Almost two years ago Maritime Holland spoke to five students who managed to develop and design an concept of an Arctic Modular Towing Supply Vessel within the scope of their minor.
Damen Shipyards Group included the vessel in their portfolio. Curious to see which path they chose after completing the minor we met them again to talk about the impact after the overwhelming success of their design.
Reinier Bos, John Huisman, Martijn Obers, Tobias Schaap and Max van der Zalm are the five students who designed their own minor, supported by the Delft University of Technology, in order to get the most out of it. Damen Shipyards Group, MARIN and DNV-GL, all from the Netherlands, supported and sponsored the project. The idea had already taken shape in 2011, but the project officially took off in September 2012 and ended in January 2013. Meanwhile, they all successfully completed their Bachelor studies and started the process of, or are already finishing their Master’s.
Spin-off
The group is, deservedly, still visibly proud of their design and its success. Obers : “The spin-off of the project has been far greater than we expected. We never dreamed of it becoming so big.”
Van der Zalm adds: “We spent an afternoon googling and found articles in seven different languages about our design.”
Bos continues: “Everything I have done in the past couple of years, that was not part of the official curriculum, is a spin-off from our project. In order to graduate our Bachelor, Huisman and I performed tests at MARIN to examine the interaction between ice and a propeller. We presented the scientific publication of our results at the International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering in California, the Uniwted States. I think this would not have been possible if we did not have the amount of trust and credibility we have because of the good results from the minor.”
Jobs and publications
Huisman and Bos are not the only two students from the group to have done research on artificial ice at MARIN or to already have a scientific publication on their resume, as Schaap and Van der Zalm presented the results of their research at the International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference in Busan, Korea.
Furthermore, Schaap and Van der Zalm have been working as project assistants at Ulstein Sea of Solutions at the company’s request. The projects they were involved in, concernd, of course, ice going vessels. Van der Zalm, this time together with Obers were also asked to use their expertise at, in their case, Damen Shipyards Group.
Future
When asked if they would continue with the project when Damen would ask them to, most of them answer positively. Only Huisman would prefer to change his focus: “I would like to focus more on the link between research and reality, which is often very weak. Although, I am still interested in topics that are related to ice and Arctic vessels.”
During the course of the minor the students learned a lot and discovered in which area of the work field they are most interested in. However, the possibility to design your own minor is no longer an option for future students.
Obers : “I think it is a shame this is no longer stimulated due to av change of the honours programme. Now students have to follow a set programme, which is dictated by the university and has limited room for own interpretation.”
Schaap adds: “Every year students perform the same projects, leading to similar results and lacking variation. Student should have the opportunity to add elements that would make a project more challenging and interesting and the university should realise that this will, next to costing more money and time, result in a student with a greater value to the industry. Our own way of looking at things, which we learned during the project, is very much appreciated by this industry.”
Bos explains this attitude: “Because of the project, we have an open mind and are no longer afraid to doubt what has already been established”.
Anne Kregting