AIS Applications, Analysis and Data Management TechniquesBetter Decision Making Through Ship Tracking and Modeling

September 24 - 25, 2015Halifax, Nova Scotia

Proudly Sponsored By:

Welcome from MEOPAR

On behalf of the MEOPAR NCE (Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network of Centres of Excellence), I welcome you to the inaugural AIS workshop, co-sponsored with our partner exactEarth Ltd. and Dalhousie’s Institute for Big Data Analytics. The unprecedented access to pertinent, pervasive, and persistent data on marine traffic provides rich opportunities for advancing research on many of the risks and opportunities associated with human activity on the oceans.

MEOPAR research projects span a wide range of topics, several of which depend on accurate and timely shipping data. Vessel impacts on the environment can include noise, air pollution, accidental spills, invasive species transfer through ballast water, collisions with mammals, interactions with other vessels, and other operational ramifications. Investigations to help improve policies and practices to mitigate such risks depend fundamentally on information about ship patterns, types, densities, trends and anomalies, enabled through the Automatic Identification System. Thus, access to shipping data will produce significant advances for the understanding and management of such issues. Furthermore, research on how best to access, visualize, clean, and query the data, and produce derived products such as shipping tracks, are also key areas of focus in this workshop. This event addresses cutting-edge research in all of these areas by bringing together industry, government and academia. MEOPAR is very pleased to co-host this event, and welcomes you to what we hope will be a productive and informative workshop.

DR. RONALD PELOT, P.ENGAssociate Scientific DirectorMarine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response (MEOPAR) Network

WELCOME

WORKSHOP PLANNING COMMITTEE

DR. RON PELOTWorkshop Chair

CASEY HILLIARDWorkshop Coordinator

ALEXA REEDMANEvent Coordinator

PETER DORCASCommittee Member

DR. MÉLANIE FOURNIERCommittee Member

DR. STAN MATWINCommittee Member

NORMA SERRA SOGASCommittee Member

DR. CHRIS TAGGARTCommittee Member

Welcome from the Institute for Big Data AnalyticsWe are happy to welcome you to our workshop that gathers the producers, curators and users of AIS data. These are exciting times for all of us in the broad AIS community. Better satellite coverage, better quality of the data, better tools for the analysis, integration and visualization of the data – all these factors are contributing greatly to the growing importance of AIS as a fundamental resource for all those interested in the human footprint on the world’s oceans. I think personally that significance of the broadly understood AIS technologies for the oceans will be similar to that of MRI for medicine: putting together local, hidden information into a meaningful, revealing and full picture, and delivering qualitatively new knowledge. AIS data is certainly Big Data in every sense of this term, and as such is a truly exciting challenge for the Institute for Big Data Analytics. We want our Institute to become a leader in AIS data analytics, and that can only hap-pen in partnership with many other experts from this community. Our meeting is a small step in that direc-tion. Welcome to the “AIS: Applications, Analysis and Data Management Techniques” Workshop, welcome to Halifax.

DR. STAN MATWINCanada Research Chair and ProfessorDirector, Institute for Big Data AnalyticsDalhousie University

Welcome from exactEarth

As the world’s leading Satellite AIS data solutions provider, exactEarth is keen to explore the various AIS applications, analysis and data management techniques that today’s researchers are utilising. In order to best serve the maritime community, it is imperative to understand the different approaches to AIS data management and the implications that is has on the ability to perform critical maritime research for effective ship tracking and modelling.

At exactEarth, we understand the frequency and formats of AIS messages have presented data management and interoperability challenges and as such, this workshop will look to establish best practices for leveraging this maritime intelligence to plot new innovations, make useful connections and make more informed decisions.

MR. PETER DORCAS, P.ENGSenior Director Business Development, AmericasexactEarth Ltd.

8:30 am Arrival and registration

9:00 am Opening remarks Presenters: Ron Pelot, Stan Matwin, Peter Dorcas

9:30 am AIS data analytics by Big Data Institute Presenter: Stan Matwin (MEOPAR and Institute for Big Data Analytics, Dalhousie University)

10:00am exactAIS RT Presenter: Peter Dorcas (exactEarth Ltd.)

10:30am BREAK

11:00am The future of the AIS system - The VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) Presenter: Peggy Browning (exactEarth Ltd.)

