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UCL/PLA MSc in Hydrographic Surveying

MSc in Hydrographic Surveying

Taught jointly by University College London and the Port of London Authority For entry in September 2016

CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND GEOMATIC ENGINEERING


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Contents

1 Introduction .......................................................................... 1

2 Structure of the programme .................................................... 2

3 History of the MSc programme ................................................ 2

4 Aims and Strengths of the course ............................................ 4

5 The Institutions ..................................................................... 9

6 Research Environment ........................................................... 11

7 Equipment and Facilities ........................................................ 14

9 Review procedures ................................................................ 25

10 Entry Requirements ............................................................. 28

11 Assessment ........................................................................ 29

12 Examples of individual MSc projects ...................................... 31

13 Careers and Student Profiles ................................................ 33

14 Final Remarks ..................................................................... 41


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1 Introduction

The MSc in Hydrographic Surveying at UCL is a full-time twelve-month course that is run jointly by University College London and the Port of London Authority. It builds on the strengths of the two institutions, combining the

sound research-led teaching of UCL with the state of the art hydrographic facilities of one of the most advanced ports in the world.

The course is recognised as a Category A course by the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO), the International Federation of Surveyors

(FIG) and the International Cartographic Organisation (ICO). This is an internationally recognised qualification that enables graduates of the course

to gain employment at the highest level. It is increasingly required by employers around the world. The course is also recognised as offering

specialised training and education in the following standard specialisms:

Optional Unit 1 (Nautical Charting Hydrography);

Optional Unit 2 (Hydrography to Support Port Management and Coastal Engineering);

Optional Unit 4 (Offshore Construction Hydrography). This document gives a full description of the course for prospective students

and employers. It includes details of the aims and strengths of the course, the institutions that are offering it, the entry requirements, the facilities

available, the research environment and individual projects, and profiles of the careers of some of our students.

The MSc in Hydrographic Surveying is an internationally recognised degree offered by two outstanding institutions. Our graduates are much in demand

and have gone on to have interesting and rewarding careers around the world.

We hope that you find the information that you’re looking for here. If you are interested in joining us then we look forward to hearing from you.

Dr Jonathan Iliffe, Senior Lecturer, Head of Geomatic and Geotechnical Engineering, Course Director.

Captain John Pinder, Port Hydrographer, Port of London Authority.

Mr John Dillon-Leetch, Deputy Port Hydrographer, Port of London Authority, Course Coordinator.


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2 Structure of the programme

The overall length of the programme is 12 months, split into a first term from September to December, with the modules assessed in early January; a second term runs from January to late March, with assessment in late April/

early May. The final part is the individual project, running from May to September.

There are three sections to the course, each given equal weight: the first term taught material; the second term taught material; and the individual

project. Each of these is worth 60 credits.

The first term is organised into four 15 credit modules as:

Data Analysis GIS Principles and Technology

Principles and Practice of Surveying

Mapping Science

The second term is organised as:

Positioning Ocean and Coastal Zone

Management

Hydrographic Applications

Management/ Group Project

The individual project runs from mid-May to mid-September.

It is possible for students to graduate with a Postgraduate Diploma after

following the taught part of the course but not doing the individual project. However, only the full programme, leading to an MSc, is recognised by the RICS and the IHO/FIG/ICO.

3 History of the MSc programme

The initial decision to offer jointly an MSc in Hydrographic Surveying was taken by UCL and PLA in 1998, and following this the masters programme was first run in the academic session 1999 – 2000. It was initially accredited

by the IHO/FIG/ICA board at their 2001 meeting in Trieste.

At the time of the initial establishment of the course, it was based in the Department of Geomatic Engineering at UCL.


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The MSc in Hydrographic

Surveying has always been strongly integrated with other geomatics masters programmes

in the department, in particular the course in (Land) Surveying,

but also sharing generic elements with courses in GIS and Remote Sensing. So

although the programme has only been running since 1999, it

sits within a structure of geomatics MSc programmes

that have been running for over 60 years. In 2007 the Department of Geomatic Engineering ceased to exist as an

independent department and merged with Civil Engineering to become the new Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering. In terms of

the Hydrographic programme, the main effect has been the strengthening of ties that already existed in the delivery of the engineering aspects of the ocean and coastal zone module – in future it is likely to mean stronger

collaboration and overlap with MSc programmes in marine and coastal engineering.

This gives an overview of how the course was established and the academic context in which it sits. However, central to all of this has been the

collaboration between UCL and the PLA: this was initially established through a memorandum of understanding signed at the highest level between the two

institutions. Since then, it has been cemented by the joint practical experience of collaborating on the MSc, with the strong professional and personal ties that this

engenders; it has also been enhanced by

diversification beyond the narrow aim of course delivery to encompass

other collaborative projects. For example,

UCL has participated in the GPS observation campaign for Thames

tide gauges, both organisations have

collaborated with the Ordnance Survey on the use of their OSNet system, the PLA has been a pioneer in the use of VORF,

and so on.


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We believe that this is a unique partnership between an academic institution

and a public or private organisation that is involved day-to-day in the practice of hydrographic surveying. The benefits are obvious, in that it is clear that UCL is bringing its wealth of experience in teaching, its outstanding

facilities, its research leadership, whilst the PLA is bringing not only a fleet of state of the art survey vessels but also the accumulated practical experience

of its surveyors.

4 Aims and Strengths of the course

Overall aims The UCL/PLA hydrographic programme aims to provide a broadly based

education in hydrographic surveying, combined with a strong practical element. It is a feature of the teaching in the department that we aim to

move rapidly from a theoretical classroom-based exposition of a subject to its practical implementation. This practical element might take the form of exercises aboard survey vessels, or it might involve acquisition and

processing of GPS data, or handling digital mapping and charting data, or even using a pencil and paper to work out the functional link between an

observational type and parameters to be derived by least squares. By the term “broadly based” we mean firstly that we do not restrict ourselves

to any particular area of hydrographic surveying: the participation of a port authority is an important feature of the course, but our remit is not restricted

to ports and harbours. We involve professional offshore surveyors in the course delivery, but it should also be noted that several of the staff of the PLA have themselves had a background in offshore surveying before joining

the organisation.

Secondly, we mean that the hydrographic surveying programme is grounded firmly in a general geomatics framework. There are obvious practical reasons for this, in that it enables some elements of the course to be taught in

parallel with material delivered to other programmes at UCL. However, it has the dual effect of both making the hydrographic students aware of how the

subject fits within the wider framework of geomatics and exposing more students to important concepts related to surveying at sea. So, for example, hydrographic surveyors study GPS alongside surveyors and are aware of

problems related to the use of satellite systems in many dynamic situations, not just the ship-borne ones, whilst all students at UCL who are on

programmes in the geomatics area have to study at least some aspects of marine datums. This means that a student of GIS who ends up working on data related to the coastal zone has a much stronger understanding of

bathymetric datums than would generally be the case.


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Strengths and specialisms Why come to UCL? What are the specialist areas that the UCL/PLA MSc

programme will give students over and above what they would expect to find on any hydrographic course. We believe that these are:

Practical work carried out aboard working PLA hydrographic vessels, in

collaboration with professional surveyors and crews;

Deep study of error theory, least squares analysis and quality control; In depth study of GNSS, geodesy, and coordinate reference systems

(including in combined areas such as study of the VORF project); Links between electronic charting and the GIS research group in the

department; Study of maritime boundaries related to real world examples that have

been analysed in the department;

Opportunity to carry out an in-depth study into one particular topic as part of the individual research project.

These particular strengths can best be illustrated with direct examples.

Practical work aboard PLA vessels

The Port of London Authority (PLA) has the busiest port hydrographic

department in the UK with six qualified surveyors and support staff

comprising 14 employees in total. The department has three dedicated survey craft fitted with RESON

Multibeam Echo Sounder Systems.

