Seatrec Launches Project FIND
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Seatrec Launches Project FIND to Provide Underrepresented Oceanographers with World-Class, Sustainable Technology to Help Save the Ocean
Five teams of oceanographers from underrepresented communities will each receive a $75,000 Navis scientific float with SL1 energy harvesting modules + free machine learning from H2O.ai to boost their research
VISTA, Calif. (Sept. 23, 2021) – Seatrec, a renewable energy company that harvests energy from temperature differences in the environment, today launches Project FIND – Float Innovation & New Discovery – to promote equity in ocean research by providing underrepresented oceanographers with world-class, sustainable technology.
“The ocean is in crisis and we cannot afford to have the world’s best and brightest on the sidelines because they lack access to data and technology,” insists Yi Chao, Seatrec’s Founder and CEO. “We must commit to building scientific capacity and infrastructure in every continent because every coastline has a stake in the ocean’s future.”
The program is also sponsored by visionary data science and AI cloud platform provider, H2O.ai, providing five teams of oceanographers from underrepresented communities each with free access to machine-learning tools to process data from a Navis-SL1 scientific float powered by SL1 energy harvesting modules (a $75,000 value). The oceanographers were selected based on their contributions to the global understanding and preservation of the ocean.
“Ocean science is data science,” said Sri Ambati, CEO and founder of H2O.ai. “Democratizing ocean science by providing underrepresented communities with access to world-class research tools is a critical step to preserving our oceans, and ultimately unlocking the mysteries of all life. We are honored to support this important work and provide H2O.ai’s AI cloud platform for its prime purpose – AI for good.”
The oceanographers selected for Project FIND are:
Asha De Vos, a Sri Lankan scientist and National Geographic Explorer best known for her studies of blue whales.
Joseph K. Ansong, a senior math lecturer at the University of Ghana who specializes in understanding the energetics of regional/global oceanic processes.
Miguel Tenreiro, a researcher based in Mexico studying the Gulf of Mexico circulation and its impact on weather and hurricanes.
Olga Sato and Paulo Polito, lead a team from Brazil studying the South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation as an indicator for changes in climate.
Tamaryn Morris and Juliet Hermes, lead a South African team focused on the Mozambique Channel and the Agulhas Current.
Seatrec’s energy harvesting system uses solid-to-liquid (SL) phase change materials to convert temperature differences into electricity in order to power profiling floats.
The Navis Autonomous Profiling Float, built by Sea-Bird Scientific, is widely used – including by Argo, the international ocean-monitoring network – for taking scientific measurements such as temperature and salinity down to 1,000 meters. The selected FIND investigators will receive a Navis float integrated with two of Seatrec’s SL1 modules that power the float using clean, renewable energy harvested from the ocean’s temperature differences.
Investigators will also have free support and access to H2O.ai’s award-winning Driverless AI platform that uses AI to deliver expert data science easier, faster, and cheaper than traditional applications.
Project FIND seeks to demonstrate the potential of SL energy harvesting to enable discovery, introduce a renewable paradigm for float operations, and provide state-of-the-art oceanographic instruments to underrepresented oceanographers.
About Seatrec
Seatrec designs and manufactures energy harvesting systems that generate electricity from naturally occurring temperature differences in ocean waters. This renewable energy can be used to power deep water oceanographic research equipment such as floats, gliders, and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), resulting in the most scalable, cost-effective deep ocean data collection possible. Incorporated in 2016 by CEO, Dr. Yi Chao, Seatrec’s technology originated at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, to provide clean power for remote off-grid locations. The company is headquartered in Vista, CA. Visit us at www.seatrec.com and @seatrecinc.
Media contact
Sean Yokomizo
sean@seatrec.com
+1 925.878.1200
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EarthSci Show with Aryan Shah and Yi Chao
In this episode of the EarthSci Show, host Aryan Shah and our CEO Dr. Yi Chao, discuss the dynamics of seafloor mapping, what Seatrec does to accelerate such a process, and where he envisions Ocean Exploration and Blue technology in the decades to come.
Check out the podcast and watch the video on Youtube.
Scott Amyx Interview with Yi Chao
Scott Amyx interviewed our CEO, Yi Chao, for his Climate Change podcast. Scott the Managing Partner at Astor Perkins, and a TEDx speaker.
