The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has announced keynote speakers and the opening of registration for this year’s Marine and Autonomy Technology Showcase (MATS), taking place from 8–10 November 2022 at the NOC in Southampton.
MATS has grown over the last eight years to become a key event in the marine technology calendar, attracting delegates from around the world. The NOC will welcome guests and exhibitors for a packed three days of insightful presentations and networking opportunities, offering a unique and valuable opportunity to find out about the latest developments in marine autonomous technology and supporting applications and how this field has developed in the past year and is set to develop in the years to come.
Hosted in the NOC’s Southampton quayside marquee, the event also enables organisations to engage with the NOC to explore opportunities around funding, sharing ideas and getting those ideas in front of influential, high-profile users from the marine and maritime sector.
This year’s keynote speakers are the Honourable Tim Gallaudet, U.S. Navy & NOAA, Commander Caroline Tuckett, Royal Navy, Carlo Pinto, Chief Commercial Office at Sulmara and Stuart Baker, Managing Director of Maritime UK Solent.
Rear Admiral Tim, PhD, US Navy (ret) is the CEO of Ocean STL Consulting and host of The American Blue Economy Podcast. He serves on the Board of Directors for Force Blue and the Advisory Council for Project Recover, and is a strategic advisor for more than a dozen leading ocean, weather, and space technology start-ups, including the maritime autonomy and navigation company.
A national authority on uncrewed maritime systems, Gallaudet served as the acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he led the development of the agency’s Uncrewed System Strategy and Strategic Plan, as well as the establishment of its Uncrewed Systems Program and Operations Center.
Commander Caroline Tuckett is the lead legal adviser in International and Operational Law within the Royal Navy. A current focus in her work is the applicability of international maritime law to the military operation of un-crewed vessels. She has recently completed a Masters by Research in International Law through the University of Exeter, exploring the legal issues of sub-threshold operations in the maritime environment.
Carlo Pinto is the Chief Commercial Office at Sulmara with global responsibility on Business Development, Sales, Commercial & Contracts. Holding a master degree in Marine Environmental Sciences with a major in Geophysics, in over 25 years he covered a number of operational and management roles with international survey companies delivering more than 300 projects worldwide ranging from Applied Research to Construction, IMR, Trenching, ROV, Diving & Archaeology onshore and offshore, both in shallow and deep waters .Throughout his career, Carlo has been involved in more than 35 international research projects and given lectures on a wide range of technical subjects to many national & international industry events.
Stuart Baker is Managing Director of Maritime UK Solent, the industry-led body that champions the Solent’s world leading maritime cluster. Stuart also works as Business Development Director at Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and part of the Executive Team working to establish Solent Freeport and leads on skills, net zero, innovation, and trade and investment aspects of Solent Freeport. 
Huw Gullick, Associate Director of NOC Innovations said: “Building on the success of last year’s hybrid event, I am delighted that we are able to host MATS 2022 both at the NOC and digitally once again, making our exciting programme of keynote speakers, thought-provoking presentations and discussions accessible to attendees around the globe.”
“MATS continues to be a key event in the marine autonomy calendar with collaboration at its heart, sharing the incredible developments in technology and innovation from the last 12 months. In particular we are looking forward to sharing the success of our ALR technology, more commonly known as Boaty McBoatface, which completed over 2,000km trails in the summer and has been working in the North Sea surveying a number of decommissioned oil & gas sites. MATS 2022 will also look forward at how these technologies will to continue to progress, to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time.”
The full programme and session chairs will be announced in the coming weeks.