Winning ways rewarded by Wartsila

wartsila-award-2016
Today John Thornhill of Wartsila UK presented the Ship Design and Economics,  Wartsila, General Arrangement Prize to Gilberto Zambrini and Cillian McGreer for their excellent coursework in the SESS2017 Part 2, Ship Design and Economics module.
They each received a copy of Wartsila’s book ; Wartsila Encyclopaedia of Marine Technology along with a certificate which recorded their achievement. Whilst here John took the opportunity to chat with the students about their current design task (Part 3, SESS3024 Marine Concept Design). Generally staff and students were very pleased with the awarding of this  prize which aknowledged hard work and thoughtful design.
 

Greenwich Forum Prize for the 2016 Best Undergraduate Project/Dissertation

University  of Southampton Ship Science students continue to excel at National level with the Greenwich Forum prize for the 2016 best undergraduate project/dissertation awarded to Xiaoming Yang.  Her work was judged the best out of a strong field of seven and dealt with the important topic of parametric roll which has been a concern for certain categories of large ships in recent years. Xiaoming graduated as top of her class with a BEng in Ship Science in June 2016.

Influence of CG and wave height on parametric roll
Influence of CG and wave height on parametric roll

Our wave energy powered AUVs and ASVs systems presented at OCEANS16

At the end of September FSI PhD student and Ship Science MEng graduate James Bowker and Dr Nick Townsend presented their research at the OCEANS16 conference in Monterey, California.

IN situ trial of wave energy capture using gyros
IN situ trial of wave energy capture using gyros

The conference which featured over 500 technical presentations and industrial exhibitions was a real show case of latest ideas and innovations in marine technology. There were sessions on autonomous vehicle design, navigation, control, communication, sensors, imaging, and hydrodynamics – every abbreviation you could think off ASV, AUV, UAV, UUV, ROV!
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James and Nick presented their research which is exploring and developing new energy scavenging technologies that can augment and power autonomous marine vehicles such as AUVs, ASVs and potentially boats and ships.
James’ paper “Experimental analysis of submerged flapping foils; implications for autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs)” explores the use of submerged or tandem flapping foils as a mechanism to convert ocean wave energy directly into propulsion or to generate power and recharge the platform.
Nick’s paper “In situ results from a new energy scavenging system for an autonomous underwater vehicle” explores capturing the undesired wave induced motions (roll and pitch) of a floating platform through a gyroscopic system.
MRL systems
MRL systems

 

Society of Maritime Industries (SMI) Donald Maxwell Award 2016 Winner Announced!

At the Society of Maritime Industries (SMI) AGM Luncheon on the 6th October this year’s Donald Maxwell undergraduate award was presented to Kate Devereux who is just entering her 4th and final year of her MEng as a Ship Science student at the University of Southampton.
peter-french-presenting-the-2016-award-to-kate-devereux
Kate received a cheque for ÂŁ1,000 and her certificate from the Chairman of SMI Mr Peter French.
Mr French said: “Kate is a worthy recipient of this year’s award. Her dissertation is a fantastic example of the work young women are doing in our industry and SMI is proud to be part of celebrating British female engineers.”
The award is given for the best final year degree project from a UK resident student undertaking their study on a degree accredited by The Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology (IMarEST).
Judging was undertaken by SMI Board member Mr Duncan Cunningham FIMarEST and Mr Phil Green CEng FRINA. Kate’s paper most impressed the judges and was on the topic of “Investigation into the suitability of composite materials for the construction of marine propellers.”
The work was carried out following a summer internship at local propeller company CJR propellers working with FSI Alumni Dr Simon Lewis.

Italian National Champions NACRA 17!!!

FSI PhD student Laura demonstrates that her understanding of hydrofoil is not just academic but also can be demonstrated out on the water where it counts. It has been a busy month or so with her recent award winning paper at the conference in South Africa      Also reported by Landrover BAR   where she has been working on  a placement since last year.  She reports on the Italian National Championships as follows

Flying Nacra
Flying Nacra

Last week my helm (Francesco Porro) and I (Laura Marimon Giovannetti) were in Formia racing for the Italian Championship title. The weather conditions were not the best, but we managed to get 5 races in in light wind conditions – 3 of which we won!
The Champions
The Champions

We sailed well throughout the week and managed to stay calm during the long waits for the wind. Our final scores were: 1-(3)-1-3-1!
The opponents were extremely strong and we managed to defeat the Italian representative in the Rio 2016 Olympics games (Bissaro and Sicouri) who came 5th at the Olympics! We are extremely happy with our performance and we look forward to go and trial the new foiling NACRA 17 at the end of October, in the hope that the NACRA class will decide the best boat for us to sail in the Olympic cycle toward Tokyo 2020.
 