In addition to planning and conducting at least 3 bathymetric MBES surveys

during the practical part of the course, students will also use dual frequency single beam and side scan sonar. The

software used for acquisition and processing (Hypack, Geodas, Cadcorp

GIS, Fledermaus) is available at the college so that the students can become familiar with it and produce their own

reports.


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Study of error theory Error theory and quality control are taught through the Data Analysis

module, and further reinforced through applications in the Positioning module. For one of the practical assignments in the Data Analysis module the

students are given a scenario of a rig being towed offshore from the yard where it was constructed, and its movement along a precisely defined path being monitored. Students are required to devise an observational scheme

that meets certain pre-defined requirements for precision and reliability (expressed in terms of the marginally detectable errors being within a

defined limit). This has to be simulated mathematically, with the students being responsible for the derivation of all the relevant equations and their

implementation in Excel. Having devised the appropriate algorithms, they then refine the observational scheme to meet the quality criteria with the minimum number of observations.

Study of Global Navigation Satellite Systems One example of student work involves calculating a position fix from GPS

pseudo-ranges. Students are given five pseudo-ranges measured by a GPS receiver at the site of Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex at the epoch 2001 9 14

13 45 0.00, as well as the satellite positions in WGS84 at the epoch of signal transmission and the approximate location of the receiver. The students are told to estimate the position (in ECEF Cartesian coordinates) of the receiver,

and the receiver clock offset, using all the pseudo-ranges. They are also instructed to assume that the standard deviation of a pseudo-range

measurement in metres is the cosecant of the satellite elevation angle. The students have to set up the appropriate observation equations,

carry out a linearisation and invert for updated coordinates, using

several iterations. The students then convert the answer to latitude, longitude and height. The quality of

the position fix must be assessed (analysis of residuals, estimation of

variance factor, scaling of covariance matrix) and the GDOP, PDOP, HDOP and VDOP values are to be

calculated from the variance-covariance matrix.

Another example of the depth to which students study GNSS is from a lab class in the Positioning module, in which students carry out a linearisation of

double differenced phase observations. The purpose of this exercise is to aid


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the understanding of the standard procedures for processing GPS phase data. The calculation that the students are asked to carry out is a

simplified version of what is done in mainstream GPS manufacturers’ software such as Geo-Office (Leica Geosystems), TGO (Trimble Geomatics Office), Ashtech Solutions and TGPS (Topcon). The students are

supplied with L1 carrier phase data observed at two stations and at two epochs 15 minutes apart. They are also supplied with satellite antenna phase

centre positions in ECEF coordinates at the epochs of signal transmission, along with precise coordinates of one station, and approximate coordinates of the other. The task in the lab is to form double differenced observations,

linearise the system of equations, solve for float phase ambiguities, fix these to integers and then estimate the precise coordinates of the second station.

The whole task is carried out in Excel, and the students are directed to determine the standard deviations of all parameters at each stage (assuming

the variance factor is unity for this small dataset).

Electronic charting and GIS

The professional aspects of electronic chart production are taught by the PLA as part of the Hydrographic Applications module, as they are the ones that are involved in day-to-day production of S57 charts. However, it is also

important to realise that this builds on a foundation laid down in the first term as part of the GIS Principles and Technology module taught by UCL.

Thus, students get a very fundamental grounding in the principles of handling digital data before going on to the specialist marine applications.

An example of the advantages of this approach would be in the MSc project on Risk Analysis for Submarine Cable Burial carried out by Mr Andrew

Palmer-Felgate, a student on the course. This took a very fundamental approach to the way that data acquired with multibeam is analysed and processed, examining the advantages and disadvantages of different

methods of interpolation onto grids, such as inverse distance weighting, kriging, splines, and so on.

Study of maritime boundaries

The study of maritime boundary delimitation forms part of the Ocean and

Coastal Zone Management module. An exercise that is carried out by the students is as given in the following specification:

You work for an oil company that is intending to negotiate with the

Israeli government for several offshore exploration licences in the

Eastern Mediterranean Sea. At present Israel does not have any formal

maritime boundary agreements with its Mediterranean neighbours, but

your company wishes to know about any risks associated with

purchasing licences in particular areas – where is the boundary likely


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to end up? Where might areas of particular uncertainty or dispute lie?

Where are we going to need extra data?

They have assigned you to a team that is going to spend a day

exploring this issue. At the end of the day (literally, rather than

figuratively) you will aim to have derived provisional maps and

coordinates of the maritime boundaries of Israel. You will also have

developed ideas about the particular problem areas, and will make a

presentation to the directors of the company in which you explain your

methodology, its possible limitations, and what you see as the

potential problem areas.

Students then work on this problem for a day, using digital mapping of the coastlines from which Thiessen

polygons are derived, assisted by charts of more detailed areas,

software to carry out ellipsoidal computations, reference to online sources such as Google Earth,

published international agreements, and so on.

Individual MSc projects

Individual MSc projects form one third of the total credit value of the course, and are a means through which students can demonstrate a deep

understanding of the subject. The aim of the project is to produce work that has a research element and is in principle of interest to a wider community

than those immediately involved. That is, the MSc project is something distinct from a routine professional job and is intended to launch students to some extent into the unknown: in several cases it has led to published

papers. In most cases it fosters resourcefulness, as they are expected to act as the liaison point between their academic supervisors and other bodies

involved (such as the Port of London or industrial sponsors). In all cases it encourages students to think deeply about their chosen field, to research widely in published literature, and to write clear and concise reports.

This is a significant part of the course – there is a separate section giving

examples of students’ individual projects.


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5 The Institutions

The collaboration between UCL and the PLA to run a combined MSc programme represents a combination of two London based organisations that both have an outstanding international reputation.

University College London

In 2009 UCL climbed to fourth place in the annual Times Higher Education - QS World University

Rankings, confirming its standing as London’s global university. The meteoric progression up the tables in

recent years reflects the outstanding quality of UCL’s community of academics and students. The university

is one of the foremost in the UK for research and innovation, and is dedicated to harnessing its exceptional research for positive social and economic

benefit: no fewer than 21 Nobel prizewinners have come from the UCL community.

This community continues to pursue the highest standards of academic rigour and has earned admiration in the higher education domain for its

strategies to pool research expertise across a wide range of disciplines, to deliver the highest standards in teaching, and to attract the brightest

students from all over the globe. Student life at UCL is rich and challenging; we provide the opportunities and leadership in teaching, research, entrepreneurship, volunteering and overseas study. 34% of UCL students

come from outside the UK, from approximately 140 countries around the world, and our research reaches the farthest corners of the globe; from the

conservation of antiquities in Iraq to the transformation of engineering research in Kazakhstan.

UCL was founded in 1826 as a secular alternative to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Prior to this, the benefits of a university education in

England were restricted to men who were members of the Church of England. UCL was founded to challenge this discrimination, providing a radical alternative to Oxbridge’s social exclusivity, religious restrictions and

academic constraints, thus opening up English higher education for the first time to people of all beliefs and social backgrounds. Today, it remains

fervently progressive and is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary universities, with a global reach and global vision.


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The Port of London Authority

The Port of London Authority was established under the Port London Act of 1908, for the purpose of administering, preserving and improving the Port of

London and for other purposes including the conservancy of the tidal Thames. Those powers have been extended in subsequent Acts and Orders, the last of significance being the Port of London Act 1968 (as amended),

which gives very wide powers and duties to the PLA in the improvement and conservancy of the Thames including:

Regulation of navigation by means of River Byelaws, General

Directions and other associated Byelaws; Licensing of river works and dredging;

Hydrographic Surveying; Inspection and licensing of commercial vessels; Removal of sunken vessels and other hazards to navigation;

Licensing of watermen and lightermen.

The Port of London is the second largest port in the UK in terms of tonnage handled and number of shipping movements.

