
Interview Question 9 with Dr. Jim Miller
9. What is the greatest impact/relevance of your research?
Question 9 transcript:
"The greatest potential impact of the research is that we're going to keep some whales from being run over. One of the leading causes of death of the great whales is being run over by vessels and if we can prevent a few of those, I think that would be of great significance. The other thing that's important is that we've designed the sonar to see rocks, and if a ship, oil tanker, installed our sonar, perhaps we could avoid an Exxon/Valdese accident. And that might not only save the whales but it could save a lot of birds and other animals, otters and things like that, that could be impacted. So, the use of this technology has a lot of positive benefits and that's very satisfying."
Interview Questions:
- How did you first become interested in science?
- What is the focus of your research and why did you choose this field of study?
- What have been some of the recent discoveries in obstacle avoidance and navigation?
- How do you use acoustics to detect and avoid underwater obstacles?
- What challenges have you faced in studying obstacle avoidance?
- What has most surprised you about avoiding obstacles and navigating?
- What skills are important in your area of research?
- What are the opportunities in ocean engineering? Can people without PhD's participate in some way in this type of research?
- What is the greatest impact/relevance of your research?
- What continues to inspire you about your work?
- What advice would you give a high school student who expressed an interst in pursuing a career in your field?
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