Friday, January 12, 2024

 

"Pusher" Jeep May Have Caused Deadly Ro/Ro Fire in Newark

Burned-out Jeep Wrangler fitted with steel push bumper, Deck 10, Grande Costa D'Avoria (Courtesy AFT / USCG)
Burned-out Jeep Wrangler fitted with steel push bumper, Deck 10, Grande Costa D'Avoria (Courtesy AFT / USCG)

PUBLISHED JAN 10, 2024 4:44 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

In a Coast Guard hearing on last year's deadly ro/ro fire at Port Newark, three longshoremen said that their employer used everyday light trucks to push broken cars up the ramps of ro/ro vessels - and that these adapted "pusher vehicles" may not have been maintained on a calendar schedule. The fire aboard the Grande Costa D'Avoria may have started when one of the pusher vehicles - an older Jeep Wrangler fitted with a steel bumper - caught fire during a loading operation. 

The ILA longshore duty mechanic on the day of the fire told the panel that there was an informal repair schedule for the pusher vehicles. "We don't have preventive maintenance, we just check fluids, we don't change fluids. It only happens when it goes into the shop for repairs [when something fails]," said Piotr Zyla, who performed basic repairs on the vehicles on the dock for the longshore team. 

The Jeep that caught fire had been used in the manner of a towtruck to move cars on board ro/ros, and worked alongside a fleet of several Ford Rangers (the smallest model of Ford pickup). On the day of the fire, longshoreman Gavin Puchinsky was behind the wheel of the Jeep. He told the panel that the Jeep would often be operated with the accelerator pressed all the way to the floor in order to push a heavier broken vehicle up the steep internal ramps of a ro/ro's cargo decks. Though it was the team's most powerful pusher vehicle, the Jeep would sometimes struggle on a ramp, and he might have to back down and get a running start to make it all the way up, he said. The speed of operation would depend upon the weight of the broken vehicle being moved. 

In questioning Wednesday, Puchinsky said that the pusher trucks were not the kind of vehicles he would expect to see on a public road. "Some of them were missing mirrors, the Jeep was missing the back windshield, dirty inside, no plates on the vehicle," he told the panel.

The Jeep was running as well as ever until seconds before the fire, when it made a "clunk" as he was maneuvering inside the ro/ro's car decks, Puchinsky said. A few moments later, a fellow longshoreman shouted at him to get out of the vehicle because it was on fire. Flames appeared to be coming from under the hood, Puchinsky said, and were coming in the passenger window. 

Puchinsky said that he grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and attempted to put out the blaze, without success. As the fire grew, he and his colleagues escaped from the vessel.  

A local firefighting team responded to the scene and boarded the ship in an attempt to combat the growing blaze. They were forced to retreat by the intensity of the fire, and two were killed during this maneuver. Two Newark Fire captains were also injured in the response and were treated at a local hospital; both recovered from their injuries. 

 

Video: Heavy Waves Wash Aboard Car Ferry in Strait of Juan De Fuca

WSF
Video still courtesy Washington State Ferries

PUBLISHED JAN 10, 2024 10:09 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

[Brief] Washington State Ferries' roll-on / roll-off car ferries usually operate on sheltered routes, but occasionally they have to make a transit across open water for repositioning. This is a routine matter, so long as the weather is forgiving, but on one recent voyage it was a bit rougher than expected.

On Tuesday, the ferry Issaquah was repositioning to Anacortes from her previously-assigned crossing at Mukilteo. Anacortes is the gateway to the San Juan Islands, and to get there, Issaquah had to cross the east end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Strait is an open runway to the North Pacific, and it is known for periods of foul winter weather.  

On Tuesday morning, Issaquah passed Port Townsend and headed north along the coast of Whidbey Island, making 17 knots. She quickly encountered higher waves than the crew had expected from the forecast, according to WSF. AIS data shows that as she rounded Fort Ebey, she slowed to seven knots and began changing course, zig-zagging northwards along the coast. 

