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of equipment. “The center’s main focus is around three

Class A ship’s bridges: the Full Motion

Bridge, the Offshore Operation Simula- tor, and the Heritage Bridge,” said Hearn. “The Full Motion Bridge, which you were on, and the Offshore Operation Simulator are both sitting on these six-degree motion beds; it moves just like the ship will move, whether it’s in a storm on the Grand Banks or you’re battering your way through Lan- caster Sound in ice, everything is repli- cated there. The Heritage Bridge is very specialized towards the shuttle tankers which serve the offshore industry, and the big three bridges are interconnected.”

In addition, Hearn and his team can also connect additional simulators, such as the full mission engine room simu- lator, the full mission ballast control simulator for an offshore drilling rig and several additional smaller units to deliver the most realistic training scenario.

“One of the unique things about that interoperability, that connectivity, is that we run large multi-party exercises all in the same scenario,” said Hearn, “which [is a big assist when planning big off- shore structure] tow-out projects.

Ship to ship operations, with tankers coming alongside to load, utilizes mul- tiple bridges, too.”

Planning Ahead

Though somewhat remote and unique in experience, the maritime and subsea professionals in St. Johns, Newfound- land & Labrador face the same mega- trends driving maritime: energy tran- sition; digitalization; automation and autonomy. When Hearn looks at the landscape around him, he sees arti? cial intelligence and the increased use of au- tonomy as pervasive trends that will con- tinue to evolve and change not only the role of mariners on ships but the training they receive. That said, with those two, he sees maritime cybersecurity “as the gorilla in the room.” “With AI, it’s ? nding out how it’s go- ing to be used and when it’s going to be used,” said Hearn, noting that as of now there are far more questions than an- www.marinetechnologynews.com 27

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