During the last week of April 2017, ORE research professor Bruce Howe visited China to learn more about their ocean observing efforts, specifically using cabled systems. Tongji University is leading a major push by China in this area, somewhat similar to our NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative. Other partners include Zhejiang University and the Chinese Academy of Sci-ences. Two cable systems are planned, one in the East China Sea, and one in the South China Sea (see fig-ure). The current vision for the latter is a 1400-km multi-node system, quite ambitious and never been-done-before. The budget for the total effort is about $200M.
He visited Tongji University, Zhejiang University, Hengtong Marine Cable Systems, and Zhongtian Technology Marine Systems. This was his first visit to Tongji. They have built a new ocean campus in Lingang New City just southeast of Shanghai. They are gearing up to hire 200 people for this effort. Our contact there is Professor Huaiyang Zhou, a long-term col-league of John Wiltshire’s. He has invited Howe to be a member of their International Advisory Board. Howe has interacted with the engineering group at Zhejiang five years, starting with having Yanhu Chen here at UH as a post-doc here.
Tongji and Zhejiang have formed joint ventures with Heng-tong and Zhongtian to support this effort. At both companies, Howe visited both optical fiber plants (~40 Gm per year each) and the cable plants. The latter were for both power and telecoms. All very impressive.