There were no passengers on board during this transit, but the crew (and their personal vehicles) were there to witness the effects. One crewmember captured a video of the car deck awash with saltwater, with the rolling sea visible past the open-ended bow. (Advisory: strong language.)

After the ordeal, Issaquah exited the strait and made it to sheltered waters. She arrived safely at her destination at about 1245 hours, about two hours after she entered the strait. 

According to Washington State Ferries, the damage caused by the encounter was minimal and will have no effect on service. 

"We sometimes have waves crashing over the bow, but for this to happen, it is very, very rare. Keep in mind this occurred outside one of our normal routes as we were moving the boat," WSF clarified in a social media post. "This was an extremely rare occurrence for water to get to this level."

 

U.S. Navy Settles Water-Pollution Lawsuit Over its Potomac Test Range

NRDC
A naval weapons test on the Potomac (NRDC)

PUBLISHED JAN 10, 2024 8:40 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

The U.S. Navy has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by two environmental nonprofits over its use of the lower Potomac River, where it has operated a live-fire testing range for more than 100 years. 

In a consent decree finalized in federal court on Wednesday, the Navy agreed to apply for a state water quality permit from the state of Maryland for its use of the waters of the Potomac. The permit would satisfy the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act, and would mean that the Navy would have to abide by state water quality standards and carry out monitoring to ensure its compliance. 

The Navy estimates that between 1918-2007, its Dahlgren test center fired more than 33 million pounds of shells and ammunition into a 50-mile stretch of the Potomac River. Some of the materials deposited into the waterway during these live-fire tests may be hazardous, like heavy metals, explosives solvents, according to the NRDC. In the most concentrated area of activity on the river, the cumulative impact amounts to about 70,000 rounds per square mile (of various munitions).

An unidentified rocket recovered from the waters of the Potomac (NRDC)

Environmental advocates say that the Potomac test range includes spawning grounds for the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, and the effect of the activity on the fish's habitat is not known. Until now, the Navy's weapons-test discharges into the Potomac were not regulated, though the Clean Water Act has been applied to other Navy weapons-test sites for decades.

The Natural Resources Defense Council filed suit last summer to compel the Navy to obtain a discharge permit from the State of Maryland, and the Navy and Department of Justice moved quickly into settlement negotiations. In the consent decree announced this week, the Navy has promised to apply for a permit within 30 days and provide regular disclosures of its progress. In return, NRDC and fellow plaintiff Potomac Riverkeeper have agreed not to sue the service over any unregulated "discharges of munitions or chemical or biological simulants" in the next two years, while the permit application is in process. 

The Navy has encountered a series of public challenges related to water quality over the past three years. It is still working to address the tank farm spill that contaminated drinking water supplies for servicemembers at Pearl Harbor in 2021, and has had to remediate a firefighting-foam discharge on the same site. On Monday, in the latest setback, the service's Pearl Harbor sewage plant lost power and released two million gallons of partially-treated sewage just offshore.

 

UK Parliament Launches Probe on Decommissioning Two Royal Marines Vessels

Royal Navy amphibious vessels
Sister ships Albion and Bulwark are the Royal Marine's amphibious vessels (Royal Navy)

PUBLISHED JAN 12, 2024 4:39 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

 

Following reports that the UK government is considering retiring the Royal Navy’s two Albion Class assault ships, the House of Commons Defence Committee announced it will launch a probe as well as a broader look at the status of the service. The plans for an evidence session to be held within the next few weeks come as the Defence Committee has also expressed concerns about the current government’s plans for the Royal Navy and Marines.

Last week, several local news outlets reported that Secretary of Defense Grant Shapps had decided to decommission both HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, ten years earlier than their scheduled phase-out. The reports said the decision was reached due to the recruitment crisis facing the Royal Navy. By standing down the two vessels the reports suggest the Royal Navy would reassign the crews to the new fleet of Type 26 frigates joining service.

Defence Minister James Cartlidge was quick to respond to the reports saying “No final decision has been made on these platforms.”

