2024 North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy PROGRAM Symposium
The 14th Annual North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Symposium will convene in person at the Coastal Studies Institute on March 26 & 27, 2025.
The North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program (NCROEP) will be hosting the annual research symposium in person on March 26-27, 2025, at the Coastal Studies Institute (CSI) on the ECU Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese, NC. The two-day event will include keynote speakers, research presentations, a student poster contest, and workshops.
Registration
Please register for the Symposium by March 12, 2025. All attendees, including researchers and students funded by the program, must register.
NCROEP research presentations
Each NCROEP-funded research project must present a high-level update of their research at the NCROEP Research Symposium. The 15-20 minute long presentation will focus on how the research advances the state-of-the-art and summarize progress to date and plans for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Presenters are asked to remember that this is an interdisciplinary symposium. The content should target an audience with varied disciplinary expertise. Please be sure to define acronyms, use accessible language, and minimize the use of long formulas.
NCROEP student poster contest
NCROEP-funded students are encouraged to register for the student poster contest. The first 15 poster presentation registrations received before the March 12, 2025 deadline will be accepted in the poster session and contest. Student poster presenters should be prepared to deliver 5-minute poster summaries about their research to the judges and other Symposium participants during the March 26 poster session and the reception on the evening of March 26. Awards for the best student poster and poster presentation will be announced at the end of the Symposium, on the afternoon of March 27.
Students, please note that your poster should target an audience with varied disciplinary expertise and highlight project goals, major accomplishments (including students supported, publications and patents, and external funding sought and/or received), and plans for the remainder of the funding cycle and further into the future. A 40″ x 30″ foam board will be provided for temporarily mounting your poster (using clips), so please limit the size of your poster to 42″ x 30″. A scoring rubric for the poster contest will be made available shortly and will be sent to all student registrants, so register early to receive guidance!
AGENDA (updated 1/31/2025)
| Wednesday, March 26 | |
| Room 262, Coastal Studies Institute, 850 NC Hwy 345, Wanchese, NC | |
| 9:00 AM | Registration and breakfast |
| 10:00 AM | Welcome |
| 10:10 AM | Expectations and highlights |
| 10:20 AM | Keynote: To Be Annouced |
| 10:50 AM | Break |
| 11:00 AM | Session 1 – Marine Energy Conversion Systems |
| 11:05 AM | FLOSS (Flow-powered Low cut-in speed Oscillating Subsea System for marine current energy harvesting) – Andre Mazzoleni, Caroline Lowcher |
| 11:25 AM | Salinity, Temperature, and Pressure Observations in the Outer Banks Sounds: Community-Driven Marine Energy Characterization through a Low-Cost, Open-Source CTD – Lindsay Wentzel, Andrew Thaler, Trip Taylor |
| 11:45 AM | Distributed Embedded Oceanic Energy Harvesting – Michael Dickey and Matt Bryant |
| 12:05 PM | InDEEP overview – Michael Dickey and Wes Williams |
| 12:15 PM | Lunch |
| 12:45 PM | Student poster session |
| 1:45 PM | Improving the Efficiency of a Wave Energy Converter: Topology Optimization and Multi-Scale Experiments Undergraduate Senior Design and Research Project – Paul Akangah |
| 2:05 PM | Session 2 – Social, Economic, and Spatial Considerations |
| 2:10 PM | NC Renewable Energy Challenge: Building the Blue Economy – John McCord, Parker Murphy, Lauren Kerlin |
| 2:25 PM | Break |
| 2:35 PM | Exploring Fit of the Not-in-my-Backyard Label for Marine Energy Sentiments in North Carolina – Eric Wade and Linda D’Anna |
| 2:55 PM | A Centralized Technoeconomic Modeling and Combined Device & Portfolio Optimization Tool for Hybrid Marine Energy Networks – Anderson de Queiroz |
