Student Poster Competition Candidates
Meet the students selected to share their original research and compete in the OCEANS 2026 Monterey Student Poster Competition.
Meet the 2026 Candidates
The Student Poster Competition for OCEANS 2026 Monterey has selected 22 students representing 20 institutions across four countries: the United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia.
Their research spans autonomous vehicles and control, sonar-based sensing and bathymetry, marine energy systems, coral reef monitoring and low-cost ocean-sensing platforms.
Selected students will present a full paper, poster and oral overview at the conference and compete for the Norman Miller Prize.
Research Areas Represented
United States
Jerry Zuo
Stevens Institute of Technology
Selected ResearchRide the Waves, Drink the Water: A Portable Floating Desalination System for Disaster Relief
Tianxiang Lin
University of Michigan
Selected ResearchNeural Implicit Representation for Bathymetry Estimation Using Sidescan Sonar Imagery
Elizabeth Taylor
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Selected ResearchKB-2-ACO: Investigating Tidal Effects on Acoustic Travel Time with Kauaʻi Beacon Receptions Recorded at the ALOHA Cabled Observatory
Andre Greene
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Selected ResearchDesign, Fabrication and Field Testing of a USV Designed for Crowded Oyster Aquaculture
Ben Washburn
Brigham Young University
Selected ResearchCougarTail & CUB: An Open-Source, General-Purpose Mast and Central Utility Board for Cylindrical Underwater Enclosures
Farhang Naderi
University of Rhode Island
Selected ResearchTowards Learning-Based Bathymetry Reconstruction Using Forward-Looking Sonar Images
Frances Truong
University of Rhode Island
Selected ResearchDevelopment of an Active Heave Compensation System on a Cost-Effective Microcontroller for a Fiber-Optic Tether Management System
Conor Nixon
Rutgers University
Selected ResearchEye in the Sky: Seasonal and Interannual Distribution Patterns of Baleen Whale Occurrence Observed by Aerial Surveys in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Bight and Southern New England
Connor Hoang
Olin College of Engineering
Selected ResearchEvaluating Signal Processing and Machine Learning Techniques for Impedance-Based In Situ Microplastic Detection
Andrew Penrod
Brigham Young University
Selected ResearchUnderwater Acoustical Signal Classification Using Rényi Entropy
August Hogen-Esch
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Selected ResearchDeep Ocean Research-Explorer (DOR-E): An Autonomous Ocean Probe
pending
Yinyi Zhao
Florida International University
Selected ResearchA Low-Cost and Low-Complexity Framework for Underwater Localization and Ocean-to-Land Data Transmission
Ryan Davies
Stanford University
Selected ResearchSubsurface Metocean Condition Binning for Ocean Energy Engineering Applications
Aaron Lefkowitz
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Selected ResearchDevelopment of a Highly Modular, Commercial-Off-the-Shelf-Based Uncrewed Surface Vessel
Rithik Nambiar
Iowa State University
Selected ResearchReducing Mass of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines: Leveraging Wave Power for Motion Stabilization
Ashley Farrell
Florida Atlantic University
Selected ResearchDevelopment of a Sensor-Enabled Towfish for Autonomous Subsea Magnetic and Electric Field Mapping
Amber Skotak
Virginia Tech
Selected ResearchShore Pods: A Small, Low-Cost Platform for Energy Harvesting and Maritime Sensing
South Korea
Kiyong Park
KAIST
Selected ResearchRobust Trajectory Tracking for Unmanned Surface Vehicles via Disturbance Observer-Based MPC
Heekyu Kweon
Kyungpook National University
Selected ResearchFURo-Sim: GPU-Accelerated Sonar Simulator and Automatic Dataset Generation for Field and Underwater Robotics Research
Dongwon Kang
Seoul National University
Selected ResearchTonal-Pedestal Asymmetry and a Range-Invariant Speed Observable for a Water-Jet Craft
Japan
Boheng Li
The University of Tokyo
Selected ResearchBeyond Coral Cover: Semantic Segmentation of Coral Growth Forms for Benthic Characterization
Australia
Caitlin Mulquiney
UNSW Sydney
Selected ResearchReinforcement Learning Control for Hydrofoiling Sailing Boats with Variable Dynamics
The Norman Miller Prize
Selected students will present their full paper, poster and oral overview during OCEANS 2026 Monterey. Candidates will be evaluated on the technical merit, originality, clarity and impact of their work as they compete for the Norman Miller Prize.
