John Bennett, PhD Candidate in Autonomous Underwater Vehicles at Flinders University’s Centre for Maritime Engineering, received Best Student Poster award at last week’s Submarine Institute of Australia (SIA) conference.

The 6th Submarine Science, Technology and Engineering Conference (8-10 November 2021) , which was held in the Adelaide Convention Centre, had the theme ‘Home Grown Undersea Technology: How Can Australia’s Academia and Industry Provide a Capability Edge?’

Mr Bennett’s project, with Flinders University College of Science and Engineering academics Professor Karl Sammut, Associate Professor Russell Brinkworth and Dr Paulo Santos, examined coordinated trajectory control methods for multiple heterogeneous unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).

He is completing his PhD with support from an Australian Government Research Training program scholarship and stipend from Boeing Australia.

Mr Bennett’s supervisor Professor Karl Sammut, director of the Flinders Centre for Maritime Engineering at Tonsley, attended the conference – along with Professor Mats Andersson, director of Flinders University’s Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, who presented work conducted with Associate Professor Sophie Leterme on next-gen anti-fouling coatings for ships, submarines and other marine platforms.