MIT Maritime Consortium Racing | MIT News

There are about 11 billion tons of goods each year, about 1.5 tons per person, transported by sea every year, accounting for about 90% of global trade. Internationally, the number of merchant transport fleets is approximately 110,000 ships. These vessels and the ports they serve are important contributors to local and global economies, and they are important contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

A new alliance was formally established at the signing ceremony at MIT last week to address climate hazard emissions from the maritime shipping industry while supporting efforts to operate environmentally friendly with the decarbonization targets set by the International Maritime Organization.

“This is a timely collaboration with key stakeholders in the maritime industry, with a very bold and interdisciplinary research agenda that will establish new technology and evidence-based standards,” said Themis Sapsis, professor of marine technology at MIT and director of the Center for Marine Engineering at MIT. “It aims to bring the best revenue for key areas of commercial transportation, such as nuclear technology for commercial environments, automated operation and AI methods, improved fluid mechanics and ship design, cybersecurity and manufacturing.”

Co-led by Ford International Social Sciences Professor Sapsis and Fotini Christia; Director of the Institute of Data, Systems and Society (IDSS); the newly launched MIT Maritime Alliance (MC) and director of the MIT Center for Social Technology Research will bring MIT collaborators to MIT collaborators from campus, including the Marine Engineering Center located in the Department of Mechanical Engineering; IDSS, located in the MIT Schwarzman School of Computing; the Division of Nuclear Science, Engineering, and Civil and Environmental Engineering; MIT grants; and other national and international industry experts in the society.

Founding members of the Maritime Alliance are the U.S. Shipping Agency (ABS), Capital Clean Energy Carriers Corp. and HD Korea shipbuilding and offshore engineering. Innovation members are Vision, Singapore Maritime Academy and Dorian LP.

“The challenges facing the maritime industry are challenges that no individual or organization can solve on their own,” Cristia said. “The solution involves nearly all disciplines in the School of Engineering and AI and data-driven algorithms and policies and regulations – it’s a real MIT problem.”

Researchers will explore new designs of nuclear systems that meet technology-economic needs as well as constraints on commercial transport, economic and environmental feasibility of alternative fuels, new data-driven algorithms, and strict evaluation criteria for autonomous platforms in maritime space, contextual awareness on network matters and scope of manufacturing, and 3D printing technology. The collaborators will also advise on research priorities related to the presidential priorities of MIT on climate, sustainability and AI.

MIT has been a leading center for ship research and design and is widely recognized for its unique educational programs for fluid dynamics, ship structural mechanics and dynamics, propeller design and overall ship design, and its unique educational programs for U.S. Naval Officers, Naval Architecture and Engineering Programs. Today’s research is at the forefront of marine science and engineering, with significant efforts in fluid mechanics and fluid dynamics, acoustics, offshore mechanics, marine robotics and sensors, and ocean sensing and prediction. The consortium’s academic residence at MIT also opens the door to cross-departmental collaboration across the institute.

MC will launch multiple research projects aimed at meeting challenges through various angles, all united by cutting-edge data analytics and computing technologies. Collaborators will research new designs and approaches to increase efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, explore alternative fuel feasibility, and improve data-driven decision-making, manufacturing and materials, fluid dynamic performance and cybersecurity.

“The consortium brings powerful and important companies that have the potential to be global transport shapers,” said Christopher J. Wiernicki SM ’85 of ABS.

“The strength and uniqueness of the consortium are members, and they are both world-class organizations and real differentiators. Using the experience and knowledge of members and the ability of MIT’s technical coverage, we create real jet fuels to drive progress,” Wiernicki said. “In addition to the key obstacles, bottlenecks and knowledge gaps in the research emissions challenge, the consortium aims to enable new technological and policy innovations to develop which will be key. Long-term, the consortium hopes to provide gravity that we will need to bend curves.”