The two ships are amphibious Landing Platform Docks, designed to transport the Royal Marines and their equipment. The two vessels, which are the only ones of their kind in the fleet, were commissioned in 2004 and 2005 and in its materials, the Royal Navy highlights the versatility of the vessels. Each has a crew of approximately 325 sailors and can also accommodate up to 400 additional troops, as well as 31 trucks, 36 smaller vehicles, battle tanks, and on their flight deck can also house two Merlin or Sea King helicopters and two Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. There is also a floodable well dock that can take four Landing Craft Utility boats.

 

HMS Albion's return to base in 2023 after six years of overseas deployment (Royal Navy)

 

HMS Albion was deployed for six years from 2018 to the summer of 2023 sailing the world, initially to the Far East, and later spending most winters and springs in the Arctic and Baltic with fall deployments to the Mediterranean. She returned to Portsmouth in July 2023 with her duties scheduled to be assumed in 2024 by her sister ship HMS Bulwark after the vessel completes an extended period of refurbishment. As per recent Royal Navy plans, HMS Albion is to be held in reserve for the next few years, and both vessels were scheduled to remain in service until at least 2034.

The Defence Committee in a 2018 report titled “Sunset for the Royal Marines?” warned that an early disposal of HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark would be “militarily illiterate” and “totally at odds with strategic reality.”

Responding to the new reports, the Defence Committee said that it is deeply concerned with the information that the government is considering retiring the two vessels. Losing these ships, they said would make successful amphibious landings very difficult. The Defence Committee highlighted that the suggested alternatives are unlikely to fill the hole HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark would leave in the capabilities of the Royal Navy.

Parliament’s planned evidence session the sponsors said will help to map the impact of losing these ships and to hold the UK government to account for its plans for the Royal Marines’ capabilities.

 

Sarens Involved in Maintenance Works at Whitla Wind Facility in Alberta

Sarens

PUBLISHED JAN 12, 2024 2:00 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

[By: Sarens]

This windfarm, which last phase was commissioned in 2021, is capable of avoiding more than one million tons of CO2 per year which would have been produced by fossil fuel power generation, equivalent to taking more than 200,000 vehicles off the road.

Sarens worked on the assembly and disassembly of blades, rotors, gearboxes and main shafts to ensure the correct operation of the wind turbines.

Sarens has extensive experience in wind farm maintenance in Canada, having worked on the Golden South Wind Project in Assiniboia and the Blue Hill Project in Saskatchewan, among others.

Sarens, world leader in heavy lifting, engineered transport and crane rental services, has worked on the maintenance maneuvers at the Whitla Wind facility, the largest in Alberta. In this case, Sarens’ engineering team was in charge of  the lifting of the blades, rotors, gearboxes and main shafts  for four turbines (T-79, T-89, T-91 and T-7).  The hub height of each tower is measured at 105 meters and the average weight of the components came in at 31 tons.

This wind farm has an installed capacity of 352.8 MW, which allows it to generate enough energy to power more than 100,000 homes per year. Located in Forty Mile County, it consists of 98 Vestas V136 wind turbines of 3.6 MW each, with a hub height of 105 meters and a rotor diameter of 136 meters. According to Capital Power, the company that owns and operates the project, Whitla Wind will prevent the emission of more than one million tonnes of CO2 per year, which is equivalent to taking more than 200,000 vehicles off the road.

The Whitla Wind project contributes to Canada's efforts to transition to cleaner, low-carbon energy, so it’s therefore particularly important to keep your energy production stable by reducing breakdowns through proper maintenance. For this reason, Vestas commissioned Sarens to lead the logistical maneuvers of transport - via Sarens Trucking from Pincher Creek, AB  - and the lifting and lowering of the various parts to reduce downtime and optimize the energy production of the facilities. 

Taking into account the variables to be considered such as component weight, tower height and access for machinery assembly, the Sarens team of experts selected the Demag CC 2800 Crawler Crane  configured with 108m Main Boom, 12m Luffing Jib, 120Te Main CWT, 20Te Carbody CWT, and 110Te Superlift CWT.  This crane was selected because of the height of the towers as this particular configuration  would allow for a boom tip height of 120 meters while remaining under 75% of the crane’s lifting capacity. 

