News from the centre

November 2020

Invited to å guest lecture about the project "the robot as a colleague"

As part of building a special interest group for human factors in highly automated ships, MarSafe/MarCATCH invited Jakob Krause-Jensen and his colleague Stephan Hanse from the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, to give a lecture about their project "The robot as a colleague".

The project implemented an anthropological analysis of the relationship between smart technologies, professionals on board in connection with professionals and decision-makers in shipping companies and developers to clarify which non-technical aspects need to be considered, which new forms of cooperation are needed and how these are supported organisationally when the closest 'colleague' to the professionals on board becomes a robot or an automated technology.

The researchers had spent time on danish ships and discovered that the movie "Martha" from 1967 is a prerequisite to all maritime research. They also discovered that many issues remain to be solved on ships regarding human-machine interaction. The issues are sometimes basic, alarm overload, confusing information and seafarers adapting the way they work. These findings are not new, similar findings were documented almost 20 years ago – but it is disheartening to see they are still present – and most likely something that needs to be solved before we can consider even more automation and finally autonomy in the maritime industry.

Focused on maritime cybersecurity at the Space Forum

On September 15th and 16th, Space Forum took place in Luxembourg and was broadcasted in the entire world. Several international experts shared their knowledge and discussed the latest space trends. Joel Scanlan from IMS gave a keynote focusing on the impact of LEO Constellations on Maritime Cyber Security. He asked: "How secure is our current connected world? Industries need to understand the risks that come with the opportunities. An increased connectedness changes attack surface." Here you can read more about Joels lecture and the conference.

July 2020

Arranged online workshops on smart shipping

The HUMANE project has entered its final year. Just before summer, we held a series of online workshops on smart shipping, discussing the maturity and introduction of smart technology in shipping. Preliminary results have been presented to an ISO working group and will be published wider during this year.

June 2020

Delivered training course on Basic IT to MarLink

During June a training course on Basic IT was delivered to Marlink across nine locations in Europe, Asia and the US. Originally intended to be in-person workshops, they were converted to online webinars due to Covid-19. In total 127 students who work within their maritime software, support and marketing divisions attended the course. It was comprised of four online modules and five two hour webinars. A total of six streams of the training course was delivered ensuring that the webinars only had approximately 20 students in each to ensure high engagement and interaction. A follow up series of Basic Cyber Security is planned for late September.

April 2020

Expanding our collaborations

Recently, the MarCATCH center leader had a get-to-know-you meeting with EMP Secure who focus on the delivery and operation of complex IT and security solutions on ships worldwide. The MarCATCH center leader says that "A collaboration with EMP Secure is highly relevant for our priority area maritime IT and cyber security, and we appreciate them taking the time to get to know us".

Last week, MarCATCH and IMS were invited to discuss common interests and possible projects with Hans Marki at Flow – Maritime Accelerator regarding a proposed project within the maritime domain. The meeting lead to agreement on a Letter of interest following the project application. Flow – Maritime Accelerator is located at Gründerloftet in Haugesund, and works with interesting start-ups within the areas maritime energy, logistics/shipping and subsea.

New NFR project in planning

Researchers from MarSafe have joined an application to NFR with MET and UiB. The project group is now preparing for the upcoming call to cross-disciplinary project (which was postponed). The topic of the project is environmental sensemaking and coastal connectedness.

News from MariMOOC-project

MariMOOC-project is ready to roll out with a large number of videos on maritime cyber security and basic IT. Due to new priorities, we are awaiting a MOOC-platform decision now. Hopefully, we can test this course before summer. More information about the MariMOOC-project.

Digital HUMANE-workshop was a success

The HUMANE-project is entering its final year. A workshop that was supposed to take place as 'face to face', was hastily rescheduled to a Zoom-meeting. Apart from being a success in terms of outcome – a framework for the HUMANE-book – it also showed that it is possible to have daylong meetings with breakout groups. Several long breaks and a flexible agenda helped a lot.

