12th Annual SNAME WES Symposium and Networking Event

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12th Annual SNAME WES Symposium, Friday 24th of February 2023

On Friday the 24th of February 2023, the SNAME Student Section of the University of Strathclyde co-organized and attended the 12th Annual Western European SNAME Symposium, which took place at the University of Strathclyde’s Student Union building in Glasgow. The group consisted of the following committee members: Antonis Michael (Chairman), Nikolaos Ntouros (Vice-Chairman), Theodora Karali (Secretary), Ioannis Falkonakis (Treasurer), Ioannis Stamatiou (Communications Officer), Aris Flegkas (Operations Officer), Konstantinos Veronis (Web Master) and Anastasios Dimarakis (Student Advisor). The Symposium was also attended by several other members of the Section.

The Symposium started with an introductory speech from Mr. Keith Lilley , Chair of the SNAME WES Committee. The first Section began with a presentation by Mr. Edwin Pang from the RINA IMO Committee regarding the decarbonisation regulatory developments at the IMO. Following the decarbonisation topic Mr Evangelos Boulougouris, who is a professor at the NAOME Department of the University of Strathclyde, made a presentation named : ‘Maritime Decarbonisation: challenges and opportunities’ during which he also presented ongoing projects at the University of Strathclyde for postgraduate and PhD careers. We then had a quick morning coffee break.

Section 2 opened with a presentation by Mr Keith Hutchinson of the Safinah Group, discussing the ship design efficiency over their life cycle. Following Mr Hutchinson, Prof. David Connolly discussed the Role of Air Lubricating Systems in decarbonising shipping, presenting a project they have been working on at Silverstream Tech, which already has found application in certain vessels. The next presentation was named ‘Wind Propulsion: Progress, Projects and Potential’ by Mr Gavin Allwright from the Windship Association, in which Mr Allwright discussed the advantage of wind propulsion systems, as an upcoming solution in ‘green’ shipping. We then paused for a lunch break and an opportunity to discuss with the presenters as well as with the attended and network with them.

Session 3 began with a presentation by Mr John Grant from Wartsila, regarding several alternative future fuels the company has been working on for engine developments. The Wartsila Group has done excessive research on various fuels with potential in the following generation of ship engines. Presentation 7 was introduced by Dr George Malloupas who came from Cyprus just for the SNAME Symposium. Dr Malloupas discussed the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage systems (CCUS) in the maritime industry. He also informed us for an ongoing project the team from CMMI/Green Marine have been working on in order to capture, as well as utilize carbon onboard a ship. The presentation of this Session was given by Mr Abdullahi Daya, Professor at the NAOME Department of the University of Strathclyde, in regards to assessing ship system reliability and decision support for maintenance and planning. Mr Daya highlighted the importance of targeted maintenance for each ship, in order to increase the safety as well as the efficiency of a vessel. The session ended with an afternoon coffee break.

In the last Session of the Symposium, the theme was the SNAME Western Section Paper contest. We firstly saw a recorded presentation of a previous winner of the contest, Mr Jaime Perez-Martinez, who unfortunately could not attend the event in person. We then proceeded to last year’s winner, Mr Luis Gonzalez-Blasco from the University of Madrid, who presented to us his project regarding the engine room of a frigate. Lastly, Mr Keith Lilley awarded the medals and other important certificates to the winners, while Ms Viviana Carta informed us about the upcoming paper contest of the SNAME WES 2023.

The Symposium was broadcasted live through Zoom, for everyone who was interested in attending. Konstantinos Veronis was online throughout the presentations, replying to questions in the chat.

Dr. Iraklis Lazakis of the University of Strathclyde made some closing remarks, and afterwards we had some time to network and take some pictures of the event.

12th Annual Networking Event, Saturday 25th February 2023

On Saturday the 25th of February 2023, the SNAME Student Section of the University of Strathclyde co-organized and attended the 12th Annual Western European SNAME Networking Event , which took place at the Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank in Dumbarton, Scotland. The group consisted of the following committee members: Antonis Michael (Chairman), Nikolaos Ntouros (Vice-Chairman), Theodora Karali (Secretary), Ioannis Stamatiou (Communications Officer), Aris Flegkas (Operations Officer), Konstantinos Veronis (Web Master) and Anastasios Dimarakis (Student Advisor). The event gathered a number of people, mainly students from the University of Strathclyde’s NAOME Department.

We all gathered outside of the Henry Dyer Building of the University of Strathclyde, in order to wait for the bus to lead us to Dumbarton. The bus arrived at 10am and we arrived at the Scottish Maritime Museum at around 11am. We then had a guided tour around the Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank, the world’s oldest working model experiment tank. We learned about the history of the tank itself, as well as the history of the shipyard who was run by the Deny brothers, which had its headquarters in the building where the Scottish Maritime Museum is now, back in 1849. The museum also had plenty of exhibits regarding the art of shipbuilding, such as old measuring tools, lines plans and wax hull models.

We spent some time in the museum until we gathered outside for some photos, and then everyone had time to either wander around Dumbarton, or join us to a small nearby café to rest and network with the SNAME members. After a couple of hours we headed back to the museum, to take the return bus to the Henry Dyer Building. The Networking Event ended with some closing remarks from Mr. Keith Lilley, Chair of the SNAME WES Committee, and Antonis Michael, Chair of the SNAME Committee of the University of Strathclyde.