Concepts and Conclusions from the “2010 Pan- American Advanced Studies Institute on Dynamics and Control of Manned and Unmanned Marine Vehicles”

In the summer of 2010, the first ever NSF’s Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI) in Colombia was held in Barranquilla and Cartagena. The two-week institute brought together researchers of the Americas to discuss topics related to dynamics and control of manned and unmanned marine vehicles. This paper presents a summary of the program organization and findings, along with lecturer and participant feedback. It is intended to serve as a lead-in to the technical papers by PASI participants contained in this special edition of Ship Science & Technology.

The purpose of the Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI) on Dynamics and Control of Manned and Unmanned Marine Vehicles was to draw world leaders at controlling, modeling, and predicting the motions of marine vehicles in a unified setting to disseminate knowledge to students, researchers, academics, and practitioners in the Americas.The organization of the Institute represents collaboration between American academics at Virginia Tech and the University of Michigan, Colombian industry and academia including Cotecmar, Universidad del Norte, and Escuela Naval "Almirante Padilla," and Brazilian faculty at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.The Institute sought to broaden the base and expertise of researchers, scientists, and students studying dynamics and control as applied to marine vehicles as well to bring together researchers from different sectors of the marine field.By encouraging discussion, education, and collaboration through this Institute, the group collectively formed a stronger collective understanding of the dynamic behavior of vessels in marine environments, control system solutions, as well as the challenges ahead in analytical and computational modeling, design, and control of such vessels.Additionally, the PASI highlighted opportunities for use of unmanned vehicles in K-12 and undergraduate education particularly through SeaPerch (SNAME, 2010) and AUVSI (AUVSI, 2010) opportunities.In Fig. 1 the primary theme areas for the Institute; namely, manned vehicles, unmanned vehicles, and education and outreach, along with sub-topics are presented.Numerous topics appear at the intersection between manned and unmanned vehicles; one of the missions of this workshop was to encourage discussion between manned and unmanned vehicle researchers.
The PASI on dynamics and control of manned and unmanned marine vehicles was developed to educate graduate students and researchers on modern challenges and solutions to maritime dynamics and controls issues.Additionally, as part of the PASI, new collaborative relationships for researchers in the field of stability and control of marine vehicles throughout the Americas were built while bringing together scholars from traditionally disparate sectors of the maritime field, from exploration, to military and commercial shipping, to unmanned vehicles and robotics, in a single venue.Attendees came from as far north at Michigan, west as Hawaii, south as Brazil, and east as Spain.Substantial emphasis was also placed upon mechanisms for incorporation of A schedule of events from the final PASI program appears in The membership of the international and local organizing committees is as given in Table 1.Th is emphasis on outreach was a core component of the PASI with talks scheduled to focus on teaching with underwater vehicles.
In addition to the technical lecturers and presentations, available online at the PASI website: http://www.pasi.aoe.vt.edu, and SeaPerch activities, highlights of the program included a river trip on a buoy tending vessel along the Rio Magdalena and a tour of COTECMAR's shipyard.Th is allowed participants to have strong exposure to the specifi c needs and interests of the Colombian commercial and military naval sector.Additional social activities included a scenic tour between Barranquilla and Cartagena with a beachside stop for fi sh, swimming, and soccer, along the Caribbean at Caño Dulce and experiencing the mud volcano Volcán del Totumo, a holiday barbeque at the Colombian Naval Offi cers' Club hosted by COTECMAR, an evening chiva tour of Cartagena, and a free-day to sightsee.A brief pictorial summary is given in Fig. 2.
During the institute, the usage of surface and semisubmersible small vessels for drug traffi cking from   The PASI program saw a diverse blend of lecturers and participants in terms of citizenship, location of work, and academic level.The demographic distribution of citizenship of the lecturers and participants completing the pre-survey is illustrated in Fig. 3(a), demographic distribution of location of work of the lecturers and participants completing the pre-survey is illustrated in Fig. 3(b), and the academic level of the lecturers and participants completing the pre-survey is illustrated in Fig. 3(c).

Demographics Program evaluation
In As indicated, an overwhelming majority of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that the goals of PASI were met, speaking to the overall effectiveness of the program.
In addition, participants and lecturers were also asked to evaluate the quality of the conference speakers.Fig. 6 shows that all respondents felt the instructors were either excellent or good.
On the post-survey, lecturers and participants were also asked to suggest areas of improvement for future PASI-like gatherings of scientists and engineers.Many respondents expressed that they were happy with the way the program was executed, though some made suggestions to reduce the overall length of the program.
There were also some respondents that expressed a desire to have more group work present during the sessions.Group work in the PASI as scheduled was limited to end-of-week wrap up sessions and the SeaPerch hands-on outreach activity.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.Theme Areas for PASI on Dynamics and Control of Manned and Unmanned Marine Vehicles

Fig. 2a .
Fig. 2a.Participants and lecturers aboard a buoy tending vessel on the Rio Magdalena

Table 2
. The program generally sought to focus upon manned vehicles in the first week and unmanned vehicles in the second week with lecturers highlighting overlap and areas for collaboration between researchers operating in either or both of these domains.Participants attended both weeks of the PASI to ensure crosspollination of ideas.

Table 2
PASI participants build SeaPerch vehicles, the PASI served the dual purpose of essentially becoming an international SeaPerch teacher training session.
what country do you primarily hold citizanship?Ship "Meet new people.Exchange ideas.Learn something new.Get exposure for my work.See a new country/culture."-USfaculty member McCue, Sanjuan, Hubbard Ship Science & Technology -Vol. 4 -n.° 7 -(9-20) July 2010 -Cartagena (Colombia) Science & Technology -Vol. 4 -n.° 7 -(9-20) July 2010 -Cartagena (Colombia) Concepts and Conclusions from the "2010 Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute on Dynamics and Control of Manned and Unmanned Marine Vehicles" nice because we have the most to gain from this experience.Overall, I had a fantastic trip!"-US masters student.