In the late 1990s, electrical engineering student Mathew Zimmerman and James H. Miller, his professor of Ocean Engineering at the University of Rhode Island, had an idea for an improved sonar system that could look ahead of a vessel and warn of subsea obstructions, like the rocks that punctured the hulls of the Exxon Valdez and QE II. They Officially began work on their forward-looking sonar in 2001 and launched the first product, the FS-3 Navigation & Obstacle Avoidance System, three years later. Since then, FarSounder has received several patents for their 3D forward-looking technology.