TS-73
Reflections on Marine Engineering Education for the Next Millennium
by Hallvard Engja*
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Department of Marine Engineering, 7491 Trondheim, NORWAY
ABSTRAACT
Science is the discovery of nature and engineering is the technical application of those truths to the benefit of humankind. The relationship between discovery and application of knowledge grows increasingly intimate in the modern era; therefore, the practical art of engineering has become little less art and a little more science. This makes it necessary to discuss the content of the academic program we offer our students. It should be designed to provide a knowledge of the basic physical sciences, and to encourage the development of ingenuity for the purpose of creating well-engineered solutions to technological problems. The central theme of this paper is therefore, to reflect on marine engineering in particular and to propose that our teaching in this discipline should be focused on modeling and computer simulation of systems so that our marine engineers of the future are able to meet the quantitative system analysis requirements placed on them at the design stage.
1. INTRODUCTION
Engineers can be thought of as creators, innovators, problem solvers, builders, fixers and leaders. Education must strive to help students become all these. That means that the primary objective of our education then should be to prepare students to develop their ability to analyses problems and responsibly apply their knowledge to solutions and technological leadership of tomorrow.
As technology advances, the problems the engineering community must face are getting more sophisticated day by day and it is safe to predict that this trend will continue. Because of the increasing complexity of man-designed systems, and the need to cope with this complexity has caused the climate of engineering activity and education to change toward an increased demand for quantitative method of analysis and deeper understanding by the students.
Since we are now at the beginning of the 21st century and a gathering of the "marine engineering congregation" at ISME TOKYO 2000 conference, it might be the proper time to make some reflections on the content of the academic program of a marine engineering education in particular.
There are at least two important reasons for starting a discussion about the future academic programs in marine engineering. They are
・Need to teach system theoretical methods.
・Availability of powerful computers to solve complex problems easily and efficiently.
The central theme of this paper is therefore to reflect on the nature of the discipline that is called marine engineering and as an outcome of this discussion will follow a proposal for a partial content of a marine engineering academic program.
2. MARINE ENGINEERlNG DISCIPLINE
Before we discuss the academic content of marine engineering education, it is worth while to reflect for a moment on the nature of the discipline that is called marine engineering.
The scope of marine engineering can in short be said to include all aspects of the design and maintenance of mechanical and process systems used on vehicles and structure operating in the marine environment. These systems encompasses many engineering fields or energy domains such as
・mechanical
・electrical
・hydraulic
・thermal
It is important to recognize that there is considerable interaction between these general types in a majority of marine engineering systems. Once we understand that marine engineering is an extremely diverse field of study involving a wide range of systems and at the same time close interplay between these systems we can appreciate the problem how to best introduce students to this field.
In spite of the great dispersion in energy domains one can not avoid to recognize that marine engineering and mechanical engineering have a close relationship. Since they are two different disciplines the pertinent question to ask is therefore. What is the major difference between the marine and mechanical engineering disciplines? The major difference can be found in the industrial activity of the two disciplines.
