MSc/PgDip Technical Ship Management

Program Overview

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Why this course?

Ninety percent of world trade is carried by sea. You'll gain an understanding of the subjects essential for effective and efficient management of ships and fleets. This course allows you to develop multidisciplinary interests and skills by working with other areas of naval architecture, ocean and marine engineering.

As a graduate you could expect to work in the industry as a technical ship superintendent or manager.

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What you’ll study

The programme consists of three components:

instructional modules

group project

individual project (MSc only)

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Group project

You’ll be part of a group of three to five people in ‘consultant teams’ for 10 weeks addressing a practical engineering problem. You’ll then have the opportunity to present the report to a panel of industrial experts.

This project will enhance your team working and communication skills and also provides valuable access to industrial contacts. In addition, you'll gain a good understanding of all aspects of research work. The technological study must be accompanied by a survey of the relevance and applicability of the findings to the maritime industries at large.

You'll learn efficient ways to gather information, to distribute workload and to delegate amongst the group, to analyse their results and to appreciate the broader implications of the whole project. Indepth technological studies will be accompanied by increasingly important competence in managerial skills, quality assurance and a sound appreciation of the economic, political, social and environmental issues crucial to professional success.

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Individual project (MSc only)

MSc students will take on an individual dissertation on a topic of their own interest. The aim of the individual project is to develop your research skills and to combine many of the aspects learned from other modules within a specific topic. This will be achieved by you carrying out work into a particular topic relating to your chosen theme and preparing a dissertation.

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Facilities

We have excellent teaching facilities including:

Catalina – our departmental racing yacht

Kelvin Hydrodynamics Lab – the largest ship-model experiment tank in any UK university

Towing/wave tank exclusively for teaching purposes

Marine engine laboratory

Cutting-edge computer facilities

Industry standard software

There have been many highlights for me, but the stand out element has undoubtedly been the approach of the academic staff and their willingness to help you achieve your goals and be the best version of yourself!

Ioannis Chalaris More about Ioannis' experience

Program Outline

Course content

A typical selection of modules offered on the programme are outlined below. Please note that these may be subject to change.

Compulsory modules

Elective modules

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Shipping Economics and Market Sector Analysis

This module aims to provide you with an understanding of the financial and operational issues that companies that manage or own ships in the various sectors of merchant shipping face, both charter and liner shipping, as well as an acquaintance with maritime sector infrastructures.

This module covers:

international seaborne trade

economic model for perfect competition conditions

shipping markets and commodities transported

charter shipping and the liner market

supply chain management and logistics

marine transport systems infrastructures

geography of marine transport

At the end of this module you'll be able to:

develop an understanding of the application of basic economic concepts in the shipping sector, its role in the world economy and the role of market sectors in seaborne transportation

be in a position to assume managerial decisions concerning the charter market sector (wet and dry bulk cargoes)

make decisions involving liner shipping issues and maritime transport system infrastructures

Assessment and feedback are in the form of a two-hours final exam during the Semester 1 exam diet and a group coursework assignment on selected contemporary topics of shipping economics and market sector analysis.

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Maritime Safety & Risk

This module aims to demonstrate how the principles and methods of risk analysis are undertaken and reflected in safety assessment. Risk analysis offers a variety of methods, tools and techniques that can be applied in solving problems covering different phases of the life cycle of a vessel (design, construction, operation and end-of-life) and, as such, this module will also elaborate on the practicalities of its application to a range of marine scenarios.

This module covers:

safety, risk and risk analysis; key terminology; lessons learnt from past experience; human factors.

formal safety assessment

hazard Identification

frequency analysis and consequence modelling

quantitative risk assessment methods

risk control and decision support, cost benefit analysis

human Factors and Safety culture in the maritime

industry guest lectures addressing topical issues related to maritime safety and risk

At the end of this module you'll be able to:

understand the concepts and importance of safety, risk and of all requisite fundamentals enabling quantification of risk in the maritime context

utilise methods and tools undertaking fundamental studies, specific to any component, system or function and in general first-principles implementation to life-cycle design

understand and have experience of the use of risk analysis in the marine field via related case studies (risk-based ship design, operation and regulation).

be able to appreciate components of a formal safety assessment and apply it for indicative problems of maritime operations

Assessment and feedback are in the form of one final exam (during Semester-2 diet) and two coursework assignments (assignment-one focusses on accident investigation, assignment-two is a safety assessment case study).

