What Do Engineers Do?
Ocean Engineering
Two hundred miles off the coast of Washington state, a research ship hovers on the sea's surface, manipulated by navigational satellites hundreds of miles above. A thin cable of fiber-optic strands and electrical conductors connects the ship to a remotely-piloted robotic vehicle on the seafloor 7,000 feet below as it shoots live, high-definition video of volcanic smoker vents and strange life-forms. The video is linked, real time, to a communications satellite 22,500 miles above and, from there, into classrooms coast to coast.
A U.S. Navy submarine glides silently hundreds of feet beneath the roiling waves of the Arabian Sea. Passive sonar listens to the propellers of vessels on the surface, analyzing the pattern of shipping lane traffic, searching for and tracking rogue vessels that may be carrying illicit weapons or terrorists.
As an ocean engineer, you may:
- recover treasures from a shipwreck, repair oil platforms, and conduct research on marine life, by using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs);
- design a tall, portable light system for illuminating the deep ocean that can be moved around the seafloor by an ROV; and
- determine a wave's size by gauging the weight of the water column passing over it by designing buoys sensors (useful in detecting tsunamis) use Instrumentation that communicates with satellites to determine the amount of melting of polar ice.
If you're interested in engineering as a career and also have an interest in the 70 percent of our planet covered in water, you can combine these passions with a rewarding and interesting profession in ocean engineering or marine technology.
Salary:
$81,600
Engineers in Action
Meet JETS Extreme Engineers
Read the PE Times issue
April 2006, Issue #48
Related Links
Marine Technology Society
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