Florida Institute Of Technology News

The American Salvage Association (ASA) announced that Mike Dean has been appointed Executive Director. In this role, Dean is responsible for providing strategic leadership and direction to the organization and ensuring that ASA’s mission and objectives are achieved. He oversees day-to-day operations, financial management, government affairs, working committees and ASA staff. Dean reports to ASA’s president, Joseph Farrell, III and works closely with ASA’s Executive Committee.Dean is an industry veteran…

HII announced David Horne has been promoted to vice president of trades at its Newport News Shipbuilding division.Horne’s promotion comes following the restructuring of trades and human resources and administration from one large organization into two standalone organizations. Xavier Beale will continue as vice president of human resources and administration. Both Horne and Beale will report directly to NNS President Jennifer Boykin.“Each part of this organization is critical to our success,” Boykin said.

Marine salvage, rescue, emergency response and specialized services company Resolve Marine announced that Deputy CEO Joseph Farrell, III has been appointed Chief Operating Officer. In the combined role he oversees all operations and administration including emergency response, projects, Alaska, shared resources, HSEQ, strategy and M&A, finance, government relations, human resources, marketing, and alternative investments.Farrell, III, was appointed Deputy CEO in April 2022 and brings 17 years of field operations and business experience at Resolve Marine…

Marine salvage and emergency response company Resolve Marine announced on Friday that it has appointed Joseph Farrell, III as deputy CEO, a transition role to CEO.Farrell has more than two decades of field operations and business experience at Resolve Marine. After serving as a naval architect and project manager where he worked on and led high-profile salvage projects around the world, he was appointed director, business development with oversight of the company’s Alaska and compliance divisions…

Global engineering and defense technologies provider Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced that Xavier Beale has been appointed vice president of human resources and trades (HR&T) at the company’s Newport News Shipbuilding division, effective April 1. Beale succeeds Susan Jacobs, who was appointed vice president, human resources and administration at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division.In this new role at Newport News, Beale will oversee human resources administration…

Ship hull biofouling has significant impacts on fleet readiness, ship performance, cost, and the environment. Biofouling results in increased hydrodynamic drag which results in greater fuel use and greater emissions per distance traveled than a hydraulically-smooth hull. A study by Schultz, et al. found the typical fouling rating (FR) of a US Navy DDG-51 class vessel, FR-30, increases fuel consumption by 10.3% over a hydraulically-smooth DDG-51. Results showed that reducing this…

NETSCo announced the winners of the 2018 Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) Student Design Competition held recently during the 2018 SNAME Maritime Convention in Providence, RI. Many interesting designs were devised with over 150 students participating in the competition. Congratulations to our winning teams: First Place Team 9 – Black Friday; Second Place, Team 8 – PlayBuoy; and, Third Place, Team 5 – Team Boats.The Competition is organized by the SNAME Student Steering Committee (SSC)…

Mary Cullen has been appointed vice president of nuclear propulsion at Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding division. Cullen will assume her new role on November 14 following a transition into the job with the help of Barry Fletcher, who will retire from the position after 37 years of shipbuilding service. “Throughout his tenure, Barry has made significant contributions to the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program, earning him the respect of many and the ultimate responsibility of serving as our company’s ‘head nuke…

Netsco announces  Jan M. Flores, as Sr. Director of Business Development. Flores comes to Netsco from OSG (Overseas Shipholding Group) where he headed the FSO Group and was responsible for Business Development in the Offshore market. Prior to his assignment with the FSO Group, Flories  was the OSG Technical Project Manager overseeing the development of the MT Overseas Cascade and the MT Overseas Chinook. Flores has also worked for Crowley Maritime Corporation as Manager of New builds in their Technical Services Group.

Life Cycle Engineering, Inc. (LCE) has announced that Edward S. Godfrey has joined Life Cycle Engineering as vice president of business development. Godfrey will be responsible for partnering with Department of Defense (DoD) customers and other government organizations to establish engineering and technical solutions that support the warfighter and DoD mission. Godfrey has over 36 years of civilian service leading large, diversified engineering and corporate operations organizations within the Department of the Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).

Olgoonik/Fairweather, LLC, in conjunction with a team of scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Texas at Austin, the Florida Institute of Technology, Battelle Memorial Institute and Kinnetic Laboratories, Inc., has been awarded the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) contract to continue environmental monitoring research in the Beaufort Sea. The project is titled Arctic Nearshore Impact Monitoring in the Development Area (ANIMIDA III). ANIMIDA…

Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that 10 employees were among those recognized for achievements in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) during the 18th annual Women of Color STEM Conference. 8 award-winners represented the company's Ingalls Shipbuilding division, and 2 represented HII's Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division. Dorothy Shaw, Ingalls' manager of community relations and government affairs, was awarded the Community Service Award…

KS Associates, Inc., a civil engineering and land surveying firm located in Elyria, Ohio, has appointed Mark P. Cencer, P.E., to the firm’s Coastal Engineering Group. The Group provides engineering solutions for all types of waterfront and water-related infrastructure, helping clients plan, design and manage the construction of projects along Lake Erie and its watershed. Cencer is a Professional Engineer licensed in Ohio and Florida and has more than eight years of experience in marine engineering.

