Page 42: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2013)

42 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? SEPTEMBER 2013 Przemysaw Kowalak, from the Institute of Technical Operation of Marine Power Plants, Faculty of Marine Engineering with the engine being used for emission after treatment. MARKET FOCUS TRAINING & EDUCATION -able time at sea both before and after earning a PhD at the university. ?When students Þ rst come to the simu- lator,? he said, ?they often approach it as a video game, but with the instructor?s ability to replicate a wide range of con-ditions encountered at sea or in harbor, they soon learn that operating a ship is a much more complex business.?Undergraduates are not the only stu- dents doing course work. Experienced mariners also return for upgrading on specialized short courses. Licensed pi-lots from various ports have participated in refresher training as well as carrying out research with the simulator. Another pair of simulators replicates the bridges of a cargo ship and an as- sist tug. With an instructor controlling weather and tidal conditions from a third room, a pair of students can work both the tug and the ship into a port. Ship-to-tug commands can be delivered by ?radio phone? just as they would be in reality. On a recent visit an observer was impressed with the way in which, when wind and wave conditions were height-ened the waves could be seen coming over the bow and washing down the decks of the assist tug as it came along-side the simulated ship. The Maritime University of Szczecin is co-educational. Women enroll in all faculties, explained the university?s communications ofÞ cer Bogna Bartkie- wicz, but, for now, tend more toward the Faculty of Engineering and Econom-ics of Transport (FEET). Established in 2002, FEET offers full time and part time studies in three Þ elds: Management and Production Engineering, Transport and Logistics. In addition to training students in ship-board services, the program can also equip students for jobs in the civil ser- vice and private sector. LNGThe Liquid Cargo-Handling Simulator (LCHS) demonstrates this duality with ship and shore training.The LCHS lab includes a classroom set up with termi-nals for up to 16 students to simultane-ously take part in tanker handling and safety activities, although instructor Karol Igielski prefers to work with about eight students at a time. The most dra-matic aspect of the lab is the full simula-tion of an off load LNG port currently under construction on the Baltic Sea at
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cie. In this simulator room a bank of screens on one side models the shore side port facility, due to open in 2014, while the other side of the room is from the perspective of an LNG tanker off loading at the facility. The ship model is a representation, shown in great detail taken from the actual builders blueprints, of a Q-Flex LNG carrier. Nineteen of these ships, with capacity for over 210,000 cubic meters, have been built at several of the largest Korean shipyards for Qatar Gas, a major exporter of LNG. Equipped with cargo re-liquefaction plants to return cargo boil off to the cargo tanks, the ships are Þ tted with a range of safety and Þ re Þ ghting equipment that is replicated in the simulator model. ?After they have completed their navigational training at the navigation simulator, they can come up here for the LNG ofß oad training,? said Igielski, who has exten-sive knowledge on liquid cargo ships. Working from his Instructor?s control center, Igielski introduces a leak in the simulator that is currently off loading at the
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cie port. A Þ re ß ares up at the manifold onboard the ship. The in- structor watches for the student to turn on the dry powder and take other actions to contain the leak and the Þ re in the The training and research vessel Navigator XX1 moored in front of the Academia with the Maritime Museum in the background. The expansive bridge of the Navigator XXI has extra radar moni-tors and chart tables for students. Karol Igielski, manager of the LNG simulator. MR #9 (42-49).indd 42MR #9 (42-49).indd 429/3/2013 12:12:13 PM9/3/2013 12:12:13 PM