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Maritime Regulatory Framework

This module aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to the marine regulatory framework, including background to its development, description of the current framework and future enhancements, an in-depth explanation of the theoretical background, nature and meaning of each method of assessment and a quantitative demonstration of the available routes and criteria used in assessing safety.

This module includes the theoretical background to the development, relevant theoretical models, content, similarities and differences, advantages and disadvantages deriving from the use of various rules and regulations:

Maritime Regulatory System – Introduction

Key stakeholders in Maritime Regulations and Enforcement

Imo, FLAG States and Classification Societies

EU regulatory Politics and Policy

Shipping and Environment

ISM and Human element in Shipping

Rule Development process and Philosophy

Offshore Regulations

At the end of this module, you'll:

understand the structure and functioning of Marine Regulatory Framework including, IMO, Classification Societies and National Authorities

have knowledge on International regulations under IMO framework including, SOLAS, MARPOL, ISM and Offshore Regulations

understand the issues with maritime and environmental safety and how rules are developed to address these issues

understand the meanings of Prescriptive, probabilistic, performance and equivalent rules and approaches

have developed awareness about the future regulatory developments that may affect the design and operations of the ships and other floating structures

Assessment and feedback are in the form of two course work assignments and an exam. One assignment will be individual, and the other will be a group assignment (max 3-4 people per group). The final exam will be one hour long and purely focusing on the Fundamentals of Marine Regulatory Framework. You'll be provided with the material for the exam.

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Systems Availability & Maintenance

This module aims to provide you with an insight into the qualitative and quantitative systems’ reliability techniques as well as maintenance methodologies with particular emphasis to the maritime industry. The module will give you the ability to formulate, solve, report and present a comprehensive maintenance strategy based on the application of reliability and criticality analysis and assessment tools. The module will also provide you with an insight of the day-to-day operations of ships as well as explore and present features related to ships dry-dockings, inspection, repair and maintenance scheduling, regulatory regime as well as practical case studies on the above.

This module covers:

introduction to reliability and maintenance (definition of reliability, hazard, risk, maintenance, maintainability, criticality, availability, etc)

reliability tools (qualitative and quantitative like FMEA, FMECA, FTA, ETA, BBNs, Markov Analysis, HAZOP, HAZID, etc)

risk and criticality matrices

corrective, preventive, predictive, condition-based maintenance

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), Risk Based Inspection (RBI) methods. Condition Monitoring (ConMon) tool, Planned Maintenance Systems PMS, Computerised Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS)

case studies/applications regarding machinery and hull structure of ships

regulatory regime in relation to ship operations and maintenance (IMO, IACS, OCIMF, HSE-Safety case/ALARP, etc.)

research and applications in the maritime sector (i.e. FSA, GBS, TMSA, KPIs etc.)

preparation for dry-dockings, inspection, maintenance and repairs of ships and offshore structures, quotation lists, etc.

assessment of ship operational case studies

seminars/lectures from invited experts (maintenance/condition monitoring experts, ship managers/operators to give seminars on planned maintenance/dry-docking planning, day-to-day ship operations)

At the end of this module you'll be:

able to understand and apply various reliability software tools, concepts and strategies with application to the maritime/marine industry

aware of the different maintenance methodologies and their application in the maritime field and carry out maintenance strategy case studies

Assessment and feedback are in the form of the submission of one coursework assignment related to reliability and criticality analysis tools and a final exam associated to the above topics.

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Onboard Energy Management and Marine Environment Protection

This module aims to provide you with knowledge and awareness of issues in marine environmental protection, environmentally friendly shipping and international conventions and regulations of environmental protection and introduce the state-of-the-art technology applied in the industry and future trends. To provide you with knowledge of ship energy management systems and energy resources including the optimisation and integration of machinery and power systems in a sustainable manner.

