The research objective of this grant is to understand the fundamental mechanisms responsible for marine transport through computations that are enabled by data collected through a mobile sensor network. The movement of water provides the energy for geochemical and biological fluxes and occurs over large spatial scales at all ocean depths. Turbulence is a natural characteristic of ocean flows and plays an important role in how materials such as sediment, pollutants and nutrients are dispersed and deposited in the surrounding environment. In spite of the extensive studies, ocean turbulence and the extent to which it influences mass transport processes, such as sediment entrainment and transport, remain poorly understood because of the lack of direct measurements. In this research, a multi-scale modeling and simulation approach using computational models that are data-enabled by specially designed autonomous underwater vehicles will be pursued. If successful, this research will significantly enhance the ocean observations and will enable previously unobtainable measurements.
This project will incorporate recent developments in computational and data-enabled sciences and will combine them with classical work into an innovative educational program at the undergraduate and graduate levels; this interdisciplinary project will emphasize fundamental understanding of the underlying computational and dynamical system processes. UCF's College of Engineering and Computer Science alone has an undergraduate student population of 24 percent minority (African-American, Hispanic, and American Indian) and 14 percent female. This diverse student population enables the recruitment of minority and female students into this project. In addition, through outreach activities supported by this grant, this project will foster an interest in computational and dynamical systems sciences in the broader population and more generally promote an interdisciplinary scientific and engineering culture that will have a long-term impact on all students throughout their careers.
