Experiments with a Yellow Pancake

Meet three PMEC doctoral students advancing the design and efficiency of wave energy converters (WECs)

Floating buoy moving with the waves in the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Flume. The sticks on top of the buoy are used by the motion capture cameras, to capture motion in six degrees of freedom.

Wave energy is on the cusp of enabling at-sea charging of autonomous underwater vehicles and powering environmental monitoring systems and ocean surveillance.  However, this technology sector still has many unanswered fundamental questions about design for efficiency and survivability at sea. 

PMEC’s Judy Twedt and Mika McCrary sat down with doctoral students Abilyn McConnell, Raza Ali, and Inyong Kim, to learn about their research. They all use the same open-source lab-scale WEC device – a cylindrical buoy Mika referred to as a yellow pancake. They use this device to study both submerged and surface-floating WEC design.  

Their laboratory tests are conducted in two testing facilities at Oregon State University: The O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Lab, and the Wallace Energy Systems and Renewables Facility. 

Experiments in the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Flume. Photos show both submerged and surface-floating configurations.

Why did you choose this work? 

Inyong: I was drawn to this project because it aligns closely with my interests in dynamic control of generators and hydrodynamics, and I saw an opportunity to contribute to a meaningful challenge in marine energy.

Raza: I was lucky enough to be a part of an internship program at the National Renewable Energy Lab where I was exposed to wave energy converter design and modeling. This experience gave me an outlet for my passion for renewable energy, and I applied to the PhD program at OSU, where wave energy is a focus. My project being on submerged WECs was happenstance, but I enjoy the more niche research field and applications related to submerged WECs. Especially as many of the highest technology readiness level (TRL) devices are in fact fully submerged.

Abby: I got into wave energy as a sophomore in my undergraduate studies, where I worked on an emergency response wave energy desalination device. From there, I fell in love with the field and kept pursuing internships and projects related to marine energy until I found myself at OSU working on a super cool project at the intersection of marine energy, experimental testing, and controls.

What are your research goals?

Inyong: I model multi-physics systems such as ocean wave energy converters by unifying these physics into the electrical domain, with the broader goal of improving the efficiency of energy harvesting from ocean waves. 

Raza: I advance our understanding of submerged wave energy converters by exploring the trade-offs in designs commonly proposed in industry. Publishing open source literature on the trade offs in hull design, coupled PTO-mooring configuration, and modeling fidelity gives developers insight into how these choices impact the performance of their device. 

Abby: I am improving how wave energy devices are tested with mooring forces by combining computer simulations with physical experiments in real time. The goal is to create a more accurate and flexible testing method that can better predict how these devices will interact with realistic mooring forces in real ocean conditions before they are deployed at sea. 

Why Marine Energy? 

Abby: I chose marine energy for several reasons. First, marine energy is a unique and exciting branch of renewable energy where there is still no convergent design for these devices and much of the work we do is at the forefront of the field. Second, the community of marine energy researchers is one of the most welcoming and kind groups of people I have ever been involved with. Being in marine energy makes me feel supported and inspired by what I and those around me do.

Raza: I completed my undergraduate degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan and wanted to leverage these skills into furthering renewable energy solutions, as I believe reducing the impact of our energy systems on our planet and society is important work that must be done. An internship at the National Lab of the Rockies opened the door to the world of wave energy and combined this passion with a complex/interesting problem that I knew I could spend a few years working on. 

Inyong: I’m excited about marine energy because it offers a largely untapped renewable resource, and I’m motivated by its potential to contribute to sustainable energy solutions while addressing complex ocean engineering challenges. 

The Linear Test Bed in the Wallace Energy Systems and Renewables Facility, used as 1-dimensional model for testing system performance prior to full wave flume testing.

A short video with Inyong Kim on the scale of the SubWEC model.

For more information about this research check out: 

I. Kim, T. A. Shifat, R. Syed-Muhammad Ali, A. McConnell, B. Robertson, and T. K. A. Brekken, “Equivalent Circuit Modeling of the SubWEC Ocean Wave Energy Converter,” 2026 IEEE Green Technologies Conference (GreenTech), Boulder, CO, USA, 2026, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/GreenTech68285.2026.11471619.

McConnell, A., Liu, E., Bosma, B., Kim, I., Ali, R., Simpson, B., & Robertson, B. (2026). Development of a real-time hybrid simulation framework for wave energy converter mooring applications. Ocean Engineering, 362, 126498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2026.126498

This research is done in collaboration with Barbara Simpson, Yun Ni and Elaine Liu  from Stanford University, and is sponsored by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, H2O.