OOIFB ACTION ITEMS – 2025

Action: OOIFB-2024-08 (on-going; continued from 2024) – Better identify key knowledge needed for effective participation in the OOIFB and the DSC.

Actions Taken:

  • November 14, 2024 – An internal summary document that outlines key knowledge needed for effective participation in the OOIFB and the DSC is reviewed/discussed at the Fall 2024 OOIFB-DSC meeting.
  • August 5, 2024 – The OOIFB and DSC form a [joint] Knowledge Base Subcommittee. Members of the Subcommittee include: Karen Bemis (DSC, Subcomm Chair), Rosie Gradoville (OOIFB), Mike Muglia (OOIFB), Janet Nye (OOIFB), Dax Soule (OOIFB Chair) Teresa Burlingame (DSC), Holly Morin (OOIFB ASO),. Dani Bailey (OOIFB ASO). Meetings will be held monthly via web-conference.
  • March 5, 2025 – The OOIFB-DSC Knowledge Base Subcommittee reconvenes to finalize its internal summary document that outlines key knowledge needed for effective participation in the OOIFB and the DSC. The FAQ document was reviewed/discussed at the November 2024 OOIFB-DSC meeting, and the subcommittee is working to integrate all edits and finalize the document.

Action: OOIFB-2025 – 01 (COMPLETE) – Host a Summer School focused on passive and active acoustics data and the NSF OOI.

Actions Taken:

  • October 22, 2024 – Dr. Shima Abadi and Dr. Wu-Jung Lee are confirmed as Summer School co-chairs.
  • November/December 2024 – Planning and advisory committee members are invited.
  • January 10, 2025- The OOIFB Summer School on Acoustics Planning Committee is formed and meets biweekly to begin program planning.
  • February/March 2025 – The OOIFB Summer School on Acoustics Planning Committee continues to meet biweekly to frame out the agenda/curriculum, finalize the application/review applicants, and discuss other program logistics.
  • February 10, 2025- The OOIFB announces its 2025 Summer School on Acoustics, to be hosted July 14-18, 2025, at the University of Washington. A 2025 Summer School on Acoustics website is launched with an application link, draft agenda, and other details. Web links and application details were shared through various communication channels and listservs.
  • March 3, 2025 – Reminders about the OOIFB Summer School on Acoustics application deadline. (March 18, 2025) were shared through various communication channels and listservs.
  • March 10, 2025 – The Summer School on Acoustics Planning and Advisory committees are convened to further discuss applicants, agenda planning, and program goals.
  • March 17, 2025 – Final reminders about the OOIFB Summer School on Acoustics application deadline (March 18, 2025) were shared through various communication channels and listservs. At this time there are approximately 80 applicants for the program.
  • March 18, 2025 – The 2025 Summer School on Acoustics online application is closed with 115 applications received.
  • March 20, 2025 – An applicant rubric is developed where applicants are judged blind by the co-chairs, OOIFB chair, and ASO PI, and a series of filters are applied. Applications were first considered based on acoustics background and coding experience; after this, applicants were considered for their motivation in attending summer school, and potential plans for NSF OOI data. Top candidates were identified, and an offer to attend summer school was provided by the ASO PI.
    • Applicant filtering/review was completed by March 28, 2025
    • A final applicant roster, of individuals to invite to attend Summer School, was generated on April 2, 2025.
  • April/May 2025 – The OOIFB Summer School on Acoustics Planning Committee continues to meet biweekly (when possible) to finalize out the agenda/curriculum items, finalize the application review, determine the student roster, and discuss other program logistics.
  • April 3, 2025- the ASO PI begins communications with potential Summer School participants, inviting them to attend and confirming their attendance.
  • April 28, 2025 – All summer school participants are confirmed and a cohort of 25 students form the final roster. (note: two students withdrew about a month before summer school due to unexpected personal circumstances). Once all attendees were confirmed, continued communications take place about travel logistics, lodging, etc.
  • May 28/29, 2025 – Virtual office hours are hosted where participants can check in to make sure they can log into the OOI JupyterHub environment and things are set up correctly on their local machines. Summer school co-chairs and OOI personnel connect with the students.
  • June 6, 2025 – an agenda overview, program logistics, and initial resources (for coding/Python) are shared with all Summer School participants. A slide deck to build “lightning presentation introductions” was also shared; each participant was asked to build one slide that shared who they were and what their background was. At the same time, an OOIFB Summer School on Acoustics GitHub repository was also created (to be shared with participants at summer school).
  • June 12, 2025 – All guest lectures are confirmed for the Summer School.
  • July 8, 2025 – Final virtual office hours are held to connect with students on JupyterHub and answer any other questions/concerns students may have.
  • July 10, 2025 – A final agenda is shared with all summer school participants. Final reminders about resources, logistics, and program expectations are also shared.
  • July 14-18, 2025 – The 2025 OOIFB Summer School on Acoustics takes place at the University of Washington with 23 students and a suite of multidisciplinary instructors and support staff on site and virtually. Over the course of the 5-day program, students engaged in hands-on exploration of NSF OOI acoustic data sets in the OOI JupyterHub environment, while also learning about acoustic and coding fundamentals and research applications. Zoom recordings of each day’s lectures and data explorations were made available for additional review. The event concluded with a roundtable discussion about research opportunities in underwater acoustics with program managers from NSF, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the U.S. Navy, and Ocean Networks Canada.
  • July 18, 2025 – A post-summer school evaluation is shared with all participants. As of August 6, 2025, 18 participants had provided feedback.

