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SPECIAL REPORT 306: NAVAL ENGINEERING IN THE 21ST CENTURY

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE NAVAL FLEETS

Examining the Science and Technology Enterprise in Naval Engineering Workforce and Education

Ronald K. Kiss Webb Institute

Paper prepared for the Committee on Naval Engineering in the 21st Century

Transportation Research Board

2011

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Examining the Science and Technology Enterprise in Naval Engineering Workforce and Education

RONALD K. KISS

Webb Institute BACKGROUND In December 2009 the National Research Council’s Committee on Naval Engineering in the 21st Century commissioned a series of papers germane to issues relating to the future of this critical engineering community. The purpose of one of these papers was to address the topic of workforce and education. The specific charge provided to guide the development of this paper is as follows:

• The needs for a technically literate workforce and its supporting education system

continue to draw the attention of national leaders. A common message has been issued by recent National Academy of Engineering studies, President Obama’s April 2009 speech to the Academy and the recently released November 2009 White House Educate to Innovate initiative: our nation needs to increase its attention to and involvement with [the] science and engineering education system and [the] professional development pipeline.

• Like all technical professions, the naval engineering community must devote proper attention to the underlying education system and workforce development programs. The specialized nature of the naval engineering profession further amplifies the need to give due attention to this area given its relatively small size compared to other engineering disciplines such as civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering.

• This paper will examine the continuum between the naval engineering education system and the workforce that is employed in this profession. A strong relationship exists between activities that attract talent, develop discipline specific skills and transition successful naval engineering graduates into the workforce, yet the links between these different activities are not fully coordinated. While the naval engineering pipeline exists, there does not seem to be a single entity that is responsible for ensuring that national naval engineering needs are being met.

• This paper will explore all aspects of the naval engineering workforce continuum, including detailing professional society engineering outreach programs, reviewing the current state of the undergraduate naval engineering and related discipline programs, and providing an overview of the graduate-level education system that supports the naval engineering profession. The graduate-level review will include both naval engineering–specific programs and the host of related disciplines that contribute to the profession. The paper will examine the naval engineering workforce itself with a review of various professional development models and on-the-job training programs that are used to attract, retain, and educate the naval engineering workforce.

• It is proposed that this paper have three sections: one section would focus on the undergraduate curriculum, the second section would focus on graduate education, and the third devoted to workforce development programs (including engineering outreach programs, industry

2 Examining the Science and Technology Enterprise in Naval Engineering Workforce and Education

specific training, and recruiting efforts to draw talent from related disciplines). It is important to note that the workforce referred to in this work is that workforce needed to meet naval engineering innovation, research, and development needs. Given the significant investment in education and training programs, proper attention must be devoted to retain these skilled graduates in the naval engineering field. OVERVIEW OF THE PROBLEM FROM THE AUTHOR'S PERSPECTIVE The Big Picture Before focusing on challenges facing the naval engineering community, we must understand what has been happening in our nation in recent years with respect to the development of our seed corn. Specifically, how are students in kindergarten through grade 12, commonly referred to as K–12, doing? Not only are there danger signs concerning the competence of the upcoming generation in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), but also in what appears to be a diminishing number of high school graduates choosing to study these areas in college.

One of the most comprehensive studies of the underlying problem facing all STEM career fields (of which naval engineering is a very small subset) was the 2007 National Academy report “Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America in a Brighter Economic Future.” The study found that “in a world where advanced knowledge is widespread and low cost labor is readily available, U.S. advantages in the marketplace have begun to erode.” The report went on to make four recommendations, which are worth repeating at the beginning of this paper, namely:

1. Increase America’s talent pool by vastly improving K–12 mathematics and science education;

2. Sustain and strengthen the nation's commitment to long-term basic research; 3. Develop, recruit, and retain top students, scientists, and engineers from the United

States and abroad; 4. Ensure that the United States is the premier place in the world for innovation.

Clearly these are all worthy actions and would enhance naval engineering as a rising tide

raises all boats. But the third is somewhat problematical since in this country the very nature of naval engineering requires U.S. citizenship in order to have access to the critical elements of naval ship design and construction. This will be expanded on later in this paper when the definition of a naval engineer is discussed.

What were some of the indicators that led to these recommendations? With respect to the U.S. economy:

• The United States is today a net importer of high-technology products. Its trade

balance in high-technology manufactured goods shifted from plus $54 billion in 1990 to negative $50 billion in 2001.1

1 For 2001, the dollar value of high-technology imports was $561 billion; the value of high-technology exports was $511 billion. See National Science Board. Science and Engineering Indicators 2004. NSB 04-01. Arlington, VA:

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• In one recent period, low-wage employers, such as Wal-Mart (now the nation’s largest employer) and McDonald’s, created 44% of the new jobs while high-wage employers created only 29% of the new jobs.2

• IBM recently sold its personal computer business to an entity in China.3 • It has been estimated that within a decade nearly 80% of the world’s middle-income

consumers would live in nations outside the current industrialized world. China alone could have 595 million middle-income consumers and 82 million upper-middle-income consumers. The total population of the United States is currently 300 million4 and it is projected to be 315 million in a decade.

• Some economists estimate that about half of the U.S. economic growth since World War II has been the result of technological innovation.5

• In 2005, American investors put more new money in foreign stock funds than in domestic stock portfolios.6

And with respect to comparative economics:

• Chemical companies closed 70 facilities in the United States in 2004 and tagged 40

more for shutdown. Of 120 chemical plants being built in the world with price tags of $1 billion or more, one is in the United States and 50 are in China. No new refineries have been built in the United States since 1976.7

• When asked in spring 2005 what is the most attractive place in the world in which to “lead a good life,” respondents in only 1 (India) of the 16 countries polled indicated the United States.8

• A company can hire nine factory workers in Mexico for the cost of one in America. A company can hire eight young professionals in India for the cost of one in America.9

National Science Foundation, 2004. Appendix Table 6-01. Page A6-5 provides the export numbers for 1990 and 2001 and page A6-6 has the import numbers. 2 Roach, S. More Jobs, Worse Work. New York Times, July 22, 2004. 3 Kanellos, M. "IBM Sells PC Group to Lenovo." News.com, December 8, 2004. Available at http://news.com.com/IBM=sells=PC=group=to=Lenova/2100-1042_3-5482284.html. 4 In China, P. A. Laudicina. World Out of Balance: Navigating Global Risks to Seize Competitive Advantage. New York: McGraw Hill, 200, p. 76. For the United States, see U.S. Census Bureau. "US Population Clock." Available at: http://www.census.gov. For current population and for projected population, see Population Projections Program, population Division, US Census Bureau. "Population Projections of the United States by Age, Sex, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Nativity: 1999-2100." Washington, D.C., January 13, 2000. Available at http://www.census.gov/population/www/projections/natsum-T3.html. 5 Boskin, M. J., and L. J. Lau. Capital, Technology and Economic Growth. In N. Rosenberg, R. Landau, and D. C. Mowery, eds. Technology and the wealth of Nations. Stanford, CA; Stanford University press, 1992 6 Lim, P. J. Looking Ahead Means Looking Abroad. New York Times, January 8, 2006. 7 Arndt, M. No Longer the Lab of the World: U.S. Chemical Plants are Closing in Droves as Production Heads Abroad. Business Week, May 2, 2005. Available at http://www.businessweek.com/. 8 Pew Research Center. "U.S. Image Up Slightly, But still Negative, American Character Gets Mixed Reviews." Washington, DC; Pew Global Attitudes Project, 2005. Available at http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=247. 9 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "International Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs for Production Workers in Manufacturing, 2004." November 18, 2005. Available at ftp://ftp.bls.gov/.


• During 2004, China overtook the United States to become the leading exporter of information-technology products, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).10

• The United States ranks only 12th among OECD countries in the number of broadband connections per 100 inhabitants.11

And with respect to K–12 education:

• Slightly more than one-third of U.S. 8th-grade students performed at or above a level called “proficient” in mathematics; “proficiency” was considered the ability to exhibit competence with challenging subject matter. Alarmingly, about one-fifth of the 4th graders and more than one-quarter of the 8th graders lacked the competence to perform even basic mathematical computations.12

• In 1999, 69% of the U.S. 5th-grade students received instruction from a mathematics teacher who did not hold a degree or certification in mathematics.13

• In 1995 (the most recent data available), U.S. 12th graders performed below the international average for 21 countries on a test of general knowledge in mathematics and science.14

• Because the United States does not have a set of national curricula, changing K–12 education is challenging, given that there are almost 15,000 school systems in the United States and the average district has only about six schools.15

And with respect to higher education:

• In South Korea, 38% of all undergraduates receive their degrees in natural science or engineering. In France, the figure is 47%, in China 50%, and in Singapore, 67%. In the United States, the corresponding figure is 15%.16

• Some 34% of doctoral degrees in natural sciences (including the physical, biological, earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences) and 56% of engineering PhDs in the United States are awarded to foreign-born students.17

10 Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. "OECD Broadband Statistics, June 2005." October 20, 2005. Available at http://www.oecd.org. 11 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. "OECD Broadband Statistics, June 2005. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/. 12 U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Education Progress, various years, 1990–2009 Mathematics Assessments. Available at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/main2009/2010451.pdf. 13 National Science Board. Science and Engineering Indicators 2004. NSB 04-01. Arlington, VA; National Science Foundation, 2004. Chapter 1. 14 National Center for Education Statistics. "Highlights from TIMSS." 2004. Available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/1999081.pdf. 15 National Center for Education Statistics. "Public Elementary and Secondary Students, Staff, Schools, and School Districts: School Year 2003–04." 2006. Available at http://nces.ed.gov/. 16 Analysis conducted by the Association of American Universities. 2006. "National Defense Education and Innovation Initiative." Based on data in National Science Board. Science and Engineering Indicators 2004. NSB 04-01. Arlington, VA; National Science Foundation, 2004. Appendix Table 2-33. For countries with both short and long degrees, the ratios are calculated with both short and long term degrees in the numerator.