The Whitla plant uses state-of-the-art wind turbines, designed to optimize the utilization of the wind resource while reducing noise and wear and tear. The turbines are connected to an electrical substation, from where the power is transmitted to the provincial grid via a 240 kV, 34 km high voltage line. The project has a remote control  supervision system, which allows the turbines to be monitored and operated from a centralized control center, ensuring safe and efficient operation. The project has been developed in several phases, with the first phase coming into commercial operation on December 1st 2019 and phases 2 and 3 on 1 December 1st 2021.

Sarens has a long history of developing wind projects in Canada. These include the Golden South Wind Project in Assiniboia and the Blue Hill Project in Saskatchewan. In the latter case, Sarens contributed to the transport and erection of 50 wind turbines at their final destination. This facility will be responsible for generating up to 200MW of renewable energy, and will bring an economic impact of over $45M to its community.

The products and services herein described in this press release are not endorsed by The Maritime Executive.

 

U.S. Navy Names Destroyer After WWII Hero Charles J. French

Petty Officer Charles Jackson French (U.S. Navy illustration)
Petty Officer Charles Jackson French (U.S. Navy illustration)

PUBLISHED JAN 12, 2024 12:35 AM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

The U.S. Navy has named its next destroyer after a World War II hero, Petty Officer Charles Jackson French, known as the "Human Tugboat" for his efforts to tow injured shipmates to safety. 

French, an orphan, joined the Navy in 1937 and served one tour as a mess attendant aboard the cruiser USS Houston. He left the Navy with an honorable discharge in November 1941 and moved to Omaha, but not for long. He had been out of the service for barely a month when the Japanese armed forces attacked Pearl Harbor. He re-enlisted and was assigned to the high speed transport USS Gregory, a former destroyer refitted to carry Marines and launch boats for amphibious assault operations. 

After a training workup in the spring and summer of 1942, USS Gregory and three sister ships headed west to join the Guadalcanal campaign, the first shoreside step in the Pacific Theater "island-hopping" strategy. Gregory's Marine Corps complement was part of the first assault wave at Guadalcanal on August 7. After the landing, the transport worked in the area to shuttle supplies and patrol for Japanese submarines. 

In the early hours of September 5, USS Gregory and sister ship USS Little had finished a transport mission to Savo Island and were transiting just offshore. At 0056 hours, their crews saw cannon fire in the distance. Three Japanese destroyers - Y?dachi, Hatsuyuki and Murakumo - had snuck into position and were bombarding the Marine Corps emplacements at Henderson Field.

Before the lightly-armed Gregory and Little could flee, they were silhouetted against the night by a string of flares, which had been dropped by a Navy pilot who thought he was illuminating an enemy submarine. The Japanese destroyer crews spotted the transports opened fire, and their cannonfire left both Gregory and Little disabled and sinking. Gregory's commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Harry F. Bauer, ordered abandon ship. The bombardment did not entirely cease: At 0123, the Japanese destroyers began shelling the survivors in the water. 

Those in the water had a choice: stay at sea and hope to evade Japanese fire or a shark attack, or swim for shore and risk capture or death at the hands of Japanese forces on Guadalcanal. Petty Officer French was aboard a raft of survivors, most of whom were hurt. He tied a rope around his waist, got in the water and swam for hours, hoping to keep the raft out of harm's way. All aboard survived and were safely rescued by a Marine Corps landing craft in the morning. 

French received a letter of commendation for his actions, but did not receive a medal in his lifetime. Later in the war, he returned to sea as a messman aboard USS Endicott and USS Frankford, serving in the Atlantic Theater. French's history after the war is less clear; he died in 1956, at the age of 37, and was buried at a military cemetery in San Diego. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Marine Corps Medal in 2022. “For too long, we did not recognize Petty Officer French appropriately, but we’ve begun to correct that,” said Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro on Wednesday. “Today, with profound conviction and a heart brimming with long-overdue recognition, I am proud to announce the name of our newest destroyer, DDG 142, will be the USS Charles J. French.”