The area of responsibility extends from the tidal limit of the Thames above

Richmond in the west, right out to the southern North Sea in the east, a distance of 140 Km and an area of 1000 sq Km. The estuary has 3 main

shipping channels and many complex sand banks which need constant monitoring

The Hydrographic Service of the PLA, as already mentioned, is the largest

port survey department in the UK, producing over 300 surveys a year. It is accepted as a centre of excellence in the field of port surveying and has recently gained a reputation for innovative use of high resolution multibeam

for engineering and diver support. It produces its own large scale ENC and works closely with the UKHO and MCA on chart production and national

interest mapping.


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Collaboration arrangements

Physically, the two institutions are located approximately 25 miles from each other, with UCL being sited near the centre of London and the hydrographic service of the PLA being down the River Thames at Gravesend. PLA staff

travel to London to deliver lectures, a journey that can now be accomplished within around 30 minutes door-to-door with the opening of the new high

speed train service. Students either travel to Gravesend to join survey vessels or board closer to the centre of the city when it can be integrated with the PLA’s work flow.

Formally, the degrees are awarded by UCL. The PLA take primary

responsibility for two of the modules and for the practical work, however, staff from both organisations work together on the planning process for the

degree.

6 Research Environment

UCL is a research intensive university. In a department such as Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, the annual income from research is

around £5 million. Rather than being seen as a distraction from teaching students, the philosophy at UCL is that the whole learning experience is

enriched by contact with academic staff who are clearly at the forefront of their fields. This is true for staff involved in the MSc in Hydrographic Surveying as it is for all staff, and students on the course come into contact

with research into the latest developments in the field.

To give a very brief flavour of this, some examples are given below of current or recent projects in the department that are relevant to the hydrographic course.

GNSS positioning aboard vessels A recent project led by Professor Paul Cross, and involving PhD student Alex

Parkin, and running from 2005 to 2009 has examined the future positioning requirements of the IMO (resolution A.915) and tested the acquisition and

processing of data in a marine environment against the IMO requirements. A data collection exercise was held in Harwich Harbour, in collaboration with

Trinity House, and saw THV Alert navigate into the harbour whilst GPS data was acquired on board and at reference stations on shore. In addition, total

stations at shore based reference stations were used to track the vessel and provide a truth model.


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The data acquired was processed under different

scenarios and the positioning performance was analysed against the IMO requirements.

A principal finding was that providing integrity through

single-epoch real-time kinematic positioning, required to meet the strictest IMO

requirements, was particularly difficult. However, the work

carried out in this project has significantly improved the vital

ambiguity resolution success rate, and increased the maximum baseline length over which the highest requirements are met from 1 km to 66 km.

Example impact on MSc teaching: in 2009 Christopher Bubb did an MSc project on “Characteristics and impacts of new GNSS signals”, exploring

what the impact of new developments in satellite positioning would be on the offshore industry.

The VORF project

The VORF project (Vertical Offshore Reference Frames) ran from 2005 to 2008 and was sponsored by the UK Hydrographic Office; a follow-on project

to extend the concepts around the world commenced in 2011. The project is run by Dr Jonathan Iliffe and Professor Marek Ziebart, and involves research

assistants Dr Jim Turner and Mr Joao Oliveira. With the advent of technology such as GPS and LIDAR, and increasing

interest in areas such as the coastal zone, there is an imperative need for a system that will seamlessly transform between all the different reference

surfaces and extend our knowledge of vertical datums offshore. This is what VORF aimed to achieve, through a set of transformation models integrated into one software package.

Once such a system is in place there are many different applications that

could potentially make use of it. To take just one example, any ship equipped with a high precision GPS receiver and using the VORF transformation software will effectively become its own tide gauge, with no need to rely on

observations made at remote ports. This is likely to have a significant impact on marine safety, but the efficiency implications for activities such as

hydrographic surveying are one of the main drivers for such models. The VORF project brought together data from short term and long term tide

gauge observations, numerical tidal models, satellite altimetry, gravimetric


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geoid models, datum corrector surfaces and specially commissioned GPS observations to many remote tide gauges.

Example impact on MSc teaching: in 2012 James Johnston did an MSc project on how VORF could be extended around the world, combining

satellite altimetry data with coastal tide gauges, and using a study area of the west coast of France.

Example of VORF observation campaigns: these pictures are from a VORF

expedition to the uninhabited island of Sule Skerry, west of the Orkneys, where

observations were made to tie the Chart Datum to ETRF89. MV Bounteous Sea

was chartered for the expedition.

Morphological seabed modelling

This is a project involving Professor Richard Simons and PhD student Anna Bakare. It develops and investigates the applicability of a statistical method for morphological modelling of the seabed that is able to account for spatial

morphological properties and external forcing conditions. The statistical method is a spatial functional regression model. It has been applied to

idealised scenarios of morphological behaviour and evolution that simulate real morphological properties as the seabed evolves over time. In addition, the model has been applied two study sites off the English coastline that

have different morphodynamic characteristics. The sites are the Great Yarmouth sandbanks and the nearshore zone of Poole Bay.

Results from the applications show that the model is able to identify morphological behaviour and evolution properties. For the idealised scenarios

with temporal periodicity, stochastic effects and noise, it was able to generate predictions with accuracies of 0.02m against mean observed

variability of 0.14m. For the study sites accuracies of 1.79m and 0.75m were obtained respectively where the mean observed variability was


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A B

approximately 1.73m and 1.16m respectively. On including the environmental forcing information in the modelling process the prediction

errors are reduced. Therefore the spatial functional regression model is an applicable method for morphological modelling applications.

Observed bathymetric surface at Great Yarmouth study site for 2006 (a) and

predicted bathymetric surface for 2006 (b).

Example impact on MSc teaching: in 2012 Marilyn Eghan carried out an MSc project on the use of the MIKE software to model sediment transport

in a selected area of the Thames.

7 Equipment and Facilities At the Port of London Authority:

Survey vessels:

Verifier: 25 m monohull.

Mapline: 18 m catamaran, entering service 2016.

Yantlet: 14 m catamaran. Galloper: 8 m catamaran.

Sonar equipment:


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Reson 7125, 8125, 8101 multibeam systems.

CMax- CM2 Dual Frequency Side-scan Sonar. Odom echotrack dual frequency single beam echosounder.

RDI Seahorse ADCP

Positioning equipment:

Applanix POSMV on each vessel.

Software:

Hypack/Hysweep for data acquisition. Fledermaus for post-processing and reporting.

Applanix POSPAK for post processed kinematic.

GeoDAS for sidescan and mosaicing.

Cadcorp GIS for chart production.

SevenCs for ENC production. Seazone Geospatial/Oracle for data archiving.

At University College London: The Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering department at UCL has a

suite of dedicated hydrographic software including Hypack, GeoDAS, Fledermaus and Cadcorp. In addition to this specialist software, students also

have access to AutoCAD, ArcGIS, GeoOffice and Starnet in the department. Students are introduced to, and trained in this software throughout the teaching terms and utilise the suite in their individual research projects in the

third term.

The department also maintains a store of standard survey equipment. This includes levelling kit, total stations, static and RTK GPS receivers, and handheld MobileMappers. The hardware capabilities within the department

have been enhanced with the recent acquisition of five new reflectorless total stations and a new laser scanner. The reflectorless total stations have been

used in MSc Hydrographic Surveying projects to monitor embankment and bridge deformation (as control for underwater multibeam observations), and the GPS kit is frequently used to tie projects into national coordinate

systems. As with the software, students are trained in the surveying kit in


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the first and second terms before using the equipment when undertaking their projects in the summer.

8 Staff

A number of academic staff from within the Department and hydrographic surveyors from the Port of London Authority are involved in delivering taught modules, providing support in the field and supervising MSc projects.

