(NEWS) Challenges of Unmanned Shipping – Nautical Institute Seminar at WMU

April

2017

Challenges of Unmanned Shipping – Nautical Institute Seminar at WMU

On 31 March, the Swedish-Danish (SweDen) Branch of the Nautical Institute (NI) held their spring seminar event and Annual General Meeting at WMU. The seminar, entitled "Challenges of Unmanned Shipping", was co-organized by NI and WMU.

The seminar included presentations from the perspectives of shipowners, researchers and lecturers as well as lively discussion with input from the NI members and WMU students in attendance who represented a wide range of areas within the maritime sector.

Rapidly ongoing technological developments, views and opinions on unmanned and autonomous shipping were discussed relative to facts from aviation by the discussion's moderator, Raza Mehdi, who has been a WMU Research Assistant and has a background in aerospace engineering and aviation. Inspired discussions with the audience included legal aspects, technological challenges and the role of human operators including future training and education requirements for personnel in the maritime field. WMU Associate Professor, Michael Baldauf, was responsible for the co-organization of the event with NI. In attendance were students from across the WMU specializations, WMU faculty and participants from external institutions.

Cooperation with NI on the seminar supports the University’s research efforts and interests as well as WMU’s commitment to UN Sustainable Development Goal 4: inclusive and equitable quality education and the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all.

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