Autonomous ship: The Mayflower project (sponsored by IBM Watson)

Brett Phaneuf is the founder and chief executive of Submergence Group (US) and MSubs (UK), and through his office in the United Kingdom, he overseas the design and production of manned and unmanned, underwater vehicle systems. A serial entrepreneur, Brett recently turned his attention to machine learning and artificial intelligence; a new company (Marine Ai) has been spun out from MSubs with the goal of creating cognitive AI to enhance maritime capabilities by drawing on decades of experience in manned and unmanned marine vehicle design, manufacture and operations, coupled with vast experience in automation and autonomous systems software architecture, and computer vision expertise. Brett is also one of three founding board members of Promare, a nonprofit (501( c )(3)) public charity founded in 2001 to promote marine exploration throughout the world. Through the confluence of these varied and interrelated fields of endeavor, Brett leads the development of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, which will sail from Plymouth, UK, to Plymouth, US, in commemoration of the 400th anniversary for the original Mayflower sailing in September 1620. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship is a Promare project but will draw on the expertise resident in Submergence Group, MSubs, Marine Ai, Promare, and many other private and corporate sponsors. Previously, Brett studied physics before switching to archaeology, and then worked as a classical archaeologist on ancient sites in North Africa. His love of physics, technology, and history lead him to marine archaeology and the founding of Promare, through which numerous underwater archaeological research programs have been carried out in the past two decades.