UCL staff

Paul Groves

Paul Groves joined UCL in 2009 after 12 years at DERA and QinetiQ. He leads a programme of navigation and positioning

research within UCL’s Space Geodesy and Navigation Laboratory. Paul specializes in the integration and mathematical modelling of all types of navigation system. He

is interested in all aspects of navigation and positioning, including multi-sensor integrated navigation, robust GNSS

under challenging reception conditions, and novel positioning techniques. Current research projects include GNSS

multipath mitigation, positioning using signals of opportunity, pedestrian

motion modelling for aiding indoor and outdoor positioning, novel GNSS-based positioning techniques for urban canyons and ultra-low-cost inertial

sensors integrated with multi-antenna GNSS. He is an author of about 40 technical publications, including the book

Principles of GNSS, Inertial and Multi-Sensor Integrated Navigation Systems. He holds a BA/MA and a DPhil in physics from the University of Oxford. He is

a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and an associate editor of both Navigation: Journal of the ION and IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

Paul runs the Positioning module and contributes to the Data Analysis and

Mapping Science modules.

Muki Haklay

Muki Haklay is Professor of Geographic Information Science and the director of UCL Extreme Citizen Science group. The group is dedicated

to allowing any community, regardless of their literacy, to use scientific methods and tools to collect, analyse, interpret and use


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information about their area and activities. His research interests include Public access and use of Environmental Information; Human-

Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usability Engineering aspects of GIS; and Societal aspects of GIS use - in particular, participatory mapping

and Citizen Science.

He contributes to the Mapping Science module.

Jonathan Iliffe

Jonathan Iliffe's expertise lies in the area of geodesy, and

specifically those issues that relate to coordinate reference systems – national or local, on land or at sea. Current or

very recent research projects include determining the height corrector surfaces for use in the British Isles

(transforming GPS data to the local height system in each country), the UKHO-sponsored VORF project (transforming GPS data to the different coordinate

reference systems used on land and at sea) and the development of the SnakeGrid system (which gives near-

unity scale factor along very large linear engineering projects such as railways, highways and pipelines). He acts as a consultant on international land and maritime boundary delimitations, and advises governments, survey

and engineering companies, and railway organisations on the geodetic aspects of large infrastructure projects. In 2008 Jonathan Iliffe was awarded

the Richard Carter Prize (Geospatial Engineer 2008) by the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors, for his work on SnakeGrid and projects such as OSGM02 and VORF.

Jonathan is the programme director for the Surveying and Hydrographic

Surveying courses and contributes to the teaching on Data Analysis; Mapping Science; Principles and Practice of Surveying; Hydrographic Applications and Ocean and Coastal Zone Management.

Richard Simons

Richard's main research interests lie in the field of Coastal

Engineering, where he has made a major contribution to the study of wave-current interaction, providing an insight into

fundamental fluid processes and related interactions with the seabed. Richard oversaw commissioning and management of

the UK’s National Coastal Research Facility at Wallingford, and was influential in the introduction of the UK coastal wave monitoring programme WaveNet (now managed within the


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UK Coastal Monitoring & Forecasting Service). He has a particular interest in marine aggregate dredging and supervised a recent project using a new

cellular automata model to predict the long-term behaviour of the seabed and benthos after dredging. In the broader field of coastal morphology, another project has applied novel statistical methods to predict long-term

morphological development of the seabed. In the field of fluid-structure interaction, extensive tests are being performed to train and validate a

neural network model of 3D wave effects around submerged breakwaters, advanced 3D flow measurements are being made to assess the stability of scour protection for various levels of rock misalignment, and an EngD project

with HR Wallingford is investigating scour around complex foundations relevant to the marine renewables industry.

Richard contributes to the Ocean and Coastal Zone Management module.

Marek Ziebart

Space Geodesy - this is the science and engineering of using satellites in orbit around planets to measure dynamic characteristics, such as the gravity field, sea level and ice cap

variations, as well as plate tectonics. In 2007, GPS World named him as one of the 50 Leaders to Watch for his

contributions to the global navigation and positioning industry. He holds a PhD in Satellite Geodesy and

Astrodynamics, and is a member of the NASA/CNES Ocean Surface Topography Science Working Team. He is a

contributor to news items and documentaries on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4

(Today programme), BBC Radio 5live, BBC News 24 and the World Service. He has carried out numerous consultancies and research contracts, including

for the UK Hydrographic Office, the European Space Agency, Tritech Rail, NASA, US Air Force, QinetiQ, and Ordnance Survey. The UCL Satellite Geodesy and Navigation Research Group has 12 members:

4 academics, 3 PDRAs and 5 PhD students.

Marek contributes to the Positioning, Principles and Practice of Surveying, Ocean and Coastal Zone Management, and Hydrographic Applications modules.

Claire Ellul

Claire Ellul joined the department as a lecturer in Geographic

Information Science in 2010, following a 10-year career as a GIS consultant in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. She is interested in technical and data-related research in GIS, and


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specializes in spatial databases and software development. Current research themes include three-dimensional GIS, spatial data management, data

quality and metadata and she is conducting research into how to persuade non-GIS research teams to capture and use spatial metadata, the use of GIS in Citizen Science and Community Engagement, teaching GIS principles to

researchers from other disciplines.

Claire contributes to the Mapping Science module in Term 1.

Liz Jones

Liz Jones joined the department after working as a surveyor

in the 3D team of Plowman Craven, a UK survey company. Prior to this, she completed an MA in Egyptology (Liverpool) and an MSc in GIS (UCL).

In addition to her role as the Geomatic Systems Manager, Liz is the GIS officer and surveyor for the Kouphovouno Project,

and a surveyor and archaeological supervisor for The Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project and the Egypt

Exploration Societys Survey of Memphis. She runs the Principles and Practice of Surveying module, and supports practical work on Ocean and Coastal Zone Management and Positioning modules.

Dietmar Backes

Dietmar Backes is one of the department’s geomatics systems managers, providing support for the use of equipment and software in the department, particularly focusing on the Lidar

and imagery side. He coordinates the Mapping Science module and contributes to Ocean and Coastal Zone Management.

Tao Cheng Tao Cheng’s background is in spatial information science, from the

acquisition, management and modelling to application of spatial data. She leads the GIS Principles and Technology module and has supervised MSc

projects such as Creating a Global Database of Submarine Landslides for Hazard Prediction.


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Stuart Robson

Stuart Robson’s research focus is in traceable on-line dynamic 3D co-

ordination and monitoring of engineering, medical and cultural objects and structures using photogrammetric image networks and sequences, vision

metrology and laser scanning. He contributes to the module on Principles and Practice of Surveying.

Jan Boehm

Jan Boehm has a background in Computer Science, for which he holds a Masters’ degree from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA, and a Diploma degree

from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He holds a doctoral degree from the department of Aerospace

Engineering and Geodesy at the University of Stuttgart. Since 2010 has been a lecturer in Photogrammetry and 3D Imaging at University College London. He actively

participates in the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), where he regularly serves on

organising and programme committees and as a reviewer for related journals. He is co-chair of the ISPRS working group on Image-based and range-based 3D modelling. He serves on the VDI panel for optical metrology,

where he works on the the VDI/VDE 2634 guidelines.

He has published more than 50 papers on the topics of close-range photogrammetry, three-dimensional point cloud processing and robotics. His current research projects include creating building information models (BIM)

from point clouds, detailed façade modelling from terrestrial and mobile laser scanning and developing a human measurement system from low cost

natural user interface sensors.

Jan contributes to the teaching on Mapping Science.


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Port of London Authority Staff

John Pinder – Port Hydrographer John joined the Merchant Navy on leaving school

and served with P&O on international voyages aboard a wide selection of ships for 11 years,

eventually achieving his Master Mariner certificate.

In 1987 he did a BSc (2-1) in Nautical Studies at Plymouth, majoring in Navigation and

Hydrography, minors in Meteorology and Oceanography. After a spell commanding a

training ship based in SE England he joined the PLA as a field surveyor in 1989, becoming Port Hydrographer in 2000. During this time he has been instrumental in the selection and

commissioning of 4 survey vessels, the full digitisation of the chart production process, the move to MBES and the transition from Hifix6,

through Microfix to full GPS positioning. The department, in addition to its statutory duties for safety of navigation

and conservancy has, under John’s leadership, taken on all the tidal analysis for the 12 Thames gauges, GIS for the organisation and extensive

commercial work for engineers and environmentalists, as well the above-mentioned digital chart production and move to ENC’s.