Seatrec Selected as Finalist in General Excellence by Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards
Seatrec Selected as Finalist in General Excellence by Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards
Company’s SL1 Thermal Energy Harvesting System that generates electricity from the ocean’s natural temperature difference honored for pursuing innovation for the good of society and the planet
VISTA, Calif. – WEBWIRE – Tuesday, May 4, 2021. Seatrec, the renewable energy company that harvests energy from temperature differences in the environment, today announces the selection of its SL1 Thermal Energy Harvesting System as a finalist for Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards in the category of General Excellence. The SL1 also received honorable mention in the energy category. The awards honor the businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation when it comes to solving health and climate crises, social injustice, or economic inequality.
Seatrec is the first company to produce a portable power system that harvests energy from naturally occurring temperature differentials. Its patented thermal energy harvesting technology provides infinite power and is currently used to operate oceanographic equipment, including autonomous profiling floats and underwater gliders.
Many of the robotic platforms used by scientists, like autonomous profiling floats, are treated as disposable because retrieving them from far out at sea is expensive. That practice is not only a waste of resources but the batteries that power those devices can pollute the ocean by leaking toxic materials. Seatrec’s technology allows researchers to extend the life of their equipment, power more sensors, and collect data faster at a reduced cost and in an environmentally friendly manner.
“Protecting the ocean’s health is vital to life on Earth but understanding it is extraordinarily difficult without reliable, renewable energy to power sensors and the robotic platforms that carry them,” explains Dr. Yi Chao, founder and CEO of Seatrec. “The technology behind the SL1 is critical to innovating beyond current limited battery performance and providing clean power for research and key applications in the Blue Economy like aquaculture and maritime transportation.”
Seatrec is exploring a host of applications for its clean power technology to help drive the expansion of the Blue Economy from collecting data to improve hurricane forecasting, mapping the seafloor, developing carbon capture methods, aquaculture, and improving navigational routes for shipping to reduce bunker fuel.
The Blue Economy - sustainable, ocean-centric commerce - is expected to generate more than $3T in global economic impact and support more than 40M jobs around the world, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Aquaculture alone is projected to grow into a $274B per year market by 2025.
Now in its fifth year, Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards honors innovations selected by a panel of eminent editors and reporters. This year the panel selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 4,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, and more. Plus, several new categories were added, including Pandemic Response, Urban Design, and Architecture. The 2021 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Brazil to Denmark to Vietnam.
Showcasing some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies tackling exigent global challenges, Fast Company’s Summer 2021 issue (on newsstands May 10) highlights, among others, a lifesaving bassinet; the world’s largest carbon sink, thanks to carbon-eating concrete; 3D-printed schools; an at-home COVID-19 testing kit; a mobile voting app; and the world’s cleanest milk.
“There is no question our society and planet are facing deeply troubling times. So, it’s important to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, impact, design, scalability, and passion to solve these problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have discovered some of the most groundbreaking projects that have launched since the start of 2020.”
About Seatrec
Seatrec designs and manufactures energy harvesting systems that generate electricity from naturally occurring temperature differences in ocean waters. This renewable energy can be used to power deep water oceanographic research equipment such as floats, gliders, and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), resulting in the most scalable, cost-effective deep ocean data collection possible. Incorporated in 2016 by CEO, Dr. Yi Chao, Seatrec’s technology originated at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, to provide clean power for remote off-grid locations. The company is headquartered in Vista, CA. Visit us at www.seatrec.com and @seatrecinc.
About the World Changing Ideas Awards
World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.
Media contact
Sean Yokomizo
On behalf of Seatrec
seanyokomizo@gmail.com
+1 925.878.1200
World Economic Forum Highlights Seatrec in Video
The World Economic Forum published a video that features Seatrec and explores the potential of our thermal-powered floats to help us better understand and utilize our oceans.
The oceans make up two-thirds of our planet and underpin our food and sustenance, medicine and vaccines, transport and commerce, and the global climate. And yet, as the video shows, our oceans are poorly understood; we currently have a clearer picture of Mars than we do of the seafloor.
What stands between our ability to measure, understand, and protect our oceans is energy – and Seatrec’s technology can generate infinite, renewable power from the ocean itself.
Through Seatrec’s ocean-based sustainable energy, we can monitor the climate, improve hurricane forecasts, optimize shipping routes, and so much more. Seatrec is currently working with oceanographers, government entities, and private companies across the blue tech ecosystem to map the ocean, conserve marine ecosystems, and unlock the potential of the blue economy.
Watch the full video here.