11:30am Managing long-term, high volume data using open source software Presenter: Sean Webb (Defence Research and Development Canada)

12:00pm LUNCH

1:00pm Illegal fishing, vessel identity and AIS Presenter: Arne Jørgensen (Trygg Mat Tracking)

1:30pm Applications of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data for oceans management Presenter: Tanya Koropatnick (Fisheries and Oceans Canada)

2:00pm Modeling and managing boat-whale interactions in the St. Lawrence Estuary for whale conservation: An overview of AIS data uses and challenges Presenter: Clément Chion (MEOPAR and ISFORT - Université du Québec Outaouais)

2:30pm Integration of AIS data for maritime survelliance Presenter: Mélanie Fournier (PASSAGES, Dalhousie University)

2:45pm AIS data explorer prototype Presenters: Andrew Rau-Chaplin and Kai Qi, (Risk Analysis Lab, Dalhousie)

3:00pm BREAK

3:30pm AIS as a lens for looking at marine vessel traffic as a proxy for anthropogenic stressors (remote) Presenter: Patrick O’Hara (Environment Canada)

4:00pm Ships in ice: potential opportunities for mining AIS data to support probabilistic modeling of operational performance Presenter: Rocky Taylor (MEOPAR and Memorial University)

4:15pm Detecting fishing patterns and effort using AIS data Presenters: Kristina Boerder (WormLab, Dalhousie University) and Erico Neves De Souza (Institute for Big Data Analytics, Dalhousie University)

5pm Day I closing remarks

AGENDAThursday, September 24

8:45 am Arrival

9:00 am Day II introduction Presenter: Ron Pelot (MEOPAR and Dalhousie University)

9:10 am Data-driven techniques for analysis using historical and real-time global AIS data Presenter: Karna Bryan (NATO CMRE)

10:10am Analysis of incidents at sea using marine traffic data Presenter: Ron Pelot (MEOPAR and Dalhousie University)

10:25am BREAK

11:00am Saving the oceans with AIS and big data Presenter: Paul Woods (SkyTruth, Global Fishing Watch)

11:30am Exploring the utility of satellite AIS data to predict underwater noise levels in Canadian waters Presenter: Norma Serra Sogas (NEMES, MEOPAR, University of Victoria)

12:00pm LUNCH

1:00pm AIS investigations to support maritime domain awareness Presenter: Anthony Isenor (Defence Research and Development Canada)

1:30pm Making sense of AIS-based ship observations in ice using the Polar Operational Limitations Assessment Risk Indexing System (POLARIS) Presenter: Mark Stoddard (Dalhousie University)

1:50pm Application of AIS data to practical marine mammal conservation Presenter: Chris Taggart (MEOPAR and WHaLE, Dalhousie University)

2:05pm Architecting a new future for processing AIS and ship data Presenter: Taylor Nicholls (exactEarth Ltd.)

2:35pm Break out / group talk session on project linking, future direction and uses of AIS

3:15pm Workshop closing remarks

AFriday, September 25

WORKSHOP RECEPTIONThursday, September 24 | 6pmSteele Ocean Sciences Building | Dalhousie University 1355 Oxford Street, 2nd Floor Atrium

Attendees of this AIS Workshop are invited to join attendees from the Arctic and Marine Infrastructure Syposium (being held at Dalhousie on the same dates) for a joint reception in the Steele Ocean Sciences Building at Dalhousie University on Thursday evening.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

RONALD PELOT (MEOPAR)Ronald Pelot has been a Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Dalhousie University since 1994. In 2012, he became the Associate Scientific Director of the MEOPAR (Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response) Networks of Centres of Excellence, headquartered at Dalhousie. In 1997, he founded the Maritime Activity and Risk Investigation Network (MARIN) at Dalhousie. Since then his team has developed new software tools and analysis methods applied to maritime safety (accidents), coastal zone security, and marine spills. Research methods encompass spatial risk analysis, vessel traffic modelling, data processing and pattern analysis, location models for resource allocation, and safety analyses. Current projects include developing an improved risk model of ship oil spills to determine zones of greatest risk depending on the degree of exposure, more detailed drift models, and coastal sensitivity/vulnerability indices. Another study concerns shipping in the arctic, including a network model of feasible routes accounting for ice, land and bathymetry and a forecast of northern traffic in the future based on a wide range of drivers. Other applications include Search & Rescue planning, port and maritime security, and coastal zone management.

STAN MATWIN (INSTITUTE FOR BIG DATA ANALYTICS, DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY)Stan Matwin is a Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) at Dalhousie University, a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Ottawa, and a Full Professor at the Institute for Computer Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Dr. Matwin is also the Director of the Institute for Big Data Analytics at Dalhousie, He holds the titles of Fellow of the European Coordinating Committee on AI, Fellow of the Canadian AI Association (CAIAC), and Ontario Champion of Innovation. Internationally recognized for his work in text mining, applications of machine learning, and data privacy, he is a member of the Editorial Boards of leading journals in machine learning and data mining. Author and co-author of more than 250 refereed papers, and a supervisor of more than 50 graduate students, Stan Matwin has extensive experience and interest in innovation and technology transfer.

