Ocean Trekker

Jed's Page

Jed is Texan by birth, physicist by education, engineer by experience, and a sailor by choice. In addition to solving hands-on problems, he is fond of photography, enjoys traveling, and relishes the slower parts of life.

R/V Rob – In Greenland

Sep 15th, 2013

R/V Rob’s Introduction to Greenland Upon our arrival I was relieved to find Rob securely tucked away in his crate in a container at the heliport in Uummannaq. With a few days of mooring preparation work ahead of us, there was not only time to set him up, but also to run a few preliminary […]

R/V Rob – The Autopilot

Jun 15th, 2013

When R/V Rob arrived with its bare-bones option control system things were simple. A HiTec Aurora 9 radio controller talked to a HiTec Optima 9 which controlled, via RC PWM signals, a SSPS-105 rudder servo and two RoboTeq AX1500 motor controllers. That was it, all the ‘processing’ such as reversing one of the motors, since […]

R/V Rob – The A-frame

Jun 13th, 2013

Why an A-frame? To facilitate deploying and recovering the CTD from R/V Rob some sort of crane or slide needed to be fitted to the vessel. It was debated, and finally viewed as a fall-back option, to leave the CTD in the water and tow it from location-to-location. However, the drag from towing an object […]

R/V Rob – The beginning

Jun 11th, 2013

I am working as a Design Engineer on a project at Oregon State University to design, build, and operate a remotely-operated boat (R.O.B.) to be launched from a research vessel in Greenland. This enterprise is one part of a larger observational study to understand the physical coastal processes that are impacting the Rink Isbrae and […]

Exhibit – Buoys Rock!

May 2nd, 2012

“Buoys Rock!” is an interactive map reading exhibit. It asks the visitor to interpret a ocean weather map off the Pacific Northwest coast and select the appropriate buoys (buttons) that are experiencing certain weather phenomenon.

Interactive Telegraph Exhibit

Jan 12th, 2012

Frontier military outposts required lines of communication to other outposts, supply depots, command centers, and field operations. The telegraph was a revolutionary form of communication in the 1870-80’s for the U.S. Army across the American frontier. Starting in 1875-76, the U.S. Army built the first 25 telegraph stations in Texas. In 1882, the U.S. Army’s […]

Mushing with Bella

Dec 19th, 2011

Bella is special; she’s not at all like the labs that I grew up with, or many of the other dogs that either of us are used to having in our lives. For one, she doesn’t play fetch. At all. She can’t even be bothered to chase after the ball and then not bring it […]

From Waves to Electricity

Oct 4th, 2011

Over the past couple of months I have been working on creating an exhibit for the Hatfield Marine Science Center Visitor Center in Newport Oregon. The three panels below are part of a larger exhibit aimed at increasing public awareness about harnessing wave energy to create electricity off Oregon’s coast. This is still a work […]