Laura
Laura

XPrize searches the oceans

xprize
 
 
Dr Nick Townsend in FSI is coordinating the University of Southampton team that is entering the Xprize for  ocean exploration
More than two-thirds of our planet is covered by water yet we have only explored 5% of the ocean. This physically challenging environment prohibits today’s mapping technologies from exploring the ocean. The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE will incentivize the innovation required to reach the scale, depth, speed and resolution necessary to illuminate the mysteries of the deep and discover what has remained unknown since the dawn of time.
The University of Southampton team is currently recruiting to our team whether you are a PhD student, member of staff, or a new starting undergraduate or foundation year student there will be a role for all.
Please contact Dr Townsend via his email to find out more!

Bridges visiting the City of Bridges

Dr Jon Downes and Artur Lidkte attended the first general assembly of Bringing together Research and Industry for the Development of Glider Enviromental Services – BRIDGES, which took place in Porto, Portugal.

Porto
Porto

The Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, FEUP (http://lsts.pt/blog/bridges-1%C2%AA-general-assembly) – hosted the meeting on 6, 7 and 8 September 2016. This meeting aimed to evaluate the project status and share results and solutions between the different partners involved in the project.
BRIDGES is a consortium of 19 public and private partners from 7 European countries (SP, PT, UK, FR, NL, D, CY) and 2 from associated countries (NO, IS). The project is coordinated by ARMINES ENSTA-ParisTech
A possible deep sea glider topology
A possible deep sea glider topology

For more about the progress and news of BRIDGES please visit: www.bridges-h2020.eu

Gliding forwards

Dr Jon Downes was one of 150 delegates from across Europe that visited the NOC in Southampton for the 7th EGO conference  on autonomous ocean gliders and their applications. The conference, hosted by the NOC, provided a forum in which scientists, engineers, students and industry exchanged knowledge and experiences on the development of glider technology, the application of gliders in oceanographic research and the role of gliders in ocean observing systems. Presentations included work from the EU H2020 Bridges Project developing the next generation gliders (http://www.bridges-h2020.eu/) that the University is contributing to.
 
 
Bridges visits the City of Bridges!
 

An EXCEL-lent summer

One of our summer placement student’s Aaron Page reports on his summer with FSI as part of the Maritime Robotics Lab. This was a paid internship the University of Southampton’s EXCEL scheme we will be advertising similar opportunities for next summer in the spring.
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As a recently graduated electromechanical engineer from the University of Southampton, having the opportunity to spend two months at the highly regarded Bolderwood innovation campus with the FSI (Fluid Interactions Group) department was a fantastic opportunity to apply my studies to a real word engineering application. During my time I was working on a new control architecture for the Motors and Rudders on a previously student designed and built vessel called Fortitude this alongside further refitting will lead to long term deployments in the transatlantic and other areas for data gathering missions.
The project allowed me to apply my knowledge of control theory, whilst allowing me to further develop my skills as a programmer. I was given complete freedom to peruse the objective allowing me to approach it in the way I believed would yield the best results, this alongside regular weekly meetings with my supervisors ensured all options, and potential issues were highlighted and investigated. Various control methods were considered and how they could later be integrated with different autonomous control approaches and object avoidance algorithm’s, ensuring future steps in this multi-layered project are as smooth as possible. Being involved so early in this project has also given me the opportunity to identify problems that may be encountered later on in the projects life as well as make suggestions that may alter the direction of hardware selection.
Being invited to the weekly FSI seminar meetings where PhD students gave presentations on their research, furthered my knowledge of a field I had very little exposure to previously. This, alongside the summer events run by the staff and PhD students, has made my time with them very enjoyable.
This internship, run in partnership with the EXCEL scheme, has helped me developed a range of skills that I will now be applying as I start my PhD at the University of Southampton within ECS. I hope to remain involved with the project and look forward to seeing how it develops over the next couple of years.

The Route to Sustainable Shipping

A combined SMMI and FSI panel discussion
Wed 12th October 2016 at 18:00
University of Southampton, Boldrewood Campus, 1125/176L
FSI post grad student Josh Taylor has organised a panel discussion as part of Southampton Sustainability Week.
Ship - FSI Boat Trip
This public event explores the challenges faced by the maritime industry on the route to becoming more sustainable. The unique framework of the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute facilitates the continued exchange of ideas between people in both academia and industry.
This event is part of  Southampton’s first annual sustainability week and should  provide a stimulating discussion to create opportunities for change while showcasing the maritime industry’s presence in Southampton. Southampton sustainability week is a series of city-wide events which encourage sustainable behaviour change by increasing awareness of issues and celebrating progress to date. The week is organised by a group of volunteers and headed by the founder Jenny Barnes.
A distinguished panel of industry experts and academics will discuss the challenges the maritime industry faces in achieving environmental sustainability, guided by structured questions from the chair, Professor Ajit Shenoi, University of Southampton director of the SMMI. The discussion topics will include  Ship design,  Maritime law,  Regulation and innovation,  Fleet operation,  Waste management.
For those interested in attending please register for free via Eventbright:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-route-to-sustainable-shipping-tickets-28168759518
If you are interested in exploring our study opportunities in maritime engineering and ship science then the video interviews with two of our graduates Thomas and Emily from graduation this summer maybe useful.