MISSIM

Maritime education relies heavily on the use of simulators to train professional and future seafarers for all possible situations on board. The simulations we use not only have to take into account all possible risks, which occur on a ship, but also have to be constantly modernized to keep up with the latest developments in the maritime sector. To that end, we are expanding our simulator park with two bridge simulators, an engine room simulator (with a real ship's engine as the central structure in the room), a room where we practice the use of electronic charts, and a room where we practice communication between ships and shore, all with realistic hardware. This combination of simulators allows us to develop integrated multidisciplinary scenarios.

All this equipment will be interconnected, making the whole thing a unique setup for Western Europe: MISSIMLab.

We prepare students from our various programs for the challenges of the coming decades by not only training them on the latest simulators, but also allowing them to work together in broad, comprehensive simulator exercises. Not only can they develop specialized technical skills, but also practice communication strategies and work on their “soft skills” (leadership, teamwork and group dynamics, etc.).

We embed maritime expertise around recent developments in the ports at the AMA through the provision and design of new courses for its own students and for trainees from the port companies, such as:

• IGF, bunkering of gas fuelled ships
• Tanker loading & unloading for operators and surveyors at tanker terminals
• ….

We are strengthening our services to the maritime industry, quantitatively and qualitatively, to meet an increasing demand for training around such areas as:

• Ice navigation in the context of recent changes to the Polar Code
• High voltage operations
• Global Maritime Distress and Safety systems (GMDSS)

We mimic shipboard operational processes in an experimental setting, to empirically investigate innovations around these processes, for the benefit of the maritime sector, for example, on:

• autonomous navigation and the role of the future maritime officer
• operator wellbeing such as: fatigue and information overload
• communication processes between ships and actors ashore

Thus, within the MISSIM project, the Antwerp Maritime Academy wants to use its new simulator park 'MISSIMLab' to modernize and expand our services to the maritime fabric in Flanders (shipowners for maritime and/or inland navigation, the ports, research institutions, ...). To this end, within the MISSIM project we are looking for partners (companies and knowledge institutions within and outside the maritime world) to achieve these objectives together with our researchers and students.