America’s first Bachelor of Science in Maritime Technology, offered by Northwestern Michigan College, is to get a special Falcon ROV, Saab Seaeye informed.
In what the college says is a pioneering new capability the Falcon will be fitted with an advanced sonar system that will help graduates study ROVs as a multi-component resource used across a wide range of subsea activities.
The aim of the BSc program is for graduates to be proficient in applied technology for the marine industry onshore and offshore.
Their studies cover the calibration, deployment, operation, maintenance, and management of marine technology assets, including data collection, processing and mapping.
Students will employ the Falcon to evaluate systems integration and the effect on underwater performance when different equipment is added.
In choosing the Falcon, Hans VanSumeren, Director of the Great Lakes Water Studies Institute at the college, says that the Falcon’s intelligent architecture and its five powerful thrusters, offers the flexibility, versatility and power to allow students to fit and study an array of sophisticated equipment.
It has enabled the college to develop their pioneering concept that for the first time incorporates a Kongsberg M3 multi-beam sonar and a Greensea station-keeping system onto an ROV the size of a Falcon, the company wrote.
The college believe this capability will significantly enhance the experience of the students in exploring and extending technological capabilities of ROV operations and management.
“It will be a truly unique vehicle, ” declares Hans VanSumeren.
Students will have the opportunity to operate the Falcon in the Great Lakes from a research vessel or dockside, and in a newly built test tank facility with a 260,000 litre capacity.
The tank has considerably extended the operating and development opportunities for students, says VanSumeren. “We encourage students to build their own systems and ready access to the tank allows them to be more creative.”
He concludes by adding another reason for choosing the Falcon: “ The Falcon is the most widely used ROV in the industry and therefore the one students are most likely to come across in their working life.”