The ocean is unforgiving, Md Jahidul Islam, Ph.D., will tell you.
“Signals attenuate, GPS disappears, visibility collapses and communication is limited,” said Islam, the Yangbin Wang Rising Star Endowed Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
And as director of the University of Florida’s RoboPI Laboratory, Islam is immersed in marine robotics research to ease the danger for humans working and exploring in the ocean. With other UF researchers, he is also helping protect underwater computer hardware from cyberattacks.
Islam oversees the overall vision and technical direction of UF’s marine robotics research. He said this research includes defining core scientific questions, mentoring students and guiding system integration for robotics from algorithm design to ocean deployment.
“I was fascinated by the idea of building intelligent systems that operate where humans cannot easily go. The ocean represents one of the least explored frontiers on Earth. Underwater robotics combines control theory, perception, communication and physics in one of the most challenging environments imaginable. That challenge drew me in,” said Islam, who just won a 2026 Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research.
Islam’s research includes underwater robotic navigation, underwater data center protection and underwater cave exploration. The work is designed to transform climate and marine ecosystem monitoring, protect subsea infrastructure, reduce disasters and increase disaster response, promote sustainable ocean resource management and advance scientific discovery in extreme environments.
Suffice to say, this is important, hands-on work that finds Islam and his team on boats and under the water every month. But the team members who often go the deepest are UF-designed robots.
For example, more and more tech companies are utilizing underwater data centers to harness the cooling properties of water, thus cutting cooling costs and emissions. Yet underwater data centers are vulnerable to attacks targeting internet infrastructure. Islam is working with a UF team to shore up those vulnerabilities and work with technology companies to improve data center security by safeguarding against attacks before they happen.
Nearly all of Islam’s marine robotics projects utilize UF’s supercomputer, HiPerGator, and are funded by government and private agencies, including the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research and Amazon Robotics. Ultimately, this research will see robots and intelligent algorithms protecting critical infrastructure, understanding environmental changes, helping inform better policy and, certainly, protecting valuable ecosystems.
“Not only does Dr. Islam’s marine robotics research position UF — and ECE — as a leader in innovation in an AI world, the work showcases why we do what we do: improve lives,” noted ECE Sachio Semmoto Chair Mark Tehranipoor, Ph.D. “These projects promise to enhance safety, protect marine ecosystems and even secure computer data.”
More than 127 million people in the United States depend on marine ecosystems for food, trade and transportation, which, Islam said, contributes to over $400 billion in annual economic
Impacts. And there is much more to explore and learn in those unforgiving waters.
“The ocean is vast, dynamic and largely unseen. Robotics gives us the ability to understand it at scale.” Islam said. “Even with the ocean’s critical role in national security and economic resilience, nearly 80% of the global ocean, including 46% of U.S. coastal waters, remains entirely unexplored.”