The term 'robotics' is fairly wide reaching. From amateur enthusiasts to teams of developers working on the next ingenious idea, there are many applications too.

Environmental scientists are excited about a new-found capability in environmental monitoring. Surveying an area of land or sea that would previously have taken days - even many weeks - can now be done in minutes, thanks to autonomous vehicles and their hi-tech payloads of cameras and sensors.

In this episode, Dr Niall Burnside and Libby Smith from the Scientific Robotics Academy at SAMS, talk about how these systems can be used, why training the next generation of scientists in these systems is crucial, and what the future might hold.

The Ocean Explorer podcast is produced by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), an ocean research charity and partner of UHI based in Oban.
In each episode, we take a deep dive into marine science topics with SAMS scientists and special guests.
Interested in working or studying with us, or helping with our work? Visit www.sams.ac.uk to find out more.

Marine restoration is the helping hand that nature needs in the battle against biodiversity loss and also a way to offset human impacts in the ocean.

But the benefits can be more than ecological.

In this episode, we welcome Peter Watson of SSEN Transmission, the company responsible for laying new power cables on our seabed as part of the de-carbonising of our energy grid. There's much more it wants to do, beyond rebuilding the energy infrastructure, with a little help from science.

Peter and Prof Adam Hughes of SAMS discuss what benefits marine restoration can bring, the challenges such projects face and how a children's television programme can influence the direction of an entire company...

The Ocean Explorer podcast is produced by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), an ocean research charity and partner of UHI based in Oban.
In each episode, we take a deep dive into marine science topics with SAMS scientists and special guests.
Interested in working or studying with us, or helping with our work? Visit www.sams.ac.uk to find out more.

With a global human population in excess of eight billion, governments and planners are looking to aquaculture to provide food security in a sustainable way.

But this is a diverse global industry that comes in many forms, with various societal and ecological challenges.

In this episode, two of the academics behind a highly-rated aquaculture Masters Degree, ACES, reflect on 10 years of the programme, designed to train the industry and academic leaders of the future.

Profs. Elizabeth Cottier-Cook and Laurent Barille also highlight the challenges and opportunities within global aquaculture and reflect on how they too have learned from their international programme.

The Ocean Explorer podcast is produced by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), an ocean research charity and partner of UHI based in Oban.
In each episode, we take a deep dive into marine science topics with SAMS scientists and special guests.
Interested in working or studying with us, or helping with our work? Visit www.sams.ac.uk to find out more.