SeaRobotics has delivered the first HullBUG (Hull Bio-inspired Underwater Grooming) System to the Center for Corrosion and Biofouling Control at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. This will be tested and further developed at the newly commissioned Large Scale Seawater Facility , which is located at Port Canaveral and funded by the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research (ONR). The HullBUG system is an autonomous underwater vehicle designed to crawl on ship hulls or other underwater structures and "groom" their surface.

Responsibility includes:  finance, contracts, estimating & pricing, and business management of Ingall’s Shipbuilding Division. "Tom's extensive background in finance and contract administration forms a solid foundation for this important leadership role," said Ingalls Shipbuilding President Irwin F. Edenzon. In addition to his financial responsibilities, Stiehle will also lead Ingalls' IT function, which includes the internal IT services, IT strategy development and management of the shipyard's subcontract with CSC.

NOAA Capt. David A. Score assumed command of the agency’s Marine Operations Center-Atlantic in Norfolk, Va., which manages the day-to-day operations of the nine research and survey ships in NOAA’s Atlantic fleet. Each year these NOAA ships conduct dozens of missions to assess fish and marine mammal stocks, conduct coral reef research, collect seafloor data to update nautical charts, and explore the ocean. Capt. Score served most recently as commanding officer of NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter, which conducted key research missions during the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill response, including missions to detect subsurface oil and study marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. Score relieves Rear Adm. (select) Michael S. Devany, who has served as the center’s commanding officer since June 2009.

Resolve Marine Group of Fort Lauderdale, one of the US’ major Marine Emergency Response, Salvage and Fire Fighting experts, is to develop its expertise on a more global basis and has recruited a number of key personnel into its company to achieve this aim. Bob Umbdenstock, marine industry executive and consultant with international management experience in heavy salvage, wreck removal and environmental protection, has joined the company to develop and market the emergency response capabilities Resolve offers to ship owners and managers wishing to comply with statutory planning requirements…

Titan Salvage, Crowley Maritime Corporation's salvage and wreck removal company, announced that Dan Schwall has been promoted to vice president and Phil Reed has been promoted to general manager, salvage and engineering. Both promotions become effective January 1, 2009 and both Schwall and Reed will be domiciled at the Pompano Beach, Fla. headquarters. Schwall will report directly to Todd Busch, senior vice president and general manager of Crowley's technical services group. In…

Xiom's "stay-clean" coating for both steel and fiberglass boat bottoms significantly reduces maintenance costs and fuel consumption caused by marine growth. The polymer/ceramic-based coating contains no TBT (tributyl tin) or VOCs (volatile organic chemicals), and does not ablate or wear away. Xiom Corp's new ship and boat bottom protective coating is a patent-pending powder coating. The coating has a network of evenly dispersed active copper oxide and silver ions in a polymer matrix that is fully melted when applied with Xiom's proprietary thermal spray process. The polymer matrix serves to hold the copper oxide in place for years. Even if there should be some break or "tear" in the coating, there is a nylon modified fuse bond epoxy between the hull and coating, maintaining integrity.

The David Taylor Model Basin was homeport for some curious looking contraptions recently, human powered submarines, which were designed and built by perhaps the next generation of naval architects and marine engineers. John Hussey reports. High-tech met low-tech, and college engineers competed against standout high school students in the seventh running of the International Submarine Races, the biennial human-powered engineering design competition completed at the world's largest indoor tank, the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division David Taylor Model Basin, June 23-27, 2003. Drawing upon both brain and brawn, the scuba-clad future engineers and design entrepreneurs produced a range of submarines from the sublime to the surreal, all built to move forward on a 328-ft.

Thales North America has announced that Frank T. Tobin Jr., formerly Senior Vice President of Spectrum Solutions Group, has joined the company’s Business Development team in the newly created position of Vice President, Homeland Security. “Frank’s extensive experience in, and knowledge of, the homeland security and defense marketplaces make him an obvious choice for Thales as we step up our efforts to promote our extensive catalog of homeland security, IT, aerospace and defense products, technologies and services,” said Larry Cavaiola, Chairman and CEO Thales North America, Inc. Frank Tobin has begun engaging government agencies and industrial partners to showcase the extensive technology capabilities that Thales has to help improve US homeland security.

The Navy established the Naval Oceanography Mine Warfare Center (NOMWC), Oct. 26, at Stennis Space Center (SSC) with Cmdr. Paul Oosterling as its first commanding officer. Oosterling is a native of Ontario, N.Y., and a graduate of Florida Institute of Technology, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Naval War College. He was the executive officer of the Naval Oceanography Operations Command before he was named NOMWC Commanding Officer. NOMWC provides ongoing support for the Navy's mine warfare forces to neutralize threats and to allow for assured access of maritime assets. It also provides the Navy's mine warfare operators with access to products and services of the Naval Oceanographic Office, also located at SSC.

Art Anderson Associates recently hired six new employees in order to keep pace with an increasing project workload. The new employees are Bill Higgins, Ed Cuaron, Greg Jennings, Todd Allen, Tinisha Rockiett, and Zach Wonderly. Bill Higgins is an Electrical Engineer with over forty years of industry experience. A former employee of Art Anderson Associates from 1980-1997, Higgins returns to the company in order to fill the need for a new professionally-licensed electrical engineer. He will be providing his expertise for both facilities and marine projects, including the firm’s ongoing work to provide engineering support for vessel and terminal security improvements for Washington State Ferries. Ed Cuaron joins the firm as a Technical Assistant to the company’s facilities division.