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• About one-third of U.S. students intending to major in engineering switch majors before graduating.18

• In the year before Sputnik (1957), deemed a time of dangerous educational neglect, the ratio of baccalaureate physics degrees awarded to total degrees was twice as high as it was in 2004.19

• More S&P 500 CEOs obtained their undergraduate degrees in engineering than in any other field.20

And with respect to research:

• In 2001 (the most recent year for which data are available), U.S. industry spent more on tort litigation than on research.21

• In 2005, only four American companies ranked among the top 10 corporate recipients of patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.22

• Beginning in 2008, the most capable high-energy particle accelerator on Earth will, for the first time, reside outside of the United States.23

• The amount invested annually by the U.S. federal government in research in the physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering combined equals the annual increase in U.S. healthcare costs incurred every six weeks.24

Current Action There is no doubt that we need to address and improve the issues in K–12 that are impeding the entry of large numbers of students into STEM fields. President Obama has launched an “Educate to Innovate” campaign to improve the participation and performance of America's students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This campaign will include efforts 17 National Science Board. Science and Engineering Indicators 2004. NSB 04-01. Arlington, VA; National Science Foundation, 2004. Chapter 2, Figure 2-23. 18 Boylan, M. Assessing Changes in Student Interest in Engineering Careers Over the Last decade. CASEE, National academy of Engineering, 200. Available at http:www.nae.edu; C. Adelman. Women and Men on the Engineering Path: A Model for Analysis of Undergraduate Careers. Washington, D.C.; U.S. Department of Education, 1998. Available at http://www.ed.gov. According to this Department of Education analysis, the majority of students who switch from engineering majors complete a major in business or other non-science and engineering fields. 19 American Physical Society. 2007. APS News. August/September. 20 Stuart, S. "2004 CEO Study: A Statistical Snapshot of Leading CEOs." 2005. Available at http://content.spencerstuart.com/sswebsite/pdf/lib/Statistical_Snapshot_of_Leading_CEOs_relB3.pdf#search='ceo%20educational%20background'. 21 U.S. research and development spending in 2001 was $273.6 billion of which industry performed $194 billion and funded about $184 billion. National Science Board. Science and Engineering Indicators 2004. NSB 04-01. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation 2004. One estimate of tort litigation costs in the United States was $205 billion in 2001. Towers Perrin. 2006. U.S. Tort Costs and Cross-Border Perspectives:2005 Update. Available at www.towersperrin.com. 22 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. "USPTO Annual List of Top 10 Organizations Receiving Most U.S. Patents." January 10, 2006. Available at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/speeches/06-03.htm. 23 CERN, Internet Homepage. Available at http://public.web.cern.ch/PublicWelcome.html. 24 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "National health expenditures." 2005. Available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/tables.pdf.


not only from the federal government but also from leading companies, foundations, non-profits, and science and engineering societies to work with young people across America to excel in science and math.

The first steps being taken in this new program include public–private partnerships harnessing the power of media, interactive games, hands-on learning, and community volunteers to reach millions of students over the next four years, inspiring them to be the next generation of inventors and innovators. For example:

• Time-Warner Cable, Discovery Communications, Sesame Street, and other partners

will get the message to kids and students about the wonders of invention and discovery. • National Lab Day will help build communities of support around teachers across the

country, culminating in a day of civic participation. • National STEM design competitions will develop game options to engage kids in

scientific inquiry and challenging designs. • Five outstanding business and thought leaders (Sally Ride, Craig Barrett, Ursula

Burns, Glen Britt, and Antonio Perez) will head an effort to increase private and philanthropic involvement in support of STEM teaching and learning.

Hopefully these actions will bear fruit or our efforts to improve the supply of naval engineers will be doomed at the outset.

The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) is executing a grant provided by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to reach out to young students with a program called Sea Perch. Sea Perch provides students with the opportunity to learn about robotics, engineering, science, and mathematics while building the underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) as part of a science and engineering curriculum. Throughout the project, students will learn engineering concepts, problem solving, teamwork, and technical applications, as well as having the opportunity to participate in an end-of-the-term design competition. This program teaches students how to build an underwater robot, how to build a propulsion system, how to develop a controller, and how to investigate weight and buoyancy.25

There is also funding through SNAME from the National Defense Education Program (NDEP) for the Elementary Applications to Shipbuilding Engineering (EASE) project that is also contributing to the K–12 outreach. More information can be found at http://www.sname.org/SNAME/DesignCompetition/EASE/. NAVAL ENGINEERING What is a Naval Engineer? Trusting that there is a large and well-funded ongoing effort to resolve the STEM issues already discussed, the next issue that needs to be resolved is the definition of “What is a naval engineer?” Consider that there are no degrees granted in naval engineering (although Stevens Institute has a concentration in naval engineering leading to an engineering degree). Perhaps the most widely

25 http://legacy.sname.org/outreach_seaperch.htm/.

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accepted definition of naval engineering is that provided by the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE):

NAVAL ENGINEERING: A field of study and expertise that includes all arts and sciences as applied in the research, development, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and logistic support of surface and subsurface ships and marine craft, naval maritime auxiliaries, ship related aviation and space systems, combat systems, command control, electronics and ordnance systems, ocean structures, and fixed and mobile shore facilities, which are used by the naval and other military forces and civilian maritime organizations for the defense and well-being of the Nation.

Based on this definition, a naval engineer is an engineer who is engaged in the

application of engineering to the research, development, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and logistic support of surface and subsurface ships and marine craft, naval maritime auxiliaries, ship related aviation and space systems, combat systems, command control, electronics and ordnance systems, ocean structures and fixed and mobile shore facilities, which are used by the naval and other military forces and civilian maritime organizations for the defense and well-being of the Nation.

Naval engineering evolved from the earliest days of the republic when naval ship construction was under the purview of the Bureau of Construction and Repair headed by the Chief Naval Constructor. In 1862, a Bureau of Engineering was established, headed by Chief Engineer Benjamin Isherwood. This was likely the beginning of naval engineering as we know it. In 1887 George W. Melville was appointed engineer-in-chief, and he and his Engineer Corps played a major role in the design of ship’s machinery for all naval ships authorized through 1903. Note that ASNE itself was founded in 1888, likely no small coincidence with the appointment of Melville. Ultimately the term naval engineer quite likely originated as a descriptor of a naval officer who specialized in engineering aspects of naval ships. While naval officers may be naval engineers, the greatest numbers today are undoubtedly civilians.

This definition is quite broad and includes virtually all of the specific accredited engineering disciplines. For example, an electrical engineer engaged in the design of motors to be used on naval ships may be considered a naval engineer by this definition. Although there is no doubt that the future development and education of these engineers is vital, they are also needed to support the engineering associated with a myriad of other enterprises that apply electrical engineering. In my judgment the issue related to expending resources to cultivate naval engineers is a challenge. Like the K–12 problem, other organizations will nurture and develop these engineering programs. It would appear that ONR reached a similar conclusion when they established the ONR science and technology (S&T) areas in their naval engineering portfolio as follows:

• Ship design tools, • Ship structural materials, • Hydromechanics, • Advanced hull design, • Ship propulsion, • Ship automation, and • Systems integration.


To the extent that ONR funding support is awarded based on proposals and solicitations in these areas, naval engineering is already being supported. But there are a small cadre of colleges and universities in the United States that have programs dedicated to teaching courses that also fit directly into these categories and, as will be discussed in subsequent sections, their number has been in decline. Some method of support needs to be developed to assure that these core teaching institutions are sustained in the education of engineers who hit the ground running with appropriate skills related to ship design. It should be noted that there is also a glaring omission. Ship design, propulsion, integration, structures, hydromechanics, and hull design are essentially useless unless there is also shipbuilding. I would submit that many of the problems encountered over the years in controlling the cost of naval shipbuilding are related to a dearth in the fundamental education and development of engineers who can translate design into production. More needs to be done in promoting and developing programs that relate to the construction of ships.

