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ORE 653: Ocean Instrumentation and Technology is a graduate-level course in the Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering.
Over a 16-week semester, students design and construct a novel ocean instrument whose requirements are provided by guest scientists or community members who have sponsored the project.
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<aside> 💡 Have an idea for next year’s project?
****Submit it here: Interest Form for Sponsorship of ORE 653 Class Project (Spring 2026)
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For Spring 2025, students designed a low-cost, modular autonomous water sampler (MAWS) for coastal biogeochemical monitoring. Sponsoring scientists from the Department of Oceanography and Hawai’i Sea Grant provided the students with design criteria which included (1) a simple user-interface, (2) 6-10 programmable channels, (3) collection of 1 L water sample over a 36 hour period, and (4) assembly and operation with no technical background.
Students deployed the instrument as part of the Hawaii Ocean Learning and Observing K-PhD Academic Integration (HOLOKAI) program and have continued working on MAWS in Fall 2025 to expand the instrument to include temperature and salinity measurements.
Funding was provided by the 4th Mānoa Strategic Investment Initiative and the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) Dean’s Office.
Final Paper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n5j7jHb-yA8R2bCjKG369n1gNHafzZG0/view?usp=drive_web
Build Guide: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X2NWifQOn9NxM-d3D_BzN_jEXLNGF-yp/view?usp=drive_web
Software: https://github.com/cameronrichrdson/maws
Abstract:
Water sampling is an integral part of understanding aquatic systems. The ability to autonomously sample water at various depths and locations has advanced our temporal, and spatial understanding of Earth’s hydrology and biogeochemistry. Traditional ship-based sampling methods provide limited temporal resolution, failing to capture short-term fluctuations in seawater chemistry. Compared to human-led collection efforts, the increased temporal and spatial data coverage associated with automated water sampling technology can expand our understanding of ocean chemistry. Existing autosamplers, while effective in specific contexts, often face limitations that hinder comprehensive data collection (e.g., cost, accessibility, size/weight, modularity, etc.). We developed a new, low-cost, modular autonomous water sampler (MAWS). Its design addresses the current lack of modular and accessible open-source water samplers with a flexible configuration to enable researchers to easily increase the number of samples and a system that requires minimal technical expertise for assembly and operation by leveraging off-the-shelf components. At a base cost of approximately $800 for a single sample unit and $250 for each additional sample unit, MAWS is a cost-effective solution for scientists interested in measuring components of carbonate chemistry system such as total alkalinity (TA), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and pH. Simple substitutions of components could expand its use cases to trace metal analysis and organic material research. Here we present our design process, a build guide and a brief demonstration of the MAWS.
Final Presentation:
https://youtu.be/zElW2f6QJHo?si=v_TK1sF6T_H-WZlJ