Who is Dr. Amanda Reynolds from Ice Hunt and what is their importance?

Amanda Reynolds lost her hearing after a car accident at the age of thirteen, but it hardly even slowed her down although her speech is slightly slurred and when she is excited, her enunciation is not as good which is characteristic of someone with this kind of 'handicap'. Her hair is often worn in an efficient ponytail, and she is as comfortable aboard the submarine as any sailor in the fleet. She was raised as a Navy brat and she designed the experimental "Deep Eye' ice-surveying system which is a penetrating sonar or X-ray for ice.