Page 12: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2023)

ACADEMIA

THE MEANING OF ‘INNOVATION’

Image courtesy NOC

By Huw Gullick, Associate Director, NOC Innovations ot a day goes by when we don’t hear the word in- mersed in it, I often question whether what I am experiencing novation, it’s slipped into everyday life, employed really is innovation; cutting edge technology, pioneering sci- as a standard by which we should all be operating ence – is this really innovation, and if not, what is innovation?

Nby. If you aren’t innovative, you are so 20th cen- It’s a complex one to answer. What I see is innovation in the tury, and it’s seen as the only way that things get done - “that sense that it is pushing the boundaries of what is possible from hasn’t worked so let’s try this innovative approach”. Some an engineering perspective and creating new scienti? c knowl- of us even rely on it to have a job. But innovation seems to edge and understanding that didn’t exist or wasn’t known. have slipped through the net when it comes to de? nitions and However, this is only part of what innovation means, an impor- meanings. We all nod our heads knowingly when someone tant part but still only a small part. A really succinct de? nition talks about innovation but do we really know what it means? of innovation would have to be “creating and orchestrating the

Of course, there is a dictionary de? nition for it but what does conditions that allow something to happen that has such an im- it mean in practical terms? What is the real-world manifesta- pact that it fundamentally shifts our interaction with the world tion of innovation? When can you see and touch innovation around us or how we think about our world”. For me, innova- and should we even care? It is easy to get swept along with all tion has to be coupled with impact otherwise it only exists as of the hype and conjure up images of robots ? ying airplanes, an idea, a concept, or at best an experiment undertaken by a teams of scientists and engineers in super-labs with VR head- few scientists con? ned and limited to a laboratory.

sets on, holograms of DNA ? oating in the air and digital twins of the ocean projected 360° around them, or AI so clever it is

Thinking Innovation now teaching half the curriculum in school. It’s often easier

Innovation needs to be thought of in a multi-layered way, it’s a just to tie the concept of innovation to something new or do- bit like an onion. What you see is the outer layer, the manifesta- ing things faster, going further or creating something that we tion of a system of things that happen to create the outer layer. didn’t know we needed rather than unpick what it may really In the marine context, autonomous vessels are the physical mean. In my work at NOC, I operate in an environment where manifestation born out of a complex system of conditions that

I am constantly surrounded by this stereotypical conception of have allowed them to be created; societal expectations of clean- innovation; teams of scientists and engineers unravelling the er ways of working, engineering evolution, market forces and mysteries of the ocean and developing new technology to ex- more. Whilst autonomous vessels are innovative in themselves, plore areas we have never been to before and collect data we the ability to create the conditions among this complex system could previously only dream of. It’s inspiring stuff, and highly to develop them is the true innovation. For me, innovation is innovative. Whilst I am in awe of this and privileged to be im- much more about how we see and approach the world and what 12 July/August 2023

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