and new challenges might present themselves.

While, the heart of our work is developing computer models from the desktop, on rare occasions, we have the chance to take leave from our desks to collect data in support of our modelling. We can end up in some interesting places, deploying drifters from a boat, tipping red dye in a creek (approved!), or measuring around an offshore gas production facility.

The greatest challenge in ocean science & technology is…
Oceanographic field and modelled data are crucial for our work. However, data can be scarce and expensive to acquire and obtaining excellent quality data to characterise sites of interest or validate numerical models is one of our greatest challenges. When it comes to field data, poor field campaign design or even challenging conditions may lead to bad quality data or, even worse, no data at all. Fortunately, we have our innovative MetOcean team to support ourselves and our clients!  

Q What’s surprising about working in ocean science & technology?

One surprising aspect is just how site-specific and project-specific our work is. We work on projects located in many places across the world, for a wide variety of applications. These sites often present very different conditions: whilst one location may be tidally dominated and have fast current speeds, another location may be mostly characterised by big waves and be close to shore. 

Similarly, for one project, current speeds and sediment size distribution may be the most important parameters, whilst for another the results might be mostly sensitive to wave direction. Hence, we often need to tailor our methods and deliverables to provide client specific answers. There is no one-size-fits-all. 

Another surprising aspect is the diversity of work we have. From studying marine ecosystems to addressing pollution concerns, the range of problems we tackle is unexpected. 

While we rarely go out in the field, encountering data anomalies from the model inputs we get could also present itself as an intriguing challenge that requires problem solving. 

Q What’s a new trend in ocean science & technology that’s exciting?

The growth of offshore wind and other renewable energy is an exciting trend that will allow ocean science & technology experts to apply their existing skills to solve new problems. There's huge potential in offshore wind power as a form of clean and affordable energy source, which is generated by winds out at sea that are then captured by wind turbines. This energy finds its way into our homes through the electricity grid by undersea cables. 

Offshore wind could lower the contribution of fossil fuels to the energy mix, making it more sustainable. In Australia and New Zealand, the offshore wind industry is still within its infancy, however, it has the potential to bring us closer to meeting net zero targets across both countries. With many regions around the world embracing offshore wind, this renewables push puts RPS into the world of offshore wind farms, ammonia dispersion,  and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.

Another innovative trend is that RPS is spearheading a completely new methodology for oil spill modelling studies in 2024, which is set to renew usual practices and be a great time saver for project completion.