During September a group of students and faculty members from Ngee Ann Polytechnic Institute in Singapore made a 2 week visit to Texas to gain some practical foundation in the offshore industry.
These student are in the Department of Engineering and are studying Marine and Ocean Engineering. As part of our outreach to students, SNAME helped arrange meetings and visits during their stay in Texas.
These included a visit to ConocoPhillips the world’s leading exploration and production company hosted by SNAME member, John Dabbar, where the students heard presentations on how a major oil company works and where engineers fit into the system as well as presentations on marine oil transport systems.
The group also visited ABS world headquarters hosted by SNAME member, Thalia Kruger and were exposed to the wide array of services that a modern Class Society has to offer. The students were somewhat familiar with ABS as the Society has a high visibility presence in Singapore.
A further visit was arranged to Keppel Offshore and Marine, Houston office, with a tour of Keppel AmFELS rig and ship construction yard in Brownsville, Texas, by SNAME members, Mike Holcomb and Tak On Cheung.
The group also made visits to local companies who design and manufacture components for the offshore industry and made a day trip to the Ocean Star Offshore Museum in Galveston and to the NASA Space Center. It is interesting to note that of about half taking this trip about half were female.