Engineers
Andrew Bowen
Principal Engineer, Lab Manager
Research Interests: Remotely operated submersibles, propulsion systems, application of close loop control of remotely operated vehicles, introduction of remotely operated systems for oceanographic research.
Contact: abowen@whoi.edu
Will Bain
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Autonomous vehicle capabilities and behaviors, machine vision and perception, localization and mapping, vehicle remote operations.
Contact: william.bain@whoi.edu
Zac Berkowitz
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Development and operation of software and electrical systems of autonomous vehicles for scientific use.
Contact: zberkowitz@whoi.edu
Andrew Billings
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Mechanical design, electrical design, CAD and CAM with Autodesk software, Inventor and Fusion, underwater thruster design and hydraulic systems.
Contact: abillings@whoi.edu
John Cast
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Autonomous underwater robotics, collaborative real-time mixed reality, perception, ROS development, enhanced research and educational outreach tools powered by computer vision and artificial intelligence.
Education: MSE, Robotics, Johns Hopkins University. B.S., M.S., Electrical Engineering, Stanford University.
Contact: john.cast@whoi.edu
Owen Cesarano
Engineer II
Research Interests: Operations and AUV capability development relating to the MBARI-LRAUV. Technology for sustainable fisheries management and assessment. Mechanical and electrical design of undersea systems.
Contact: owen.cesarano@whoi.edu
Beckett Colson
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Microplastics, instrument development, oceanographic engineering, spectroscopy, dissolved gases.
Contact: bcolson@whoi.edu
Molly Curran
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Design and operation of autonomous, hybrid, and remotely operated underwater vehicles and mechanical support equipment. Design and construction of underwater hydraulic power systems. Mechanical Finite Element Analysis.
Contact: mcurran@whoi.edu
Allisa Dalpe
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Autonomous decision making, mission planning, path-planning, test and evaluations methods for autonomous systems.
Contact: adalpe@whoi.edu
Francesca Daszak
Engineer I
Research Interests: Deep-sea vehicles, especially autonomous. Robotics engineering, primarily mechanical design and software development. Electrical assembly, including PCB population and detailed soldering work.
Contact: francesca.daszak@whoi.edu
Frederick Denton
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Mechanical design of oceanographic systems including ROVs and specializing in ROV LARS cranes, winches, umbilical cables and other portable structures mounted to oceanographic vessels.
Contact: fdenton@whoi.edu
Adam Ensminger
Engineer I
Research Interests: Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, and rapid prototyping.
Contact: adam.ensminger@whoi.edu
Mario Fernandez Jr.
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Mechanical design engineering for ROV Jason.
Contact: mfernandez@whoi.edu
Justin Fujii
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Systems level design of autonomous, manned, and unmanned underwater vehicles. Hydrodynamics and propulsion optimization of underwater vehicles. Improved payload and power plant interchangeability. Design deployment and recovery systems of autonomous underwater vehicles.
Contact: jfujii@whoi.edu
Joe Garcia
Engineer I
Research Interests: Python-based data processing and analysis, Big data system architectures, Linux kernel drivers and systems programming, embedded systems integration, radio-frequency and acoustic communications.
Contact: jogarcia@whoi.edu
Renee Gruner-Mitchell
Engineer I
Research Interests: Mechanical design and operation of autonomous underwater vehicles and autonomous surface vehicles. Mechanical support equipment design. Electromechanical systems integration.
Contact: renee.grunermitchell@whoi.edu
Matthew Heintz
Senior Engineer
Research Interests: Design, construction, and operation of deep diving research submersibles including ROVs, AUVs, HOVs, and hybrid vehicles.
Contact: mheintz@whoi.edu
Michael Jakuba
Senior Engineer
Research Interests: Design and operation of autonomous and remotely operated underwater vehicles, navigation and control, lightweight tether design and tether dynamics, operation in polar environments and under ice, long range marine robotics.
Contact: mjakuba@whoi.edu
Timothy Joyce
Engineer II
Research Interests: Computer graphics, ROS Robotic Vehicle Development, C++ Application and Library Design, vehicle navigation.
Contact: tmjoyce@whoi.edu
Robin Littlefield
Senior Engineer
Research Interests: Development of new technologies and hardware to improve underwater vehicles and systems.
Contact: rlittlefield@whoi.edu
Rosemary Loer
Engineer I
Research Interests: Mechanical design of underwater vehicles, CAD and Finite Element Analysis, part fabrication.
Contact: rloer@whoi.edu
Casey Machado
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Mechanical and systems engineering of innovative Remotely Operated and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles to enable access to unique environments, full ocean depth and under ice robotics, at sea vehicle operations and logistics. Ocean Worlds exploration. Creating inclusive work environments. Project organization and resource management.
Contact: cmachado@whoi.edu
Victor Naklicki
Engineer II
Research Interests: Long endurance autonomous vehicles, battery systems, fiber optics, and under ice sampling.
Contact: vnaklicki@whoi.edu
Kevin Nikolaus
Engineer II
Research Interests: Kevin is an electromechanical engineer with experience designing and operating distributed geophysical sensing systems in the deep ocean and in Greenland and Antarctica. He has a strong interest in embedded electronics, sensor integration, and power systems.
Contact: knikolaus@whoi.edu
Hugh Popenoe
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Development, testing and operations of oceanographic vehicles, ROV electrical and fiber optic system architecture, electro-optical and mechanical design.
Contact: hpopenoe@whoi.edu
Mathew Schwartzman
Engineer II
Research Interests: Swarm Systems, Deep-Sea exploration, Big Data Processing/ML, and Remote Robotics operations.
Contact: mathew.schwartzman@whoi.edu
Shefali Singh
Engineer I
Research Interests: Software architecture and design, machine learning, ethical machine learning.
Contact: shefali.singh@whoi.edu
Stefano Suman
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Development, management and use of cost-effective and user-friendly instrumentation and software.
Contact: ssuman@whoi.edu
Amanda Sutherland
Engineer II
Research Interests: Mechanical design and testing of subsea vehicles.
Contact: asutherland@whoi.edu
Christopher Taylor
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Undersea vehicle design, electrical systems design.
Contact: cltaylor@whoi.edu
Chris Thierauf
Research Engineer
Research Interests: Robot decision making for long-term autonomy, Human-Robot Interaction, Machine learning applications, Symbolic AI.
Contact: christopher.thierauf@whoi.edu
Isaac Vandor
Engineer II
Research Interests: Dynamically adjustable autonomy, multi-agent systems, remote sensing and sampling, sensor fusion, asynchronous computing, deep reinforcement learning, underwater communications.
Contact: ivandor@whoi.edu
Korey Verhein
Engineer II
Research Interests: Remotely Operated Vehicles, deep-sea videography/photography, fiber optic telemetry systems, vehicle control systems software/hardware, video distribution/routing/monitoring/recording, single board computers.
Contact: kverhein@whoi.edu