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Ocean Engineering

You are here: Home / Research Areas and Major Fields / Ocean Engineering

The oceans have long been recognized as an essential part of our global environment. Covering more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface, the oceans affect all life on earth directly as well as indirectly. Ocean Engineering involves the development, design, and analysis of man-made systems that can operate in the offshore or coastal environment. Such systems may be used for transportation, recreation, fisheries, extraction of petroleum or other minerals, and recovery of thermal or wave energy, among others. Some systems are bottom-mounted, particularly those in shallower depths; others are mobile, as in the case of ships, submersibles, or floating drill rigs. All systems should be designed to withstand a hostile environment (wind, waves, currents, ice) and to operate efficiently while staying environmentally friendly.

Ocean Engineering study as a major field of study within Mechanical Engineering requires satisfying core requirements in marine hydrodynamics and marine structures. Individuals are expected to have undergraduate background similar to at least two of the upper-division courses ME164 (Marine Statics & Structures), ME 165 (Ocean-Environment Mechanics), and ME 168 (Mechanics of Offshore Systems), which can also be taken for graduate-degree credits.  Disciplines supporting ocean engineering include materials and fabrication, control and robotics, continuum mechanics, dynamical system theory, design methodology, mathematical analysis, and statistics.  The graduate courses ME240, ME241, ME243, and ME245 are core offerings that provide the necessary background for performing rational analysis of marine systems, fixed or mobile. Ocean Engineering can also be used as a minor subject with one of the other major field disciplines.

Contemporary research issues include: vortex and free surface interaction, roll-motion damping and dynamics of ships, dynamic positioning of mobile offshore bases, hydroelastic behavior of floating airports, waves in a two-layer fluid, high-speed multi-hull configuration optimization, marine composite materials, reliability-based structural design, fatigue behavior of marine materials, Bragg scattering of waves, computational methodologies for nonlinear waves, tsunami propagation, sea-bed mechanics, and alternative renewable energy: floating offshore wind park, ocean wave and tidal energy, loads on floating turbines. A cross-disciplinary site on ocean & coastal ocean science & engineering at Berkeley can be found here.

The Major Field Advisors for each research area are listed here.

Core Faculty:
Alam

M. Reza Alam

Makiharju-Simo

Simo Mäkiharju

Oliver M. O'Reilly

Oliver M. O’Reilly

Hannah Stuart

Hannah Stuart

Faculty with research interests that relate to Ocean Engineering issues include Professors Fai Ma and Tarek I. Zohdi.

 

Ocean Engineering Labs:
shoe strings

Dynamics Lab

Our research focuses on the dynamics of mechanical systems and frequently draws upon rigid body dynamics, continuum mechanics, robotics, and ...
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Embodied Dexterity Group

Embodied Dexterity Group

Our group improves robot and human dexterity through building end-effectors and mechanisms with embodied intelligence and robustness, especially for challenging ...
Read More
FLOW Lab

FLOW Lab

Our research focuses on the advancement of the physical understanding of high-Reynolds number single- and multiphase flows. The present focus ...
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Theoretical & Applied Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

Theoretical & Applied Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

Research focus: Theoretical Fluid Dynamics; Nonlinear Wave Mechanics; Ocean and Coastal Waves Phenomena; Ocean Renewable Energy (Wave, Tide and Offshore ...
Read More

 

Berkeley Ocean Engineering Research in the News:
Digging Deep: Inspired by nature, the burrowing mole crab robot is a feat of engineering with real-world applications

Digging Deep: Inspired by nature, the burrowing mole crab robot is a feat of engineering with real-world applications

ME Emeritus Professor Ronald Yeung Presented With Distinguished Achievement Award at OTC-2021

ME Emeritus Professor Ronald Yeung Presented With Distinguished Achievement Award at OTC-2021

Capstone Project Profile: Optical Communication in Unmanned Vehicles to Revolutionize Underwater Wireless Networking

Capstone Project Profile: Optical Communication in Unmanned Vehicles to Revolutionize Underwater Wireless Networking

Ronald Yeung

ME Professor Emeritus Ronald Yeung to Receive 2020 OTC Distinguished Achievement Award for Individuals

Robotics research

The EDG Lab Discovers How to Better Design Skin for Handling Wet and Submerged Objects

ME PhD Student Dongchi Yu Wins SNAME-2016 Graduate Paper Honor Prize

ME PhD Student Dongchi Yu Wins SNAME-2016 Graduate Paper Honor Prize

ME Professor Ronald Yeung Receives OOAE-Division ASME Lifetime Achievement Award

ME Professor Ronald Yeung Receives OOAE-Division ASME Lifetime Achievement Award

Making Waves: Turning Ocean Power Into Electricity

Making Waves: Turning Ocean Power Into Electricity

ME Professor Reza Alam and Team Among Finalists for Odebrecht Award for Sustainable Development

ME Professor Reza Alam and Team Among Finalists for Odebrecht Award for Sustainable Development

ME Professor M. Reza Alam Featured in American Scientist Cover Article on Ocean Cloaking

ME Professor M. Reza Alam Featured in American Scientist Cover Article on Ocean Cloaking

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