Jade McAdams
At the intersection of ideas and action, this is Longitude Sound Bytes, where we bring innovative insights from around the world directly to you.

I’m Jade McAdams, a Longitude fellow from Rice University. Welcome to our Longitudes of Imagination series, where we are exploring the roles of individuals, technologies and research that is helping advance understanding of our oceans!

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In today’s episode we are featuring highlights from a conversation I led with Jason Williams, the Lead Mechanical Engineer at the Schmidt Ocean Institute, which is a philanthropic foundation that is enabling scientific expeditions on their research vessel Falkor at no cost to the world’s scientists. As part of the UN’s Ocean Science Decade, they are also contributing to a worldwide effort in mapping the entire seabed by 2030.

As a mechanical engineering major myself, I was interested to hear about the design and development aspects and the engineering mindset behind the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s creation of the Falkor.

We started our conversation with Jason’s experiences in engineering that led him to build the ROV, Subastian, at SOI. An ROV is a remotely operated vehicle, or an underwater robot that is connected to a ship, like the Falkor, by cables that allow for the transmission of control signals between the operator and the vehicle.

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Jason Williams
I started actually in the forestry industry with a company that did underwater logging, so that was my first introduction to ROVs. I was with a small team to develop the very first submersible vehicle to cut down trees underwater and bring them to the surface. So I went from the logging background immediately into the subsea world and brought in all my hydraulics experience and my mechanical design experience. And from there, I moved on to the science ROV world. My first job with the ROV science world was with ocean observatories. There’s a big cable observatory off of Vancouver Island. Canada was actually one of the very first ocean observatories, and I was part of the team to install all those different instrument platforms in the cabling networks subsea. There are cameras and different instruments that are streaming live back to shore from this observatory right now. I was part of that team. And from there, I heard that Schmidt Ocean Institute was looking to develop new vehicles. As a mechanical engineering student, I’m sure you can appreciate that. They wanted to go full ocean depth, and they wanted to develop three vehicles. The goal was to build a 4500-meter vehicle, then a 7500, and an 11,000 meter vehicle. So I was brought down there to develop that. We kind of changed direction after the first build, but that’s kind of what brought me to Schmidt Ocean Institute, was that challenge. The motivation behind all of SOI’s work is really- it’s very rewarding. We’re not after financial gains, so making different decisions, and we’re able to take these bigger risks, it just really allows you to expand in a lot of different directions, which is exciting.

Jade
So kind of following off of that, and also something that I think about a lot as a mechanical engineering student, is the idea of design and autonomy and what you’re creating, because for me, the reason that I came into engineering, when I decided to go to college, was I wanted to really be able to build something from scratch and come up with something new and create, because I just find that amazing. I’m sure you feel the same way. So I wanted to ask about when you came on board for building this 4500 meter depth Subastian, how was that process of ideation and implementation? Like the problem solving process that you followed to get there?

Jason
It’s a super exciting process. I can’t say that I can tell you exactly, we did this, this, and this. It’s a little bit more fluid than that. But we definitely started with a blank piece of paper. And for me for doing a design like this, it’s so complex in so many different systems, I kind of figured out all the small pieces first. So I figured out, like with the hydraulic system, and the flotation system, and all the different systems, and I worked from the smaller side, and the actual final design of the vehicle came at the end. To be honest, there were some people that questioned my process, but I didn’t. I knew that the vehicle had to be so balanced, both in air and in water, that I wanted to position all the different components and all this kind of stuff. So I did systematic breakdown, I’m sure you guys have talked about that in design classes and whatnot. You break it down to those small pieces, and then you build it up, and then you mold it into this general shape. So it was really exciting to be able to do that and literally start from a blank piece of paper and 16 months later, I was testing it in MBARI’S test tank.

Jade
Yeah, that kind of makes me think, because the way you said about finding- doing each subsystem first and then putting it together, is very similar to my capstone project that I have to do to actually get a mechanical engineering degree that I’m working on now. So that’s really interesting. I’m glad to see that it does pan out in the workforce as well. And that’s how people are doing such things.

