OL Board of Trustees March 10, 2011 Ocean Observatories Initiative OOI Program Update Tim Cowles

OL Board of Trustees March 10, 2011

Ocean Observatories Initiative

OOI Program Update

Tim Cowles


Ocean Observatories Initiative

Navy Briefi

ng

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Design Elements

4 Global sites

3 Regional cabled sites in the NE Pacific

2 Coastal arrays: Mid-Atlantic Pioneer Array, PNW Endurance Array

Each scale incorporates mobile assets

Cyberinfrastructure: enables adaptive sampling, custom observatory view, collaborative analysis

Interfaces for education users


OOI overarching goals

OOI has two fundamental scientific and research

mandates that underpin its construction:

• Sustained delivery of high-quality data for two to three

decades;

• Maintenance of the expandability of the infrastructure

to support new capabilities.


OOI overarching goals

We address those mandates by meeting the science

requirements during construction, and by building in the most

cost-effective approaches to operating the infrastructure.

The most cost-effective approaches include:

• A model for the lowest possible annual operating cost

• No compromises to science, safety, and data integrity

• Incorporation of established change control processes, risk

management process, policies for adding new science...


Gaps identified in October 2010

•Some high-value work elements behind schedule

•Procurement actions slower than planned

•Still understaffed across the project even with

remarkable growth since start of construction in Sept

2009

•Weak web site and external communications

Under pressure from NSF and OMB to show

improvements in progress within next 6 months


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Corrective Action Plan: Initial Issues

Four areas were the primary focal points for action

• Weaknesses in some management structures

• PM and Engineering – tasking and coordination

• Subaward management

• Gaps in staffing

• Schedule Management -> Progress toward milestones

• Rate of procurement across the program


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Schedule ‘replanning’ process

External specialists have been guiding a replan of the

OOI schedule during the implementation of the

Corrective Action Plan

• Integrating construction and O&M into one schedule

• Adding more granularity into the schedule to improve tracking of

milestones

Will be complete late March/early April and will become the new

‘baseline’ for the OOI


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OOI CAP Performance Metrics

Progress assessed on

StaffingProcurementsDesigns, Products

• Achieved hiring as defined in staffing plans at each IO • Made good progress on procurements of platforms and

instruments as defined in procurement table• Delivered 80% of products ‘on time’ as set in the CAP

milestone list

Progress in these areas indicates improved coordination and integration of Project Management and Engineering


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CAP: Hiring Targets, Milestones, Results

12/17/10 2/18/11

Hiring Target (including contractors) Hiring

Achieved

Hiring TargetCumulative Hiring

Achieved

Objective AdequateObjectiv

eAdequate

PMO 8 6 6 14 10 13

CI 11 8 8 17 12 16

CGSN 18 13 19 24 17 22

RSN 8 6 5 9 6 9

Total 45 32 38 64 46 60

Numbers relative to OOI staffing on September 30, 2010


OOI Progress based on Earned Value

COST variance

SCHEDULE variance

improving

PO

S

NE

G

OL Board of Trustees March 10, 2011 11

Coastal and Global Scale Nodes (CGSN)

Global

Pioneer

Endurance


Progress in Marine Design

Institutionally-Designed Platforms, Coastal

Moorings• The In-shore Coastal Mooring test unit is complete with

a preliminary detailed design of prototype and a

prototype build• The technical drawing package is mature and a TDP

drawing design package has been developed. • The mooring has been built and awaiting ship availability

for deployment

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Test Deployments to Evaluate Designs

In Shore Test Mooring 2 (ISTM2): March 2011 – July 2011 At the Endurance Array site, surface wave heights that are large

fractions of water depth are a large design challenge.

Testing: Mooring and buoy design for 25 m site.



