Ocean Engineering Course Provides Hands-on Design Experience at the Atlantic Ocean
By Andrew Tie
4/24/25Pratt School of Engineering
Design course at the Duke University Marine Lab provides an attractive alternative to semesters abroad with experiential travel opportunities and still attend basketball games on the weekend.
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Ocean Engineering Course Provides Hands-on Design Experience at the Atlantic Ocean
For more than a decade, Martin Brooke, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE), has taught an ocean engineering design course in Gross Hall next to the illustrious waters of the North Carolina piedmont.
“Our ‘ocean’ was the pond out back,” Brooke joked, referring to Duke Pond on West Campus.
This semester, Brooke and the course trekked 180 miles southeast from Durham to the Atlantic Ocean at the Duke University Marine Lab (DUML) in Beaufort, NC, for an entirely new and more hands-on experience.
Brooke said there is a lot of overlap between engineering and environmental work, and Duke Engineering is continually seeking new ways to partner with the Nicholas School of the Environment at DUML. The latest example is this semester’s class, which worked on building low-cost deep-sea hydrophones, which are sensors to capture underwater sounds. Hydrophones have a variety of aquatic applications, but some of their environmental colleagues next door might use them one day to help decipher whale behaviors.
“It’s amazing how much our students do day-to-day in engineering that applies to the ocean,” Brooke said. “Artificial intelligence is used for identifying species or processing sounds. Computer engineering is needed for the collection and storage of data. Optics and radio frequency are used to create sensors and interfaces.”
This is yet another amazing aspect of being at Duke. You have this entire marine lab with dorms, a food service and great facilities where you can do real work for the environment in a hands-on design activity.
Nan JokerstJ.A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Working in Real-World Environments
Although sitting in a lecture and working in labs provide essential foundational knowledge, nothing compares to the experience in the field.
“Putting a device in the ocean is a big change for any project and tests them way beyond what happens in a lab,” Brooke said.
Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC
The Duke University Marine Lab operates year-round to provide educational, training and research opportunities to about 1,000 individuals annually. DUML includes historic classrooms ideally suited for the study of marine organisms, student life facilities, as well as state-of-the-art labs located a stone’s throw from the ocean.
Brooke has long co-taught the course with Douglas Nowacek, the Repass-Rodgers Distinguished Professor of Marine Conservation Technology, jointly appointed in the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Pratt School of Engineering. For this semester, Nan Jokerst, the J.A. Jones Distinguished Professor of ECE, also joined to teach ocean engineering, which was a first for Brooke and Jokerst, who are married, though they have taught senior design together for 29 years.
Soldering components together to build a deepwater hydrophone.Deepwater hydrophone prototype being epoxied. This design was developed in a first-year design class, then expanded on and duplicated in ocean engineering.Testing a hydrophone prototype. The sound signal is being observed and recorded.
Jokerst came with expertise in optics, photonics and nanotechnology but no prior experience working in the ocean. She quickly learned that commercial optical hydrophones are commonplace in marine research, but they cost tens of thousands of dollars, a price that is hard to swallow if the devices themselves get swallowed by an animal.
“I thought, ‘could we build something better and cheaper?’” Jokerst said.
For less than $300, Jokerst and her students built a rough optical hydrophone using fiber optic sensors and a coupler.
“The highlight of the class was the fact that we were able to build something really quickly using fairly cheap items,” said Grace Randall, a marine science graduate student with a bachelor’s in environmental engineering. “Biology and marine science can inform a lot of what the design challenges are.”
We were constantly able to put things in the ocean or take stuff out on boats, and when they inevitably break, you can come right back in the lab.
David MannMarine Science and Economics Student
Providing More Design Experiences
With nearly three decades of experience, Brooke and Jokerst are two of ECE’s leading experts in teaching design. Between Duke Engineering’s signature First-Year Design course (EGR 101L) and the advanced senior design courses, there’s a gap in intermediate design experiences at Duke, Jokerst said. Classes like ocean engineering, as well as rainforest engineering, are helping to fill that void by getting out of the lab and into real-world environments.
“There’s never one perfect solution in design,” Jokerst said. “The mantra for us in design is ‘If it works to spec, it’s good enough.’ Design requires so many factors to be considered: cost, time to market, implementation ease, and on and on, and this is the heart of true engineering.”
It’s an attractive alternative to semesters abroad that provides students with experiential travel opportunities—plus the ability to attend basketball games on weekends.
Like most design projects, building hydrophones was an iterative process.
“We were constantly able to put things in the ocean or take stuff out on boats, and when they inevitably break, you can come right back in the lab,” said David Mann, a sophomore studying marine science and economics. “The lab here is an incredible space and has really, really nice tools.”
Added Randall: “This is very much a project-based course, so it is very good for someone who really wants to get hands-on and try to figure out how something works just by trying things.”
Nowacek described the ocean engineering lab at DUML like an “Innovation Co-Lab at the Coast” with all the equipment and supplies needed for engineering students to develop and test gear for ocean research.
Shallow water testing the hydrophone off the dock
Testing the fiber optic hydrophone prototype
Calling All Engineering Students
During the spring, engineering students can take four consecutive block courses that allow them to dive deep into a topic for one month at a time. These are an attractive alternative to semesters abroad that provide students with experiential travel opportunities—plus the ability to attend basketball games on the weekends.
“This is yet another amazing aspect of being at Duke,” Jokerst said. “You have this entire marine lab with dorms, a food service and great facilities where you can do real work for the environment in a hands-on design activity.”
It’s amazing how much our students do day-to-day in engineering that applies to the ocean.
Martin BrookeAssociate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Students remarked that this classroom experience is very different from the norm and allows for more one-on-one time with faculty.
“We worked on the project every day, nine to five in the lab, all work time, no lectures, no lessons, which initially took me a minute to adjust to,” Mann said. “I quickly realized I was learning a lot more than in a lecture-style class.”
Brooke anticipates the next class to feature projects aligned with the XPRIZE Foundation’s ocean engineering competition, as well as more trips out to sea to test their designs.
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