Saturday, 16 March 2013

What are the common technology challenges across the maritime industries?

QinetiQ is in the business of solving some of the world’s most challenging problems. By identifying common technology challenges across the maritime industries companies can focus investment on the technology development of products and services that have the greatest chance of achieving competitive advantage in the global maritime marketplace.
Here is a list of 8 common maritime technology challenges that constantly need to be improved upon;
1. Generate, store and distribute power efficiently
2. Conserve energy and manage emissions responsibly
3. Design and construct vessels and systems rapidly and cost effectively
4. Reduce maintenance effort and maximise operational time at sea
5. Minimise vessel and system vulnerability
6. Sense the environment and provide accurate situational awareness
7. Collate and analyse data efficiently to enable rapid command decisions
8. Improve operational risk management and mitigation techniques
Each of these maritime technology challenges requires the development, engineering and integration of existing and future individual technology to produce globally attractive products and services for the maritime industry.
Underpinning research and development by companies, research organisations and universities continues to be essential to meet these maritime technology challenges. Research competitions and matched funding can help facilitate maritime technology development.

Iain Kennedy, the author is Strategy Director for Maritime business at QinetiQ. He is part of the QinetiQ management team responsible for business development and has spent the last 16 years working in the Maritime Industries running businesses of various sizes. Iain is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects and is an active member of the Science and Technology group of the UK Naval Engineering Science and Technology Forum.

To read Iain’s recently published article in the Society for Maritime Industries (SMI) 2012 Annual Review,‘Meeting the maritime sector’s future technology requirements’, click here and turn to pages 25 to 28.


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