John is a Chartered Surveyor, Master Mariner, Member of the Nautical Institute and the Hydrographic Society. He sits on the UK Committee on

Shipping Hydrography and maintains close links with the UKHO, MCA and Trinity House. He regularly presents papers at international conferences and chairs many working groups and seminars.

John Dillon-Leetch – PLA Deputy Port Hydrographer. BSc(Hons), CMarSci

John attained a first class honours degree in Maritime

Studies at JMU Liverpool in 1993 and immediately joined Racal Survey Ltd where he worked for 4 years as an Overseas Offshore Surveyor progressing to

Senior Surveyor and from there to the Port of London Hydrographic Department where he has worked for

15 years. John presently holds the position of Deputy Port

Hydrographer at the Port and is responsible for the


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day to day activity of the fleet of three multibeam survey craft and associated personnel.

As part of his present role - John manages the Port of London Hydrographic Department’s commercial services provision which has tripled turnover since

2005 and gained recognition for the department as “experts” in the field of high resolution multibeam surveys.

John is a Chartered Marine Scientist through IMarEST and a member of the Hydrographic Society. He regularly presents papers at international

conferences, most recently at Port and Terminal Technology 2011, Rotterdam. Pipeline Integrity Summit, 2012, Aberdeen.

Previous to attaining his surveying qualifications John worked in the USA in

construction project management and previous to that in yacht delivery. He has also worked as a general manager of a start up IT marketing company. John holds an RYA Yacht Masters Certificate

Since 2003, John has been keenly involved with the delivery of the

MSc/PgDip Hydrographic Surveying at University College, London.

Jim Powell – Hydrographic Surveyor

A graduate of University Of East London (UEL) Bsc Geographical & Land Information Management in 1997 -. He commenced his

career with Svitzer survey on pipeline and cable route surveys in the North Sea then to

working overseas for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company for 4½ years worldwide on most continents in their cutter suction &

clamshell divisions progressing to the post of Project Engineer. He joined the PLA in 2001 and has since helped integrate and develop the use of the Port’s

three multibeam surveying systems. Jim is a multibeam specialist concentrating on high-end engineering related multibeam surveys. Jim project manages statutory and commercial survey work for the PLA

Hydrographic Service both internally and externally beyond the port limits.

Jim is a Chartered Marine Technologist (CMarTech) & Member of IMarEST (Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology) and a member of the Hydrographic Society.

Jim contributes to the course delivering lectures on Multibeam Surveying, SSS & Field Trip organisation and supporting the field trip modules.


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Rob Howard – Hydrographic Surveyor

A P&O Merchant Navy Officer from school and a mature student graduate of Cardiff (UWIST) BSc Maritime Studies in 1990. He returned to sea, working in the N

Sea, Mediterranean and W Africa for Seismograph Services Ltd, (Later Schlumberger Geco-Prakla) as a

Navigator/Surveyor on board their seismic exploration survey vessels for 5 yrs, before returning ‘shoreside’, working self-employed (Coastline Surveys Ltd) in the

UK, surveying coastal, riverine and reservoir areas and for ABP in Grimsby, combining surveying the River

Humber & Approaches with mate during dredging operations.

In late 1996 he joined the PLA where he has helped mature the survey fleet from single-beam to the present 3 multi-beam craft, carried out bathymetric

and current distribution surveys in the River & Estuary and more recently high resolution multibeam surveys of the river bed and engineering

structures. He also is presently creating the PLA berthing scale ENC charts. Rob assists in the management and completion of statutory and commercial

survey work for the PLA Hydrographic Service both internally and externally beyond the port limits.

Rob is a Chartered Marine Technologist (CMarTech) & Member of IMarEST (Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology), Fellow of the Royal

Institute of Navigation (FRIN) and a member of the Hydrographic Society. Rob contributes to the course delivering lectures on Seismic Operations and

supporting the field trip modules.

Hilary Morgan - Hydrographic Surveyor

A graduate of University of Cardiff BSc Maritime Studies and Plymouth University Post-graduate Diploma in Hydrographic Survey. She commenced her career with

Gardline Geosurvey in 2000 working worldwide on geophysical site surveys, pipeline surveys and MOD

surveys for 4 years. After working as a Land Surveyor for Halcrow and a Hydrographic surveyor for Medway Ports she joined the PLA in 2006 and has worked on

projects such as Blackfriars monitoring project for HR Wallingford amongst other external high resolution

multi-beam projects as well as PLA main and periodic surveys.


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Hilary is a Member of IMarEST (Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology).

Alex Mortley – Marine Conservancy Manager

Alex attained a first class honours undergraduate masters degree in Oceanography at Southampton

University in 2007, specialising in marine sedimentology and geophysics.

Alex joined the Port of London Authority in 2007 as a Technical Coordinator on the London Gateway project

with specific responsibility for environmental data management and supervision of maritime archaeology programme. Following a period of time as a

Hydrographic Surveyor at the port, Alex is now the PLA’s lead on river hydraulics and geomorphology responsible for dredging,

tidal monitoring and prediction. He is heavily involved in the major capital projects of London Gateway, Thames Tideway Tunnel and Crossrail.

Alex is a fellow of the Geological Society of London and member of the Hydrographic Society and regularly presents papers at regional and national

conferences together with chairing the Thames Estuary Partnership’s working group on the sediment quality. Alex also holds the Mountain Leader award

and has extensive experience in leading mountaineering expeditions in the UK and European Alps, with a keen interest in glacial geology.

He has also maintained strong academic links being involved in postgraduate teaching from practical demonstration and field course coordination to

lecturing and supervision of numerous postgraduate student projects in many facets of marine sedimentology.

Jed Green- Hydrographic Surveyor

A graduate of Southampton University BSc Marine Science. He commenced his career with Emu Limited in

2002 working in the UK and worldwide on inshore surveys. Jed moved to work on the Humber as a Port

Hydrographic surveyor for ABP in Hull. He joined the PLA in 2008 and has worked on projects such as Blackfriars monitoring project for HR Wallingford amongst other

external high resolution multi-beam projects as well as PLA main and periodic surveys.


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Stuart A B Leakey – Hydrographic Surveyor

A graduate of Southampton University BEng. Ship Science (Naval Architecture). Post-graduation, he worked for Carillion Rail primarily on the £22M DLR 3 Car

Enhancement Project, but also on other works for CTRL (maintenance) and Network Rail. Whilst at Carillion he

provided the on-site link between construction and supply chain and moved on to manage a team of 8 in his role as Manager of the Carillion Infrastructure Consolidation

Centre before changing roles to gain experience with the commercial team as a forensic QS.

In 2011, in a bid to return to the water to focus on marine civil engineering

projects he completed the Category A Hydrographic Surveying MSc at UCL whilst continuing to work for Carillion Rail as a forensic QS. He joined the PLA in January 2012 and has worked extensively with the PLA’s multibeam

systems conducting main, periodic and dredge support surveys, GNSS topographic surveys and control installation, bridge heighting and headway

board installation and has had a project management role on the Thames Tideway Tunnels Geophysical works.

Other staff Besides the contribution from UCL and PLA staff, we have several important

collaborations with colleagues from industry.

In a typical year these include lectures on underwater positioning from Jon Martin of Sonardyne; lectures on applications of multibeam technology from Duncan Mallace of Netsurvey; practical demonstrations of sidescan sonar

software from C-Max; and lectures on ROVs and other offshore activities from colleagues from Fugro.

9 Review procedures

In addition to the accreditation of the programme by the IHO/FIG/ICA, there

are many different procedures in place to ensure the quality of the programme offered.

