Rajesh Nair

Rajesh Nair has more than 30 years of experience in Oceanography and the Marine Sciences, with a strong experimental background, extensive field skills, and “hands-on” knowledge of a wide variety of marine instrumentation and measurement realities. As part of the permanent staff of the Centro di Taratura e Metrologia Oceanografica (CTMO), the oceanographic calibration and metrology facility of the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics) - OGS in Italy,  which he helped set up in 2002, his present activities and interests focus on marine observing technologies, including calibration, control and testing of instrumentation, and the application of metrological principles to measurement quality assurance both in the laboratory and in the field. He is actively involved in marine research at both the Italian national and EU (European Union) levels, and internationally. Rajesh co-led Work Package 2 (“Harmonization of technologies and methodologies - technical strategy) of the EU Horizon 2020 project, JERICO-NEXT (Joint European Research Infrastructure network for Coastal Observatory - Novel European eXpertise for coastal observaTories; 2015 - 2019), and was the leader of Work Package 5 (“Data management and distribution”) of the EU FP7 (Seventh Framework Programme) project, JERICO (Towards a Joint European Research Infrastructure network for Coastal Observatories; 2011 - 2015). Presently, he is responsible for Task 5.4 (“Performance Monitoring for the operation and integration of JERICO-RI platforms”) of WP5 (“Harmonisation of integrated Multiplatform & Multidisciplinary systems”) of the EU Horizon 2020 project, JERICO - S3 (Joint European Research Infrastructure of Coastal Observatories - Science, Service, Sustainability; 2020 - 2024), and is co-leading Work Package 2 (“Promoting Operational Integration through Harmonization of Procedures'') of another EU Horizon 2020 project called MINKE (“Metrology for Integrated Marine Management and Knowledge-Transfer Network”, 2021 - 2025). In addition, Rajesh is one of Italy’s national representatives in the EU’s JPI Oceans (Joint Programming Initiative - Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans) European Marine Sensor Calibration Network Joint Action. He is also currently co-chairing the Technology Panel Working Group (TPWG) of the European Global Ocean Observing System (EuroGOOS), the European component of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), and collaborates actively in the work of IOC-UNESCO’s Ocean Best Practice System (OBPS).

Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/C, 34010 Sgonico (TS), ITALY

Telephone. + 39 0402140323

E-mail: rnair@ogs.it

Soft robots embody a unique opportunity to monitor the oceans, particularly in the operationally challenging realms of the deep and shallow water environments where their inherent flexibility, maneuverability, and ability to perform in demanding circumstances can make an enormous difference in the value of gathered observations in relation to overarching scientific goals. However, the routine implementation of the technology in Ocean Science will ultimately depend on the capability of such robots to provide usable marine environmental data reliably. This will require attuning their scientific data acquisition and data handling architecture to the requirements and recommendations of the international framework governing marine data quality which is having to evolve beyond “classical” data characterization precepts (error, accuracy, precision) to better respond to new and changing user needs and priorities. In this talk, I will describe the complex, multidimensional data quality paradigm that is currently gaining ground in the field of marine observing and try to discuss its implications from the perspective of the Ocean Soft Robotics community.