Impactful Implementation of Next-Generation Ocean Data Infrastructure through Scalable Community and Stakeholder Engagement Programs

The bottleneck for big-data in the ocean lies in the power supply. Currently, there is no cost-effective power solution for off-grid, small-scale applications at sea. This issue is exacerbated by the necessity for expensive, specialized oceanographic operations to maintain small-scale power infrastructure at sea, resulting in a lack of accessibility to critical ocean data for communities in need. Therefore, the challenge associated with marine data accessibility and big-data in the blue economy is not only a data problem. It is also an energy problem. The project aims to leverage an existing advanced ocean wave energy device as a foundational technology to build a big-data platform for ocean data gathering. The solution will be offered through an innovative business model to significantly lower the cost for impacted communities and stakeholders. Based on iterative community and stakeholder feedback, this project will investigate big-data-enabling hardware design and development for impacted communities and the broader blue economy. The project will involve a network of partners, including community-trusted project partners, scientific partners, impacted communities, and commercial pilot partners, to explore a novel business model to deliver this innovative big-data infrastructure at a reduced cost. The Phase I project demonstrated the impact of big-data on stakeholders in coastal communities, as well as a significant need for cost-effective and autonomous data platforms at sea. This Initial Phase II project aims to (1) Strengthen collaboration with existing partners by incorporating community-driven design feedback for better alignment with stakeholder needs. (2) Work closely with community stakeholders to plan and outline a framework for implementing an interconnected autonomous ocean data platform through hardware as a service. (3) Demonstrate our system’s capabilities to stakeholders by successfully charging an autonomous underwater vehicle with ocean waves energy and remotely updating its mission objective. As this project is carried into future Phases, it will benefit multiple agencies and disadvantaged communities’ ocean observing objectives. This technology will meet power demands in ocean observation and make emerging big-data capabilities in the blue economy accessible to impacted communities. It will also directly support internationally coordinated, multi-decade, ocean-focused efforts.