Note: The following article appeared in The Franklin County Section (E) of Sunday's Burlington Free Press and many people in Fairfax including me do not receive this in their Free Press Delivery - I called today and was promised I would receive it in the future - It was not on their web site either, so I have scanned the whole article as it appears below:
Deep SecretsBFA-Fairfax graduate joins expedition to find life beneath the frozen Arctic Ocean
BFA-Fairfax graduate Chris Murphy stands by the Swedish ice Cutter Oden on a 10-day June engineering test run to the Arctic Ocean. The main expedition to search for hydrothermal vents begin July 1, 2007 (Above Photo Courtesy Of Chris Murphy)
By Tom Brown
Free Press Staff Writer Scientists know little of what lies beneath the frozen Arctic Ocean. A team of experts hopes to learn more as they leave today on a 40-day expedition to explore the Gakkel Ridge, a 1,100-mile undersea ledge that separates the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.
Joining the team is Chris Murphy, a 2001 graduate of BFA-Fairfax, who will help program and operate two underwater robotic vehicles that will scour the ridge in hopes'of discovering new species of sea life.
"My role on this mission is to help develop the technology for and operate the Autonomous Underwater Vehicles," Murphy said. 'That means that I write a lot of software that runs on Linux, an operating system sort of like Windows, which can run on the robots.
"My tasks on the ship could range from making more changes to the software, to processing received data, to flying out in a helicopter to look for open water that the robot could surface in. Or it might be more mundane tasks like standing on the deck with a pole to keep ice away from the robot when it's on the surface or sitting in a boat with a walkie-talkie waiting for the robot to surface, or bolting on a new sensor with a hose clamp."
Murphy. 24, is a graduate student at MIT in Cambridge. Mass., where he participates in a partnership program between the college and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Woods Hole is conducting the mission in which the 30-member research team will ride aboard the Oden, a Swedish icebreaker that will carry the group close to the North Pole.
Once in position, the team will deploy two Autonomous Underwater ' Vehicles (AUVs), Puma and Jaguar, that will probe the ocean floor for hydro thermal "vents" that spew superheated water and minerals. The AUVs will locate and map the vents and another vehicle, tethered to the ship, will scoop up samples of rock, sediment and living creatures.
Hooked by Lake Champlain
Murphy said his path to the Arctic began in Lake Champlain.
"Since I was a kid, I've always loved the water. I spent most summers on Lake Champlain at my grandparents' camps, snorkeling, swimming and sailing. My graduation present from my godparents was SCUBA certification," he said.
Murphy went from being co-valedictorian (with Aaron Vallette) at BFA to Franklin W Olin College in Needham, Mass., a school that was starting an innovative engineering program that focused on the integration of science and technology with society.
"In my four years at Olin I took courses not only in engineering, but also in design, political science and entrepreneurship," said Murphy, whose degree is in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Murphy took an early interest in computers, according to his mother, Barbara.
"He wrote first program on a PC Jr., when he was in first grade," Barbara Murphy said. "His father told him to write a program to pick lottery numbers, and he did."
Chris' father, Michael, was a programmer at IBM who passed away about four years ago.
"It was his father's own childhood dream to do oceanography," Barbara Murphy said, and now his son fulfilling that wish.
Barbara Murphy says her son was always interested in the outdoors and credits his status as an Eagle scout for helping him build a confident and eclectic base.
"He's unique in that he could have been a nerd, but he's really not," Barbara Murphy said.
While studying at Olin, Murphy received a fellowship to work with Dr. Hanumant Singh at Woods Hole. Singh is the lead vehicle developer on the Arctic expedition.
"I spent that summer learning quite a bit about underwater robotics and mapping, and traveled to Chios, Greece, as part of an expedition to explore some Greek and Roman shipwrecks," Murphy said.
In his senior year at Olin, Murphy worked on a project for the John Deere Corp. to develop technology to automate tractors.
"Our end result was a low-cost system that used two cameras to measure approximately how far from the tractor the surroundings were," he said. "It used a technique called stereo vision that operates much as our brains use our two eyes to figure out how far away things are. This was my introduction to a field called cameras and computers to solve a number of robotics and automation problems."
Well-seasoned
Life aboard a 354-foot icebreaker in the middle of the Arctic Ocean is enough to make a hardy Vermonter feel at home. Murphy traveled on a 10-day engineering trial aboard the Oden in late May.
"The weather on deck is similar to a Vermont winter, so it's not too bad," Murphy said. "At times you can go outside in a sweatshirt, at times it's better to wear a survival suit."
While the trip can be loud and the ship vibrates violently as it cuts through the ice, it is more dangerous on ice than onboard.
"If we go out in the helicopter or onto the ice, we all wear survival suits," he said. "We also need to bring a polar bear guard with a rifle any time we're on ice, as the bears are always hunting. I was able to see two of them on the first trip, as well as some seals, which was quite an experience."
The main concern for the crew, besides their own safety, is being able to retrieve the AUV's, which cost about $450,000 each.
"It would be very unfortunate if we lost an AUV," Murphy said, "but we are going into an unknown and hostile environment."
While finding life forms that may have evolved in the isolation of the Gakkel Ridge would be exciting, Murphy said there are many ways to measure the success of the voyage.
"I'm hopeful that we'll get some really great photos, video and samples from the hydrothermal vent sites, and that we'll learn a lot about a previously unexplored area," he said.
Solid foundation
Murphy said being raised in a small town provided a solid base for his development.
"BFA has a number of great teachers, too many to list here, that I thank them for the educational preparation that got me through college," Murphy said. "1 think growing up in a smaller town like Fairfax has a number of benefits socially — you learn to work with others, you see people arguing about what's best for the town at town meeting, and you get to be a part of a community.
"I also know that without participating in the Boy Scouts (Troop 853) I wouldn't be who I am, or where I am today."
After completing the mission, Murphy expects plenty of work interpreting the data collected and planning the next expedition.
"The first thing that's 'next' is to take a vacation," Murphy said. "Forty days on a small ship is a long time to be away from friends and family."[/b]