PETER DORCAS (EXACTEARTH LTD.)With the formation of exactEarth Ltd in 2009, Peter transitioned from COM DEV’s corporate business development team into exactEarth as the Director of Sales and Marketing. Over the past 5 years, Peter has worked closely with Canadian Space Agency, defense scientists and the academic community to define and develop satellite AIS application areas spanning defense, civil and commercial market segments. With the procurement of a government wide exactAIS data service in 2010, Peter supports an ever increasing number of Canadian federal agencies as they integrate the exactAIS data service into their operations with notables including the Marine Security Operations Centres, Search and Rescue Coordination Centres and various users in the Department of National Defense, Transport Canada, Environment Canada, Canadian Border Services Agency, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. In 2012, Peter was appointed the Director for the Americas and similarly heads the sales and integration activities with a number of US Agencies and international customers across the Americas. Peter holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from McMaster University and is a registered professional Engineer in the province of Ontario.

PEGGY BROWNING (EXACTEARTH LTD.)Peggy is an internationally recognized AIS technical expert having experience in both AIS technology and market development. Peggy has been involved in defining and evolving AIS standards through various technical standards bodies such as IALA, RTCM, CIRM and IEC for many years. Over the past 4 years she has concentrated her efforts on satellite AIS working with exactEarth. Peggy has a degree in Computer Engineering from Auburn University.

SEAN WEBB (DEFENCE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CANADA)Sean Webb is a computer scientist in the Maritime Information Support (MIS) group at Defence R&D Canada – Atlantic Research Centre. Sean has extensive experience working with data that supports Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). Spanning the past 10 years, he has been the software/technical lead on a number of AIS-related projects within the MIS group. These projects have included the development of a self-contained remote AIS collector with satellite back-haul; an AIS-directed imaging system designed to automate vessel image collection; an STK-based simulator for assessment of northern AIS receptions from satellite; and the development of the Maritime Situation Awareness Research Infrastructure (MSARI) for managing the group’s MDA data.

ARNE JØRGENSON (TRYGG MAT TRACKING FOUNDATION)Arne Jorgensen is the CTO of the Trygg Mat Tracking Foundation (TMT). He is a respected and quoted expert within the Microsoft technology community, earning him the position of Regional Director for Microsoft. He has been a pioneer within the Norwegian IT-industry, working with process improvements, integration, mobility and search technology. His specialty has been information and knowledge management, in particular related to search and continuous improvements of relevancy methodologies. He resides in Oslo, Norway. Trygg Mat Tracking Foundation (TMT) provides expert fisheries intelligence analysis to national authorities and relevant international institutions, in support of enforcement actions and broader improvements in fisheries governance. This is achieved through a combination of close cooperation and information sharing with government agencies, through fisheries intelligence gathering and analysis, vessel tracking and the development of technology that assists in the capture of information on fisheries crimes. While TMT works with governments and organisations worldwide, particular focus is on the levels of illegal fishing in and near African waters and assisting coastal African States.

TANYA KOROPATNICK (FISHERIES AND OCEANS CANADA)Tanya Koropatnick’s fascination with the marine environment has propelled her through many years of work and study in the biological and environmental sciences. She holds a Master of Resource and Environmental Management from Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies, where her academic interests focused on marine conservation and sustainable resource use. She also holds a PhD in Zoology from the University of Hawaii, which focused on animal-bacterial interactions in a marine symbiosis, and an honours-level Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Calgary, with a specialization in marine biology and toxicology. Tanya left academic research to join Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO’s) Oceans and Coastal Management Division at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in 2009. Since then, she has worked with a team of dedicated colleagues devoted to the establishment and management of Marine Protected Areas, and the development and application of environmental risk assessment and human use mapping as tools for effective oceans management. She is particularly excited to explore the use of cutting-edge technologies, like the Automatic Identification System, for mapping, analysing and monitoring human activities in ocean space.

