Seatrec Names Pentagon Alum Jason Stack to Advisory Board
Seatrec Names Pentagon Alum Jason Stack to Advisory Board
Extensive experience in developing and managing advanced autonomous naval and maritime systems will guide the commercialization and deployment of Seatec’s technology across the defense, research, and Blue Economy domains
VISTA, Calif. – WEBWIRE – Thursday, April 4, 2024. Seatrec, a renewable energy company that harvests energy from temperature differences in the environment, today announces the appointment of Jason Stack, Ph.D., an engineer and former Deputy Director of the Navy’s Unmanned Task Force at the Pentagon, to its advisory board.
“We’re rapidly commercializing autonomous systems powered by the ocean’s temperature differences for critical research and defense, as well as those that will help expand the Blue Economy,” points out Yi Chao, Ph.D., CEO and founder of Seatrec. “Jason’s unparalleled expertise gained from a distinguished career in the US Navy is a tremendous resource to help us accomplish our mission.”
Stack’s time at the Pentagon included multiple formal appointments within NATO including the US National Representative for Systems, Concepts, and Integration within the NATO Science & Technology Organization. Following his role at the Pentagon, he is co-founding a startup in the maritime space - still in stealth - and works as the company’s CTO.
He began his career designing and prototyping heavy equipment and industrial electronics at two manufacturing companies before earning his Ph.D. and moving to the Department of Defense (DoD). During his two-decade career at the DoD, Stack led programs at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in maritime platform, sensor, perception, effector, and autonomy development. He then transitioned to an executive role where he acted as ONR’s Technical Director and served as director of the Ocean, Atmosphere, and Space Research Division before taking up his post at the Pentagon.
“Autonomous systems hold great potential for filling important capability gaps across a host of research, defense, and maritime missions but a reliance on batteries limits their endurance,” explains Stack. “Seatrec’s technology provides abundant power that is clean and sustainable to free those systems to reach their potential by providing robust function sets with near limitless endurance.”
Seatrec’s pioneering energy harvesting system uses phase change materials to harness energy from temperature differences between the ocean’s various depths. These materials contract and expand creating pressure that’s captured and converted into electricity. The clean, virtually limitless power enables scientists to integrate power-intensive sensors into its infiniTE™ float that were previously restricted by battery capabilities and lifespans.
Seatrec counts the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research among its early backers and in 2022 launched a project in partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School to integrate hydrophones into autonomous, ocean-going robots.
In 2023, the company was selected for the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) Propel Hawai’i Accelerator. The program is a partnership between the NSIN and Decisive Point in collaboration with the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet—the world’s largest fleet command encompassing 100 million square miles. Seatrec was selected from a competitive field of over 200 early-stage companies to join an elite cohort of enterprises developing cutting-edge technologies to help the modernization needs of the US Navy and the broader DoD community.
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, 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
Seatrec, Inc.
sean.yokomizo@seatrec.com
+1 925.878.1200
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Seatrec Names Retired Rear Admiral John Neagley to Advisory Board
Seatrec Names Retired Rear Admiral John Neagley to Advisory Board
The 35-year veteran of the US Navy brings unique experience in leading organizations and teams in developing and operationalizing complex maritime technologies with particular focus on the Blue Economy
Seatrec, a renewable energy company that harvests energy from temperature differences in the environment, today announces the appointment of retired Rear Admiral and Founder/Principal of Blue Native Consulting, John Neagley, to its advisory board.
“John’s long and distinguished career in the Navy saw him successfully lead complex operations and the development of new technologies amid high stakes and high standards,” explains Yi Chao, Ph.D., CEO and founder of Seatrec. “His understanding of what it takes to succeed in a maritime environment and his passion for developing the Blue Economy is a perfect fit with our mission of providing clean, renewable energy to existing and novel applications.”
Neagley’s three-and-a-half decades of experience in the Navy saw him command a Navy Destroyer and serve on a number of surface combatants, including those that participated in Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and Desert Fox. Following his time at sea, Neagley managed a host of Naval research, development, and procurement projects, including acting as the executive officer for Littoral Combat Ships (PEO LCS). Before his retirement, he oversaw the Program Executive Office, Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) that set the course and scope of responsibilities for both manned and unmanned systems.
“The maritime environment is demanding and providing clean, renewable power to the most remote areas has always been a limiting factor,” points out Neagley. “Seatrec’s technology opens up exciting possibilities for maritime applications and for expanding the Blue Economy.”
Seatrec’s pioneering energy harvesting system uses phase change materials to harness energy from temperature differences between the ocean’s various depths. These materials contract and expand creating pressure that’s captured and converted into electricity. The clean, virtually limitless power enables scientists to integrate power-intensive sensors into its infiniTE™ float that typically require shore-supplied power or direct ship support via tethering.
The company counts the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research among its early backers and recently launched a project in partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School to study the impact of noise pollution on the ocean environments powered by Seatrec’s technology.
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, 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
Seatrec, Inc.
sean.yokomizo@seatrec.com
+1 925.878.1200
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Seatrec Raises $2M Seed Round to Commercialize Technology that Harvests Clean, Renewable Energy from the Ocean
Today, we're very excited to announce a $2M seed round to help us commercialize our energy harvesting technology that generates electricity from the temperature differences in the ocean. We are expanding our initial market of oceanographic research and defense to other Blue Economy areas such as aquaculture and maritime transportation.
