Planning Workshop: Addressing Wireless Communication Needs in Underwater Technologies. The Workshop is Scheduled to be Held in the Fall of 2020.

海洋、湖泊和河流覆盖了地球表面70%以上的水，关键海洋资产的价值估计超过24万亿美元。因此，持续发展蓝色经济，发展海洋能源采集、自主水下航行器(AUV)、水下物联网(IOUT)等海洋技术具有重要意义。然而，由于物理通信介质对无线通信的射频、光学或声学手段具有敌意，水下无线通信一直是制约海洋技术发展的瓶颈。未来蓝色经济的增长特别需要可靠的、中距离的、高数据速率的水下无线通信技术。这次规划研讨会将邀请来自水下技术不同领域的50-100名研究人员，并通过为期两天的Zoom会议讨论资金建议。目标是让利益攸关方的多个部门参与进来，包括水下基础设施和环境监测、远洋渔业和水产养殖、近海石油和天然气以及能源采集、潜水和娱乐、科学研究和军事监视。研讨会的具体目标是回答有关水下无线通信最重要的应用、性能要求和环境影响的问题，供研究界在未来五到十年内重点研究，并为研究界提供建议的资助机制和研究主题，以实现预期的技术进步。规划研讨会的结果将有助于NSF创建一个潜在的资金计划，旨在促进水下无线技术的发展。讲习班有可能吸引来自不同海洋技术部门的研究人员，并促进多学科研究。研讨会的成果将通过网站共享和会议演示进行传播，并将用于创建具有创业思维学习(EML)方法的课程模块。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Oceans, lakes and rivers cover more than 70 percent of the Earth surface with water and the value of key ocean assets is estimated to be over $24 trillion. Therefore, it is of great importance to sustain the growth of the blue economy and develop the ocean technologies, such as ocean energy harvesting, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), and Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT), etc. However, underwater wireless communication has been a long-standing bottleneck to advancing ocean technologies because the physical communication media are hostile to radio frequency, optical, or acoustical means of wireless communications. The future growth of blue economy especially calls for underwater wireless communication technologies that are reliable, medium-distance, and high data-rate.This planning workshop is to invite 50 -- 100 researchers from different sectors of underwater technologies and discuss funding recommendations via two days of Zoom meetings. The goal is to engage the multiple sectors of stakeholders including underwater infrastructure and environmental monitoring, offshore fishing and aquaculture, offshore oil and gas and energy harvesting, diving and recreation, scientific research, and military surveillance. The specific objectives of the workshop are to answer the questions regarding the most important applications, performance requirements, and environmental impacts of underwater wireless communications for the research community to focus on in the next five to ten years, and the recommended funding mechanisms and research topics for the research community to achieve the desired technology advances. The outcome of the planning workshop will aid the NSF to create a potential funding program that aims at advancing the underwater wireless technolgies. The workshop has the potential to engage researchers from different ocean technology sectors and foster multi-disciplinary research. The workshop findings will be disseminated through website sharing and conference presentation, and will be used to create course modules with the entrepreneurial mindset learning (EML) approach.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.