5:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m. Registration & Networking
6:15 p.m. – 7:45 p.m. Program
Sheppard Mullin
12275 El Camino Real
Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92130
Innovation and New Applications in the Unmanned Maritime Domain
Guest Panelists:
Leverett Bezanson
Engineering Manager
SeeByte, Inc.
Chris Gibson
Vice President of Sales, Marketing
VideoRay
Gaurav Sharma
Embedded Systems Engineer
Teledyne SeaBotix
Unmanned Systems in the airborne arena, drones, have dominated the media, but there is considerable innovation and exciting activity in the unmanned maritime systems domain. San Diego, with the Navy's presence and UCSD's Scripps Institute of Oceanography, is a fertile ground for this innovation. This evening, we will feature a panel which addresses the emerging and developing technologies of Unmanned Maritime Systems (UMS) as well as business and operational employment in various industries. Come hear experts from Video Ray, SeaBotix (Teledyne), SeaByte and Ocean Wings.
Unmanned marine vehicle systems are used for a wide range of commercial and military. For commercial, these include, Oil and Gas Exploration and Construction, Oceanographic Data Collection, Hydrographic, Oceanographic and Environmental Surveys. For military these include Mine Counter Measures (MCM), Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), and Fast Inshore Attack Craft (FIAC) for combat training.
Guest Panelists
Leverett Bezanson is the engineering manager of SeeByte, Inc. leading U.S. based engineering efforts. SeeByte, Inc. was established in 2008 in Seattle, WA with offices in San Diego, CA. SeeByte is involved in many ongoing Office of Naval Research, JIEDDO, and Naval Sea and Air Systems Command projects, as well as the US Navy EOD MK 18 Family of Systems Program of Record. SeeByte also has commercial presence in the offshore oil and gas industry and has achieved some significant milestones and firsts in autonomous platform operations, pipeline, and cable tracking.
Leverett graduated from the San Diego State University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, and later earned a Master of Science Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Signal and Image Processing from the University of California San Diego. The research for his thesis titled The Subarray MVDR Beamformer: A Space-Time Processor Applied to Active Sonar was conducted at the NATO Underwater Research Centre in La Spezia Italy. This research was on a research fellowship focusing on using AUVs for Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW).
Leverett has worked in the subsea robotics industry since 2006 starting at Progeny Systems. There Leverett developed concept to prototype autonomous vehicles driven by thrusters, buoyancy, and hydrodynamics. Leverett also worked at Teledyne SeaBotix designing semi-autonomous launch and recovery systems at first and later running the engineering department.
Chris Gibson, Vice President of Sales, Marketing at VideoRay, has been with the company since its inception in 1999, and is responsible for business development and strategy. He has helped grow VideoRay into the largest unit volume remotely operated vehicle (ROV) vendor in the world.
VideoRay's units are used worldwide - on every continent and in an extremely wide range of industries and missions. Hundreds of VideoRay ROVs are used daily in homeland security, defense, inland and offshore infrastructure development, aquaculture, yachting, power plant inspection, and many more applications. VideoRay's dominance of the inspection class ROV industry is due to constant innovation, excellent customer support, and Chris' leadership in explaining the benefits of technology for replacing divers or other techniques with less expensive, more effective, and safer robotic technology.
Mr. Gibson received his B.B.A. in Marketing and Business Management from West Virginia University. He is based in VideoRay's global headquarters in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia.
Gaurav Sharma is a Robotics enthusiast who works for Teledyne SeaBotix as an Embedded Systems Engineer. He has been one of the Chief architects of the firmware framework for the company's suite of Remotely Operated Vehicles and accessories.
Gaurav moved to Tempe, Arizona from India in 2009 and got his Master's degree in Electrical Engineering the following year from Arizona State University (ASU). He then proceeded to work at Alaris, a joint startup venture between Rolls Royce and ASU where he co-developed a signature verification device based on acoustic wave technology. His love for complex problem solving and beautiful weather brought him to San Diego where he was introduced to the world of unmanned underwater vehicles and the challenges that come with them.
Gaurav's research interests include motor control and computer vision, and he has published IEEE papers on intelligent power management of ROV thrusters, and multi-axes control of a 4000m rated subsea winch.
Gaurav believes that perseverance beats everything and the only failure is the failure to get up and move forward. In addition to finding creative solutions for overcoming technical hurdles, Gaurav loves to travel or tinker with electronics at home during his free time.
About the Forum
The Aerospace and Defense Forum is a global aerospace and defense leadership community of over 1800 individuals that provides opportunities for sharing of information, current events, and analysis, mutual support and encouragement, partnering, innovation, and performance breakthroughs.
- Attendance at this event is free for A&D Forum members and guests, $30 for non-members until July 18 and $40 for non-members after.
- Please check-in on arrival.
- Parking is free--located next to both entrances of the building.
- Bring a business card--they will be duplicated and copies of all attendee's cards will be available at the end of the meeting.
- Flyers and other material may be placed on the receptionist's shelf for pickup before and after the meeting. Please do not distribute anything during the meeting.
- Introductions will be minimal - your name, company, industry, and a 5 word "elevator speech". We encourage you to be creative!
- You are welcome to stay around and network and have refreshments after the meeting.
- Beer, wine and appetizers provided during networking.
- Attire is business casual.
QUESTIONS? Contact Nancy Fair via email.