Herbert Koelman Wins GL COMPIT Award 2013

Herbert Koelman was announced as the winner of the GL COMPIT Award 2013. The Dutch computer aided design expert was honored for his paper's contribution to the promotion of innovative approaches in ship design, at the COMPIT Conference which took place from April 15 to 17 in Cortona, Italy.

The jury singled out Dr. Koelman, SARC, from a short list of several highly qualified candidates because his paper outlines a roadmap for advanced ship design approaches over the next decade. His paper, "Midterm Outlook on Computer Aided Ship Design," received the highest praise for both its content and form. The jury noted that his highly readable and unpretentious paper offered a number of avenues for exploration for the industry.

Of particular note, they said was his avocation of 3D laser printing as a hands-on manifestation of 3D design approaches. His identification of underused opportunities to create numerical design series and rapid design formulas based on CFD and machine learning approaches. And above all, the challenge that the paper puts to the community is to avoid complacency and mental standstill and strive for innovation in methods rather than user-interface wizardry.

COMPIT is the abbreviation for "Computer Applications and Information Technology in the Maritime Industries." The conference, which took place for the twelfth time, offered information on advanced IT applications for the lifecycle of ships and offshore structures. Topics such as "Virtual Reality," "Marine Robotics" and "IT Tools for Fuel Efficiency," amongst others, were discussed by the participants.

This is the sixth time that an outstanding scientist has been presented with the GL COMPIT Award at this conference.