KRISTIN BOERDER (DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY)Kristina Boerder is a Ph.D. student at Dalhousie University working on the interactions of large marine protected areas and global fisheries with the TOSST (Transatlantic Ocean System Science and Technology) research program under supervision of Boris Worm.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

CLÉMENT CHION (UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC EN OUTAOAIS)Clément Chion (PhD, Eng.) is a postdoctoral fellow at Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau (QC). He holds a degree in Automation Engineering from INSA de Rennes, France. He completed a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence applied to Precision Farming and a PhD in Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) applied to maritime traffic management for whale conservation in the St. Lawrence River at École de technologie supérieure in (Montréal). In 2012, he hold a postdoctoral position at Université de Montréal, working on technology transfer of his PhD work for Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Parks Canada. He has been leading the development of 3MTSim, a decision support system dedicated to inform the sustainable management of navigation activities with regard to marine mammals in the St. Lawrence River Estuary. He is now working to implement a model of underwater anthropogenic sound propagation into 3MTSim. His main areas of interest include application of artificial intelligence, modelling, GIS, remote sensing, social-ecological systems, and participatory research for natural resource sustainable management, both in marine and forest systems. He received the 2011’s best PhD thesis award from the École de technologie supérieure Engineering School along with the International Society for Ecological Modelling’s Best Young Researcher Award in 2013.

MÉLANIE FOURNIER (PASSAGES, DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY)Dr. Mélanie Fournier is a French geographer, Ph.D from the Paul-Valéry University, Montpellier III. She obtained her Ph.D from the Montpellier III University with a specialization on satellite-based maritime surveillance. She worked mainly on the geographical and geopolitical implications of a satellite-based surveillance within the European Union maritime basins. She worked successively for the French Ministry of Defense in Paris, the European Satellite Centre (EUSC) based in Torrejòn (Spain) and for the United Nations Operational Satellite program (UNOSAT) based in Switzerland. The main objective was to produce conflicts and natural disasters maps based on satellite imagery. She also had a first year as a postdoc within the Digital Humanities Lab at the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland to model, among others topics, the old Venetian maritime routes. Dr. Fournier is currently working within the MARIN team on a collaborative research project (called PASSAGES) on traffic surveillance, modelling, and risk in the arctic in collaboration with Canadian and German industry.

ANDREW RAU-CHAPLIN (RISK ANALYTICS LAB, DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY)Professor Rau-Chaplin’s research has focused on the application of High Performance Computing (HPC) in data and computationally intensive challenges in domains including bioinformatics, data warehousing, OLAP, spatial information systems, catastrophe modeling, and risk analytics. He and his co-authors have published over 100 papers in selective conferences and journals. Currently, Dr. Rau-Chaplin runs the Risk Analytics Lab (www.risk-analytics-lab.ca) an industry funded lab which explores the design and implementation of tools for quantifying, managing, and optimizing both individual risks and portfolios of risk. Projects explore event based risk modeling, insurance and reinsurance analytics, analysis of natural and man-made catastrophic events and their potential impact, and applications in policy, planning, and emergency response. He also serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie.

PATRICK O’HARA (ENVIRONMENT CANADA)Patrick O’Hara is with Environment Canada, based at the Institute of Ocean Sciences (DFO). Current interests include spatially explicit modeling of risk of impact associated with human activities and pollution; and predictive modeling of seabird distributions, which primarily will be used to identify characteristics of key foraging habitats that are used by seabirds to fuel migration, feed chicks, or simply survive winter.

ROCKY TAYLOR (MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY)Dr. Rocky Taylor is an Assistant Professor and the CARD Chair in Ice Mechanics with Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. He has been involved with the Centre for Arctic Resource Development (CARD), which is hosted by C-CORE, since its inception in 2011, initially as a senior research engineer and then as a principal investigator for ice mechanics. CARD was established to pursue research activities to fill gaps faced in the development of Arctic offshore oil and gas resources. As a graduate of Memorial University, he holds doctoral (2010) and master’s degrees (2006) in Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering, as well as an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering (2003). His research encompasses a variety of ice-engineering problems, particularly those related to ice load estimation for the design and operation of ships and offshore structures and the mechanics of compressive ice failure. His work is focused on local and global ice load modelling, pressured ice, ice compressive failure mechanics, probabilistic aspects of fracture processes in ice, the analysis of scale effects, dynamic ice-structure interactions, as well as ice rubble mechanics and ice environmental characterization.

KARNA BRYAN (NATO CENTRE FOR MARITIME RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION)Karna Bryan is Programme Manager of the Maritime Security Programme at the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) in La Spezia, Italy. Karna manages projects which examine the role of future technologies for enhanced Maritime Situational Awareness (MSA) and other aspects of Maritime Security.

CMRE’s MSA project builds on current collaborative data sharing efforts by concentrating on automation and techniques to extract useful information from data. The aim is to produce tools and algorithms which can be used to better understand multi-sensor data from a variety of providers in order to achieve a greater understanding of traffic in the maritime environment. The ultimate goal of this effort is to increase the ability for military and law enforcement officials to detect threats at sea. Scalability and automation are a focus of the project with the objective of taking more tedious tasks away from humans, providing better information and decision aids to operators, and achieving more comprehensive awareness.

