NortekUSA Technical Symposium a Great Success!

This year's Technical Symposium brought together a record attendance and a very diverse group of engineers and scientists from academia, government and the private sector. Following introductory speeches by Nortek and co-sponsor the Marine Institute of Memorial University, Nortek founder Atle Lohrmann addressed the group with the latest happeings in the company. The group then heard presentations from a number of high level experienced clients, as well as newer users, including one of the 2010 student grant recipients, Blair Johnson. In addition to these staple presentations on wave and current measurements, Thursday's sessions offered a window into the research, development and operational issues being examined by the marine hydrokinetc power industry.

NortekUK's Gordon Jones gave an insightful kickoff to Thursday's talks during the Wednesday evening reception, highlighting experiences from renewable energy projects in the UK. Renewable energy sessions began with an overview of the industry and plans for development and segued into a showcase of renewable energy test facilities and current ongoing field and laboratory research. The sessions closed by presenting development challenges the industry faces. The Nortek team was quite pleased with the discussions that ensued from these presentations and is eager to take into consideration the measurement challenges faced as they strive to support this growing and worthwhile endeavor. Thursday evening offered another opportunity to kick back over St. Patrick's day inspired cocktails, this time to enjoy an exhilirating presentation by the Volvo Ocean Race Puma Racing Team. The Puma team has been working with Nortek engineers as they develop an ADCP to determine the leeway of their sailboat. This should hopefully give them a competitive edge in the race.   

Friday saw simultaneous sessions including the indispensable equipment training series offered each year and the introduction of Nortek's newest instrument the Vectrino 2, a profiling laboratory velocimeter. One of Nortek's development engineers, Chris Loadman, gave an overview on the operation of the Vectrino 2 including a live demonstration of the instrument. Initial beta users of the Vectrino 2 then presented their work along with presentations by users of the original Vectrino.

Nortek would like to express our utmost gratitude to all those who attended and presented at the symposium. This was an incredible event and we will do our best to continue to improve on it next year...hope to see you there!

**User Presentations are available for you to view on our website.**