USS French will be the Navy's 91st Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and will be built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi beginning in 2026. 

 

Red Sea Disruption Forces Tesla to Suspend Production in Germany

The Tesla Berlin-Brandenburg plant (Michael Wolf Penig / CC BY SA 3.0)
The Tesla Berlin-Brandenburg plant (Michael Wolf Penig / CC BY SA 3.0)

PUBLISHED JAN 11, 2024 11:05 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

Yemen's Houthi rebels have been disrupting commercial shipping in the Red Sea with drone and missile attacks since November, delaying transits and doubling rates for containerized freight on the core Asia-Europe route. On Thursday, as the U.S. and UK prepared airstrikes against Houthi positions, Tesla - the world's second-largest manufacturer of electric cars - announced that it would have to suspend production at its new German plant for two weeks because of the supply chain disruptions. 

"Due to a lack of components, we are forced to suspend vehicle production at the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg between January 29 and February 11, with the exception of a few sub-areas," the company said in a statement. "The armed conflicts in the Red Sea and the associated shifts in transport routes between Europe and Asia via the Cape of Good Hope are also having an impact on production [at the plant]."

The firm said that the "considerably longer transportation times" are delaying its supplies, creating a gap in the constant flow of materials from Asian suppliers to its German plant. (Tesla's manufacturing facilities in China and the United States are not affected.)

Tesla is not the only firm with supply chain issues caused by the Red Sea disruption. This week, the Federation of German Industries called for the German government to provide military protection for Red Sea shipping, warning of significant effects on the German economy if the attacks continue.  

The allied U.S.-British strikes on Houthi positions on Thursday may change the equation in the Red Sea, but until ocean carriers regain confidence in the security of the route, elevated freight rates and longer transit times will continue. Shippers are adapting to a new "Cape route" paradigm by diversifying their supply chains and looking at alternative routes. Rail operators report an increased interest in Eurasian overland rail services, which are faster and more expensive than ocean freight. The services are a niche option for high-value cargo in limited quantities: In 2021, the China-Europe container-on-rail trade accounted for about 600,000 TEU of volume, a fraction of the 26 million TEU of China-Europe maritime trade that year, according to The Diplomat.

Top image: The Tesla Berlin-Brandenburg plant (Michael Wolf Penig / CC BY SA 3.0)

 

Work Stoppages Grow at DP Australia Terminals as MUA Pay Dispute Escalates

Australia strike
Work is again stopping in the long running dispute with the MUA impacting DP World Australia's terminals (DP World)

PUBLISHED JAN 12, 2024 6:56 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

 

Work at the terminals operated by DP World in Australia’s four largest ports ground to a halt on Friday, January 12, with the expectation that the dispute is likely to further escalate in the coming weeks. The Maritime Union of Australia, which has been without a contract since October 2023, won new rights to strike from Australia’s labor regulators after three days of talks to break the impasse collapsed overnight and left shippers and carriers calling for the government to intervene.

Both sides are accusing the other of elevating the dispute after 10 months of negotiations and nearly four months without a contract. DP World operates terminals in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Fremantle which collectively handle approximately 40 percent of Australia’s cargo volume. The company rivals Patrick, the country’s other large terminal operator.

Dockworkers walked off the job entirely at the terminals in Sydney, Brisbane, and Freemantle on Friday with only a small staff at the Melbourne terminal. This came after DP World announced plans to dock workers’ full pay starting on Friday if they took part in any industrial action. The company is also suspending pay for workers on leave and other steps in a move management told the media was designed to signal the time has come to settle the contract negotiations.

The MUA, however, is accusing DP World of not negotiating in good faith and took a new claim to Australia’s Fair Work Commission seeking to expand its job actions. The union has been staging rolling job actions across the four terminals and certain work rule limits such as refusing overtime since October 2023. They contend they started the negotiations in March 2023 in good faith.

DP World contends that the MUA is not willing to budge from its demands for a 27.5 percent pay increase over three years and is opposing work rule changes to reflect the changing business climate. The union counters that members are receiving 17 percent less pay than comparable jobs at Patrick’s terminals.

