Kenny Haulsee

Name & Institution:
Ken Haulsee III
University of Delaware

Academic Background:
B.S. Geological Sciences with a concentration in Coastal and Marine Geoscience, University of Delaware, College of Earth, Ocean, & Environment, 2015
M.S. Oceanography Candidate, University of Delaware, School of Marine Science and Policy

Current Area of Interest:
My current area of interest is in nearshore geomorphological changes in bathymetric data due to varying storm intensity signatures.

Why did you sign up for the cruise?
I was asked to join the cruise in a supportive role as the autonomous underwater vehicle technician, as well as the data processing specialist.

What did you learn?
I learned a great deal on this cruise. In terms of the hardware side of what I learned, most of my experiences have been with Teledyne Gavias, but on this cruise I was able to get more hands on experience with other systems such as the Slocum glider, and the AutoNaut wave glider. Also, I was very involved with the Outland remotely operated vehicle hardware set-up and piloting, which was a new experience for myself.

I was also fortunate enough to be in on the chief scientist meetings and teaching experiences and learned a great deal about what is happening in the background of a cruise. I learned about what it takes, logistically, to run a large scale research cruise and how best to manage the resources that you have at any one moment. I think the largest take away from the cruise was that you need to write your cruise mission schedule in pencil and be prepared to change your schedule due to unforeseen circumstances such as weather and vehicle troubleshooting. Changes to the schedule need to be made on the fly and it is advantageous to have extra time built into the schedule for such events.