This post comes to us from Dr. Haru Matsumoto:

With the help of two engineers (Alex Turpin and Matt Fowler), as a Principle Investigator (PI) or Co-PI of the projects, I manage the development of multiple projects and report progress to respective funding agencies including NOAA, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Navy.

Developing autonomous hydrophone systems requires experience in electrical circuit design, programming, and acoustic modeling. Currently five engineering projects are under way. Take RAOS, as an example, which is a Killer Whale monitoring system funded by NOAA. I design the circuit boards, develop software, run extensive lab and field work, and collect data. When it is completed, it will be monitoring the Killer Whale calls off the Washington coast and sending the data to shore via satellite. It is scheduled to be deployed this summer off Friday Harbor on San Juan Island in Washington. I also write proposals requesting funding, present the results and write papers based on the data we have collected.