The Fair Work Commission on Friday however ruled in favor of the MUA. They said with five days’ notice the union can stop work for up to 16 hours. The MUA suspended plans for weekend job actions but has already scheduled work stoppage next week at all four of the terminals.

Maersk informed customers that it expects work stoppages in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne next week warning of further delays beyond the port congestion already experienced around Australia. Earlier in the week, Maersk reported an extra loader, Merkur Horizon (4,300 TEU) put on the run to help with the backlogs, would be forced to omit a call at Sydney instead of discharging its cargo at the end of next week in Melbourne, instead of an earlier plan to offload Sydney cargo in Brisbane. They still plan to make the Brisbane call but now expect to transload the boxes booked for Sydney to one of three vessels, Christa Schulte, Prestige, or CMA CGM Tancredi, for Sydney discharge. They did not report the length of the delay for these shipments.

DP World acknowledged the decision of the labor regulators saying that it believes “government intervention is essential to break the deadlock.” The union says it will not be bullied into an agreement.

Frustrated by months of delays and the prospects of a worsening situation, Shipping Australia which represents shipowners, operators, and agents, called on the federal government’s Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke to step in and use his legal authority to resolve the dispute. The Australian Logistics Council also added its voice calling for government action. Even the opposition government is also calling on the elected leaders to use their authority under the Fair Work Act to force the Fair Work Commission to intervene.

More than 100 wild animals trapped by border wall killed in Texas wildfire

Story by Nina Lakhani • GUARDIAN


Photograph: Courtesy Delcia Lopez / The Monitor© Photograph: Courtesy Delcia Lopez / The Monitor

More than a 100 wild animals including frogs, shrews and snakes were killed in a wildfire in Texas last summer, after getting trapped behind the concrete border wall.

Internal US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) memos obtained by an environmental group reveal that government scientists found scores of burnt animals against a mile-long stretch of the border wall last August, after a wildfire in the Lower Rio Grande Valley national wildlife refuge, a federally protected area

According to the email from one biologist who visited the area in the aftermath, the concrete border wall “impeded the escape of wildlife from the fire” – which swept through the long grass, rapidly scorching around 1,500 acres thanks to high winds and dry conditions.

“... This is a good reminder of the impact the border wall can have on wildlife movement, especially in emergency situations like this.”

“[Fires are] just another thing to assess for impacts to wildlife from the border fence; just like flooding, some wildlife cannot escape,” wrote another FWS biologist.

Among the animals killed in the fire were 100 frogs, most likely native Rio Grande leopard frogs, six cane toads, two shrews, six tarantula spiders, a yellow-billed cuckoo, a groove-billed ani cuckoo and a dozen snakes including Mexican racers, checkered garters and Texas patch-nosed serpents. The dead birds were most likely trying to outpace the grass fire when they hit the wall and didn’t have time to fly 30ft up in the air.

“This horrifying account of animals being burnt alive while trapped by the border wall is just the latest proof that border barriers are deathtraps for wildlife … We are fearful that this will only become a more common story as climate change progresses,” said Laiken Jordahl, south-west conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, who obtained the FWS memos.

The FWS declined to comment.

Around 40% of the entire 1,950-mile-long US-Mexico border is now fenced off, thanks mostly to construction during the Bush and Trump administrations. This includes almost 650 miles of pedestrian fencing, steel and concrete barriers impossible for most animals to cross. Biden has continued building new sections despite a campaign promise to halt all wall construction.

The Texas wildfire deaths took place at a Bush-era section of the concrete pedestrian fencing, built at the edge of the floodplain along existing earthen levees – manmade structures that wildlife were able to cross unimpeded. Some reports suggested that the wall may have helped contain the fire.

In order to fast-track construction of the wall, consecutive governments have waived more than 20 laws designed to protect flora and fauna such as the Endangered Species Act, the Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa). As a result, there is little research into the impacts of the 30-ft tall barriers on threatened and endangered species, or on the risks posed by fires and floods.

