Graduate students in the Ocean Physics Department (OPD) take their coursework through an academic department at the University of Washington, while pursuing research projects with a faculty advisor in OPD. These projects become the students' masters thesis and/or doctoral dissertation. OPD offers graduate student training with the opportunity to experience the entire life cycle of sea-going research projects, including experiment planning, participation in research cruises, data processing, scientific analysis and the presentation of results at national and international meetings. Many projects involve considerable hands-on participation, and graduate students often work with unique instruments developed or under development by OPD scientists and engineers. Graduate students commonly participate in field experiments—sites include the Hawaiian Ridge, Pacific Ocean (off Costa Rica), Banda Sea (Indonesia), Labrador Sea, Denmark Strait, Knight Inlet (British Columbia), Japan/East Sea, Gulf of Alaska and Adriatic Sea.