In the summer of 2020, Biscayne Bay went into respiratory distress.
High water temperatures coupled with lots of phosphorus nearly killed our bay. Hundreds of fish and marine life died. Todd Crowl, director of the Institute of Environment, quickly assembled a team of marine biologists, ecologists, chemists and computer scientists who deployed buoys and autonomous vessels — equipped with special sensors that measure temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll and more — to find out what was happening.
The data soon painted the full picture of what was happening: Too-hot water temperatures coupled with significant nutrient pollution had caused oxygen levels to plummet.
Fast-forward four years. The bay's health remains in flux. Fish kills have become a common occurrence. And FIU's robotics continue to patrol the waters.
Any tell-tale signs of trouble and the autonomous vessels are rounded up. They start as prototypes — custom-designed in collaboration with the manufacturers — and are tested out at a Department of Defense-funded tank facility, located at FIU's Biscayne Bay Campus, before being deployed.
Data scientists like Gregory Murad Reis give them directions to their destinations. An expert in marine robotics, he writes the complex code, or roadmap, that tells the vessels where to go and importantly, how to return with their priceless treasure troves of data. Reis and his computer science students create software technology and visualization tools, like dashboards and color coded maps, to make this important water quality data accessible and easily understandable for policymakers and the public.
