MAS.S62: Ocean IoT: Technologies, Industries, Sustainability, Fall 2021

Instructors: Fadel Adib

TAs: Sayed Saad Afzal

Lectures: Mon 3:00-5:00PM (in-person)

Office Hours:

  • Saad: Monday (2:30-3:00pm) and (5:00-5:30pm)

  • Fadel: By appointment

Course Overview

This graduate-level seminar class covers the fundamentals and emerging technologies for ocean Internet-of-Things (IoT) and their impact on blue economy industries and long-term sustainability. Topics include systems and technologies for underwater sensing, imaging, drones, communication, localization, marine life monitoring, and tracking carbon cycles. The class will have weekly assigned readings, invited lectures/seminars by experts, student-led presentations, class discussions, and a semester-long project on an emerging Ocean IoT topic.

The course will cover the following topics:

  • Ocean IoT Network Architectures

  • Underwater Communications

  • Remote Sensing of the Ocean (Satellite, GPS, etc.)

  • Underwater Imaging

  • Underwater Localization

  • Ocean Drones

  • Energy Harvesting in the Ocean

  • Technologies for Ocean Environmental Monitoring

  • Bioacoustics (for Marine Animals)

About the Course

Units

12 (2-0-10). Requirements satisfied: AAGS-petitionable

Prerequisites

Graduate standing or 6.01 or 6.02 or 6.08 or permission of instructor (basically a certain level of maturity in EE/CS systems).

Grading policy

The class will be graded as follows:

  • Reading Questions and Participation: 30%

    • Paper reviews before class: 15%

    • Class participation: 15%

  • Reading Questions and Participation: 10%

  • Project: 60%

    • Proposal (1-2 pages): 10%

    • Progress Report 1: 5%

    • Progress Report 2: 5%

    • Presentation: 20%

    • Final Report: 20%

Readings and Reviews

Each lecture will have one or two assigned readings, which we will all read prior to the class. All students are expected to have thoroughly read the paper, and come to class ready to discuss them in detail. This is essential to get the most out of the class!

Before each class, students must submit a short review (one to two paragraphs) of the required readings. Submit your review at the Review Submission submission page. Reviews will be accepted by 12am (midnight) the night before the class. Each student may skip one review during the semester without affecting their grade.

Participation

We expect you to attend all lectures, unless there are pressing or unforeseen conflicts. Conflicts that are persistent (e.g., registering for another class at the same time and “splitting” attendance between them) are not excused.

Research Project

The research project is a core component of the course. Students will propose and conduct in groups of 2 or 3. It is OK (and often a good idea) to work on a class project that complements your ongoing research provided it is relevant to the course. Talk to Fadel if you're not sure whether this would work. Each student team will have a budget of $1,000 for purchasing project equipment.

The project milestones and timeline are as follows:

  • Proposal (1-2 pages): October 15

  • Progress Report 1: October 29

  • Progress Report 2: November 9

  • Final Presentation: December 6

  • Final Report: December 7

Late Submissions

You have a total of 72 late hours for the semester. You can choose to use these however you want: e.g., 5 hours for Proposal, 4 for Progress report 1, etc. Each hour late in excess of 72 hours will penalize the corresponding assignment's grade by 1%, up to a maximum of 50%. Late hours are allocated greedily, so they are allocated to earlier assignments before later assignments.

How to best use late hours? Late hours are intended for cases where you fall behind due to deadlines in other classes, job interviews, MIT athletic events, illness, etc. For extensions under extenuating circumstances (e.g., you are sick for a week), we require a letter from one of the student deans.

COVID-19 Policies

The class will follow MIT's COVID-19 latest policies. We plan to have in-person instruction. If the situation requires, the class will pivot to remote teaching following MIT's policies.