January 2020

New course concept within maritime IT/cyber security

MarCATCH is planning a new course concept within maritime IT/cyber security directed towards the maritime industry, which will be launched this spring. The course will invite maritime organisations to bring their own case to make a cyber-risk analysis and an action plan, and thereby developing their own organisation. MarCATCH has established dialogue with several industry organisations that are interested in the concept.

December 2019

Presented at the International Smart & Autonomous Ship Conference

On December 5, Professor Margareta Lützhöft presented at the 2019 International Smart & Autonomous Ship Conference in Ulsan, South Korea. The conference is a two-day event, which also included participants from the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) and SINTEF. Lützhöft’s presentation was called Maritime autonomy, safety and human-machine interaction. The International Smart & Autonomous Ship Conference attracts representatives from Korean ship building industries, academies and engineering. Participation also led to strengthening our South Korean collaborations, and is part of the work towards a strategic partnership with Korean Maritime and Ocean University and Korean industry.

November 2019

Join the MarSafe research group

The MarSafe research group is crossdisciplinary and the research is mainly human-centred and system oriented. We regard the human as the most important part of the system. In MarSafe, maritime safety is the overall aim. This means that the MarSafe research group includes a wide range of related topics from various academic traditions. If anyone else wishes to sign up please email Professor Margareta Holtensdotter Lützhöft. Members with various background is very welcome!

Caught up on the latest maritime IT and cybersecurity research

Students, industry representatives and HVL staff took the opportunity to catch up on the latest maritime IT and cybersecurity research and development during the Maritime IT conference at November 8 in Haugesund. Did you know Haugesund is planning an autonomous ferry? Haugesund mayor Arne-Christian Mohn told us. Joel Scanlan from the University of Tasmania/HVL discussed the accelerating need for maritime cybersecurity and Tim Stratmann from the University of Oldenburg explained how we can support navigators in looking at 'the right places'. Marlink and partners told us about world-class vessel ICT solutions, followed by a demonstration of the HVL meteorology virtual reality teaching application. The conference ended with Nils Haktor Bua from the Norwegian Maritime Authority outlining what the maritime directorate is doing in the maritime space.

September 2019

Ergoship 2019

The Ergoship conference was opened on the 24th of September with Welcome words from Arne-Christian Mohn, the Mayor of Haugesund, who explained why Haugesund is the maritime capital of Norway. This was followed by dean Anne Isabelle Robbestad telling us about HVL and the many women working there – in honour of the IMO focus on Women in shipping. The first keynote was delivered by Kimberly Karlshoej. It was emotional, and highly relevant about seafarers and their contribution to shipping, as well as their needs. “We need happy, healthy seafarers with decent work!” The second keynote was delivered by Monica Lundh from Chalmers University of Technology, assisted by Margareta Lutzhoft – discussing a possible new view of addressing maritime human factors with many perspectives. It was illustrated with examples of ongoing research and some banter between the former engineer Monica and former deck officer Margareta. The research presentations revolved around maritime human factors, and new technology. Many talks were about how to use simulators and simulations for education for the needs of the future. It was a great meeting point for maritime human factors researchers with many interesting talks. The Ergoship conference papers can be found here.

MarCATCH at «Arendalsuka»

This winter many people sat in front of the news to get the latest update on the cruise ship Viking Sky. Luckily, that situation ended well. At Arendalsuka, HVL arranged a panel on how to address passenger ship safety in the future.
Participants were:

• Ola Magnussen Rydje, debattleder, Dagbladet
• Bjørnar Skjæran, nestleder, AP
• Steinar Reiten, stortingsrepresentant, KRF
• Margareta Holtensdotter Lützhöft, professor i nautiske operasjoner, HVL
• Jens Folland, seniorrådgiver, Norsk sjøoffiserforbund
• Roy Wareberg, CEO, Atlantic Offshore

It was generally agreed that further support and funding was needed for a safety and rescue infrastructure. Perhaps less on helicopters – Jens Folland commented and Margareta Lutzhoft suggested we put more effort on proactive work – design ships for safety and rescue, and avoid evacuation. We should also ensure to use the resources we already have, Roy Wareberg pointed out. Our politicians agreed on the needs and went away with a new realisation of the complexities and risks involved.

