Memorial’s Ocean Engineering Research Centre (OERC) and the Department of Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering (ONAE) co-hosted a high-profile NATO specialist team workshop on Polar Ship Design and Safety with Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND).

The workshop was formed in response to identified ship operation issues reported by the NATO Extreme Environment Capabilities Working Group.

“This is the first time that such a NATO workshop has been hosted by Memorial,” said Dr. Wei Qiu, department head, ONAE, and director of OERC. “The workshop was an ideal opportunity for Memorial and the local community to participate in and collaborate with DND and NATO delegates.”

The workshop validates not only Memorial’s, but also the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science’s place as a world leader in ocean, offshore and Arctic technology.

It was also an opportunity for the faculty to collaborate with international organizations, to engage in national and international naval projects and to explore ways to expand its ONAE program.

The workshop, supported by the National Research Council’s Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering (NRC-OCRE), OceansAdvance and Fleetway, was also an opportunity for Memorial and its partners, such as NRC-OCRE, C-CORE and private companies such as Oceanic Consulting Corporation and American Bureau of Shipping, to showcase their advances in this field.

The team focused on topics related to ship design and operations in Arctic environments, including design of ships for strength and sustainability, machinery and fluid impacts, naval safety codes, off-board vehicle considerations, environmental compliance, winterization/survivability, human factors in cold environments, towing operations in harsh environments, assessment of the capability of non ice-strengthened vessels, reliability issues and casualty repairs.

Experts from NATO’s naval engineering organizations participated in the workshop, including Danish Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organization, Netherland Ministry of Defence, US Naval Sea System Command, Defense Research and Development Canada Atlantic, and Canadian DND, among others.