At EGU2025, the GHER, University of Liège presented “Drifters Do it Yourself (D2iY)”, a multidisciplinary educational initiative integrated into its Master in Oceanography programme. The project guides students through the process of designing, assembling, and deploying surface drifters to study ocean currents in the Bay of Calvi. Crucially, it also equips them to analyse the collected data using digital research tools — including the Coastal Currents from Observations Virtual Lab (VLab) developed within Blue-Cloud 2026.
Students involved in oceanography often come from diverse academic backgrounds — from physics, biology to geology and environmental sciences. This diversity is valuable but can present practical challenges, particularly when it comes to working with code and software environments. In previous years, instructors spent significant time troubleshooting software installations on students’ personal machines, with inconsistent configurations leading to issues that were difficult to replicate and resolve.
The introduction of the Blue-Cloud computing environment addressed this bottleneck. By providing a cloud-based JupyterLab interface with pre-installed and version-controlled software — including access to the Julia programming language — all students could work within the same environment. This not only reduced the time spent on technical issues but also made the programming component of the project more accessible and intuitive.
Using VLab 2, students processed location data from their deployed drifters. They computed velocities and visualised the drifter trajectories and positions directly within the Blue-Cloud platform. This enabled them to complete the full research cycle: from formulating a scientific question and gathering field measurements, to analysing and interpreting the data.
The combination of hands-on fieldwork and guided data analysis allowed students to actively engage with the physical processes shaping coastal dynamics. The use of Blue-Cloud’s VLab made the technical aspects of the project more manageable and inclusive, ensuring that learning time was spent on scientific exploration rather than software troubleshooting.
