Conference: CET: Accelerating integrated Seabed Characterization for clean ENergy Transition (ASCENT)

This conference is in response to NSF DCL 23-108 on Conferences on Clean Energy Topics. This project aims to advance seabed assessment methods through a collaborative, international, multidisciplinary effort comprising a joint conference of experts in geosciences, civil engineering, and data science. The conference will seek to identify opportunities to mitigate supply chain constraints to achieve net zero carbon through global offshore renewables development. The conference will foster discussion among developers, consultants and contractors working as the vanguard of integrated seabed characterization to effect transformative innovation based on fundamental science, focusing on urgent regional challenges in the US while ensuring that broader knowledge advancements are globally applicable. The conference activities will spur new ideas for seabed characterization on a mass scale, lowering energy costs, reducing production and consumption of raw materials, and improving ocean space equity. The conventional time and resource-consuming deterministic process for seabed characterization is not fit for purpose given the scale of the clean energy transition. Scaling up such a transition without further contribution to climate change and harm to marine wildlife and the ocean environment requires a new approach to collection, testing, analysis, and interpretation of seabed soil data. Reducing seabed uncertainty through traditional means over the next decade will require an unprecedented volume of geophysical and geotechnical data, the sheer scale of which is well beyond the capacity of the existing global vessel fleet. Significant innovation opportunities lie with smart seabed characterization through integration of data science, geoscience and engineering, with a high potential for transformative change to develop more intelligent site characterization methods. This conference will chart a smart, energy-driven course on a pathway to net zero, influence guidelines in engineering practice and meaningful data science integration, and deliver tangible positive outcomes in ocean space equity. 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.