June 2019

Delegates from Ulsan, South Korea visited HVL

On 7th and 8th of June, a group of delegates from Ulsan, South Korea visited the Department of Maritime Studies to find possibilities for cooperation and meet Mayor Arne-Christian Mohn and Maritime Forum. Johanne Marie Trovåg from the Department of Maritime Studies hosted a meeting for the visitors, and professor Margareta Lützhöft presented MarCATCH and associated projects. Haugesund Mayor Arne-Christian Mohn also attended at the meeting. Visits to the HVL simulation center, The Viking Festival at Avaldsnes, a guided tour around the city and a dinner at Lothe’s was included in the program for the visit. Guest professor Seojeong Lee coordinated this visit. Seojeong Lee is employed at the Korea Maritime and Ocean University. The delegates were from Ulsan ICT Promotion Agency, Ulsan Industry-Campus Collaboration Institute as well as from the national government of Ministry of Science and ICT and National IT Industry Promotion Agency to support Ulsan. The Korean visitors are keen to develop the collaboration regarding research and development on maritime and marine technology. Attached photo was taken in the Town Hall.

May 2019

Ergoship 2019

The third conference on Maritime Human Factors is going to be held on the 24th and 25th of September 2019 in Haugesund, Norway. The scope is: Human-centred shipping – is there a future without it? The upcoming conference currently has 14 accepted papers. The papers will be presented over 2 days. Sponsors include the DNMF/Norwegian Union of Marine Engineers.

Mars 2019

Discussed research-ideas connected to human centered technology

Dr. Hideyuki Ando, Senior General Manager of MTI, Monohakobi Technology Institute from NYK-MTI visited the MarSafe group at HVL in February. An interesting day with many exchanges of thoughts and ideas of research connected to human centered technology. NYK Line – Nippon Yusen Kaisha is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world’s 12th-largest shipping line, and the company has 240 offices in 27 countries. NYK Line currently operates more than 800 vessels including container ships, woodchip carriers, car carriers, LNG carriers and reefer carriers.

January 2019

Forecasting workshop for the HUMANE-project

The first forecasting workshop for the HUMANE project was held in October 2018 in Trondheim, Norway, on the topic of System safety and cyber security. The 25 participants (experts and stakeholders) were from CIRM, SINTEF, Massterly, Wärtsilä, DNV-GL, Kystverket, InterManager, Lloyds Register, ABB, Kongsberg Seatex, Kongsberg Maritime, No rcontrol, BW Gas, MTI-NYK, EXMAR, Inmarsat, NTNU, Rolls Royce, F-Secure, RISE and Maritime Robotics. The needs of the maritime industry in the future were discussed, guided by a series of prompts including unmanned bridge, unmanned engine room, ultra-low manning, shore control/ monitoring/support centre, and fully autonomous. Identified challenges include e.g. that new business cases and models are needed, there is a big difference between technology demonstration and routine use, marine human-centred design is needed and resilient integrated solutions are not achieved by building and adding. The next workshop on 17-18 January will focus on legal, regulatory, classification and insurance issues.

Informal field trip for PhD students and supervisor

On Monday, 14th of January Professor Margareta Lützhöft and two PhD students, Agnieszka Pikor and Leif Ole Dreyer, visited a local ferry sailing between Stavanger and Tau. The aim of the informal field trip was to observe tasks performed by different members of the crew, get familiar with bridge and engine room design as well as to study safety facilities and procedures. The MarSafe research group aims to be close to industry in all its projects, and to keep up with the changes in the maritime workplaces. Informal field trips is one of the means used by the researchers within MarSafe to ensure that the strong links to industry are maintained.