Definition of Maritime Engineering

Engineering means the application of science and technology to a realm of reality. Thus, it is possible to speak of engineering in multiple aspects: agronomic, oil, mining and deposits, industrial, roads, canals and ports and, also, in relation to the sea, engineering maritime.

The

maritime engineering as an academic discipline

and as a professional sector it is directly related to the maritime industry, an area of ​​the economy with an evident strategic value, especially in relation to the transport merchandise as a source of international trade. On the other hand, maritime engineering has links with other areas (tourism, environment, oceanography, fishing activity or architecture naval).

Acting camp

Its field of action has multiple aspects: hydraulic infrastructures, port traffic operations, nautical operations and maritime traffic, risks in navigation and safety, civil works projects, works supervision and a long etcetera.

Maritime engineers must have a thorough knowledge of all the elements of the sea (currents, waves, tides or winds), as well as the technology associated with navigation and all the infrastructures of the maritime world, especially the ports.

What do you have to study to be a maritime engineer?

Prior to university training, the student must have skills and knowledge about traditional scientific and technological areas. With a solid foundation in this field, you can now face the challenge of studying the subjects of maritime engineering: calculus, algebra, components of machines, corrosion and protection of naval materials, communications, marine renewable energies, refrigeration and air conditioning of ships, buoyancy, movement of fluids, etc. As you can see, there is a compendium of theoretical, technological and practical disciplines of navigation.

Challenges of maritime engineering

Is discipline Academics and its professional sector have close relationships with the world of navigation in general. And in this sense, there are a series of challenges and circumstances that are key:

- Some ports do not have drafts and docks sufficiently adapted to current navigation needs.

- It is foreseeable that in the near future maritime engineers will work on the design and building of floating artifacts.

- With new technologies it is now possible to create simulation systems to recreate different situations related to ship navigation.

- There is the challenge of perfecting the technology that allows navigation in which polluting emissions are eliminated and used Energy sources alternatives to oil (in this context the term "green ship" is already used in maritime engineering terminology).