Team
The principal investigators of PODS online bring together an extensive array of research interests and educational/teaching experiences with a primary focus on ocean sciences. Our project combines the expertise of observational scientists, modelers and data visualization specialists in fields spanning from marine geology & geophysics to ocean biochemistry.
ROB POCKALNY
Rob (second from left) is an Associate Marine Research Scientist at GSO/URI with a statutory or full status. His primary research area is observational marine geophysics, but he is comfortable collecting, processing and synthesizing large data sets from a variety of seemingly different environments. Rob has used a range of instrumentation and data to study plate tectonics, estuarine circulation, cloud chemistry, sediment pore-water chemistry, and ocean sediment microbial abundance.
Pockalny’s experiences as an educator are also quite diverse and include teaching introductory classes at Bryant University, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and URI, as well as graduate-level classes in oceanography for engineers and computers scientists from NUWC for the Center of Excellence in Undersea Technology (COEUT) program. Rob has developed and taught introductory undergraduate courses at URI for both large (> 100) and small (< 30) classrooms on the topics of Ocean Exploration and Coastal Resiliency, respectively. He has advised over 30 undergraduate independent research projects and has provided research cruise experience for an additional 17 undergraduates.
A number of different opportunities have provided Rob with pedagogical training throughout the K-20 education spectrum. Rob was co-PI on an NSF-funded Local Systemic Change program (GEMS-Net) to improve science instruction for K-8 teachers in southern Rhode Island that has been sustained (12+ years) beyond the initial. Rob is co-PI on an NSF-funded STEM+C grant to develop computer-based science instruction models with middle and high school teachers in Rhode Island. Rob is also a member of the statewide Rhode Island Department of Education committee to facilitate the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards in Rhode Island schools.
LUCIE MARANDA
Lucie (far right) is an Associate Marine Research Scientist at GSO/URI with statutory designation. Although her educational background is in Biology, she brings to the project a multidisciplinary experience from her past research within multiple teams of scientists, always sustained by grant funding. Her interests in algal bloom dynamics and phytoplankton ecology have, in recent years, migrated to solving problems linked to the control of unwanted marine species, whether as species contributing to biofouling or as potential invasive species in ballast water.
Maranda first started as an instructor of field and laboratory techniques for introductory courses in Oceanography. Upon completing her Ph.D, she brought her knowledge of algal physiology and ecology to a team of chemists and pharmacists searching for compounds of marine origin with antiviral and antitumor activity.
Maranda is the current director of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships in Oceanography (SURFO) program, a ten-week research experience in oceanography primarily designed for STEM students in their junior year. As such, she strives to match the interests of potential participants and advisors, and offers a series of professional development workshops. The SURFO program aims to develop problem-solving skills that can be applied to any career fields. Maranda has advised one graduate student, and served on 12 graduate student committees. She also mentored >20 undergraduates in research projects in her laboratory.
CHRIS KINCAID
Chris (second from right) is a Full Professor of Oceanography at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. His research is on geophysical fluid dynamics of distinct Earth systems. Kincaid combines analog and numerical models to research circulation, mixing and transport in the coastal ocean and convection and thermo-chemical evolution of Earth’s mantle. Kincaid, and his students, have developed multiple generations of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) for Narragansett Bay and inner shelf of Rhode Island Sound (RIS), which include fully coupled hydrodynamic-ecosystem modeling using ROMS-NPZD algorithms. Kincaid and his students have developed an extremely comprehensive circulation data set, including a combination of moored and underway acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) and low cost tilt current meter observational experiments during every each year from 1998-2014. Chris has also advised 21 undergraduate research projects and 14 graduate students at the Masters and Doctorate level.
Kincaid has developed classes at the undergraduate level and graduate level on dynamics of the Earth/Ocean system, which utilize methods/activities for developing conceptual frameworks for understanding. An introductory undergraduate course covers the birth and evolution of our solar system and culminates with a focus on each of Earth’s dynamic systems. More advanced graduate courses use hands-on class projects and problem-based activities to conceptually understand the Navier-Stokes equations and finite difference modeling. Kincaid has also participated in an NSF-funded working group to develop teaching modules for improving undergraduate instruction on plate tectonics.
BRUCE CAMPBELL
Bruce (far left) is a visiting scientist with Brown University's Computer Science Department and Adjunct Faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design. His research involves evaluating distributed cognition (D-Cog) models to support joint human-computing activities facilitated by shared visual and interactive artifacts. As faculty in the Web Design + Interactivity program at RISD, Campbell focuses on Web-enablement of shared artifacts for broader distribution and sharing. His research fits into a larger context of having been an information scientist and computer scientist applying those knowledge bases to projects outside of the academic realm.
After training extensively in numerical metrics during undergraduate research, Campbell developed systems in the banking and insurance industries that were focused on computer-mediated communications, prior to Web availability. He then migrated to building computer communications technologies to support scientific research activities, primarily in the ocean sciences, with more complex visualization components using the Web as the transport and presentation layer. Campbell has been integrating facets of his research into content management systems from early use of Lotus Notes, to the development of the Blackfish CMS to be used in this project, to the more recent use of common CMS platforms such as Drupal, Wordpress, and Joomla. Campbell teaches four required classes within the two-year Web Design+Interactivity program at RISD.
