Exploring the ocean isn’t as easy as TV and movies make it look #TEDTalks

Don't wait for permission. Don't wait for a class assignment to say it's okay to work on this. Just go into your garage or your shop and start trying things out. — Hey, so what do you do all day? — I am an engineer and I spend my time designing ocean exploration tools. — And what does that usually entail? — A lot of it is about improvising and kind of trying to have an imagination for what might go wrong and how you can make it robust enough to survive that environment. — What's like a typical day in the life for you? While filming the show, Ocean Explorers for National Geographic, um I got to work on this handbuilt whale tag. It was basically a camera inside of a container that could suction cup onto the side of a whale and follow it down as it dives for food. We had to tinker and improvise with only parts available on the ship to try to get it to work. Just as we were finishing up the field season, we finally got it working and we got some incredible footage. — What do movies or TV typically get wrong about ocean exploration? Generally, when people film engineering being done, it kind of is like how a cooking show works where like you put a few things together and voila, it's done. I don't think there's a single project I've worked on where it just worked the first time. So, there's a lot more iteration in real engineering than you'd expect. — What's one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to explore enter this field? — What I'd advise anyone who's interested in doing this to do is don't wait for permission. Don't wait for a class this. So iterate as quickly as you can and don't be afraid of failure.