Figure 1 shows a notional value stream for the pipeline for naval engineers. Literally tens of thousands of high school graduates enter our universities and graduate with degrees in engineering. A few thousand of these graduates enter the naval engineering community by gaining employment with companies engaged in naval engineering. Thousands continue to pursue graduate studies in engineering joined by some returning from the workforce, and as they graduate with a master’s degree, a few hundred will likely join the naval engineering community. Once again, hundreds will remain on campus pursuing doctoral level credentials; they may be joined by a limited number of returning engineers from the workforce. As they earn their doctorates, they will join the workforce or remain on at a university to pursue research or teach, or both. Of those going into the industrial workforce, a dozen or so will likely enter naval engineering. Throughout this period some of those in the workforce will opt to leave engineering and pursue other endeavors. Among the research sponsors is ONR, and they are, without a doubt, the primary source of funding for university research in naval engineering.

Leave Naval Engineering

Stay in academia

$

Research Faculty Projects

Research Funding

ONR

Masters PhD

Enter the workforce

K-12 STEM

Return to School

Enter the Naval Enterprise

Enter the workforce

Enter the Naval Enterprise

Naval Engineering Value Stream

Enter the workforce

BS

Enter the Naval EnterpriseTens of thousands

ThousandsHundreds

Thousands

Hundreds

Tens of thousands

Thousands Hundreds

Tens

Faculty to teach Undergraduate Students

FIGURE 1 The naval engineering value stream.

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Demand for Naval Engineers The demand for naval engineering employees is substantial and includes a mix of personnel with a broad range of skills and varying levels of education, training, and experience to conduct the complex tasks of developing ship systems, designing and constructing ships. In the spring of 2009, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) commissioned the National Shipbuilding Research Program to conduct a study to determine the viability of a consortium to address a perceived workforce shortage of naval engineers. While this study was oriented toward the design and construction of naval ships, the demand for naval engineers conducting S&T would simply be additive or already included in these data. The primary finding was that at all levels the demand seems to exceed the supply. 26

Predicting the demand for naval engineering employees is challenging for several reasons. The data associated with an organization’s human resources are private, sensitive, and, in certain cases, highly proprietary to the applicable organization. These data are also volatile and subject to the influence of economic conditions, and management action. Careful and effective management action can result in good definition of the demand and timely actions to supply the needed employees, while poor decisions can have the opposite impact. Hurricanes and macroeconomic events are significant and destabilizing. Regardless of a single company’s success or failure, there is a need for continued and increasing ship design and construction to recapitalize and expand the U.S. Navy’s fleet. To efficiently meet current ship design and construction levels, more competent people are required in the naval shipbuilding enterprise.

The shipbuilding (naval engineering) enterprise can be divided into three groups, the navy, the industry, and the shipyards. For purposes of this discussion

• The navy includes the government employees responsible for determining what ships are required, developing concepts, defining requirements, overseeing acquisition, and providing in-service support;

• The industry includes the commercial design agents, consultants, or large integrators that practice naval engineering in support of the navy or in support of the shipyards; and

• The shipyards are the organizations, both public and private, that construct, modify, or repair ships for the navy.

Exact definitions of these three groups, shown in Figure 2, are unnecessary because the sensitivities and proprietary nature of the data prevent obtaining accurate predictions of the demand for these groups; however, the order of magnitude of the demand can be estimated. There are two factors that drive demand for naval engineers: attrition and growth. To understand demand, we need to estimate attrition and growth for the three groups that make up the enterprise. The employee that leaves the industry to take employment at a shipyard has not left the enterprise, although that employee’s supervisor will likely have to find a replacement for the individual. In addition to the proprietary nature of the data, business entities (government and commercial alike) do not always track their departing employees with a level of detail that would support accurate understanding of where the employees went. Those companies that track such information were unwilling to share it. As a result, it was necessary to use engineering judgment

26 Shipbuilding Engineering Education Consortium (SEEC), Viability and Operational Concepts, Report prepared by the National Shipbuilding Research Program, June 16, 2009.


FIGURE 3 Employee demand within the enterprise.

Navy

ShipyardsIndustry

New Employees

New Employees

New Employees

EmployeesLeaving the Enterprise



Navy

ShipyardsIndustry

New Employees

New Employees

New Employees




regarding how many employees leave the enterprise and how many new employees must be recruited.

Figure 3 depicts the dynamic of employees joining and leaving the Enterprise, and moving within it. For the Enterprise at large only the net requirement is of concern. The employees that retire, leave the industry for employment elsewhere, or die must be replaced by new employees. Between the groups there may be movement of employees in either direction, and the net result could be an increase of either group or no net change (even though people would changes roles.) If the total workforce requirement grows, the enterprise must also add additional employees to provide for growth. Figure 4 provides another way of looking at this as a function of time and implies required growth over time. When government organizations

FIGURE 2 Representative employer groups within the enterprise.

The Naval Engineering Enterprise

Navy:NAVSEA

HQ/ PEOWarfare Centers SupShipsOther Field Activities

ONRMSC

USCG

Industry:Design AgentsIntegratorsTechnical Specialists Regulatory BodiesOffshoreOperators

(large, small, inland)

Shipyards:Naval ShipyardsRMCsIMFsCommercial Shipyards

(Shipbuilding, Repair,& Inland)

The Naval Engineering Enterprise

Navy:NAVSEA

HQ/ PEOWarfare Centers SupShipsOther Field Activities

ONRMSC

USCG

Industry:Design AgentsIntegratorsTechnical Specialists Regulatory BodiesOffshoreOperators

(large, small, inland)

Shipyards:Naval ShipyardsRMCsIMFsCommercial Shipyards

(Shipbuilding, Repair,& Inland)

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FIGURE 4 Workforce growth through time.

Num

bers

of

Pe

ople

Time

Overall Workforce Growth with Exchanges between Groups

Num

bers

of

Pe

ople

TimeN

umbe

rs o

f P

eop

leTime

Overall Workforce Growth with Exchanges between Groups

increase staff levels by hiring people from private shipyards or from design agents, the total population of the enterprise does not change, although the navy workforce may increase. It is expected that the demand for new ship designs requires a net increase in workforce within the naval shipbuilding enterprise.

In order to estimate this demand the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) working group evaluated the three groups, estimated the number of employees leaving each group each year, estimated the required annual net growth, and made some assumptions for movement between groups, and then summed these elements to determine the number of new employees required per year. Attrition Attrition from the workforce results from a combination of factors including voluntary termination, involuntary terminations, and retirement. Turnover in this context is generally a ratio of the departures to the average workforce level for a given year. Turnover can be cited for any subset of the attrition data. As a point of reference, the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), publishes employee voluntary turnover rates for the total United States that range from 22 to 23 percent.27 The manufacturing and manufacturing of durable goods industries are better than that average, but still in the 15–16 percent range. The government and federal sectors exhibited better performance with voluntary turnover rates in the 8–9 percent range. The data from BLS is from 2006. However, voluntary turnover is only part of the equation. BLS data28 indicates consistent total separation rates as high as 38 to 41 percent during the period of time between 2001 and 2004; during this period, the Federal Sector experienced total separation rates of approximately 15%. Even data for the Fortune 500 show relatively high turnover and total separation rates.

27 NOBSCOT Corporation. 2009. Available at http://www.nobscot.com/about/turnover_statistics.cfm. 28 Stevens, B., and K. Riley. Developing Annual Estimates of Hires and Separations. 2005.


Growth For the purposes of defining the demand for naval engineering employees, growth is the net increase in an organization’s number of employees. Shipyard growth will match the demands of the contracts to build, modify, or repair ships. The navy group will grow to match the planned workload. The industry growth is more difficult to predict because it is governed not only by the demand for engineering support but also by the competitive nature of private industry. Growth in navy organizations will be driven by budgets and policy. Growth in the shipyard group will be driven by the Defense Budget and Shipbuilding Plan. Growth in the industry that supports the navy will be a function of navy and shipyard work levels and their respective needs. Navy Workforce Demand The navy is the largest employer within the enterprise. Table 1 is a listing of functions that comprise naval engineering and includes all aspects of design and hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E) engineering. Characterizing the demand signal is daunting since naval engineering covers the ship lifecycle from concept to disposal. It is also daunting because different parts of the enterprise have different requirements, not just for entry-level engineers but also for PhD research scientists with advanced skills in specific technologies and issues.

The navy workforce is heavily influenced by the fleet, both present and future. The navy must design the future fleet and may even experience peaks in workload for design during times when shipbuilding is slow. Keeping the current fleet at its peak also results in workload demands for in-service engineering.

Conservatively, one can assume that growth of the navy workforce will be minimal. Attrition is then the major concern. From data cited previously, attrition in the federal workforce is likely to be at 9%. However, the current navy workforce is in a unique situation in which a large percentage of the aging workforce is eligible to retire. Figure 5 depicts the statistics associated with NAVSEA retirement eligibility. The data is for the entire command, including mission funded personnel, warfare centers, naval shipyards, supervisor of shipbuilding (SUPSHIPS), and regional maintenance center (RMC) personnel. The data is for occupational series that represent the core engineering talent within NAVSEA.