In common with other geomatics MSc programmes in the department, the MSc in Hydrographic Surveying is recognised by the Royal Institution of

Chartered Surveyors (RICS). This means that passing at MSc level affords an entry route into that institution for graduates of the programme. In order to gain this accreditation, details of the syllabus are supplied to the RICS, and


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then on an annual basis further information is supplied on qualifications of entrants, destinations of graduates, and so on. There is also an annual

“partnership” meeting between the RICS and university representatives, with invited attendees from industry.

The programme, the department itself, and UCL more widely, are subject to a hierarchy of quality control procedures. These start at the level of the

individual modules, with a consideration of the marks awarded and any problems encountered, and then work their way up through a consideration of the programme as a whole, the department, and finally UCL itself being

subject to external review of its quality control apparatus.

Student feedback into these procedures takes several forms, including questionnaires and round table discussions, but as with any surveying course

the experience of working together on field courses means there are many opportunities for students to comment on the programme.

The Crown and Thistle in Gravesend is the traditional venue for the commencement

of the field course

Separately to all of this process there is a system of external examiners to

ensure that the academic standards of the degree match the national and international norms. Thus, all exam papers are sent to the external examiner for review before being signed off, they have access to all student work and

review the marking, and they are present at the final examiners’ meeting at which degrees are awarded.


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The start of the course in September 2011, with students from the UK, Norway,

Spain, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Ghana, Malaysia and Hong Kong.


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10 Entry Requirements

The minimum entry requirement for the MSc in Hydrographic Surveying is an upper second class honours degree in a cognate subject at undergraduate level (generally a BSc). Entrants should also have an appropriate level of

background mathematical knowledge.

Examples of cognate degrees would include geography, civil engineering, mathematics, marine sciences, physics, archaeology and geology. The essential point is that before embarking on the MSc in Hydrographic

Surveying students should already have followed a programme of study that prepares them for scientific analysis, report writing, the statistical analysis of

data, and so on.

The UCL Registry has extensive knowledge and experience of overseas institutions and their marking schemes, and is able to provide an assessment for any applicant of how they compare against UK university standards.

Preparatory reading for entrants It is an aim of the MSc that students achieve a basic level of competence in

seamanship, and are able to acquit themselves well aboard survey vessels. No specific prior qualifications are required for this, but all students are

expected to purchase and read the following book before starting on the course:

“RYA Manual of Seamanship” (Hardcover) by Tom Cunliffe

Students are expected to have read this before entry onto the course; however, for those students for whom this is not possible library copies will be available at UCL.

For the appropriate level of mathematics, the advice given to students is that

a British “A Level” in mathematics would certainly be sufficient preparation for the course. However, given that not all applicants are likely to have this, more specific specifications are available about the level of background

knowledge and the subjects that should be revised before embarking on the course. Essentially, these advise the students that they are expected to have

a basic familiarity with algebra (manipulation of equations, solution of simultaneous equations, quadratic equations, etc); geometry (properties of circles, concepts of angular measure); trigonometry (definitions and

applications of basic functions, expansions of compound angles, application of sine and cosine rules for plane triangles); calculus (differential calculus

including application to standard functions); matrices (definitions, simple algebraic functions such as addition, subtraction and multiplication, inversion of small matrices). Students are advised to prepare themselves for the

programme by studying these subjects as much as possible before arrival; it


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is then possible to give a fairly rapid summary of these subjects before immediately proceeding to apply them in practice. An example of a

comprehensive mathematics text book to revise from would be:

“Engineering Mathematics” (paperback) by Stroud

Other text books are available if the above is not available locally. Another

option would be:

“Maths for Map Makers” (paperback) by Arthur Allan

Average age of students on this MSc

It is worth pointing out that although the minimum age for enrolling on the MSc is 21 (this being the effective minimum for a graduate of a British undergraduate degree) in practice the average age is generally a bit older

than this. Some graduates have come to us either with a few years of general experience of work – for example in the IT industry – or have more

specific experience of working in hydrographic surveying and are coming back to university to gain the Category A accreditation. However, there are plenty of others who have come straight onto the course without any

previous experience.

11 Assessment

At the programme level, the minimum standards required are:

MSc Pass:

50% weighted course average in ALL taught modules

and No more than 30 credit points at less than 50% (‘condoned fail’

grades may be granted between 40-49% at Board of Examiners’ discretion). No marks below 40% are allowed

and 50% (minimum) in Dissertation

MSc Merit

60% credit-weighted average over ALL modules (including Dissertation)

and

65% (minimum) in Dissertation


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and No marks below 50%, no condoned fails, no re-sits, and all

marks are based on first attempts.

MSc Distinction:

70% credit-weighted average over ALL modules (including dissertation)

and 70% (minimum) in Dissertation

and No marks below 50%, no condoned fails, no re-sits, and all

marks are based on first attempts N.B The taught modules have a weight of 120 credit points. The

Dissertation has a weight of 60 credit points.

Individual modules may be assessed either by coursework or by an unseen written examination or by a combination of the two.

A summary of the method of assessment of each module, together with

details of the nature of the examination (where assessed by a written exam) or of how many pieces of coursework need to be submitted and what their credit value is (where assessed by coursework) is given in the table below.

Module Title

Credit value Assessment

First Term

GIS Principles &

Technology 15 100% Coursework

Mapping Science 15 100% Exam

Data Analysis 15 100% Coursework

Principles & Practice of

Surveying 15

50% Exam and 50%

Coursework

Second Term

Ocean and Coastal Zone

Management 15

60% Exam and 40%

Coursework

Management/Group

Project 15

50% Exam and 50%

Coursework

Hydrographic Applications 15 60% Exam and 40%

Coursework

Positioning 15 50% Exam and 50%

Coursework


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12 Examples of individual MSc projects

Some examples of MSc projects that have been carried out by students on the MSc in Hydrographic Surveying are given below. Where a project illustrates a particular point about the range of subjects studied or had other

features of particular interest, more details are given.

Andrew Palmer-Felgate, UK

A risk analysis of submarine cable burial operation.

Analysed instances where plough failure had occurred in different types of terrain, and compared with the errors involved in the acquisition, processing and presentation.

Work sponsored by Alcatel Submarine Networks Ltd; led to a publication in Hydro International.

Lam Lik Shan,

Hong Kong

Combination of Photogrammetric and Bathymetric

techniques in monitoring of marine rubble-mound structures.

Led to a publication in Hydro International.

Thomas Lowe, UK Assessing the potential of LIDAR / Bathymetry integration within the Thames Estuary.

Thai Low Ying-

Huang, Singapore

Dynamic Tide: Real-Time tidal corrections in electronic

navigational charts for the Port of London.

Cheminade Jean-Philippe, UK

The Applications of Synthetic Aperture Sonar to the Hydrographic Surveying Industry.

Richard Day, UK Modelling multipath errors in wideband underwater acoustic transponders.

Work carried out in collaboration with Sonardyne Ltd.

Andrew Lessnoff,

UK

Calibration of Altimetry Satellite Measurements.

Elizabeth Petrie,

UK

Vertical offshore datums.

An early study of the requirements for deriving a vertical offshore reference frame that then contributed to the

formulation of the VORF project.

Ben Thompson,

UK

Analysis of Multibeam Echosounder Backscatter Data for

Seabed Classification.

Marie Ceccaldi, Autonomous Underwater Gliders.


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France Derivation of equations for positioning of buoyancy

propelled gliders through Extended Kalman Filtering.

Malik Chibah, UK Creating a Global Database of Submarine Landslides for Hazard Prediction.

Project carried out in collaboration with Arup Consulting Engineers.

Laurence Letki,

France.

Harmonic Analysis of Satellite Altimetry Data.

Siddhi Joshi, UK Research into the Use of Multibeam Backscatter for Accurate Riverbed Classification.

This student was sponsored by the Marine Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund (MALSF) bursary scheme, and

this project was carried out in collaboration with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture

Science (CEFAS) and with the Port of London Authority.

