Lecturer from The British University in Dubai (BUiD) delves into Underwater Exploration

Sonar is defined as a system which uses transmitted and reflected underwater sound waves to detect and locate submerged objects or measure the distance to the floor of a body of water.

In addition to being able to observe environmental changes, sonar imaging allows us to discover the types of existing sediments in certain areas. This is particularly crucial for oil companies looking to place oil pipes in the sea. As well as helping them to identify existing sediment types, sonar technology also enables them to recognize existing materials and pipes in the sea.

On Tuesday June 14th, Dr. Louis Atallah, Lecturer in Informatics at BUiD will give a free lecture titled, Imaging Techniques for Underwater Exploration. The lecture will be held at BUiD's Knowledge Village Campus (Building 17) at 6pm.

Commenting on the upcoming lecture Dr. Atallah said, "To open the lecture I will be providing a general introduction to sonar and surveying methods and will follow this by showing several images of the explored areas, discussing what we can, as users, learn from them." He continued, "The work I have done on this subject matter has been carried out in collaboration with the Universities of Oxford and St. Andrews in the UK. I think that the talk will be of great relevance to anyone in the UAE who is interested in diving, exploration or heritage."

In addition to his position at BUiD, Dr. Atallah is an honorary fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Atallah completed his PhD at the University of Oxford, and has produced several publications in, 'Learning from Data for the Classification of Underwater Sea-beds'. His research focuses on the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence solutions for real-world problems. Areas of particular interest to Dr. Atallah include Health Informatics, and researching techniques that can help to improve doctor-patient relations, disease infection and public health. In recognition for his work, Dr. Atallah was recently elected as the research officer of the Middle East Association of Health Informatics.

Dr. Atallah's lecture is the latest in the ongoing series of open lectures organised and sponsored by BUiD. The public are welcome to attend these lectures free of charge, to enable them to learn more about topics of interest, as well as the experience BUiD has to offer.