Figure 6 shows the relative proportion of retirement eligible employees compared with the current population, which demonstrates that the problem is generally uniform throughout the organization and not specific to one occupational series. Even so, it is possible to find hot spots where unique skills are at risk of having large percentages or nearly all of the talent eligible to retire.

Figure 7 shows some of these concerns and demonstrates that of nine PhD naval architects (in series 0871); seven are eligible to retire by 2014. For an organization responsible for the design of ships, this is a particularly serious concern. Note that Figure 7 shows the distribution of education levels possessed by the current NAVSEA workforce. NAVSEA, and the enterprise in general, demands a mixture of bachelor, master’s, and doctorate degree employees. In addition, NAVSEA needs engineers that have qualifications in disciplines other than classic naval architecture and marine engineering. The naval engineering workforce of the future will need a broad range of engineers capable of addressing the functions shown in Table 1.

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From the above we can see that approximately 30% of the navy’s engineering workforce will be eligible to retire by 2014. This corresponds to a demand for over 6,400 engineers, scientists, and mathematicians that must graduate with the appropriate education and receive the necessary training to assume their assigned responsibilities by 2014. This requires immediate action to avoid falling further behind since many degree programs require five years to complete.

A recent book by Kavetsky29 provides independent support for the findings in the NSRP study. Kavetsky et al. present a snapshot of the impending critical loss of capabilities at the navy laboratories due to the expected departure of S&T talent through retirement. This is coupled with the fact that (at the time the book was written) 9% of all funded science and engineers (S&E) positions were unfilled due to the lack of qualified candidates.30 They then present a Roadmap to

TABLE 1 Naval Engineering Functions

29 Kavetsky, R., M. L. Marshall, and D. K. Anand. From Science to Seapower - A Roadmap for S & T Revitalization. Center for Energetic Concepts Development Series, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 2006. 30 “Industry, DOD Strategize to Avert Workforce Crisis,” InsideDefense.com, Defense Alert, December 23, 2004.

Naval Engineering Functions

Ship and Submarine Design and Integration Ship and Submarine Acquisition Engineering Ship and Submarine System Concepts, Technologies and Processes Surface and Undersea Vehicle Machinery Systems Integration Small Water Craft and Vehicles Unmanned Vehicles Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Hull Forms and Fluid Dynamics Propulsors Surface and Undersea Vehicle Mechanical Power & Propulsion Systems Surface and Undersea Vehicle Electrical Power & Propulsion Systems Surface and Undersea Vehicle Auxiliary Machinery Systems Surface and Undersea Vehicle Hull, Deck, and Habitability Machinery Systems Surface & Undersea Vehicle Machinery Automation, Controls, Sensors and Networks Surface and Undersea Vehicle Materials Surface and Undersea Vehicle Structures Surface and Undersea Vehicle Alternative Energy and Power Sources Liquid Waste Management, Science and Systems Solid Waste, Hazardous Material, and Radiation Technology Mgt., Science and Systems Advanced Logistics Concepts and HM&E Life Cycle Logistics Support Surface, Undersea and Vehicle Vulnerability Reduction and Protection Ship Recoverability and Damage Control Surface and Undersea Vehicle Underwater Signatures, Silencing, and Susceptibility Surface and Undersea Vehicle Non-Acoustic Topside Signatures, Silencing, and Susceptibility HM&E for Undersea Vehicle Sail Systems and Deployed Systems


14

NAVSEA Demand Data

STEM

Naval Engineering

Naval Architecture

Naval Industry Demand for Naval Engineers: Estimated 3X NAVSEA’s

Estimated Naval Engineer Hiring Plan Profile~400/Yr

ON BOARD 5/09 STEMNaval

Engineers

Naval Architects

(0871 Series)

Mission Funded 1455 821 131WFC 13477 1736 270NSY, IMF, RMC, SupShips 7818 3198 268TOTAL 22750 5755 669

RETIREMENT ELIGIBLE 2014

STEMNaval

Engineers

Naval Architects

(0871 Series)

Mission Funded 534 315 51WFC 3625 419 107NSY, IMF, RMC, SupShips 2665 895 80TOTAL 6824 1629 238Percent Eligible 2014 0.30 0.29 0.39ANNUAL = TOTAL / 5? 1365 326 48

Command STEM data, filled billets Mar 09, NE Analysis

FIGURE 5 Workforce retirement eligibility.

FIGURE 6 NAVSEA workforce distribution of eligible retirees.

34%

60%

6%

NSY - SUPSHIP - RMCs

WARFARE CENTERs

MISSION FUNDED

2537

3384

506

NSY - SUPSHIP - RMCs

WARFARE CENTERs

MISSION FUNDED

Kiss 15

FIGURE 7 Critical NAVSEA workforce retirement concerns.

Action focused on the in-house S&T community (primarily Navy Labs). It is stated that the NLCCG community population was 21,000. Of these 4,000 work on S&T programs including 1,900 with PhDs. The authors conclude that, considering attrition and turnover, 500 new S&Es are needed every year to “build and maintain an in-house workforce.” In my view this is but a small subset of the naval engineering demand. It is, however, the area that has the greatest need for PhDs. They recommend creating a hiring pipeline that will provide 200 PhDs per year just for the research and development (R&D) centers.

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BS 474 148 0.31MS 144 66 0.46

PhD 35 21 0.60SUM 653 235 0.36

NAVAL ARCHITECTURE SERIES (0871)DOCTORATE DEGREE PROGRAM TotalAerospace, Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering 1Civil Engineering 1Civil Engineering/Civil Technician 1Engineering 1Engineering Mechanics 3Engineering Science 2Material Engineering 1Mechanical Engineering 5Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering 9Ocean Engineering 8Philosophy 1Structural Engineering 2

35

7 are Retirement

Eligible TODAY

(77%)

OPM Naval Architecture Series (0871), Education Levels, “As Hired”, On-board 5/09


Private Shipyard Workforce Demand In the spring of 2009 a survey of NSRP member shipyards was conducted to characterize their demand for engineering talent. It is important to note that the shipyard demand data clearly indicate that a range of disciplines must be addressed by the incoming workforce. Similarly, there is a distribution of degree requirements. Not all employees need to hold PhDs. The distribution for shipyard workforce is approximately 86.9% bachelor degree, 12.6% master’s degree, and 0.5% doctorate degree.

This distribution of requirements suits the suppliers of engineers because we have research schools that offer advanced degrees, schools that only support bachelor degree–level education, and schools that provide other degrees and can feed candidates into other schools or roles. Each segment of the workforce has its own mix of educational credentials and this may change over time to suit new requirements.

The survey of the NSRP shipyards identified several disciplines that have proven difficult to hire. The data varies geographically and with the type of work performed at specific shipyards, but there is consistent data indicating naval architects and electrical engineers are difficult for shipyards to hire. Industry Workforce Demand There are independent naval engineering contractor organizations that range from independent consultant groups comprised of a small number of experts to very large publicly held corporations that employ hundreds of trained engineers and specialists around the world. Among these contractor organizations are design agents that provide highly technical ship design expertise to the naval ship design and shipbuilding community. Design agents provide independent engineering support to complete major ship design projects, provide individuals to support integrated design teams comprised of participants from many organizations, provide specialty expertise (e.g., propeller design or CFD analysis support), and, particularly in support of shipbuilders, provide drawing and product model development support. The relationship between design agent and client is often very strong and provides means for workload leveling. Shipbuilder Design Agents Design agents supporting shipbuilders may provide large numbers of designers when necessary to meet schedule requirements, relieving the shipbuilder of keeping excess designer talent when the high level of design work is not present. Shipbuilders may also rely on specific design agents to provide expertise with a particular type of ship if the shipbuilder does not have that capability. Over the years the navy’s acquisition policies have changed and those changes have had an impact on the size of shipbuilders’ in-house design staff levels. Design agents provide a way to rapidly respond to changing workload demands. The uncertainty does not go away, but is carried by the design agents who must find multiple sources of workload and apply intense management to balance the demand for their staff with the available supply. For the purposes of this demand estimate, the NSRP study relied on the Shipyard Workforce estimate and assumed that the shipbuilder design agents provide talent to address those needs. NAVSEA Design Agents NAVSEA employs hundreds of contractors via the SeaPort contract. Table 2 lists the major recipients of NAVSEA tasking under the SeaPort contract (derived from