This module covers:

IMO MARPOL 73/78 Conventions on engine emission control

marine engine emissions control: primary and secondary techniques

fuel cell technology for ships, alternative fuels and energy sources

issues of supply and use of low sulphur bunker fuels

ballast water management

overview of energy issues worldwide and necessity for energy management systems onboard

major energy systems onboard and aspects of their design, manufacture and operation

utilisation of waste heat energy on ships: waste heat recovery

exergy analysis for thermal energy system onboard

At the end of this module you'll be able to:

describe the key issues in marine environmental protection

demonstrate an awareness of regulations concerning marine environmental protection

show an understanding of the formation and reduction technologies for marine emissions

be capable of estimating energy consumption and saving for the different energy consumers on ships.

demonstrate an understanding of the on-board procedures and operations which minimise emissions.

demonstrate an understanding of energy systems design and systems integration.

conduct calculations involving marine energy systems components and consumers.

acquire the key skills for estimating energy consumption and saving

demonstrate an understanding of how to optimise equipment in order to minimise emissions.

demonstrate an understanding of useful work and exergy

conduct energy and exergy analysis for both components and whole thermodynamic system onboard.

This is a coursework-class test assessment module, no exam. There are two coursework assignments and one class test, each contribute 50%, 25% and 25% to the final assessment respectively.

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Project Management

This class aims to provide you with skills relating to the use of engineering practices in project management with particular respect to the effective and efficient use of resources.

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Group Design Project

The overall aim of the module is to provide you with an enriched experience in the selection, conceptualisation and designing of a novel vessel or an offshore asset. The group projects will also include a thorough market review, concept and focused design studies and techno-economic analysis in a simulated design project environment. It will also provide you with an opportunity to present their project outputs to a panel involving academic/industry staff.

This module covers:

development of a broad but nevertheless critical review of prospects for techno-economic growth in maritime related activities in a particular context/area of the world

proposal and evaluation of specific design-related activities with a view to developing a design project to a concept level but with substantial calculations in at least one design objective

demonstration of analytical ability and understanding of engineering principles and problem-solving techniques, creativity and self-reflection

the ability to present and defend the design choices to a panel.

At the end of this module you'll be able to:

identify and prioritize the key-design issues along with their basic interrelations in the context of naval architecture

materialize a design project according to a given timeline through design steps along the key-design-issues priority path

work efficiently and openly in a collaborative context involving different cultures and expertise

choose at each design step the proper rationally-based computation methods

Assessment and feedback are in the form of either design report or presentation. There will be five tasks: each task may include the submission of a design report or an oral presentation followed by questions from the lecturers and the advisory groups.

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Ship Powering in Service

This module aims to provide the fundamental concept of the energy balance of a motorship and the major contributors to the performance losses of a ship in-service. These include the resistance/power increase due to wind, waves, rudder actions/hull drift, hull roughness (including coating), biofouling. The module also aims to discuss the fundamentals of these contributors and describes how to estimate the ship performance losses (i.e. in terms of power increase or speed loss) due to these effects.

This module covers:

introduction to ship powering in service

theory of added resistance due to waves

numerical and experimental calculation of added resistance due to waves

experimental techniques for naval architects

towing tank experiments

roughness effect of biofouling – biofouling, fouling control coatings, concepts of boundary layer theory

the effect of hull fouling on the performance of marine vehicles

added resistance due to wind, rudder actions/hull drift

At the end of this module you'll be able to:

acquire a knowledge and understanding of the technical factors which affect the performance of a ship and the machinery at sea

acquire a knowledge and understanding of the main causes of performance losses (in-service) associated with the hull and propulsion, and methods to estimate these losses

understand the techniques used for laboratory measurement of added resistance

Assessment and feedback are in the form of two coursework assignments. The first assignment requires the calculation of the added resistance due to waves using a set of empirical formulae and potential flow-based software package. The second assignment requires the calculation of added resistance due to waves using experimental techniques, and the calculation of added resistance values due to fouling, wind, rudder actions/hull drift using various methods.

