Reza Alam
University of California Berkeley
Seminar Information
Engineering Building Unit 2 (EBU2)
Room 479
Seminar Recording NOT Available
Ships spend tens of billions of dollars on extra fuel each year to battle unpredictable ocean waves, whose shape and intensity are unknown in advance. This cost is expected to rise as climate change intensifies wave activity, making disturbances stronger, taller, and more complex. Beyond the financial burden, increased fuel consumption significantly contributes to CO₂ emissions and atmospheric pollution, further exacerbating global climate challenges. With phase-resolved wave predictions, ships could make small course adjustments or strategic maneuvers to minimize resistance, cutting fuel use and lowering emissions.
In this talk, I will introduce a new initiative aimed at enabling such predictions through the distributed measurement of ocean surface waves. Our approach leverages a swarm of self-powered autonomous sailboats equipped with real-time communication capabilities, forming a mesh network to collect and process wave data dynamically. I will discuss the potential of this system for improving wave forecasting and ship navigation, as well as some of the fundamental challenges in reconstructing and predicting ocean waves from the governing nonlinear equations. This interdisciplinary work combines elements of oceanography, fluid dynamics, and autonomous systems. I will highlight key obstacles and future directions for this ongoing research.
Dr. Reza Alam is the Vice Chair and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds the American Bureau of Shipping Chair in Ocean Engineering. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 2011. His research focuses on theoretical fluid dynamics, ocean renewable energy, ocean and coastal wave phenomena, nonlinear dynamical systems, and fluid flow control.