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Key points CTO and COO Jason Gillham tours Impossible Metals’ custom-built tow tank lab, a darkened room with a steel frame holding a chain-driven vehicle that moves over a water tank to simulate deep-ocean conditions. A Stewart platform gives the vehicle six degrees of freedom,…

Key points Bob Galyen, retired chief technology officer of CATL and chairman of the SAE Battery Standards Steering Committee, outlines four factors behind China’s battery industry success: government support, private equity investment, available technology and human-machine…

Key points DeepFocus, a Portuguese startup founded in 2023, uses machine learning workflows to generate predictive maps for polymetallic nodules, crusts and seafloor massive sulfides, presented by CEO Joao Carvalho. In a 300,000 square kilometer Clarion-Clipperton Zone assessment, the…

Key points Lucia Fogler, a University of Virginia public policy and global security researcher, presents open-source mapping of China’s deep-sea mining contract areas and research vessel movements to assess risks to US defense posture in Oceania. Of 16 critical minerals the DoD and…

Key points Jason Gillham, CTO/COO and co-founder of Impossible Metals, shows the company’s first buoyancy engine prototype, built from a Nalgene bottle, a bike pump, and tubing. The bike pump fed air into the bottle while a tube at the bottom fed water in, letting the team test early…