| 3:15 PM | Adaptation of Wave Energy Converter to the Wave Spectrum of the North Carolina Coast – Mo Gabr and Anderson de Queiroz |
| 4:05 PM | Reliability and Health Monitoring for Marine Energy Microgrid – Tiefu Zhao and Babek Parkhideh |
| 4:25 PM | Maximizing Power Generation of Wave Energy Converter Farms through Coupled Control and Estimation – Dipankar Maity and Artur Wolek |
| 4:45 PM | Robotics and Deep Learning for Underwater Condition Monitoring of Ocean Renewable Energy Installations – Saffer Khan and Robert Cox |
| 5:05 PM | NCROEP Observations and Pioneer Array Update – Mike Muglia |
| Reception at Jennette’s Pier, Oceanview Hall | |
| 5:30 PM | Reception, Poster Session, and EDGE Award presentation |
| 6:30 PM | Dinner |
| Thursday, March 27 | |
| Rm 262, Coastal Studies Institute, 850 NC Hwy 345, Wanchese, NC | |
| 8:00 AM | Registration and breakfast |
| 9:00 AM | Keynote: (To be Announced) |
| 10:00 AM | CSI education programs overview – John McCord |
| 10:10 AM | Session 3 – Innovative System Components |
| 10:15 AM | Bio-Based Epoxy Natural Fiber Composites for Marine Energy Harvesting – Landon Grace and Theo Dingemans |
| 10:35 AM | Adaptive-Stiffness Power Take-Off System for Broadband Wave Energy Point Absorbers- Matthew Bryant |
| 10:55 AM | Demonstrating Maximum Power Point Tracking Control in Tethered Coaxial Turbines- Matthew Bryant and Andre Mazzoleni |
| 11:15 AM | Installation Effect on Capacity of Micropiles Group for Anchoring Marine Hydrokinetic Devices – Ghadir Haikal, Mo Gabr, and Neda Jamaleddin |
| 11:35 AM | Enhanced Wave Energy Converter Emulation and Green Hydrogen Production in an Automated Marine DC Microgrid – Iqbal Husain and Zeljko Pantic |
| 12:00 PM | Lunch |
| 12:30 PM | Swivel-based Mooring System to Improve Reliability of Wave Energy Converter Installations in Coastal NC- Michael Smith, Caroline Lowcher, and Trip Patterson |
| 12:55 PM | Design and Implementation of a Power-Scalable Marine DC Microgrid with a Modular EV Charger and Multi-Port Converters for Renewable Ocean Energy Integration – Muhammed Abdelraziq, Amiya Haque, Al Raji Billah, Iqbal Husain*, and Zeljko Pantic |
| 1:15 PM | AMEC BIL Research Update – Mo Gabr and Anderson de Queiroz |
| 1:25 PM | NCInnovation – Derrick Welch |
| 1:35 PM | Announcements, incl. Student Poster Contest winners and FY25 NCROEP RFP schedule, and wrap-up |
| 2:00 PM | Fin |
Accommodations
Symposium attendees must make reservations themselves and are responsible for all costs. Please make your reservation at your earliest convenience.
We suggest considering the following hotels and inns:
- The Tranquil House Inn (252-473-1404): An Inn located in downtown Manteo, on the waterfront. A block of rooms ($149/night) has been reserved under “CSI NCROEP”.
- The Comfort Inn (252-441-6315): A hotel on the oceanfront in Nags Head. A block of rooms ($79 for the night of April 7th and $129 for April 8th) has been reserved under “CSI-NCROEP 2025”.
- The Holiday Inn Express (1-866-935-6410): An oceanfront hotel in Nags Head.
- The Roanoke Island Inn (252-473-5511): An Inn located in downtown Manteo. We will not be reserving a block of rooms, but this is a quaint Inn in downtown Manteo.
- The Oasis (252-441-5211): A hotel located on the causeway between Nags Head and Roanoke Island. We will not be reserving a block of rooms here, but it is a nice hotel overlooking the Sound.
If you have questions, please contact NCROEP Director, George Bonner.
Based at the Coastal Studies Institute (CSI), the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program (NCROEP) advances inter-disciplinary marine energy solutions across UNC System partner colleges of engineering at NC State University, UNC Charlotte, and NC A&T University. Click on the links below for more information.
ECU's Integrated Coastal Programs (ECU ICP) is a leader in coastal and marine research, education, and engagement. ECU ICP includes the Coastal Studies Institute, ECU's Department of Coastal Studies, and ECU Diving and Water Safety.
The ECU Outer Banks campus is home to the Coastal Studies Institute.
