The Coast Guard has chosen UC San Diego to evaluate and develop so-called “blue water” technology that can help the service carry out surveillance, monitoring, search and rescue, and law enforcement duties.
The work will be performed at the university’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which was named a Blue Technology Center of Expertise (COE) by the Coast Guard on Monday.
The designation doesn’t represent a major expansion of Scripps’ research program, which pulled in $155 million in fiscal 2018. Congressional analysts say the new center will only modestly enhance the Coast Guard’s research efforts.