Prior to working in Maritime Security she developed algorithms and prototype software for Naval Mine Warfare and Anti-Submarine Warfare as an Operational Research Scientist. She has been involved in exercise analysis, operational studies, evaluation of end-user requirements, determination of measures of performance, and end-to-end modelling for assessing measures of effectiveness. She holds a Master’s degree in Statistics from Yale University and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

CHRIS TAGGART (DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY)Professor C.T. Taggart has been with the Oceanography Department at Dalhousie University since 1995 following a Research Scientist–II position with the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre, an NSERC-URF Assistant Professor in Oceanography at Dalhousie, an NSERC-PDF with Dalhousie and the Marine Ecology Lab at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. He received his PhD (Dean’s Honours, NSERC Scholar and McConnell Fellow) at McGill University where he won the American Fisheries Society Student Award of Merit and the Canadian Society of Zoology T.W.M. Cameron Outstanding PhD Thesis Award. He received his MSc at York University (Ontario Graduate Scholar, and his BSc (1st Class Honours) at Carleton University. As a principal investigator in many small and large multi-institutional research initiatives, he conducts oceanographic research on physical, biochemical, genetic, ecological and human influences on growth, reproduction, early life history, recruitment, survival, population structure, distribution and conservation of marine organisms ranging from zooplankton to fishes, sea turtles and whales in systems as small as the Bay of Fundy and as large as the Coral Sea. He has mentored ~100 highly qualified personnel including PDFs and RAs, graduate and honours students and research assistants whereby he has contributed to more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and ~200 conference/seminar presentations of which ~30% were invited or keynote contributions.

PAUL WOODS (SKYTRUTH)Paul is the CTO at SkyTruth, an NGO dedicated to the practical application of remote sensing to global environmental issues. Paul is also the technical lead on the Global Fishing Watch project which uses global satellite and terrestrial AIS data combined with machine learning algorithms and big data analytics to identify and visualize fishing and related behaviors from all trackable vessels from 2012 through the present.

NORMA SERRA SOGAS (UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA)Norma is a research associate with the CORAL group at University of Victoria. Currently she works as Project Manager for the NEMES project, a MEOPAR funded project and leaded by Dr Canessa from the CORAL group. The aim of this project is to explore whether underwater noise models based on AIS vessel traffic data can accurately predict noise levels in Canadian waters. Also, for the past 5 years, Norma has been engaged in number of contracts with Transport Canada National Aerial Surveillance Program as a GIS Analyst, analyzing and visualizing marine pollution events from anthropogenic marine activities. In 2010, Norma became PacMARA’s Program Manager and trainer, and organization dedicated to building and increasing capacity in marine and coastal planning in Canada and internationally. Norma holds a Master’s degree from the University of Victoria, and an advance diploma in GIS and Remote Sensing.

ANTHONY ISENOR (DEFENCE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CANADA)Anthony W. Isenor is a scientist in the Maritime Decision Support Section at Defence R&D Canada – Atlantic Research Centre. Anthony leads the Maritime Information Support group, a team of eight people whose focus is to understand, manage, and exploit Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) information to support decision makers in the Canadian Forces. He has extensive experience in geospatial data sets, metadata standards, data vocabularies, and data structures. His recent work has focused on applied research related to the integration of emerging data sources into the Canadian MDA framework.

MARK STODDARD (DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY)Mark Stoddard is currently entering his second year of a PhD research program in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Dalhousie University. His current academic research is focused on Arctic maritime risk assessment. Past academic research has focused on the development and use of new operational research techniques for long-term spatial forest management planning with uncertainty. In addition to his PhD studies at Dalhousie University, Mark is employed as a defence scientist with Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC).

ERICO NEVES DE SOUZA (BIG DATA ANALYTICS INSTITUTE, DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY)Dr. Erico N de Souza has his Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa, in 2014, and currently works as a post-doctoral fellow of Big Data Analytics Institute, using machine learning algorithms to detect anomalies in vessel movement and fishing activity detection based on GPS coordinates.

TAYLOR NICHOLLS (EXACTEARTH LTD.)Taylor is the Product Architect at exactEarth, joining the team in 2011. He designed and implemented the current suite of web technologies including, exactAIS Geospatial Web Services and the interactive ship tracking application, ShipView. Taylor has a Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) in Geography with a Specialization in Geomatics and a Diploma of Excellence in Geographic Information Systems from the University of Waterloo. With 12 years of experience, Taylor works with innovative systems for serving map-based technologies to many products, projects, and clients.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES