Marine engineering
Marine engineering is the highly preferred course to join merchant Navy as an officer as it provides ample opportunities in terms of both onboard and onshore jobs.
[1] It includes but is not limited to power and propulsion plants, machinery, piping, automation and control systems for marine vehicles of any kind, as well as coastal and offshore structures.
Fulton's ship used the engine to power a small wooden paddle wheel as its marine propulsion system.
Around 50 years later the steam powered paddle wheels had a peak with the creation of the Great Eastern, which was as big as one of the cargo ships of today, 700 feet in length, weighing 22,000 tons.
These cables must be engineered to withstand deep-sea environments that are remote and often unforgiving, with extreme pressures and temperatures as well as potential interference by fishing, trawling, and sea life.
Marine engineers aim to learn how advancements in autonomy and networking can be used to enhance existing UUV technologies and facilitate the development of more capable underwater vehicles.
Some examples of marine structures include ships, offshore platforms, moorings, pipelines, cables, wharves, bridges, tunnels, breakwaters and docks.
These load conditions are also found in marine construction and coastal engineering Any seagoing vessel has the constant need for hydrostatic stability.
What makes the naval architect's job unique is that a ship operates in two fluids simultaneously: water and air.
Sulfur dioxide emissions have the potential to raise atmospheric and ocean acidity causing harm to marine life.
Bilge water is pumped overboard, but must pass a pollution threshold test of 15 ppm (parts per million) of oil to be discharged.
In protecting coastlines from wave forces, erosion, and sea level rise, marine engineers must consider whether they will use a "gray" infrastructure solution - such as a breakwater, culvert, or sea wall made from rocks and concrete - or a "green" infrastructure solution that incorporates aquatic plants, mangroves, and/or marsh ecosystems.
[13] It has been found that gray infrastructure costs more to build and maintain, but it may provide better protection against ocean forces in high-energy wave environments.
[14] A green solution is generally less expensive and more well-integrated with local vegetation, but may be susceptible to erosion or damage if executed improperly.
UUVs often perform work in locations which would be otherwise impossible or difficult to access by humans due to a number of environmental factors (e.g. depth, remoteness, and/or temperature).
Sound Navigation and Ranging or SONAR was developed during the First World War to detect submarines, and has been greatly refined through to the present day.
High power systems can penetrate the soil and seabed rocks to give information about the geology of the seafloor, and are widely used in geophysics for the discovery of hydrocarbons, or for engineering survey.
The industry trend has been towards smaller, more accurate and more affordable systems so that they can be purchased and used by university departments and small companies as well as large corporations, research organisations and governments.
Manufacture of marine sensors and instruments mainly takes place in Asia, Europe and North America.
In every coastal and offshore project, environmental sustainability is an important consideration for the preservation of ocean ecosystems and natural resources.
Platforms must be able to withstand ocean currents, wave forces, and saltwater corrosion while remaining structurally integral and fully anchored into the seabed.
Additionally, drilling components must be engineered to handle these same challenges with a high factor of safety to prevent oil leaks and spills from contaminating the ocean.
They provide a source of renewable energy with a higher yield than wind farms on land, while encountering less resistance from the general public (see NIMBY).
[18] Marine engineers continue to investigate the possibility of ocean wave energy as a viable source of power for distributed or grid applications.
Many designs have been proposed and numerous prototypes have been built, but the problem of harnessing wave energy in a cost-effective manner remains largely unresolved.
Such consulting commonly occurs in the oil industry, with companies such as ExxonMobil and BP hiring marine engineers to manage aspects of their offshore drilling projects.
[24] Additionally, offshore energy continues to grow, and a greater need exists for coastal solutions due to sea level rise.
Naval Academy,[28] and Texas A&M University[29] - offer a four-year Bachelor of Science degree specifically in ocean engineering.
Graduate students in ocean engineering take classes on more advanced, in-depth subjects while conducting research to complete a graduate-level thesis.
[30] Additionally, MIT co-hosts a joint program with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for students studying ocean engineering and other ocean-related topics at the graduate level.