Kiss 17

TABLE 2 Contractors Providing Services to NAVSEA Under Seaport Contract

NAVSEA BUYER CONTRACTOR PROVIDING SERVICES UNDER

SEAPORT 04RE Advanced Internet Marketing Inc. The GBS Group 04RE Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International SEA027, PEO IWS3C, PEO SUB (PMS 425), PMS 502, SEA 05D Alion - IPS Corporation SEA 10 Alpha Solutions Corporation SEA 102 AOC APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION PMS 435 AT&T Government Solutions, Inc PEO IWS 3.0 BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc. PEO IWS 6.0 Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc SEA10, PMS317, SEA04, SEA04RM, PEO LMW CACI Technologies, Inc. CIO, PMS 378, SEA 001, SEA 05D Computer Sciences Corporation 00D Cynergy Group of Baltimore, Inc. SEA 04XQ Defense Holdings, Inc. SEA 06 DELTA Resources, Inc. SEA 04X2, PMS 450 EG&G Technical Services, Inc. SEA00I Enterprise Resource Performance SEA 00I Falconwood PD452 General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc. SEA 04XQ GeoLogics Corporation 00P Government Contracts Consultants PD452, PEO SHIPS, SEA 06, PEO IWS 2, SEA 05D Gryphon Technologies, LC 00L Hana Group, Inc SEA 05P4 Hughes Associates 04RE, SEA 05P4 ICI, LLC PMS 450 Jardon and Howard Technologies PMS 325 L-3 Services, Inc. SEA 01P Life Cycle Engineering, Inc. PMS 404, PMS 4012, PEO IWS 5 Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems, Inc LMW (PMS480), PMS 480L, SEA 04L4 Logistics Support Incorporated SEA 05P4 MPR Associates PMS 450 MTC Technologies PMS 317, PMS 404, NAVSEA 00, PMS 326, PEO SHIPS Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corp. NSSG, SEA 05L5 Orbis Inc. ASN (RDA CHSENG), MARCORSYSCOM, ISW 30, PD452 Paradigm Technologies, Inc. SEA 04XI, SEA 04XQ Perot Systems Government Services, Inc. IWS1 Raytheon Technical Services Company, LLC 00C, SEA 10 RGS Associates SEA 00C ROH


cdr valle Sabre Systems, Inc. SEA 01C SAM INC 04RE Science and Engineering Technologies, Inc. SEA 05M4, PMS 312, SEA 001 Science Applications International Corporation SEA 01 STG, INC PEO IWS 6.0, PMS 415 Tech-Marine SEA 05P4, SEA 04X, SEA 103 & SEA 107, PEO SHIPS The Columbia Group, Incorporated PD 452, SEA 00Z Tri Star Engineering, Inc PMS403, PEO LMW, PEO IWS, SEA 001, CIO TWD & Associates, Inc ASN RDA CHENG VisiTech Ltd SEA OOD Vox Optima, LLC UDWS PMS415 Zimmerman Associates

raw award data posted on the SeaPort website as of May 2009). The companies highlighted in bold italic text are those that are generally considered design agents. (This is a subjective judgment and there may be others that could be included in this designation, but it was decided that keeping the list short is conservative and will avoid over predicting the demand signal.) There are additional design agents that are not included in the list because they fulfill subcontractor roles (e.g., Gibbs & Cox.) The NAVSEA design agents compete for the privilege of supporting NAVSEA and face the same workload balancing pressures that impact the shipbuilder design agents. In many cases (e.g., CDI) design agents serve both the NAVSEA organization and the shipbuilder community, often with an organizational structure that separates the parts of the design agent serving each community. All of the navy laboratories and activities have design agents supporting their part of the naval shipbuilding enterprise. The Seaport Contract is used broadly by more organizations than NAVSEA, and there are additional contracts under which design agent support is provided.

The nature of design agent support is volatile and unpredictable. Successful design agents achieve success by keeping many balls in the air and balancing workload dips in one area with workload peaks in other areas. For the purpose of predicting demand signal for new engineers, community wide, it is most useful to consider the large organizations that have the greatest need for personnel. The smaller organizations provide critically important expertise, but some specialty companies (e.g., Herbert Engineering Company) are content to remain the same size or grow at a modest pace and provide unique expertise; these companies do demand new engineers, but it is the large design agents that will dominate the statistical characterization of the demand signal. It is important to note that even if the small companies have reduced impact on demand statistics, they still require new engineers, still benefit from educational resources that support life-long learning, and still provide mentors and experts to support educational objectives. To characterize the quantity of engineers required on an annual basis, the NSRP study used a Pareto analysis, identified the largest companies, and characterized their needs as a first order approximation to the overall design agent demand.

The NSRP study hypothesized that by examining a design agent that is a publicly held corporation some assumptions about the company’s demand signal can be made even without direct response from that company. A publicly held corporation will probably be growth oriented for many reasons. Growth provides opportunities for staff career advancement, increases revenue

Kiss 19

and profit that pleases shareholders, and provides a work environment that is dynamic and rewarding in other ways. Growth targets vary depending on circumstances and managers get paid for making difficult decisions regarding growth expectations. For purposes of discussion, it was assumed that a large company with 500 people may want to grow 10% per year. For a company that is selling the services of human beings, rather than producing material goods, that means that the organization will need to add 50 people, in round numbers. In reality, to achieve a 10% revenue growth by the end of the year requires that straight-line growth of numbers of employees is much higher than 10%, because the new employees do not all start in the first month of the year. That means that a 10% growth (in numbers of employees) assumption is quite conservative for most companies trying to achieve any substantial revenue growth. The other challenge is that attrition is a reality of the workplace. Employees seek greener pastures, including pastures in other engineering fields. Employees experience circumstances that remove them from the workplace. Employees retire. It is not uncommon for even healthy organizations perceived to have strong employee satisfaction and loyalty to experience 15% attrition, particularly if there are major outside influences that stimulate such attrition. This was confirmed through discussions with major design agents supporting NAVSEA for which the 15% assumption is below what they are experiencing. It is conservative to estimate that the companies with large numbers of naval engineering workers will need to hire a net increase of 25% of their staff level each year. Even if they do not grow, the level of hiring will be 15%.

In the ‘90s it was popular for young engineers to return to school to obtain their MBA degrees and make their fortunes in the financial marketplace. The result is felt today, with a lack of talent in the 10–15 year experience bracket. These phenomena occur in cycles and the financial world is not as attractive as it was ten years ago. However, the changing tides of the offshore industry have a similar impact on the naval engineering community. When times are good in the Gulf region, oil industry salaries are high and engineers leave the naval engineering community to take jobs in the oil industry. There are disciplines for which hiring is particularly difficult for design agents, either for the reasons above or simply because there are inadequate numbers of candidates in general. Subjective reports indicate that there are inadequate numbers of naval architects at all levels, electrical engineers at all levels, and hydrodynamicists with advanced degrees, who are U.S. citizens capable and interested in supporting naval ship design.

Perhaps the single biggest determinant that drives design agent growth is the 30-Year Naval Shipbuilding Plan and the acquisition strategies followed in its implementation. By examining the plan for future ship designs, and reviewing the engineering staff required for past designs, a model can be generated for the overall workforce levels required. Competition, NAVSEA policy, and private enterprise will combine to distribute the required talent among the various organizations in the community (both public and private) but the total number will rise or fall to suit the plan.

Since dramatically large changes in policy and budget are unlikely in view of the criticality of the navy mission, the status quo will not change much and our current situation provides a reasonable metric for planning purposes. If the number of employees providing design agent support to the navy community is estimated, one can infer a demand of between 15–25 percent each year. Monitoring the metrics of total design agent workforce and attrition will provide indications of how the demand signal will change.

In summary, the NSRP study assumed a design agent population supporting NAVSEA of 4,000 employees, and thence projected a demand for 1,000 employees each year.


Summary of Demand Signal for Naval Engineers The demand for naval engineers is significant. The NSRP study estimates were conservative and the demand in a particular year may be substantially higher. Philosophically, the supply should exceed the demand by a large margin to permit competitive pressures to apply, allowing employers to select the best candidates from the field and avoiding situations where labor rates are driven higher as a result of the rarity of qualified candidates.

Table 3 summarizes the predicted demand for NAVSEA. This is based on recent detailed data on the skill levels of engineers within the organization. The demand was estimated by distributing the replacement of retirement eligible engineers over a period of five years. Since relatively large parts of the enterprise were not included in the data gathered for that study (e.g., the vendor base), an engineering estimate of the demand was about 2,000 naval engineers per year.

Table 4 provides an estimate of shipyard and industry demand. The data supporting these estimates are not well defined or as consistent as the data for NAVSEA, but the order of magnitude is sufficient to support the argument that there is substantial demand, particularly when compared with the supply (discussed in the following section). Note that the values included in Table 4 are conservatively low and presented at a high level, rather than broken down by discipline.

TABLE 3 Summary of Predicted NAVSEA Demand for Engineers

NAVSEA Enterprise Group Current Population

(approximate) Annual Total Demand

(estimated)

Engineers other than naval engineers or other than 0800 series

16,995 1,039

Navy (naval engineers only ) 5,755 326

Navy (Total: naval engineers, scientists, mathematicians)

22,400 1,300–2,240

Notes regarding estimated Navy demand is based on linear replacement of retirement eligible employees over five year period.

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TABLE 4 Summary of Predicted Industry Demand for Engineers

Non-NAVSEA Enterprise Groups Current

Population (approximate)

Annual Total Demand

(estimated)

Shipyard 6,000 400–500

Industry 4,000 600–1,000

Total 10,400 1,000 to 1,500

Notes regarding estimated Demand: 1. Shipyard high-end demand is based on survey input from NSRP

shipyards. 2. Shipyard low-end demand is a 33% reduction of the high-end value. 3. Industry low-end demand is based on 15% turnover. 4. Industry high-end demand is based on 15% turnover plus 10% growth.

