After hosting its largest ever delegation in Porto, Portugal in 2018, the IEEE OES AUV Symposium was scheduled to head to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Due to concerns around COVID-19 and resulting travel restrictions, all AUV2020 sessions will now be held remotely. Memorial University is proud  to continue its partnership with the IEEE OES to deliver this year’s symposium in a new and innovative format. The symposium will include recorded and real-time events to accommodate attendees in different time zones. Keynotes, workshops, presentations, the student poster competition, networking opportunities, virtual tours, and social programs will be brought to you in the comfort of your own home.

The abstract submission deadline has been extended to May 30. Registration fees will be discounted and a new pricing structure will be announced soon. Keep up-to-date by visiting auv2020.org or find us on Twitter, @AUV2020.

AUV2020 has invited authors to submit contributions on the following topics:

• Vehicle design
• Vehicle navigation
• Sensor design & data fusion
• Vehicle control
• Autonomy
• Mission planning
• Applications
• Multi vehicle systems
• Open source robotics

Call for Nominations for the IEEE OES Autonomous Maritime Systems Award

The Autonomous Maritime Systems Technology Committee of the IEEE OES would like to ask you to nominate persons who should be recognized in our community for their accomplishments in the autonomous maritime systems (AMS) field. The awards will be presented during a special online session of AUV2020.

Please send the following information to the Awards Committee:

• Nominee’s name
• Affiliation
• Recommendation letter with detailed reasons why you nominate the Nomination of others and self-nominations are both welcome.

Email your nominations to the AUV2020 Awards Committee at: awards@auv2020.org

Mario Brito, Anna Wåhlin, and Yanwu Zhang to deliver plenary talks

Dr. Mario Brito is an Associate Professor in Risk Analysis and Risk Management at the University of Southampton. He will present “Towards using Machine Learning for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Mission Risk Quantification” at AUV2020.

Dr. Anna Wåhlin is a Professor of Physical Oceanography at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg. She plans to bring “An AUV underneath the ‘Doomsday glacier’: Revealing pathways and modification of warm water flowing beneath Thwaites ice shelf, West Antarctica” to symposium attendees.

Dr. Yanwu Zhang is a Senior Research Engineer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). He will deliver “Targeted Sampling by Autonomous Vehicles” during this fall’s online session.

Find full speaker biographies and plenary descriptions at: auv2020.org/program/

Message from AUV2020 Committee

The effects of the pandemic have cast a pall on travel and scientific and oceanographic research. After careful consideration, the AUV2020 conference committee has decided to hold the conference in an online format. We considered three options - holding the conference as is, postponing or cancelling it, and going online. With the pandemic still raging and travel severely curtailed we had to switch from the original plan of holding it as a regular conference at Memorial University in St Johns, NewFoundland, Canada. We did not want to postpone it or cancel it as it is a conference that is highly attended and has a loyal and growing following. When we discussed going online, rather than think of it as a last option, we actually realized that this is an opportunity for us and a fun way to proceed.

We are not simply planning an event that would replace teleconferencing sessions with the actual sessions. Rather we expect to be able to run across all the world's time zones, to optimize researcher participation from everywhere. We have also decided to replicate the best part about the single track conferences where we have lots of coffee breaks and one on one and other conversations by hosting chat rooms where researchers can mingle.

Finally, we hope that the lower costs associated with not having to physically travel and pay for visas, airline tickets and hotels will encourage a broader and far more diverse audience including far more student attendance.

As we embark on this new journey we welcome feedback, questions, concerns and suggestions on how to continue to make the AUV conference a high impact, vibrant, friendly and nurturing community for our researchers and students.