On Oct. 27, the 2nd Dalian Maritime University International Conference on Maritime Education and Training (DMUMET) was held in DMU. With the theme of “Rising to the Challenges: Smart Ships and MET”, it aims to share the new achievements and inspirations in the sphere of maritime education and research, and discuss the reform and development philosophy of the maritime industry under the background of smart ship technology. Over 300 delegates from government agencies, maritime enterprises and public institutions, and maritime universities in China and other countries attended the conference. The Vice-President of DMU, Liu Zhengjiang, and the dean of the navigation college of Guangdong Ocean University, Zhuo Yongqiang co-chaired the meeting.
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, many countries and institutions have begun the research of smart ships, which will certainly lead to reforms in every aspect of the maritime industry. In this reform, the maritime education and training plays a vital role, which will not only influence seafarers development, but the need of maritime talents and the orderly and sound development of the maritime industry. Meanwhile, the development of smart ship technology also provides new opportunities and challenges to maritime talents training.
Prof. Zheng Shaonan, Chairman of the University Council, delivered a welcome speech at the opening ceremony, extending warm welcome to the guests on behalf of DMU. He said that the nature of human society is transforming from information to intelligence, so the smart ship technology is destined to become the necessary trend of the global maritime development and will bring about reforms in every aspect, especially maritime education. Therefore, maritime universities should review the relations between technology and education, reflect the philosophy and methods of talents training, and lay out a map for maritime education in this intelligence era.
The Inspector of the Maritime Safety Administration of the Ministry of Transport, Sun Youheng, delivered a speech. He said that the Maritime Safety Administration always attaches great importance to Chinese maritime education and has made efforts to encourage and support the policy and management of maritime universities. The technology also provides new opportunities and challenges to maritime talents training. A number of national strategies like “empowering the nation by developing the transportation industry” have been implemented to nurture and preserve high-end maritime talents. Under this condition, first-class maritime education and practice platforms are urgently needed to meet the demand of our country in training maritime talents. Therefore, he hoped that maritime universities, experts and enterprises home and abroad can contribute ideas and exert efforts.
Heike Deggim, the director of IMO Maritime Safety Division, delivered a speech, introducing IMO’s regulations on smart ship technology and the influence of international maritime rules on maritime education and training.
In the part of keynote speech, President Sun Yuqing of DMU firstly delivered a keynote speech entitled “Reflection on and Countermeasures for Training of Maritime Professionals in the New MASS Age”. He summarized what Chinese maritime universities have done concerning ship automation technology and offered suggestions to the reform of talents training and the development of Chinese maritime education.
Then the Chief Scientist of DNV GL, Rolf Skjong, delivered a keynote speech about the international legislation on smart shipping. Next, the Vice Rector of National University “Odessa Maritime Academy”, Vadym Zakharchenko, also delivered a keynote speech about the current situation and development direction of Ukraine maritime education training against the backdrop of smart ships. Afterwards, the Vice General Manager of Merchant Shipping Haihong Company, Wu Jianyi, delivered a keynote speech entitled “Intelligent Ship and the Operator”, in which he analyzed the influence of enterprises on intelligent ships and proposed the requirements for those working on intelligent ships.
During the conference, a total of 13 delegates from Norway, Japan, Ukraine, Indonesia and China made reports on subjects such as the international legislation on smart ships, ways of talents training and the employment of maritime graduates. The attendees also had an in-depth discussion on major, heated and urgent issues in maritime education.
DMU will list the achievements of the conference, continue to provide intelligence support to maritime talents training, foster the prosperous development of Chinese maritime educational research and make contributions to China’s maritime power strategy.
