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October 28, 2019: Navy Wave Energy Research and Development

  • October 28, 2019
  • 4:00 p.m.
  • 210 Robeson Hall
  • Dr. Philip Vitale, Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC)
  • Faculty Host: Dr. Stefano Brizzolara

Abstract:  Navy wave energy research and development will be presented with an emphasis on field testing.  The Navy is operating a wave energy test site off the coast of Hawaii. This is the only operational grid-connected open-ocean test site in the U.S.  Two wave energy conversion devices have each completed two rounds of testing at the site and several others are scheduled in the near future.

Bio: Dr. Phil Vitale serves as the Director of Ocean Engineering of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC).   The ocean engineering team serves as the Navy's facilities experts for engineering, maintaining, and installing ocean, littoral and underwater systems; protecting Navy seafloor cables; and designing and certifying shore-based hyperbaric facilities.  Before joining NAVFAC, Dr. Vitale was a research coastal engineer with the Coastal Engineering Research Center of the Army Corps of Engineers.    

Phil received his Bachelor’s degree from Stevens Institute Technology in Hoboken, NJ and his masters and doctorate degrees from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.  He is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.