The Speaker Program will cover significant technological aspects and obstacles of oceanographic and ocean engineering buoy systems and their components worldwide. Topics for the 2008 workshop will include:

• Buoy Systems for the Orion Coastal, Regional, and Global Observatories
  
• Hydrodynamic Modeling of Buoy Systems under Wind, Ocean Currents and Sea State Action
  
• Service Life Prediction for Buoy Moorings; Identification, and Quantification of Local Fatigue Phenomena
  
• Unexpected or Unexplainable Failures, Successful Fixes
  
• Applicable Solutions and Experiences from Offshore Oil Exploration Systems
  
• Buoy Design and Fabrication
  
• Buoy Mooring Configurations, Materials, and Components
  
• Light-Weight EM and EOM Buoy Mooring Cables and their Terminations
  
• Durable compliant Wave Motion Absorbing Elements for observatory and other hard-wired Sensor Moorings
  
• Drifting and Profiling Buoys
  
• Telemetry and Power Linkage between Surface Buoys, In-Line Sensors, and Ocean Bottom Sensors
  
• At Sea Deployment, Servicing, and Retrieval

A Special Theme for this workshop program is planned. A suggested topic is: Design and Performance Challenges for Orion Buoy Systems. Suggestions for other topics are invited.

Documentation
The ONR/MTS Buoy Workshop 2008 Record will be completed shortly after the workshop, and a CD containing the final report will be sent to all participants as well as to interested organizations and firms. Compiled in the Record will be the authors' abstracts, the speakers' presentation material, a participant's list, a list of exhibitors, and a summarizing report. The Preliminary Speaker Program will be sent out in February 2008, with the final program becoming available on the buoy workshop web-site shortly before the workshop. For those not attending the workshop, the CD will be available at a cost of $25.00 from Judy Rizoli, see contact information.