The Marlan team are very excited this week to welcome Dr. Cai Bird to the team as he joins us as Director of Research. Cai has worked with has worked with Marlan Maritime Technologies since its foundation in 2013 on a range of research projects. His academic research focuses on developing and applying novel algorithms to remote sensing data in order to develop new products and services for the hydrographic survey and coastal monitoring industry.

Cai completed his PhD in 2016 at the University of Liverpool and National Oceanography Centre and followed that on with a Knoweldge Transfer Partnership (KTP) funded jointly by Marlan, Innovate UK and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). During the knowledge transfer partnership he was based at the Marlan offices and got to know the company inside outside out. He really enjoyed working so closely with us and was instrumental in increasing the technology readiness level of our Synoptic data products, writing an extensive codebase to allow us to capture and process raw radar data and turn it into useful data products for our customers.

He is now focused on improving these data products and the processes to create them while planning Research and Development at Marlan on a strategic level. We’re excited to see what Cai can do over the next few years, stay tuned to see the results of our research.