Christopher Bubb, UK

Characteristics and impacts of new GNSS signals.

Richard Clarke, UK

Mean Sea Level Studies in the Persian Gulf.

Darren Murphy Vessel headings derived from GPS.

Project carried out in collaboration with Sonardyne.

Mohamed Abdelghafar

A comparison of beam distribution patterns’ performance in high resolution multibeam echosounders.

Project carried out in collaboration with Reson Ltd and the PLA.

Steinar Aasheim Sounding selection algorithms.

Project carried out in collaboration with the UK

Hydrographic Office.

Stuart Leakey Investigation of performance and benefits of a Doppler velocity log aided inertial positioning solution for hydrographic surveying in the port environment.

Project carried out in collaboration with IXBlue, PLA and

Teledyne RD Instruments.


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13 Careers and Student Profiles

The range and quality of the career options that have opened up before our graduates – from national hydrographic organisations to offshore survey companies, from port authorities to PhD programmes – are an excellent

advert for the quality in depth of this masters programme.

There are exceptionally good career prospects for graduates of the Hydrographic Surveying programme, and all students have so far found relevant and well paid jobs even in the recent economic downturn. Many of

our graduates go on to work for offshore surveying companies - recent examples have included Fugro, Gardline, Schlumberger, Horizon and Stolt

Offshore. This usually involves extended time aboard survey vessels, which is well paid work and generally ideal for the young and free. Others have

preferred shore based jobs, or those that offer more of a mixture of time in the office and aboard survey vessels - examples of these have included GEMS Survey and Netsurvey, or port authorities such as the Port of London

or Singapore and Hong Kong (who have sent their personnel on the MSc programme). Others have gone to work for equipment manufacturers such

as Sonardyne or cable companies such as Alcatel (even jobs like these often involve short periods at sea or aboard exploration rigs) or for national hydrographic offices such as the UKHO or its counterpart overseas. Some

of our graduates are now pursuing research careers.

The very varied career paths that our students have followed since graduating from the course are illustrated below with some sample student profiles.

Chris Hejnowski (2014 – 2015) Offshore

I graduated from the course in 2015 and am now working as a

Hydrographic Surveyor with Briggs Marine. After undertaking offshore sea survival training, I started work

on my first real project - an offshore wind farm export cable

repair job, aboard an offshore wind farm installation vessel called the Vidar.

The course was great - intense but

enjoyable. I think I actually learned more, in terms of practical experience, in one year doing the masters at UCL than over three years doing my undergraduate course. If I knew this would


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open the door to the type of job I'm doing right now I wouldn't hesitate to do the entire course again.

My previous experience in software engineering definitely helps me right now when looking at the IT side of the job but without the range of skills I

developed at UCL related to hydrographic/land surveying I wouldn't be where I am at the moment.

Elizabeth Petrie (2004 – 2005) Research

I took the MSc in Hydrographic Surveying at UCL in 2004-

2005. In the following year I did some contract hydrographic surveying work (including 2 months as a temporary marine

geophysics technician with the British Antarctic Survey, which was a fantastic experience). After that I started a PhD in satellite geodesy at Newcastle University, which I am about

to finish. I did the MSc to change career direction and think it was very successful, providing me with an excellent

foundation in the discipline and combining both theoretical and practical aspects. [Liz is now a lecturer at Glasgow University].

Malik Chibah (2006 – 2007) Manufacturing

I studied at UCL from 2006 to 2007 taking the Hydrographic Surveying master’s degree course. Immediately following the course I joined

Sonardyne International, a producer of underwater acoustic positioning systems. I have been involved in testing new systems, supporting customers

and demonstrating new products. My role has regularly taken me offshore to various destinations worldwide. I am now managing the development of the company’s inertial navigation system for subsea positioning applications. I

found the course to be ideal preparation for my current career; particularly in the mix of subjects covered and the close links with external organisations

such as the Port of London, which allowed us to gain Hydrographic survey experience in a realistic environment during the course. The links also led directly to me finding employment with Sonardyne at the end of the course.

Marie Ceccaldi (2005 – 2006) Offshore I did my MSc in Hydrographic Surveying at

UCL in 2005-2006. After graduation I found a job as a navigation support in CGG which

is a French seismic company based in Massy, France; after few months I found out that I would rather get an offshore

position instead of an office job, so I joined


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Fugro Geoteam, another seismic company based in Oslo, Norway, as a navigator, and I’ve been there now for 2 years. The job consists of 5 weeks

rotations (5 on, 5 off). It offers a very comfortable salary with some opportunities for advancement.

The MSc in Hydrographic Surveying is one of the best courses you could do if you wished to be hired as a navigator on a seismic vessel; even though they

could hire electronics and IT engineers, it’s always a bonus for them to get someone who has knowledge of surveying.

Andy Palmer-Felgate (2000 – 2001) Cable laying

After studying the MSc Hydrographic Surveying at UCL

from 2000-2001 I returned to work for Alcatel Submarine Networks who had sponsored me through the course. I worked on surveys for underwater

telecommunications cables in the Mediterranean and Atlantic and was also involved in developing their GIS.

Following the 'dot com crash' work dried up in telecoms, and I was offered an 18 month research post

at Imperial College. This involved planning and executing a small boat survey off the south coast of the

UK to investigate morphology of the seabed in areas that once were land prior to sea-level rise. The research was so successful myself and three others had a paper published in the journal Nature entitled

'Catastrophic flooding origin of shelf valley systems in the English Channel' and a feature on the BBC news.

I returned to Alcatel in 2004 to work on a cable project from France to Singapore and subsequently a scientific observatory network in the Pacific

called NEPTUNE.

At the end of 2006 I was offered a new job at Verizon, the largest carrier of phone and internet traffic in the US. For the last 3 years I've been Co-Chairman of the marine technical committee responsible for delivering the

Trans-Pacific Express Cable on behalf of a consortium of nine Asian and US telecoms companies. The $500M project to cross from America to China,

Taiwan, Korea and Japan was a big challenge but has now been completed. In addition to surveying this work included permitting, legal disputes, cable installation and protection, project management and contract negotiations.

All my current work relies on having a quality survey as the starting point for

all that follows, so the skills gained on the MSc course have put me in very good stead.


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Siddhi Joshi (2007 – 2008) Research

I studied the course in 2007-2008 and am now one year into a PhD at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Coming from a marine science

background, I am presently studying multibeam and LiDAR data from the INFOMAR programme to

understand the sediment transport processes in Galway Bay. The MSc course gave me a solid grounding of the technical skills required in

geomatics, both in industry and in academia. Since graduating, I have found this qualification and the

skills provided are greatly valued by employers in surveying, as well as by those involved in research

in seabed mapping- related disciplines.

Highlights from the course I especially remember include producing our own

nautical charts, working with the PLA during the field course, ocean remote sensing , learning how to apply least squares estimation to solve real-world

land surveying problems and GPS positioning. Benefiting from strong links with industry, our course also provided practical training in areas such as project management as required in industry. My MSc project during the third

term allowed me to further expand on seabed characterisation using multibeam backscatter, working jointly with the PLA, Cefas and MALSF. This

course is one of the few courses in Europe which combines the diverse subject of geomatic engineering with a special emphasis on its hydrographic applications.

Christopher Bubb (2008 – 2009) Offshore

I studied at UCL between 2008 and 2009

and started working for Gardline, the world’s largest independent surveying company as

soon as my Hydrographic Surveying MSc was completed. My job title is “Offshore Surveyor” where I am expected to work on

boats around the world for periods of up to two months at a time. I am finding the work

stimulating and diverse and the Hydrographic Surveying Masters from UCL

gave me an excellent grounding in the required surveying discipline and was

well regarded by employers and work colleagues.


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JP Cheminade (2003 – 2004) Offshore and Ports

I completed an MSc in Hydrographic Surveying at University College London in

2004, following a BSc in Marine Biology at the

University of Liverpool which I completed in 2001.

