Simulation Department News

Catherine Gianelloni sailed with the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots (IOMM&P) for about 10 years after graduating from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 2009. But in between times at sea, she would help out at the MITAGS (Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies). Operating simulators evolved into teaching opportunities, and Gianelloni took a full-time position in 2012. “Because we are the union school, I was allowed to take breaks—leave of absences—to go out and sail.

Nearly 200 delegates from across the world gathered in Den Haag, The Netherlands in September 2017 to hear about the latest developments in maritime training based on state-of-the-art simulation technology. The three-day Kongsberg UC2017 International Maritime Simulation User Conference brought attendees up to date on developments in digitalization, maritime training, navigation technology, maritime operations simulation and the use of virtual reality in training. Tom Mulligan reports.

In South Florida sits MPT, one of the most prolific and progressive maritime training facilities. Already fully stocked, MPT added significant weight to its offering in 2016 with investment in 25,000 sq. ft. of new training space and technology. MPT handles more than 12,000 students a year from all segments of the maritime industry and from more than a dozen countries. With that range MPT has students from ship operators, tug companies, passenger vessels, offshore and energy exploration companies…

For anyone keeping score, the south Florida maritime training and education infrastructure is enjoying rapid growth, driven largely by an outreach for lucrative offshore oil and gas training and education business. Case in point, today Maritime Professional Training (MPT)—the largest private maritime training school in the nation— said it selected Fort Lauderdale-based Gulf Building Corp. as the general contractor for the construction of its planned 25,000-square-foot facility expansion at its Fort Lauderdale campus.

Mass. Maritime responds to industry demand, reloads with cutting edge Transas equipment, and moves to the head of the brown water training queue. It was a dark and stormy night with choppy seas. I didn’t hit anything, but I did run aground twice while at the helm of the tug boat simulator at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) in Buzzards Bay. But then that’s the point – to let students safely make mistakes and get the closest thing to the real-life experience they need – and would have a limited shot at otherwise on the equipment they’ll be handling where the jobs are today…

Kongsberg Maritime was selected by BAE and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to provide a custom engine room simulator for the training of engineers aboard Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Canberra Class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) vessels. The new LHD Engineering System Trainer (LEST) is designed to enhance the Navy’s ability to train LHD vessel engineering personnel, an important and critical factor in operational availability. The LEST project is scheduled for delivery February 2013, and will include both full mission and desktop simulation systems, with integrated e-Learning facilities.

Warship handling and anti-piracy training capabilities boost for RAN. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) opened its recently upgraded ship's bridge simulator training facility at HMAS Watson in Sydney on 25th March 2011. Featuring a host of new full mission and desktop simulators from Kongsberg Maritime, the new facility represents one of the most advanced naval training centres in the world and will be used by RAN cadets to learn to pilot the next generation of warships, alongside a wide range of critical training applications, including anti-piracy.

The installation of a new suite of navigation simulators has been completed at the all-new Great Barrier Reef International Marine College (GBRIMC) in Cairns, Australia. Installation took place in January 2011 and consisted of a 270 degree DNV Class A full mission bridge simulator, a 180 degree tug bridge, 8 destktop navlab stations with part task simulators for ECDIS training and an instructor station. The simulator delivery features exercise area databases of Australia's busiest ports.