Page 41: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2021)

MTR100: 2021’s Top ‘Ocean Influencers’

Michael Johnson

Founder & CEO, Sea Machines 03 ichael Johnson is the founder

Photo courtesy David Shopper and CEO of Sea Machines, a

Johnson, company that is helping to fast

Mtrack the age of autonomy in

SeaMachines the maritime space. “Technology is not something new for our space,” said John- son, “be it from the lumbering packet ships to heavily canvassed clippers then back to the lumbering, smoking, yet consistent steamers and then on and on. Now it’s digi- tal sensing, deep processing and the shift of manual operation to the autonomous.”

A native Texan and a marine engineer by education, Johnson has always fancied himself an innovator, but early in his career – from shipyard post to executive leader- ship at Crowley Maritime – he never imag- ined in those early years that he would take a leadership role in maritime autonomy. “Mariners aren’t usually the type of peo- ple that make long-term ? xed plans,” said

Johnson.

But it was one of his ? rst experiences as a mariner that helped shaped his mission, ©2020 HydroComp, Inc.

his company, today. “On my ? rst trip to sea

Below The Surface as a cadet, within 10 days of stepping on board my ? rst ship, we were engaged in a

Is What Matters major search and rescue operation in the

North Atlantic” Johnson remembers. “We were searching for a missing bulker, the

Under the surface of the

Marika 7 that had recently left Nova Sco- water, the results from our

R VROVU A ROV V tia, and we were sailing within 12 hours of calculations and knowledge are hard at work.

each other in the same winter storm. Unfor-

HydroComp connects your tunately, she broke in half and all crew were ingenuity with improved lost. And we were searching in the waters, outcomes: in 45-ft. seas. That was when I ? rst learned > Thruster Design how dynamic and powerful the seas are.” > Vehicle Hydrodynamics U U U VU VU V

Fast track to 2012, with Johnson in a > Propulsion Energy Budget leadership position at Crowley and Titan >

Performance Improvements

Salvage, where he led the team that wrote > Silencing Propeller Noise the winning bid to recover the wreck of the

Let us expand your sea of

Costa Concordia. “Over the course of those opportunities by providing 19 years from that ? rst voyage to the Costa design software and services

Concordia, I saw that simple and wrong hu- for your team! man decisions can have catastrophic conse- quences. While humans are great at many things, I see humans as not being optimal hydrocompinc.com/uv 603.868.3344L ® ® ® ®

NavCad PropElements PropCad PropExpertL L L in other ways. In our world, the marine

Your Ideas. Our Tools.

world of long duration missions, which are www.marinetechnologynews.com 41

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