8th Annual Polar Technology Conference

The 8th annual Polar Technology Conference will be co-hosted by the Dartmouth College Institute of Arctic Sciences and the Ice Drilling Program Office at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering. Venue arrangements are being finalized. 

The primary purpose of this conference is to bring together Polar Scientists and Technology Developers in a forum to exchange information on research system operational needs and technology solutions that have been successful in polar environments.  This exchange of knowledge helps to address issues of design, implementation, and deployment for systems that are to achieve their research goals in the Polar Regions. 

Past participants have come from the private sector, state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and academia.  Presentations generally cover system requirements for proposed research along with descriptions of systems and approaches that have been proven in polar deployments.  Typical hardware and software topics have included weather stations, robotics, power systems, telemetry, and remote communications.  The scale of systems ranges from the autonomous data collection towers to large scale research stations. Polar venues represented include under, on, and above the ice, tundra, or sea.

Discussions on intra- and inter-national cooperation in site deployment and maintenance are encouraged. Informal breaks allow for opportunities for networking and information exchange. A poster session is also included.  Workshops are being planned to offer tutorial exchanges on specific technologies (e.g., power systems, Iridium). We are pleased to have support  from the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs as an endorsement of the concept of bringing together providers and consumers of these technologies in hopes of benefiting from that synergy.  Previous years' lists of presentations and participants can be found through the following links. An evolving list of PTC 2012 attendees will be updated as registrations are received.

Previous presentations and participants

Oral presentations (up to 25 minutes) will be scheduled for all three days. A session will be devoted just to posters on Wednesday or Thursday, where the authors will be available for discussions. The display boards will be available throughout the conference, however, to allow the full set to be viewed at your leisure. The first two days of the conference are expected to follow the plan of previous conferences, with an emphasis on systems generally operating on low power and/or autonomously. The last day of the conference will feature larger installations, typically populated sites (e.g., research stations), and ice cap traverses.

Venue: The Lake Morey Resort is located in the Upper Connecticut River valley approximately 20 miles north of the communities of White River Junction, VT, and Hanover and Lebanon, NH. Dartmouth College and the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research Engineering Laboratory are neighbors. The conference center at the Resort is well equipped to support the Polar Technology Conference. A block of rooms has been reserved at a special conference rate of $85/night plus applicable taxes. The Resort is close to the Lebanon Regional Airport (LEB) and served by Manchester (MHT), Burlington (BTV), and Boston (BOS) International airports. Room reservation information will be provided with the registration information.

Please contact the Organizing Committee for additional information:

        Roy Stehle, SRI International
        Seth White, UNAVCO
        Tim Parker, IRIS/PASSCAL
        Satish Chetty, Beyond 66
        Tracy Dahl, Polar Field Services