Example: In Shore Test Mooring 2 (ISTM2): March 2011 – July 2011

Redesigned universal joint

Buoy (foreground) and stretch hose (background)


Progress in Marine Design

Institutionally-Designed Platforms, Global Moorings• At-Sea Test Moorings (3) are approximately 50% complete and

portions of the prototypes are under construction. • Test deployment is now scheduled for September 2011

• Multiple design and build milestones over the next 6 months• Focused IO and PMO attention on work and relative progress

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Technical Progress: Deployments will test designs

At Sea Test 2 (AST2): Sept 2011 – April 2012

At the Pioneer Array site

Coastal Surface Mooring (CSM)

Coastal Profiler Mooring (CPM)

will be tested in 500 m of water.

Pioneer Array



At Sea Test 2 (AST2): September 2011 – April

2012

Seaward of the Pioneer Array site,

a global hybrid profiler mooring

to be tested in 2,500 m of water.

Concerns about global surface profiler and

operations with compound mooring

deployment/recovery to be addressed.

Hybrid profiler mooring


At Sea Test 2 (AST2) TimeLine2011

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

AST2 Design

AST2 Manufacture and Build

AST2 Integration

Burn-in

In the Water(thru April 2012)

AST2 CruiseSept 22, 2011


Progress in Marine Design (Regional)

Approximately half of the Regional System technical designs

are on schedule are under the Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract

with L3-MariPro. Other items are within the schedule float and

should not delay any deployments.

The non-L3 major infrastructure pieces of the cable system

have been specified and contracted

• The physical hard connection point of presence (POP)

• Telecommunication backbone service to the shore station

• The physical shore station

• Conduits from the shore station to the shore landing manholes

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Horizontal Directional Drilling at Pacific City, Oregon


Survey to determine cable route in 2010

An octopus lounges on a basalt flow at a water depth of ~1520 m within

the caldera of Axial Volcano.

Black smoker in the ASHES Hydrothermal Field imaged during a

detailed bathymetric and video survey of the area as a potential node site for the OOI Regional

Cabled Observatory.


Test of Secondary Infrastructure support

A half-scale model of a potential frame design is lowered off the R/V Thompson for a one-year deployment at Southern Hydrate Ridge using Medea and Jason. The frame is also being tested to see how different

materials react to biofouling during long-duration deployments.


CyberInfrastructure Technical Progress

Architecture of Infrastructure and R1• Good progress on messaging and computational features• Over 100 Enterprise Architecture drawings complete

• Common Operating Infrastructure• Common Execution Infrastructure• Data Management• External Observatory Integration• Sensing and Acquisition

User Interface design• 10 workflows defined covering 13 screens and 84 panels

• (a screen is made up of panels)

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CI Technical Progress

Software Detailed Design/Coding Release 1

•Screen Design, wire frames for release 1 completed

•Full implementation in R1 in June 2011

•Release 1 provides foundational code for ingestion and

distribution of external data

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CI Technical Progress

Hardware and Network Systems• The San Diego Engineering Center is operational• Designs and BoMs for the Portland, Seattle, and Woods Hole

cyberPoPs are complete• Point of Presence (POP) hardware procurement re-planned for

April for Portland and Seattle and later 2011 for Woods Hole

The specification, Statement of Work, and RFP for the

national backbone are undergoing contract review

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OOI changes since Oct 2010

Organizational changes within OOI Project Office

• Senior Project Scientist to begin April 25 – Steve Ackleson

• OOI Director of Communications – Kerry Beck

• Engaged experienced contractors to assist with O&M while

completing search for new O&M Manager

• new Deputy Program Manager – Greg Settle


OOI changes since Oct 2010

Organizational changes at Implementing Organizations

• More details than can be summarized here!


Action Plan

Our adjustments as we approach the Year 2 review

• Review and analysis of technical progress

• Implement the new schedule

• Assessment vulnerabilities to continued progress

• Take corrective steps as needed

• Clarify data products and data sampling

• Enhance science engagement through improved communications

• Improve budgetary evaluations of long-term operational expenses


Concerns

• Pace of work is intense and the team is working too many hours.

Burn-out is a primary concern.

• Unsettled budgetary environment has not yet complicated cash

flow, but……stay tuned

• Clarifying pathways for science engagement

Documents

OL Board of Trustees March 10, 2011 Ocean Observatories Initiative OOI Program Update Tim Cowles