How much and what kind of vocabulary do marine engineers need for adequate comprehension of ship instruction books and manuals?

Considering the importance of adequate understanding of instruction books and manuals on board vessels all over the world, as well as the challenges it imposes to the English language teachers and course designers, this paper aims to answer important research questions in relation to the quantity and type of vocabulary required for their adequate reading comprehension. In this study we use the method of Lexical Frequency Profiling and the software developed by Anthony Laurence – AntWordProfiler 1.4.0w. The corpus is comprised of 1,769,821 running words obtained from instruction books and manuals of various ship and machinery types. The results of this study point to the high technicality and lexical demand of the corpus, which calls for a highly technical English courses’ design and further research in marine engineering (English) vocabulary. Additionally, the research findings point to the need of creating a marine engineering-specific word list.

Exploring the Current Practices and Future Needs of Marine Engineering Education in Bangladesh

Developing countries, despite being the major suppliers of maritime manpower, lag in their future-proof competence development. This study explores whether the current maritime education and training (MET) practices for marine engineering education in a developing nation are perceived as sufficient by the early-stage marine engineers. The current competence requirements set by the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW’74 as amended) are compared and contrasted against the current MET practices as well as the future needs for remotely controlled autonomous ship operations. Bangladesh, a maritime nation in the Southeast Asia region was selected as a developing nation for this study. An online survey was conducted among early-stage professional marine engineers. The analysis of 62 valid responses revealed that current MET practices are significantly perceived to be satisfactory for acquiring non-technical competencies, such as being proficient in the English language, but are less satisfactory for instilling technical competencies such as of electrical and electronics, knowledge regarding seaworthiness of ships, as well as medical first aid. In addition, the findings highlight the perceived gaps in existing marine engineering education as well as the need for future studies focused on re-training the future maritime workforce that could potentially improve MET strategies and practices in the developing nations.

A TOOL FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF THERMAL EFFICIENCY OF IDEAL DIESEL CYCLES, PROVIDED TO FUTURE MARINE ENGINEERS

Diesel engines are a type of internal combustion engine widely spread in the maritime sector. In a world depending on fossil fuels, the challenge faced by scientists and professionals consists in the efficient use of this kind of fuels. The future of these engines strongly depends on the efficiency enhancement. Future mechanical engineers have to be trained in order to gain engineering judgement and enterprising attitude. In this respect, this paper deals with a theoretical study focused on the improvement of the efficiency of the ideal Diesel cycle. This type of study was recently introduced in Constanta Maritime University, within Thermodynamics seminar activities, delivered to future marine engineers, enrolled in their third semester. This study will reveal the fact that the efficiency of Diesel cycles is affected by the variation of compression ratio, cut off ratio and specific heats ratio. The results obtained will show that, for the ranges taken into discussion, thermal efficiency might be enhanced by the rise of compression ratio and specific heat ratio values and by lowering cut off ratio values. The study is a predecessor of expensive and time costing experiences and it is also a guidance in the hand of future professionals – able to train them for real solutions.

Smart Maintenance in Modern Ship Engineering, Design and Operations

Marine Engineers are forged to face the most complex adversities of the maritime environment, whether in cabotage, maritime support, fluvial or on oil and gas rigs. Usually, the Marine Engineer is responsible for the production of potable water, lubricating oil and fuel system, sanitary and cooling system, propulsion system, electricity generation and others. This chapter will use quality tools, including the dart of Vasconcelos to quickly find the root cause of the problems. Troubleshooting is part of day-to-day job of an experienced Engineer, and he knows what kinds of techniques to use to troubleshoot and solve problems in an organized, quick and easy way.

Peculiarities of marine engineers’ image formation according to the results of component-structural analysis of vocational training in marine institutions of higher higher

The structural components of the future marine engineers’ professional image have been identified in the article: motivation-targeted, content-oriented, reflective and communicative. Thus, under the motivation-target component, the authors describe professional motivation, satisfaction from material needs and a motive for personal image. In accordance with the requirements of the STCW Convention, at the operation level, the content-oriented component is indicated by sufficient future marine engineers’ competence in information technologies alongside their skills to use them. It has been determined that according to the communicative component, a bachelor-marine engineer with a high level of readiness for intercultural communication is more competitive in the labour market and has significant advantages as follows: can recognise and overcome barriers to intercultural communication; can anticipate and quickly resolve various conflict situations; can creatively use his / her knowledge in profession-related activities as well as ethical norms and rules of conduct with representatives of other cultures. It has been proved that in terms of forming the reflective component of the marine engineers` professional image, it is expedient to cover these components: sufficient theoretical baggage, which is formed by the future marine engineer within training and self-education; bringing practical skills of performing basic actions on ship equipment control to automatism; the ability to analyse actions, make decisions in dangerous and emergency situations, the ability to self-analyse their actions; the ability to draw conclusions based on the results of analysis and work experience, etc. The authors of the article pay attention to the urgency of the problem and the need to provide the educational process with scientific and methodological recommendations aimed at the formation of the professional image of marine engineers, which provides an integrated approach to solve the problem under focus, to involve academic staff and highly qualified specialists of seagoing vessels.

Underwater Gripper using Distributed Network and Adaptive Control

Underwater identification and grasping of objects is a major challenge faced by the marine engineers even today. Nowadays, almost all underwater operations are either autonomous or tele-operated. In fact remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are used to deal with inspection tasks and industrial maintenance whenever there is need for intervention. However, the field of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a blooming filed with research involving proper moving base control and forces interacting which leads to complicated configuration. Hence the presented work is focused implementation of end-effector with appropriate control and signal processing resulting in autonomous manipulation of movement under water.