ANN ARBOR—A network of environmental monitoring buoys in the Great Lakes will grow thanks to a partnership between the University of Michigan and Michigan-based company S2 Yachts.

The buoy network is the university’s Upper Great Lakes Observing System (U-GLOS), which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s integrated ocean observing system. That system gathers data in effort to predict ocean behavior like meteorologists predict the weather.

U-GLOS buoys also collect information about pollution transport, and how the Great Lakes respond to natural and manmade changes in the region, said Guy Meadows, director of the university’s Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory and a professor in the departments of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences.

Meadows and his colleagues are interested in the exchange of water between Lake Michigan and its bays.

“Bays are population centers and population centers put greater stress on the water,” Meadows said. “We’d like to be able to forecast and predict the stress a community puts on the water.”

U-GLOS currently has two buoys in Grand Traverse Bay. A third at that location will be added by the end of summer. And the first buoy elsewhere will be deployed in Little Traverse Bay on July 30. This newest buoy is the first of what is expected to be many new additions to the U-GLOS and other networks as a result of the university’s partnership with S2 Yachts.

The university licensed the buoy technology to S2 Yachts, which helps the company transition into a new market in this difficult economy.

“This is exciting because we’re taking advanced technology and transitioning it to a Michigan company,” Meadows said. “They can build a better product than we can here in the lab. They can build an entire buoy in eight hours. It takes us two months.”

S2’s Director of Product Development Rick Eggerding says the partnership allows the company to save jobs.

“This partnership has meant that we were able to keep people employed as we developed this product and will be able to bring people back to work as we ramp up production,” Eggerding said. “This has also opened new doors for us that will lead to new products, and thus new jobs for more people.”

Michigan Engineering:

The University of Michigan College of Engineering is ranked among the top engineering schools in the country. At more than $130 million annually, its engineering research budget is one of largest of any public university. Michigan Engineering is home to 11 academic departments and a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center. The college plays a leading role in the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute and hosts the world class Lurie Nanofabrication Facility. Michigan Engineering’s premier scholarship, international scale and multidisciplinary scope combine to create The Michigan Difference. Find out more at http://www.engin.umich.edu/.

U-M Marine Hydrodynamics LaboratoryU-GLOSGuy MeadowsU-M Office of Technology Transfer