Open Postdoctoral position, faculty mentor Barbara Simpson

A postdoctoral scholar is sought for a position in SEA-Scan: Structural and Environmental Algorithms for Sensing of Offshore Systems  working with Dr. Barbara Simpson in the School of Engineering and School of Sustainability, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. The work will play an important role in the development of a subsea digital twin of deep-water mooring lines for floating offshore wind turbines. The digital twin will be integrated with machine learning algorithms for detection of primary entanglement due to fishing gear and secondary entanglement due to marine animals. Additionally, the digital twin will be utilized to monitor the structural health of deep-water mooring lines. 

Description: Extraction of abnormal entanglement from normal platform motion and sea states is difficult. Entanglement data can be noisy and notoriously difficult to process in remote, deep ocean environments. Moreover, continuous spatial and temporal monitoring results in enormous volumes of data, necessitating the management of large datasets and communication of extensive (and expensive) data packets. These factors necessitate new developments in sensor design, dataset transmission, data analysis, and numerical modeling to distinguish between normal and abnormal features. Here, the goal is to develop machine learning algorithms for entanglement detection and classification. The algorithms are supported by affordable, spatial surface and subsea sensing and a low-power edge computing to collect and compress datasets at-sea, allowing the system to make critical inferences and reliably transmit data. Detection accuracy is then enhanced using a sub-sea digital twin, which contextualizes the data in terms of physical principles and outputs information to detect abnormalities associated with entanglement and changes to structural integrity. 

For further details on the research, scope, and position expectations please contact Dr. Barbara Simpson. This project includes collaborations with Sofar Ocean https://www.sofarocean.com/. Additional details on the research team can be found at: https://simpsoba.su.domains/ (Dr. Simpson’s webpage). The original call for the solicitation can be found here: https://www.energy.ca.gov/solicitations/2025-02/gfo-24-307-advancing-designs-and-analysis-high-voltage-direct-current.