Jason
Yeah, I think about that a lot. A lot of times people get overwhelmed with these big type projects, because to start with a blank piece of paper, and then to be going 4500 meters depth off of Guam a year and a half later, it’s very daunting. So to break them down, I always break things down to their smallest components, and it’s so much easier to be able to address that. So you look at them and you figure out the requirements, the constraints, your assumptions, all those basics, and you just go from there. It’s a fun process.

Jade
Yeah, absolutely. So in line with that process part of it, what would you say has been the biggest challenge that you’ve had to overcome working with the Schmidt Ocean Institute, whether that’s a technical problem that you had to overcome, or people, or regulations, or anything like that?

Jason
Yeah, no, that’s a good question. The early days of Subastian, the timeframe was so tight, we didn’t have the people on staff to be actually to be able to do it. It was such a huge project. And doing it in 16 months, that was the biggest challenge just because of the timeframe and the amount of limited people. But we did it. And it was all successful. And it’s still working out there today. So it’s a bit of a good feeling story.

Jade
Yeah. Awesome. So once you had successfully completed Subastian, and like you said, it’s out there working. So once you had done that, how do you come up with a vision or move forward into designing new things? Or finding new interests? And what are you working on now?

Jason
Yeah, so there’s a few things there. We offer up our ship to the scientists, and each cruise is different. So every year I’m not really sure exactly what I’m going to be doing, which is kind of fun and exciting, because I get to work with all these different groups. And some of them need more assistance than others. But I usually help them integrate their equipment onto the ROV, or help them build new equipment. So as an example, we had NASA come on board, and they wanted to look for meteorites off the coast of Oregon. So I worked with one of the scientists from NASA to develop a meteorite collection device that was ROV-operated. It was basically like lawn mowing underwater with this meteorite suction sampler. That was a fun little project. So that’s kind of my day-to-day tasks. But I do a fair amount of research into new technologies, new subsea ocean vehicle technology. I did a lot of research into AUVs and ASVs, which are autonomous underwater vehicles and autonomous surface vehicles. And over the last five years those systems have really taken off, so I’ve tried to educate myself as much as possible, talking to different professionals and experts in the field to see where I can kind of apply those technologies to SOI. And right now, we’re going through a bit of a transition period. I have worked with some scientists in the past who have brought those as guest vehicles on the ship, but I’m hoping down the road with our new ship, we’ll be able to kind of utilize these a little bit more. And that takes me into what I’m doing now, is we bought a new ship, it’s Falkor (too). It’s a massive upgrade to our existing system. And so part of my job right now is to integrate not only Subastian ROV onto that ship, but to look at what capabilities we can do with the ship down the road, and AUVs and ASVs and those kinds of systems will probably play a big role in that. So I evaluate different technologies, different systems. I do a lot of operations as well. So not only do I do the design work and development, I usually go offshore and run the vehicles as well. I don’t do that as much anymore, I hand it off to the teams. But as we integrate new stuff, I usually go offshore and help figure out how to operate, deploy this. My goal right now is to develop Falkor (too) into a more capable vessel. So there’s teams that are working on the ship itself, part of my role will be to see what kind of operational capabilities can we add to this ship so it has more output. So instead of just an ROV collecting samples, maybe we’ll have the ROV as well as an ASV and AUVs working at the same time, things on the back deck going off a frame and that kind of stuff. So I have a really big open kind of playbook right now, and it’s quite an exciting time for us.

Jade
Awesome. Yeah. So following up on the ASVs and AUVs, I guess I’m curious to see where you think the future of your field- do you think ROVs are going to become almost obsolete in the next five to 10 years? Or do you think those are still going to be a big part, just integrated in with AUVs? I want to hear your opinion as someone who has a lot of knowledge on the topic of the field as a whole.

