主要研究 今天

Natalie 烹饪 ’23 wasn’t sure what to expect when she signed up to spend half her summer at sea probing the ocean floor, 但她知道她想尝试一些不同的东西. 现在她已经适应航海了, 她也在海洋发现的新职业道路上找到了立足点.

今年夏天的45天, 烹饪 worked as an intern aboard the NOAA ship Thomas Jefferson to help map the seafloor in and around the Chesapeake Bay — an area that hasn’t been mapped since the early 1900s. “通过更新海图的准确性, 我们可以为驳船创造一个更安全的环境, 游船和在海湾航行的各种船只,她说。.

此次实习，由 联合国大学海岸和海洋测绘中心这是库克第一次接触海底测绘. 烹饪, 海洋工程专业, wanted to fully experience living at sea while learning how a hydrographic survey ship runs. 在船上时, 她直接与水文绘制员一起工作, engineers and deckhands to gain a broader perspective of everyone’s contributions to the task at hand.

“的 ship’s crew members were so excited to teach me about their roles and hydrography that it made learning easy, 我总能获得实践经验,库克说. 

的 ship was equipped with state-of-the-art echosounder technology used for the large swaths across the bay and two 28-foot survey vessels helped to collect data in areas where the ship couldn’t safely navigate. 库克帮助收集数据, 在一份报告中总结调查结果, participated in the drills and bridge watches and helped to fix equipment on the ship when necessary — including welding new pieces of railing to ensure the deck was safe.

烹饪 says that even though the planned operations were essentially the same each day, the work was far from mundane; technology would break, the weather would rapidly change and people would find more efficient procedures for their tasks. “的 onboard environment was so full of problem-solving and frequent collaboration to improve operations that it was always exciting to see what solutions people would come up with,她指出.

她保留了一个 每周的博客 记录她在船上的历险. 在一个条目中, she notes that she had the opportunity to drive one of the 28-foot survey vessels to help collect the seafloor data. “驾驶它们很简单,她写道。, “but tracing the selected survey lines within one meter of accuracy is incredibly difficult when the wind and water push the launch all over the place. Sometimes we would have to temporarily abandon our route to avoid the several-hundred-foot-long ships that were anchored directly on top of our line. 注意周围的交通状况, 浮标, land formations and other obstructions is crucial when navigating the small boats as well.”

尽管这是库克第一次接触海底测绘, 这段经历让她想要更多地了解地图技术, acoustics and robotics that assist in other seafloor data collection out at sea, and she says she is now considering graduate school as a possible next step in her career.

“It really was an amazing internship that really helped me to gain an understanding of ocean science and engineering in the field, and I certainly learned a lot about the daily tasks and challenges of working in those disciplines,库克补充道. 

的 地球、海洋和空间研究所(EOS) 是联合国大学最大的研究企业, 由六个以跨学科为重点的中心组成, 对地球和气候系统的高影响力研究, 空间科学, 海洋环境, 海底测绘和环境声学. 每年获得6 000多万美元的外部资金, EOS fosters an intellectual and scientific environment that advances visionary scholarship and leadership in world-class research and graduate education.