Upon completion of a thesis project entitled "The

Applications of Synthetic Aperture Sonar to the

Hydrographic Surveying Industry" I began work as an offshore surveyor in the

Middle East for Horizon Survey FZC in October 2004.

This job involved predominantly Rig Moves, Geophysical Site Surveys,

Pipeline Route Surveys (Prelay/Lay/Post-Lay) and Hazard Surveys for the oil and gas industry in Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Oman & Iran.

In late 2005 I moved on to hold a position as Hydrographic Surveyor at the Port of London Authority in the UK. This post involved the production of

hydrographic charts for navigation in the River Thames estuary on a field-to-finish basis. This involved the planning, execution and processing of survey

data, and subsequent publication of IHO standard bathymetric surveys for navigation.

In October 2007 I moved over to join NetSurvey Ltd, a specialist company offering advanced hydrographic survey services using multibeam technology.

From SOLAS charting surveys to marine habitat survey, port surveys including quay wall inspection to multibeam specialist services for pipeline and site surveys, NetSurvey provide the highest quality and most

technologically advanced solutions. Our multibeam specialist personnel are the best in the business and can install, calibrate, acquire and process data

from any portable multibeam system. Products for the client range from fully interactive 3D visualisation scenes to traditional sounding and contour charts or alignment sheets. Recent advances have included advanced backscatter

processing and Out-of-straightness pipeline visualisation. [After writing this JP moved on to work for Sydney Ports Corporation, but now has his own

company Geodesea, working in collaboration with the Thames Tideway project and the Port of London].


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Donald Chan (2005 – 2006) Port Authority

I qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1996 and was sponsored by my employer (the Hong Kong Government) to study the MSc in Hydrographic Surveying at UCL in

2005-2006 as a specialised training. After completion of the course I've been serving as a government surveyor

responsible for provision of hydrographic surveying services for fairway dredging works and construction and maintenance of marine structures in Hong Kong.

I find the course useful as it has provided me with the

necessary knowledge and qualifications to discharge my duties effectively. The course content was comprehensive and was well

presented by some experienced and competent teaching staff in a structural way. In particular, the topics on the theory and technique of echo sounding survey, GNSS positioning and IHO Standard have proved to be very useful

for my work regarding implementation and management of survey systems, drafting of contract specifications and quality control of survey products.

Laurence Letki (2006 – 2007) National Hydrographic Office

I studied at UCL in 2006-2007 and after that I worked for the French National Hydrographic Office. I spent most of my time onboard doing various hydrographic and geophysical surveys, both in shallow water and in deep

water, around France as well as abroad. Since March 2009, I have been working for WesternGeco, in the

seismic processing department, at Gatwick. The job is completely different and the extent of the technical knowledge to acquire is challenging. I also

work in contact with the clients. Next year, I will be transferred to the Research & Engineering

department. The beginning of my career is thus varied, technical,

challenging and promising. I am convinced I will never get bored! Studying at UCL was a key in the

success of the beginning of my career, as it enables me to adapt to completely different positions and to acquire specific technical knowledge very quickly using the strong basis learned during the MSc.


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Thomas Lowe (2001 – 2002) National Hydrographic Office

I took a job as an offshore surveyor with Norwegian company Stolt Offshore (now Acergy). Within this role I worked in a number

of countries (Norway, Egypt) on a number of platforms (survey ships, pipelay ships and

barges, oil rigs). My main role was as an online surveyor and involved, for example, positioning work, multi-beam survey and dive support. I

then moved to the UK Hydrographic Office as a data manager. At the UKHO my theoretical and

practical experience in geodesy became invaluable (I have only one person to thank for

that...UCL and JCI!) and put me in a good position to progress. I was promoted quickly (for the civil service and my age!) and became a key member of Hydrographic Database (HDB)

development team, with a mixture of technical, testing and project management responsibilities. Here I worked with commercial contractors

(EDS, CARIS & LSC Group) to develop a geospatial database and workflow management system to manage and create paper and electronic chart products: basically a replacement to the UKHOs chart production systems.

Understanding of geodesy has been absolutely vital for me in my job, and given me the stand-out competency to progress.

Now I've moved to the family firm (UK Solutions Ltd) as a Director, delivering premium datacentre space and network solutions.

Richard Day (2004 – 2005) Offshore

I studied at UCL in 2004-2005. Since then I have worked in the offshore positioning sector, and I am currently a navigator on a seismic streamer

boat. The Port of London Authority surveyors gave us a good overview of careers in this area, and I didn't know about my present role before the course. The job is a tremendous challenge, and what I like about it the most

is the five week crew rotation - more time off than most people get in a year!


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Alex Ewart (2010 – 2011) Offshore

I came from a background in structural engineering, having a BEng from Durham. Although I had a successful few years as an engineer, I wasn’t

particularly happy about basing a career in that field, so I always kept an eye out for a Master’s program

that would tick enough boxes for enjoyment and usefulness. The geomatics courses at UCL caught my attention, and although I was wary about the prospect

of life offshore it sounded adventurous and exciting (it is) and I was quickly swayed. The course has very

good exposure to people like the Port of London Authority and industry-leading companies, and there

are plenty of good opportunities to ask them all about life offshore and to get help for your studies. I have now become employed as a hydrographic surveyor at Netsurvey, a highly-specialist company, and work seems to be

how I hoped. The course is certainly more highly regarded than others, and it was pleasing to feel I had a variety of options open to me when it came to

jobs. For those who take the course, I’d recommend starting the job hunt/research early on, not just to make sure you know what you’re getting yourselves in for (it’s not for everyone), but to allow you to shop around and

find the best jobs first! [Since writing this Alex has moved on to be a maritime project officer with Headland Archaeology].

Andrew Price (2011 – 2012) Offshore & NZ Hydrographic Office

In 2011-2012 I undertook the

Hydrographic Surveying Masters course at UCL. In the following six months I worked Offshore in the Norwegian Sector,

undertaking R.O.V based Pipeline Inspection work for DeepOcean. Working

offshore offers a lot of benefits; the pay is very good, and you have a lot of opportunities to travel. The Industry is

quite fluid at the moment, and In March 2013 I emigrated, and began working for the New Zealand Hydrographic

Authority. The main focus here is ensuring that the Nautical Charts are up to date and correct. It’s a very varied job, where the focus of the work is administering the Hydrographic Survey Programme. This includes Site visits

around New Zealand where projects are planned or are underway, and validating and analysing the consequent survey data before it enters a

Bathymetric database, from which Charts can be created or updated. We also administer the Notice to Mariners, Navigational Area warnings and the Nautical Almanac which keep on top of changes within the areas that the

Nautical Charts cover.


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The MSc is both a challenging and rewarding way to spend a year, the rigorous emphasis on Geodesy sets you up well for a career in the

Hydrographic Survey Industry; A Cat. A from UCL is a well-respected qualification, and a useful head start.

14 Final Remarks

The UCL and PLA MSc programme has been running for more than 15 years.

In that time we have built a reputation for producing graduates who are capable and competent, with a sound grasp of the principles and practice of hydrographic surveying. You will find UCL surveyors around the world,

working aboard survey vessels, in ports and harbours, or aboard oil rigs; you will come across our graduates in research laboratories, working for

equipment manufacturers, or producing charts in national survey offices. It’s a big, global, and dynamic industry, and our course is respected by employers around the world.

We have tried in this brochure to give as much information as is feasible

about the scope of the course, its particular strengths, the staff who contribute, and the facilities available. If you do need to know more, then have a look at our web site or do feel free to contact us.

Otherwise, if you are thinking of applying to do the course, or if you have

employees that you are planning to send here for further training, or if you are looking for well trained graduates to join your organisation – then we

look forward to hearing from you.

ucl/pla msc hydrographic surveying · ucl/pla msc in hydrographic surveying msc in ... principles...

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