Supply of Naval Engineers There are more than 340 colleges and universities offering engineering across the United States. Annual engineering enrollment reached 106,000 in 2007 after a steady decline from 2002–2005. During the 2006–2007 academic year, these colleges conferred approximately 73,000 bachelor’s degrees, 36,000 master’s degrees, and 9,000 doctoral degrees in engineering. As noted earlier The Gathering Storm reported that while the United States is still the undisputed leader in S&T, our competitive advantages are shrinking. The percentage of U.S. engineering degrees awarded to foreign nationals in 2006 was approximately 7% for bachelor’s degrees, 39% for master’s degrees, and more than 61% for doctoral degrees. It is estimated that the number of master’s and doctoral degrees will increase in the near term by approximately 10% as a result of recent enrollment growth, and then stabilize over the long term. 31

Naval engineering is clearly a multidisciplinary profession, and in most of its disciplines the shipbuilding enterprise attracts only a very small fraction of the available pool of graduate engineers from those disciplines. An important issue limiting the supply of graduates from the various disciplines to the US shipbuilding enterprise is the competition with other enterprises.

The overall naval engineering supply problem is directly linked to the broader issue that now exists—the current shortage of qualified STEM graduates. Whether hiring graduates with specialized marine related degrees or hiring mechanical or electrical engineers and then providing additional specialized in house training, the STEM shortage affects every discipline that the shipbuilding enterprise requires to operate successfully.

One discipline that is almost unique to the shipbuilding enterprise is naval architecture and marine engineering (NA&ME). The supply data developed in the NSRP study focused on NA&ME because it is unique to the shipbuilding enterprise with less utilization from other enterprises. NA&ME depends very heavily on the naval shipbuilding enterprise for employment, 31 Gibbons, M. T. Engineering by the Numbers. http://www.asee.org.


advocacy and support; there clearly is a market for commercial naval architecture and yacht design, but the number of employees in the naval shipbuilding enterprise far exceeds the number practicing commercial naval architecture. It is recognized that the oil industry has a large and growing demand for NA&ME talent and that the oil industry competes for the same precious resources. The education of naval architects and marine engineers (and ocean engineers) in the United States is provided by a small, but critical component of the U.S. defense educational base. The size of the U.S. shipbuilding enterprise requires that a significant number of the available graduates enter into it, and to date that has been the case. However, there is little margin to support a decrease in this talent pool, so these educational institutions remain a fragile national resource.

Over the past 20 years there has been a contraction in the number of institutions offering NA&ME education, and significant curriculum re-organization due to shrinking demand and the institutions reaction to that change. During this time, Cal Berkeley and MIT eliminated their long-standing NA&ME undergraduate programs. Table 5 lists the primary NA&ME schools with accreditation from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) in NA&ME or similar. Detailed data are not available for all these schools.

TABLE 5 Primary NA&ME Schools with ABET Accreditation

School NA&ME Curricula

Marine Eng or Naval

Engineering Curricula

Ocean

Engineering ABET

University of Michigan U,G NA&ME Virginia Tech U,G OE Webb Institute U NA&ME University of New Orleans

U,G

NA&ME USCGA U NA&ME USNA U U NA&ME and OE FIT U,G OE USMMA U U,G NA&ME MIT U,G OE SUNY Maritime College U NA&ME Maine Maritime Academy

U U

NA&ME Stevens U,G Misc, not NA&ME or OEFlorida Atlantic University

U,G

OE Univ. of Hawaii G OE Univ. of Rhode Island U,G OE

Kiss 23

Due to the fact that the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) does not specifically track NA&ME programs, and that ABET does not collect statistical data on these programs, it has been extremely difficult to gain insight into what is happening in these educational areas (see Figure 8). A number of other issues complicate this data gathering, including department, program and degree names that can include multiple disciplines or have a range of meanings. For example, Virginia Tech has a Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in ocean engineering (OE). Statistics are usually provided for the entire department that are typically only about one-sixth OE students, and their OE curriculum is really a NA&ME curriculum. So raw Virginia Tech data appear as OE when it is actually 5/6 aerospace and 1/6 NA&ME. The curricula for most other schools with OE programs or degrees teach offshore, small submersible, or oceanography-related engineering. The NSRP study attempted to correct, sort out, and clarify some of these inconsistencies and provide reasonable comparisons.

Data for the six accredited schools with NA&ME BS curricula and enrollments are shown in Figures 8 and 9. Enrollments (Figure 9) have shown a small increase over the past decade with some annual variation in graduation without a trend (Figure 10). Graduates from the service academies [United State Naval Academy (USNA) and Unites States Coast Guard (USCGA)] as well as the maritime academies do not immediately enter the civilian workforce and data are not available for how many ultimately do.

Enrollments and graduate data for master’s of science (MS) degrees in NA&ME are shown in Figure 11 and Figure 12. Again, over the decade there is a small positive trend in enrollment. The MIT 2N Naval Construction and Engineering Program is primarily for U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard officers with an engineering degree offered in a 3-year program, often including a second master’s degree in another engineering discipline. The Virginia Tech MS graduates include distance-learning students often already working in naval engineering who typically take 3–5 years to complete the degree. The University of Michigan produces almost half of the NA&ME MS graduates.

Figures 13 and 14 data for NA&ME PhDs show that the University of Michigan typically graduates four or five PhDs each year and Virginia Tech averages one per year.

The number of tenured NA&ME faculty shown in Figure 15 (Webb Institute faculty are not tenured, so these figures represent a count of engineering faculty at Webb) is very stable over time with a slight increase trend. Schools use and supplement their faculties in various ways, some taking advantage of related disciplines in the same department such as mechanical engineering or aerospace engineering, some teaching large multi-disciplinary student bodies, some with more of an operational emphasis, and some teaching smaller student bodies with a stronger NA&ME focus.

The four NA&ME schools doing significant research are University of Michigan, University of New Orleans, Virginia Tech, and MIT. MIT NA&ME research funding data were not available (Figures 16 and 17).


FIGURE 8 ASEE summary histogram of engineering bachelor degrees awarded in 2007.

FIGURE 9 Naval architecture bachelor of science enrolled.

Naval Architecture BS Enrolled

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007

Year

Stu

den

ts

Webb Institue

Virginia Tech

U.S. Naval Academy

U.S. Coast Guard Academy

University of New Orleans

University of Michigan

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FIGURE 11 Naval architecture master’s of science in naval engineering enrolled.

Naval Architecture MS/NavalEng Enrolled

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007

Year

Stu

den

ts MIT 2N Program

Virginia Tech



FIGURE 10 Naval architecture bachelor of science graduated.

Naval Architecture BS Graduated

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007

Year

Stu

den

ts

Webb Institue

Virginia Tech

U.S. Naval Academy

U.S. Coast Guard Academy




FIGURE 12 Naval architecture master’s of science in naval engineering graduated.

Naval Architecture MS/NavalEng Graduated

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007

Year

Stu

den

ts

MIT 2N Program

Virginia TechUniversity of New Orleans


FIGURE 13 Naval architecture doctorate degree enrolled.

Naval Architecture PhD Enrolled

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007

Year

Stu

den

ts MIT 2N Program

Virginia Tech



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FIGURE 15 Naval architecture or marine engineering, or both, tenured regular faculty.

Naval Architecture and/or Marine Engineering Tenured Regular Faculty

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007

Year

Fac

ulty

USMMA

Webb Institue

Virginia Tech

U.S. Naval Academy

U.S. Coast GuardAcademyUniversity of New Orleans


FIGURE 14 Naval architecture doctorate degree graduated.

Naval Architecture PhD Graduated

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2006 2007

Year

Stu

den

t MIT 2N Program

Virginia Tech




At least three higher education business models are applicable to the NA&ME schools considered in the NSRP study. The USNA, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), and USCGA are fully funded public schools with the primary function of graduating officers for military service. MIT is a private institution that depends significantly on research funding and tuition to operate. Webb provides full tuition scholarship to all students attending and depends

FIGURE 17 Naval architecture research funding/faculty.

Naval Architecture Research Funding / Faculty

$0

$100,000

$200,000

$300,000

$400,000

$500,000

$600,000

University of Michigan University of NewOrleans

Virginia Tech

2006

2007

FIGURE 16 Naval architecture research funding.

Naval Architecture Research Funding

$0

$1,000,000

$2,000,000

$3,000,000

$4,000,000

$5,000,000

$6,000,000

University of Michigan University of NewOrleans

Virginia Tech

2006

2007

Kiss 29

largely on endowment and charitable contributions (over 70% of its alumni support the college). Virginia Tech and the University of Michigan are state schools, but their home states approach the cost of higher education differently with more state funding in Virginia and the need for more research and higher tuition at Michigan.

A permanent increase in the number of students at Webb would require an effective increase in endowment or a change in their business model. Increases at the public schools would require increases in public funding, which may be limited by law.

MIT, the University of Michigan, and Virginia Tech all recognize consistent research funding and academically excellent research as high priorities for faculty hiring, tenure, promotion, and facility investment. Research funding, when combined with paid tuition and facilities funding, provide the best synergistic approach for expanding the number of faculty in a research institution thereby enabling an increase in the number of graduates at all levels, particularly MS and PhD students.