Jason
Well, to be honest I don’t think ROVs are gonna go away, just like HOVs, human occupied vehicles, aren’t going to go away. They do similar stuff but some of them do it better than others. Like right now I see ASVs as going ahead and doing the reconnaissance mapping of the sea floor and whatever other kind of science experiments and data they can collect. AUVs go in after them, after we process the data from the ASVs, The AUVs kind of go in and go to a little bit more specific targeted locations and do a little bit more detailed mapping, and then the ROVs come in and actually go to those specific sites and do that data collection. So I see them all working together as more of a system and maximizing the best parts of all three different kinds of vehicles.

Jade
I like that, it’s collaboration between the three to really maximize efficiency. Like an AUV to do something that an ROV can do just as well, if not better.

Jason
Exactly. And there will be times- they are working on different kinds of technologies where the ROV works on its own, so instead of the pilot flying the vehicle over a vent field and taking a sample, and doing each one of those step-by-step processes, they’ll just say, okay, I want to go over there at this speed and collect that sample, and then the vehicle will do that. That’s the kind of autonomy that will be starting to get implemented. And it’s being done right now. So instead of everyone doing each function, or each step, it’s, this is this step, or this is the whole process it’s going to do, if that makes sense.

Jade
Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned different aspects of your job, sometimes actually piloting the vehicle, sometimes being more on the design side of things, starting with a blank piece of paper, breaking everything down. Out of everything you do with your role, which seems to be quite a diverse set of experiences, what would your favorite part be, or favorite aspect?

Jason
It’s probably the most stressful, but the testing of the actual equipment. So like with Subastian, taking it from my computer, I do SolidWorks and modeling and design work and engineering work, and I designed it and see it on the computer. Then to actually physically put it together on the floor, I literally bolted on the manipulators, and the foam and positioning all that kind of stuff. And then also taking it to the test tank, but then taking it offshore, like in 2016 I went offshore, I’m in Guam and actually taking it- I flew it for the first time down to 4500 meters. And to be able to actually do that, and successfully do that, that’s probably the biggest kind of accomplishment that I can say I’ve had. The second phase of that was then to do our next science cruise. And then to actually see my previous job, I worked with another vehicle that was already existing, working with scientists to collect samples and whatnot, that was really exciting and interesting. But to be able to say that I built this vehicle, I designed this vehicle, I was part of the team, and to see the scientists come up and collect samples and swarming the vehicle and collecting all their specimens from the bio boxes and the push cores. And it was working. So it’s just that success of starting with that blank piece of paper and actually checking the box off. It’s kind of fun.

Jade
I imagine it’s a very rewarding experience to see something that you’ve designed from scratch to be incredibly successful.

Jason
Yeah, no, it’s very fun.

Jade
What do you think is one of the most important lessons you’ve learned throughout your career? And a sub-question to that, what do you think is one of the most important things when you’re trying to be creative? What propels ideation and creativity?

Jason
So one of the most important lessons I learned, I learned fairly early on in my career, actually with one of the forestry companies I worked for. There’s different levels of the company. There’s people putting this stuff together, there’s the engineers, there’s the salesmen, there’s people on the field and mechanics. One thing I really learned was, they all have something to offer, and to be able to respect each one of them, and to be able to respect everybody’s input and opinion and be able to work with people, because you can get so much more done by that team environment and collaboration than doing it on your own. Never think that you know it all, because there’s always someone, even like someone that’s just started on the shop floor, or whatever, they may have an opinion on something that you can use. So I use that as an added resource. Instead of just looking in books and trying to figure things myself, I look at people as an extra resource, and different people with different experiences have that different input.

Jade
Yeah, I think that must be incredibly integral in designing what you’re designing now, because like you said, the scientist plays such a big role in coming on the ship and collecting the data. So I’m curious to know, when you were designing Subastian, for example, was input from scientists something that you really looked to as like, what do I need this ship to be capable of? What do I need this ship to have for them? Was that a big part of it?