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Financial Engineering

This module explores financial options for ensuring the solvency and sustainability of business ventures. It covers topics including financial reporting and financial accounting in relation to the wider issues of corporate behaviour and corporate governance. The module will also look into the implications of the occurrence of financial crises at corporate, national and global levels for financial engineering practice.

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Data Analysis for Engineering

Data-driven decision-making is becoming a crucial skill to deal with emerging marine engineering systems that generate vast amounts of data from the automation system. This module aims to provide you with an understanding of the general concepts, advantages and limitations of Data-Driven methods for naval and marine engineering applications.

The module covers methodologies necessary for inferring useful information and identifying underlying patterns from raw, incomplete, noisy and corrupted data that is present in real-life marine engineering applications. This is achieved by introducing concepts and methods used to numerically model a wide range of naval and marine systems based on available data.

The module will also provide you with the opportunity to explore advanced solutions of data analytics such as nonlinear models, model selection and error estimation. The course is designed for post-graduate students who are interested in data analysis and machine learning applications. An engineering background, statistical and numerical skills would be beneficial but not necessary.

This module covers:

Introduction

1. An Introduction to Data Mining and Statistical Learning

2. Variable types and terminology

Data, Uncertainty and Learning Problems

3. Basics of Statistic

4. Regression and regression problems

Data Preprocessing and Exploratory Data Analysis

5. Data preprocessing

6. Data reduction

7. Dimensionality reduction

Supervised Learning

8. Regression

9. Classification

Overfitting and Regularization

10. Data splitting

Perceptron, Neural Networks and Kernel

11. Geometry Notation

12. Perceptron

13. Neural networks

14. Kernels

Unsupervised Learning

15. K-Means Clustering

On completion of the module you're expected to be able to:

describe a number of models for supervised, unsupervised inference from data. Critically evaluate statistical analysis. Critically assess the fit of statistical models.

assess the strength and weakness of each of these models, interpret the mathematical equations from linear algebra, statistics, and probability theory used in the learning models

implement efficient learning algorithms in the MATLAB language, applied to naval architecture and marine engineering problems

design test procedures in order to evaluate the model hyperparameters (model selection) and it’s error (error estimation). Develop an appropriate experimental research design for an engineering case study taking into account practical limitations

Summative assessments in this module will evaluate your learning, knowledge and proficiency in the context of data-driven methods. Summative assessment will be used in conjunction and alignment with formative assessment as appropriate for this module.

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Learning & teaching

There are two teaching semesters of 11 weeks each.

Course modules are delivered in the form of formal lectures supported with tutorials and laboratory experiments.

You’re required to attend an induction prior to the start of the course.

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Guest lectures

During term time, we arrange weekly seminars in which leaders and pioneers of the maritime, oil and gas and marine renewables industries visit the department and present to students. This is a great way of supplementing your education with the latest developments and gaining industry contacts for your future career.

Industrial visits are also made to a variety of companies.

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Assessment

There are two types of method for module assessment. One is course work assessment only, the other is exam assessment. For examined modules the final assessment mark consists of 30-40% course work marks and 60-70% exam marks.

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Student competitions

The Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Marine Engineering supports and promotes students in various competitions and awards, from cash bursaries for top performing students to the highest of awards from international organisations.

In recent years, our students have been triumphant in the following high profile competitions:

Science, Engineering & Technology Student of the Year (SET Awards)

Best Maritime Technology Student (SET Awards)

Double winner of BP’s Ultimate Field Trip Competition

Strathclyder of the Year

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Careers

Glasgow is one of the largest centres of ship management industry in the world. There's demand for well-qualified ship superintendents of various levels of practical experience.

As a graduate you’ll be able to make a valuable contribution to the shipping industry.

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Glasgow is Scotland's biggest & most cosmopolitan city

Our campus is based right in the very heart of Glasgow. We're in the city centre, next to the Merchant City, both of which are great locations for sightseeing, shopping and socialising alongside your studies.

Life in Glasgow