An alternative to increases in tenure-track faculty (and thereby the ability to support more students) is to add purely teaching or adjunct faculty, but universities generally limit the number of adjunct faculty to avoid losing their technology edge and perceived world class research and teaching faculty. Expanding facilities and administrative support for potentially temporary faculty is also a concern. The use of visiting professors or non-tenured professors of practice is another potential alternative to increasing student numbers, but increases in the number of students must be supported by faculty increases in other areas and typically these would have to be tenure-track faculty. Visiting professors or non-tenure professors of practice could be used to reach out to students in other disciplines through labs, projects, research and naval engineering minors or areas of concentration. These students would already be supported by tenure-track faculty and infrastructure, but could effectively be recruited into the naval engineering enterprise by capturing their imagination and interest.

The bottom line is that this group of colleges supplemented by the other ABET accredited colleges and universities shown in Table 5 supplies no more than 400 engineering graduates per year, and they are sought by many other parts of the industry outside of the naval shipbuilding enterprise. UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM STATUS AND OUTLOOK Where Do Naval Engineers Come From? As mentioned earlier in this paper, naval engineers can and do come from a wide variety of engineering and maritime oriented colleges and universities. If one uses the broadest definition as provided by ASNE this is absolutely the case, and they would potentially come from all of the over 300 colleges and universities with engineering programs. However, when one begins to focus on naval engineering as described in the ONR National Naval Responsibility–Naval Engineering (NNR-NE) portfolio of research areas, and with a special focus on S&T, the field begins to narrow. While hydromechanics and materials engineers may continue to be found at a good number of universities, there are potential concentrations of students with a bias toward naval engineering by virtue of the programs offered at specific colleges and universities.

In seeking to identify those colleges and universities which focus on engineering disciplines that are closely linked to naval engineering, a first screen of all U.S. colleges and


universities with engineering curricula may be made through ABET. ABET is the nationally recognized accrediting authority for engineering. They accredit postsecondary degree-granting programs housed within regionally accredited institutions. ABET accreditation is assurance that a college or university program meets the quality standards established by the profession for which it prepares its students.

ABET accredits only 16 institutions with programs in naval architecture, marine engineering, and ocean engineering. Of these, six are shown to have only OE programs, and OE programs differ widely when one examines their courses. For example, MIT and Virginia Tech have programs that are, in this author’s opinion, related closely to traditional naval architecture programs and closely relate to the areas ONR calls naval engineering S&T. While the University of Hawaii and the University of Rhode Island (URI) have OE programs the author believes they have a different thrust than naval engineering. For example, the URI web page includes the following statement about their program:

“We conduct research and teach in the areas of ocean robotics, underwater acoustics, tsunamis, coastal circulation, marine geomechanics, ocean structures, and offshore energy generation.”

There are other circumstances to be considered though. URI’s geographic proximity to

the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) in Newport, Rhode Island, provides a natural linkage. So while many URI graduates may go into non-naval engineering positions, a credible number will join NUWC and thereby join the naval engineering community.

While I would argue that ABET-accredited programs would be the most promising sources of graduates for entering naval engineering and working in S&T areas, there is an equally important and larger area of demand for naval engineers. This area includes the design and engineering of naval ships. Certainly the product of the 16 accredited programs may choose to join the design and engineering sector of naval engineering, but there is also another large source of engineers from non-accredited programs. These primarily include the state maritime academies around the country. To determine where these colleges might be, the location of student sections in the SNAME was reviewed. This list include 27 student sections, but some were redundant, for example, MIT had two sections listed, one for the naval officers in their course IIN, and another for the rest of the students. The University of New Orleans also has two sections listed. The Northrop Grumman Apprentice School at Newport News was also listed, and this would not be considered an immediate source of naval engineers, but could provide feedstock for personnel to attend accredited schools in the future. Three sections were Canadian, and due to citizenship requirements for personnel working in the mainstream of naval engineering, these will not be considered further in this paper. Fifteen of the remaining colleges were included in the ABET listing, only URI was not included in the SNAME student section roster. The net result was that six additional schools may be added to the list:

• University of California, Berkeley; • University of Washington; • Massachusetts Maritime College; • University of Florida; • California Maritime College; and • Texas A&M–Galveston.

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ASNE also sponsors sections at colleges and universities. Eliminating the redundancy with SNAME yielded two other schools:

• Villanova University, and • Old Dominion University (ODU).

Why Villanova and ODU? While this author cannot be certain, Villanova is located in

reasonably close proximity to a large naval engineering site, the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division-Ship Systems Engineering Station in (NSWCCD-SSES) Philadelphia. NSWCCD-SSES is responsible for the machinery systems core equity of the Ship and Ship Systems Product Area for the United States Navy. As such, NSWCCD-SSES serves as a central point for academia and industry to join forces with navy technical experts to develop solutions to needs in naval machinery. Consistent with its core equity responsibility, NSWCCD-SSES fulfills key functions including research, design, development, shipboard and land-based test and evaluation, acquisition support, in-service engineering, fleet engineering, integrated logistics support and concepts, and overall lifecycle engineering. While other engineering colleges in the Philadelphia area are also likely to be providing naval engineers to this center, only Villanova has a student section in one of the primary professional societies supporting this field.

As for ODU, they too are located in close proximity to the largest shipyard in the country Northrop Grumman–Newport News, as well as many other naval installations and shipyards in the tidewater area of Virginia. Clearly geography plays a key role in the orientation of engineering programs that aren’t specifically identified with the title of naval architecture, ocean engineering or marine engineering.

The Naval Postgraduate School also grants a degree in systems engineering that contains a number of courses directly related to naval engineering and will also be included in this review. It was also learned that the University of Texas received ONR funding in the NNR-NE portfolio during the workshop sponsored by this committee in January 2010. So for the sake of completeness, the University of Texas was examined. It was found that only one faculty member in the School of Engineering had the word ocean in his resume. This happened to be the one who had received funding. There was no indication that anything significant related to naval engineering that was a core part of their program. Therefore, in the author’s judgment this university is really no better aligned to naval engineering than dozens of other large high-quality universities around the nation. It was decided not to include them in the detailed discussions that follow.

In summary then, this author believes the remaining focus of this chapter should be on the subset of these 25 institutions that have undergraduate programs. It will respond to the charge provided by the committee that stated the paper will “[review] the current state of the undergraduate Naval Engineering and related discipline programs.”

In reviewing the state of undergraduate programs in naval engineering, this chapter will then briefly consider the undergraduate programs at each of the colleges and universities in the group of 25 identified previously. The list includes the following:


• Stevens Institute of Technology* • Webb Institute* • University of Michigan* • MIT* • Virginia Tech* • University of New Orleans* • United States Coast Guard

Academy* • United States Naval Academy* • SUNY Maritime Academy* • United States Merchant Marine

Academy* • Maine Maritime Academy*

• Florida Atlantic University* • Florida Institute of Technology* • Texas A&M* • University of Rhode Island* • University of Washington • Massachusetts Maritime College • Texas A&M–Galveston • California Maritime College • Villanova University • Old Dominion University • University of California, Berkeley

*ABET-accredited programs in NA, ME, or OE.

These 22 colleges and universities may be viewed as the core of undergraduate schools feeding graduates into naval engineering. As will be seen in the following discussion, some of these have rather limited specific curricula relating to naval engineering. The first 15 will be considered in the first group because they have ABET accredited undergraduate programs in naval architecture, marine engineering, and ocean engineering.

In leading into the brief descriptions, some introduction is warranted. The author needed to be concise, thereby possibly leaving out some important aspect of one of the programs described. Also due to the constraints of time, the descriptions largely relied on information that could be gleaned from online catalogs and descriptive information. Unfortunately, the level of detail and depth of coverage was not uniform among all colleges and universities. However, some level of coverage was deemed needed. The following brief descriptions focus on the curriculum, graduation requirements, facilities, and faculty. Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens has the only program in the nation that is called naval engineering. Graduates may earn a bachelor’s of engineering degree on completing the requirements of the program. Even before establishing this program, Stevens had a long history related to naval engineering, by virtue of its Davidson Laboratory, which has been among the leaders in towing tank technology since the 1930’s. The laboratory is now part of the Center for Maritime Systems, which consists of four laboratories all related to the oceans, including the Davidson Laboratory, the Marine Observation and Prediction Laboratory, the Coastal Engineering Research Laboratory, and the Maritime Security Laboratory. They recently completed a major modernization of their towing tank facilities, and established their naval engineering program.

Their catalog describes the program as follows:

“As a naval architect, marine engineer, or ocean engineer you could design, build, operate, and maintain ships and other waterborne vehicles and ocean structures as diverse

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as aircraft carriers, submarines, sailboats, tankers, tugboats, motor yachts, underwater robots, and oil rigs. One of the oldest technical fields in the world, naval engineering is also one of the most high-tech careers available today.”

