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A multidisciplinary team of researchers led by Dr. Ian Church, professor of geodesy and geomatics engineering at UNB and director of the UNB Ocean Mapping Group, will leverage leading-edge research and technology to help New Brunswick’s commercial ports. The project team includes UNB researchers, port staff, industry experts in geospatial mapping, artificial intelligence and other areas, and technology partners.

As Canada's maritime trade and critical infrastructure protection become increasingly important, a new UNB-led research project will respond to increased defence and security considerations for two New Brunswick ports.

The Government of Canada recently announced more than $800,000 in support of the $1 million project, which will enhance the security and support the growth and productivity of Port Saint John and the Port of Belledune.

News of the funding was shared at an announcement on Defence Industrial Strategy investments supporting Atlantic Canada held on UNB’s Fredericton campus on March 31.

The project brings together researchers from multiple disciplines along with industry partners and New Brunswick’s two commercial ports. Together, they will build a platform that enables simulation, prototyping and monitoring of critical underwater operations before deployment in the field.

By collaborating across their respective specializations—including ocean mapping and modeling, digital twinning, ocean surface surveillance and coastal infrastructure monitoring, Internet-of-Things device communication, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and machine learning analysis and data visualization, among others—the team will be able to create advanced solutions in support of port security and operations.

“This project will improve our ability to understand, predict and simulate underwater environments,” said Dr. Ian Church, a professor of geodesy and geomatics engineering and the project’s primary investigator. “In bringing experts from a wide range of subject areas together and collaborating with industry, we can learn more and better support critical underwater port operations than we could individually.”

New Brunswick’s two major ports provide the sites for solution development and testing work, as well as their own expertise as commercial, deep-water port authorities. The project will also benefit from the knowledge and innovation of its industry partners, which include geospatial mapping company Teledyne CARIS, geospatial mapping and AI integration company Spatialnetics, AI-powered maritime awareness company SeafarerAI and ocean technology company Kongsberg Discovery. The project has also been awarded financial support UNB’s Research Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

This latest project has grown out of two previously funded projects involving the ports and UNB researchers. In September 2024, funding was awarded by DIGITAL, Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for digital technologies, for a project seeking to mitigate underwater noise at the Port of Belledune, and from Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) for a project to improve dredging decision making for the Port of Saint John.

Press release from the Government of Canada.