But environmentalists have long warned that the border wall poses a serious threat as it impedes wildlife from accessing food, water, shelter, mates – and safety. In 2009, hundreds of tortoise shells were found in the Rio Grande after major floods, and the FWS suspected that other trapped animals including ocelots and jaguarundi may have also died.

Now, the climate crisis is exacerbating the risks as extreme weather events like floods, fire and drought increasingly batter the entire US – including the southern border.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has created a few dozen small wildlife openings in the newer bollard wall in parts of Arizona, but nowhere along the concrete levee sections along the river, where the animals perished last August. Some additional wildlife openings are to be installed, under terms of a settlement in a long-running lawsuit over how the Trump administration paid for wall construction.

The CBP did not respond to request for comment

 

New study uses machine learning to bridge the reality gap in quantum devices



Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TUESDAY 9 JANUARY 2024

New study uses machine learning to bridge the reality gap in quantum devices

A study led by the University of Oxford has used the power of machine learning to overcome a key challenge affecting quantum devices. For the first time, the findings reveal a way to close the ‘reality gap’: the difference between predicted and observed behaviour from quantum devices. The results have been published in Physical Review X.

Quantum computing could supercharge a wealth of applications, from climate modelling and financial forecasting, to drug discovery and artificial intelligence. But this will require effective ways to scale and combine individual quantum devices (also called qubits). A major barrier against this is inherent variability: where even apparently identical units exhibit different behaviours.

Functional variability is presumed to be caused by nanoscale imperfections in the materials that quantum devices are made from. Since there is no way to measure these directly, this internal disorder cannot be captured in simulations, leading to the gap in predicted and observed outcomes.

To address this, the research group used a “physics-informed” machine learning approach to infer these disorder characteristics indirectly. This was based on how the internal disorder affected the flow of electrons through the device.

Lead researcher Associate Professor Natalia Ares (Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford) said: ‘As an analogy, when we play “crazy golf” the ball may enter a tunnel and exit with a speed or direction that doesn’t match our predictions. But with a few more shots, a crazy golf simulator, and some machine learning, we might get better at predicting the ball’s movements and narrow the reality gap.’

The researchers measured the output current for different voltage settings across an individual quantum dot device. The data was input into a simulation which calculated the difference between the measured current with the theoretical current if no internal disorder was present. By measuring the current at many different voltage settings, the simulation was constrained to find an arrangement of internal disorder that could explain the measurements at all voltage settings. This approach used a combination of mathematical and statistical approaches coupled with deep learning.

Associate Professor Ares added: ‘In the crazy golf analogy, it would be equivalent to placing a series of sensors along the tunnel, so that we could take measurements of the ball’s speed at different points. Although we still can’t see inside the tunnel, we can use the data to inform better predictions of how the ball will behave when we take the shot.’

Not only did the new model find suitable internal disorder profiles to describe the measured current values, it was also able to accurately predict voltage settings required for specific device operating regimes.

Crucially, the model provides a new method to quantify the variability between quantum devices. This could enable more accurate predictions of how devices will perform, and also help to engineer optimum materials for quantum devices. It could inform compensation approaches to mitigate the unwanted effects of material imperfections in quantum devices.

Co-author David Craig, a PhD student at the Department of Materials, University of Oxford, added, ‘Similar to how we cannot observe black holes directly but we infer their presence from their effect on surrounding matter, we have used simple measurements as a proxy for the internal variability of nanoscale quantum devices. Although the real device still has greater complexity than the model can capture, our study has demonstrated the utility of using physics-aware machine learning to narrow the reality gap.’

Notes to editors:

For media enquiries and interview requests, contact Dr Natalia Ares: natalia.ares@eng.ox.ac.uk

The study ‘Bridging the reality gap in quantum devices with physics-aware machine learning’ has been published in Physical Review Xhttps://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.14.011001

About the University of Oxford

Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the eighth year running, and ​number 3 in the QS World Rankings 2024. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer.

Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions.

Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 300 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past five years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing £15.7 billion to the UK economy in 2018/19, and supports more than 28,000 full time jobs.