Our funding round was led by previous investor Dr. Norge Larson with participation from Sunstone Management, Frontier Angels, SeaAhead’s Blue Angels, and returning investors from Pasadena Angels. Dr. Larson will bring his remarkable background in blue tech and business experience to Seatrec’s board as a director. Sunstone’s John Shen will join the board as an observer.
“We’ve proven the value of our clean, renewable energy harvesting technology with pilot sales to our beachhead market of research and defense,” said Dr. Yi Chao, founder and CEO of Seatrec. “Now, we’re ready to scale our commercial sales and expand the reach of our technology to power key applications in the Blue Economy like aquaculture and maritime transportation.”
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 run oceanographic equipment, including autonomous profiling floats and underwater gliders. With Seatrec’s technology, researchers can extend the life of the equipment, power more sensors, and enable faster data collection at reduced cost in an environmentally friendly manner.
Seatrec’s foothold in scientific research opens the door to collecting vast amounts of undersea data that can help increase the accuracy of forecasting hurricanes that are responsible for an estimated $54B in economic losses per year, as well as optimizing shipping routes to save millions of tons of fuel.
“Seatrec’s technology will power underwater robots to monitor the condition and health of the ocean,” explained Dr. Norge Larson, an oceanographer and entrepreneur. “This financing round helps Seatrec mature its products for several ocean applications. We are pleased to support this important work along with other key investors.”
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.
“Sunstone has a long history of identifying and investing in industry disruptors and cutting edge technology,” stated John Shen, founding partner of Sunstone Management and Seatrec's newest board member. “This innovative, sustainable technology is poised to rapidly revolutionize the Blue Economy with our enthusiastic support.”
Seatrec’s funding news comes on the heels of two recent $10,000 prizes under the Powering the Blue Economy: Ocean Observing Prize administered by the U.S. Department of Energy and NOAA. The company shared one of the prizes with Northrop Grumman for a joint Mission Unlimited UUV Station concept.
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 Monrovia, CA. Visit us at www.seatrec.com and @seatrecinc.
About Dr. Norge Larson
Dr. Norge Larson is a strategic advisor and previous investor to Seatrec. Dr. Larson was president of Sea-Bird Electronics until its acquisition by Danaher, one of the first successful exits for ocean tech companies. Larson joined Sea-Bird after obtaining his doctorate in oceanography from the University of Washington and helped establish the Sea-Bird Scientific as the gold standard for oceanographic sensors through the acquisition of Oregon ocean tech company Wet Labs and Canada’s Satlantic.
About Sunstone Management
Sunstone Management, with its subsidiary Sunstone Venture Capital Fund, is a diversified private capital management and investment firm offering comprehensive wealth management solutions to high net worth clients worldwide. Focusing on investments in U.S. based small businesses and lower-middle markets, its offerings are carefully structured to meet targeted investor goals ranging from short term senior debt products to longer-term, equity, growth capital, and venture capital investment strategies. For more information visit: sunstoneinvestment.com.
Here is the official press release.
Seatrec, Northrop Grumman Receive DARPA Award for Developing Deep Sea Robots to Study Climate Change and Support Blue Economy
Seatrec, Northrop Grumman Receive DARPA Award for Developing Deep Sea Robots That Can Study Climate Change and Support Blue Economy
Small Business Innovation Research Phase II is next step toward commercialization of fast-diving, autonomous robots that are powered by Aluminum fuel
Seatrec, a renewable energy company that harvests energy from temperature differences in the environment, announced today that it has been awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). As part of the grant, Seatrec has assembled a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and engineers and subcontracted Northrop Grumman to support the development of a float that can dive to 1000 meters at a speed of 1 meter per second, a factor of 10 faster than the current state-of-the-art.
Dr. Yi Chao, Founder and CEO of Seatrec, is the Principal Investigator on the grant and built the company’s technology he started at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“Today’s buoyancy engines are too small to support such a fast profiling speed. If we increase the size of the buoyancy engine and add a propeller, the required 1 m/s speed can be achieved, however, a significantly larger battery would be necessary in order to maintain long endurance. We’re excited to partner with Professor Doug Hart from MIT to explore the use of aluminum fuel, when mixed with water, to create the extra buoyancy required to achieve a 10x increase of the profiling speed,” said Chao.
“Aluminum, long used as a solid rocket propellant, is among the most energy-dense materials known but has found little use in other applications due to difficulties in harnessing its power. My group at MIT has developed a method to safely create a liquid slurry that can be reacted with water on contact releasing hydrogen gas and heat. In this project, the hydrogen gas will be used to generate positive buoyancy to achieve an order of magnitude increase in profiling speed,” said Hart.
“Ocean data needs a sea change to help navigate the warming world,” stated in a recent article in Nature, “The ocean covers about 70 percent of Earth’s surface, regulates the climate and it’s home to countless species of fish, a major source of protein for more than one billion people. It is now under threat from climate change, overfishing and pollution.” This technological advancement will certainly accelerate the evolution of ocean observation and monitoring.
“There are simply no other energy harvesting solutions available like Seatrec. The synergy of these innovative technologies and our experience in developing military-grade solutions will result in a very promising offering to better observe our oceans,” said Brian Theobald, Chief Engineer for Northrop Grumman Undersea Systems.
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 Monrovia, CA. Visit us at www.seatrec.com and @seatrecinc.
Media contact
Marta Bulaich
Head of Marketing
marta@seatrec.com
+1 415-816-1665