Action: OOIFB-2025-02 (COMPLETE) – Plan and host a community event focused on ImagingFlow Cytobot (IFCB) technology. An IFCB is deployed on the central surface mooring as part of the Coastal Pioneer Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) Array, and data is available for research and educational purposes. IFCBs are also integral to other observing systems and platforms.

Actions Taken:

  • January 23, 2025 – Conversations begin about the potential of a Pioneer MAB Community Workshop followup event focused on the ImagingFlow Cytobot (IFCB), data access, analysis, and validation. During the 2024 Community Workshop, the IFCB was discussed at length, as there was a lot of community interest in the technology. In post-workshop evaluations, the IFCB was also listed as a topic to discuss at future OOIFB events. Initially, OOIFB member, Janet Nye, and plankton researcher, Christian Briseno-Avena were engaged in the discussion- both attended the 2024 Pioneer MAB Community Workshop and were active in the IFCB discussions at the event.
  • March 10, 2025 – a Planning Committee to plan the IFCB Community Focus Group event is convened. Members of the Planning Committee include:
    • Heidi Sosik, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
    • Melissa Carter, Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System
    • Maria Kavanaugh, Oregon State University
    • Christian Briseno-Avena, University of North Carolina (UNC), Wilmington
    • Janet Nye, UNC Chapel Hill
    • Al Plueddemann, WHOI, OOI Coastal and Global Scale Nodes (CGSN)
    • Stace Beaulieu, WHOI, OOI CGSN
    • Dax Soule, Queen College, OOIFB Chair
    • Holly Morin, OOIFB-ASO
  • Bi-weekly IFCB Planning Committee Calls take place through June.
  • March 25, 2025 – Dates and a venue are confirmed for the event. The IFCB Community Focus Group will take place at UNC Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science from June 16-18, 2025.
  • April 9, 2025 – The Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) Community Focus Group is formally announced and an application for participation is opened. All details about the event, including an application link and draft agenda, were available through the OOIFB website. Experienced and new members of the IFCB community who are considering using NSF OOI- IFCB data and/or adding instrumentation to NSF OOI infrastructure; resource managers from national, state, and tribal agencies; and educators at all levels interested in using OOI-IFCB data are encouraged to apply.
  • April 30, 2025 – The application window is closed. Thirty-one applications are received.
  • May 15, 2025 – IFCB Community Focus Group participants are confirmed. Twenty-five applicants were selected, with 23 confirmed participants.
  • June 18-20, 2025 – The IFCB Community Focus Group is convened at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science. Approximately 35 members of the IFCB community were engaged in:
  • June 11, 2025 – a finalized agenda, event expectations, and other resources are shared with focus group participants.
  • June 20, 2025 – Roundtable discussions produced a list of seven action items the group could move forward with, to continue the momentum generated by this event. These action items included: quarterly webinars to better engage the community; creating user resources to engage with students and future researchers interested in working with IFCB technologies, organizing the data exercises from the event into a suite of accessible data activities; and creating a local IFCB user network in North Carolina simliar to what has been created in California. Event participants will continue to map out details and finalize these action items (follow up call on August 5, 2025).

Action: OOIFB-2025-03 (ongoing) – Plan an OOIFB Town Hall session during the 2025 American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual conference. The 2025 AGU Meeting will be held in New Orleans, LA, on 15-19 December 2025.

Actions Taken:

  • April 9, 2025 – the OOIFB submitted an abstract to host a Town Hall meeting at the December 2025 AGU meeting in New Orleans, LA. In addition to brief OOI Program and NSF updates, the Town Hall will feature presentations and discussion that highlight ongoing research at Axial Seamount, provide monitoring updates, and broadly review NE Pacific seafloor volcanism and the NSF OOI.
  • July 24, 2025 – AGU Meeting organizers accept the OOIFB’s Town Hall abstract.

Action: OOIFB-2025-04 (ongoing) – Plan an OOIFB Town Hall session during the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM). The 2026 OSM Meeting will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, on 22-27 February 2026.

Actions Taken:

  • May 28, 2025 – the OOIFB submitted an abstract to host a Town Hall meeting at the February 2026 OSM meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. In addition to a brief OOI Program overview, the Town Hall, titled “What Questions Can We Answer Through Cross-Networking? An Ocean Observatories Facility Board (OOIFB) Town Hall to Strengthen Connections and Foster Innovation Across the Observing Community”, will feature a community-led discussion on the use of observatory data (across the great Atlantic Ocean), and identify cross-platform synergies. The event will serve as a catalyst to build connections within the observing community, communicate successes, and discuss ways to address the common challenges that different groups may face.
  • July 8, 2025 – OSM Meeting organizers accept the OOIFB’s Town Hall abstract.