Jason
It was the biggest part in the beginning. Before I actually started they did a huge survey of all the scientists, the ocean scientists, probably 100 of them or whatnot. They went through and got input from all of them and consolidated it, and that built our design requirements. After that period though, we didn’t go back as much. We had peer group reviews each time. So there’s a conceptual design review, preliminary design review, and a detailed design review of peers that we brought in. Not just scientists, though, we brought engineers in from MBARI and different groups like that, that have experience with our ROVs, that provided input to us and direction and evaluated how we were going about it. So I thought that was really valuable.

Jade
Yeah, absolutely.

Jason
You don’t always take their input and say, oh, I’m going to do their idea. Sometimes it spurs on other ideas. And that’s part of the brainstorming process. And I find the brainstorming process another really exciting time. Everybody throwing in ideas and building off of other people’s ideas is a fun process.

Jade
So what is your favorite thing about Falkor, being part of that?

Jason
My favorite thing about the Falkor, I think, and this is said a lot actually by the scientists, is the community that’s on the ship itself, including the scientists that come on board. It’s such a unity of everyone thinking the same kind of things and working together as a group. I don’t know, they’re just all focused on the same driven goals of those cruises and working together with the ship’s crew as well as the science team, it’s just a really enjoyable process.

Jade
On that note, you mentioned some of the things that you’re mainly looking at to do with the Falkor (too) are the autonomous vehicles. Is there one other thing that you really want to implement in Falkor (too)? Like your big passion project, something that you want to see happen on this ship?

Jason
I don’t know if you’ve looked at the ship, but we got 150-ton crane on here. It’s the biggest crane that’s really available to the research community. And to be able to have a project that utilizes the full capabilities of that crane is kind of something in the back of my head. It not only can pick up something that weighs 150 tons, it actually can lower things down to the sea floor, down to like 2000 or 3000 meters, that weighs 100 and 115 tons. There isn’t really that capability out there right now, and so the possibilities are endless. So I’m constantly thinking of different things to use that crane’s capabilities, like can we put down a whole ocean observatory? That’s a big structure that weighs 50 to 100 tons down to 2000 meters and plop it down on the sea floor. It reflects on my background with ocean observatories. I would say that’s probably the one thing that’s in the back of my head, is utilizing that big crane, becauseit’s like a piece of NASA equipment.

Jade
Oh, wow. Yeah, that’s amazing technology. I’m sure you’ll come up with something good.

Jason
Yeah, it’s exciting.

Jade
So I’m curious, if you could go back and you were either in college or just out of college, what’s one thing that you would tell yourself or change about what you did, if anything, or if you feel like you did it perfectly then?

Jason
Well, I feel very fortunate with my career paths, I’m very happy with how things have gone, but one thing I would probably say to my younger self is: step out of the comfort zone. And I do say this to my kids and other people too is: if you’re too comfortable, and everything’s just a little bit too easy, you get a little bit relaxed and, you know, life doesn’t change. So you got to push yourself a little bit to take those risks and step out of your comfort zone. And I say this to my kids too. It’s like, you got to be miserable a little bit to get to the good stuff, really pushing yourself beyond your comfort level.

Jade
That’s definitely something that I’m trying to do as I graduate and move into the real world.

Jason
Yeah, yeah, I’d take those risks, . Obviously calculated risks, but don’t be afraid to make that kind of leap.

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Jade
Personally, some of the most interesting aspects of Jason’s experiences with the Schmidt Ocean Institute come from his remarks on collaboration and community. Jason highlights the value of a community where everyone is driven by the same goal but has a different perspective – this leads to a surplus of ideas and knowledge that in turn propel success and innovation. He learned the importance of taking everyone’s ideas and thoughts seriously when he was working in the forestry industry, and has taken that forward into his career at SOI.

With the Schmidt Ocean Institute, the scientists on board the vessel provide inspiration to Jason and other engineers by sharing what they need the vessel to be capable of. Then Jason as an engineer attempts to achieve those capabilities. He highlights that all the people on board the Falkor, including the scientists, the engineers, and the crew, are focused on the same end goal, which creates an enjoyable environment and leads to success that can be shared by everyone.

As a graduating mechanical engineer, I hope I can find myself in such a community in my future careers, and have the chance to learn from those around me while working towards a shared goal.

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