Clearly this epitomizes what naval engineering is about. From this author’s perspective

there is one thing that was disappointing and that is that the program is located in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering. That means it is not readily identifiable as a naval engineering program to prospective students looking into a career in this profession.

A typical sequence is contained in their online catalog32 and would require completion of a 132-credit program. Students are required to complete a Capstone two-semester senior design project intended to be the culmination of the undergraduate experience, where knowledge gained in the classroom is applied to a major design project.

There are a total of 12 faculty members engaged in this program.33 A review of the course offering revealed 15 different three credit courses in areas that were believed to be closely related to naval engineering. In addition there were many more offering in ocean engineering related to fixed structures and coastal applications. The overall program also has a high degree of design orientation throughout the four years of a typical undergraduate program.

Based on the foregoing, this reviewer believes the program is sound and offers an excellent contribution to the health of the naval engineering profession. Webb Institute Webb Institute is unique in that it is the only privately endowed college in the nation devoted solely to preparing young men and women for careers in naval architecture and marine engineering. All graduates earn a combined degree in the two disciplines and all are awarded full tuition scholarships upon acceptance. Webb was established in 1889 and became a four-year college of engineering in 1931.

All students complete essentially the same rigorous program consisting of 146 credits, not including a mandatory sequence of internships. All freshmen work in shipyards serving in the construction trades; sophomores go to sea, working in engine rooms and on deck to gain experience and insight into the design and operation of commercial ships; juniors and seniors are required to work in engineering positions at shipyards, design agents, laboratories, government facilities, or other engineering operations. These positions may be in the United States or abroad.34

There is a small model basin for research and instruction with priority given to instruction. In order to qualify for graduation, each student in the senior year is required to prepare and submit a written thesis, in or related to the field of naval architecture or marine engineering under the direction of a member of the faculty. Senior theses may be individual or team efforts. In addition to a written thesis, seniors are required to present orally the results of their thesis efforts to the assembled student body, faculty, and administration in the late spring of their senior year.

All students become student members of the two premier national professional societies for naval architects and marine engineers—SNAME and ASNE. Webb students are frequent

32 http://www.stevens.edu/ses/academics/undergraduate/programs/naval_engineering.php. 33 email from Professor Leonard Imas, May 7,2010 34 http://www.webb-institute.edu/Other-Requirements.html.


attendees at the monthly technical meetings and dinners of the parent New York metropolitan section of SNAME. All Webb seniors attend the SNAME annual conference and exposition—the Society Maritime Technology Conference and Exposition (SMTC&E)—wherever it is held, with all necessary expenses paid. The junior class attends the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) annually. Other specialized symposia, such as SNAME’s Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium and the Classic Yacht Symposium are well attended by Webb students. 35

There are 16 courses in naval architecture, marine engineering, and ship design, and all students are required to complete every course. In contrast to many schools of engineering the freshmen are required to take introductory courses in naval architecture and marine engineering. The junior year ship design course is a team effort, while the senior year two-semester course is an individual effort requiring every student to address all significant aspects of a ship design.

There are nine full-time faculty teaching engineering course and two other full-time faculty for humanities and mathematics. Adjunct faculty are also used primarily in the humanities.

Webb is a total immersion in naval architecture, marine engineering, and ship design. It attracts highly motivated students, due in part, to the full-tuition scholarship. While it is judged by this author to provide an exceedingly strong foundation in the basics of naval engineering, the difficult economic times place great stress on the endowment and should be cause for concern regarding the continued viability of the program with respect to the full tuition scholarship.

University of Michigan The Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering offers study in the field of engineering for the marine environment and will help prepare the individual for a career in many aspects of the field. This includes engineering related to the design and production of all kinds of vehicles, structures, and systems to operate successfully in the harsh and demanding marine environment.36 Like Webb it is one of the few colleges that teach both naval architecture and marine engineering, and students are prepared to receive a bachelor of science degree in engineering (naval architecture and marine engineering). The fact that this department retains its long-standing designation of naval architecture and marine engineering is a most positive circumstance in this author's opinion. It provides exposure and recognition for the professional courses focusing on naval engineering.

The Undergraduate Brochure description of the professional opportunities states:

“A career in naval architecture and marine engineering is extremely diverse. It includes

• Naval shipbuilding industry; • Commercial shipbuilding; • Commercial shipping; • Passenger transportation; • Naval and coast guard activity; • Offshore oil, gas, and mineral production; and

35 http://www.webb-institute.edu/Other-Requirements.html. 36 http://name.engin.umich.edu/chair_welcome.

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• Recreational boating and sailboat industry.

It spans many disciplines of engineering, involves economics and marketing, and has its own legal specialty: admiralty law.”

There are 20 courses that this author would describe as professional-level naval

architecture or marine engineering courses. Students must complete a 128-credit program that includes at least thirteen of these courses. A four-credit design course is required in senior year.37 Students are encouraged to participate in summer internships, and many avail themselves of this opportunity.

The university has a marine hydrodynamics laboratory (MHL) that consists of the main model basin, a low turbulence free surface water channel, a gravity-capillary water wave tank, a propeller tunnel for student use, and a two-dimensional gravity wave tank. The MHL is used in several group courses and for individual directed studies.38

There are nine faculty assigned solely to this department, not including professors emeritus, and research scientists. There are also at least six additional faculty with joint appointments in other engineering departments. This cross-fertilization with electrical, automotive, and mechanical engineering may be a great strength in conveying the naval engineering message to a wider audience.

There are currently over 100 undergraduates enrolled in the program.39 This likely makes it the largest such program in the country. During the January workshop, Professor Michael Bernitsas called the department healthy with “no danger of being absorbed.” I would concur that this program is another outstanding asset leading to the education of well prepared naval engineers. MIT Originally established in 1893 as the Department of NA&ME, and rechristened the Department of OE in 1970, the program officially merged with mechanical engineering on January 1, 2005, and thus also emerged the Center for Ocean Engineering (COE). According to Professor Michael Triantafyllou, director of the COE, “The COE represents a new, more focused effort to preserve and expand the research and educational efforts in Ocean Engineering. At the same time, it builds on the program's origins.”40

The undergraduate program has 10 required professional courses required for the SB degree with another 11 listed in the catalog as being available. The credit requirements don’t correlate with other colleges and universities in this report since MIT uses the term General Institute requirements and students generally take about 48 of these per semester. However, there is no doubt the program is demanding, rigorous, and comprehensive.

As currently structured, the OE program at MIT focuses on four areas—acoustics, hydrodynamics, structures and structural dynamics, and design and marine robotics:

37 http://name.engin.umich.edu/ugrad_requirements. 38 http://name.engin.umich.edu/facilities. 39 http://name.engin.umich.edu/ugrad_students 40 http://meche.mit.edu/news/mechefeatures/index.html?id=5


• Acoustics. Electromagnetic waves can’t travel far underwater, so vision and navigation must be accomplished acoustically in the same way that some marine mammals communicate and locate prey. MIT’s ocean acoustics group is one of the leading centers of sonar research in the world, and the sonar systems developed for the U.S. Navy are capable of extremely complex signal processing.

• Hydrodynamics. Water is an unusual medium, a random, turbulent environment with different properties at the surface and below, affecting how ships, humans, and animals, as well as the atmosphere interact with it. Understanding hydrodynamic phenomena, therefore, is critical in ensuring seaworthy ship design.

• Structures and Structural Dynamics. Ocean structures and vessels are complex systems; therefore, designing and fabricating more efficient and higher-performing structures (such as offshore platforms, supertankers, trans-oceanic cables, and deep submersibles) is a challenging engineering task. Students study the structural mechanics of vessels, sources of stress, the behavior of a range of materials and crashworthiness.

• Design and Marine Robotics. Continuing ocean exploration requires robots that can go where humans cannot, such as waters that are very deep, shallow, or stormy. COE’s marine robotic groups have developed some of the most advanced autonomous vehicles and smart sensors in use today. In addition, COE’s biomimetic robotics group studies how different marine animals swim in order to develop robots that can propel themselves through the water like fish, emulating their outstanding performance.

This program is intended for students who are interested in combining a firm foundation in mechanical engineering with a specialization in ocean engineering. The program includes engineering aspects of the ocean sciences, ocean exploration and utilization of the oceans for transportation, defense, and extracting resources. Theory, experiment, and computation of ocean systems and flows are covered in a number of courses, complementing a rigorous mechanical engineering program; a hands-on capstone design class allows the student to master the design of advanced marine systems, including autonomous underwater vehicles and smart sensors.41

With respect to laboratory facilities germane to naval engineering, the catalog describes COE. It was difficult to identify specific characteristics of some of the laboratories, specifically those relating to acoustics and design, but the hydrodynamics group was somewhat more explicit. It includes a propeller tunnel, a towing tank, a vortical flow research lab, the laboratory for ship and platform flows, and the marine computation and instrumentation laboratory. The hydrodynamics group also includes the structural mechanics and dynamics group, which includes the impact and crashworthiness laboratory, with emphasis on the structural mechanics of large complex structures, impact loads, and weapons effects on structures.

Within the mechanical engineering department there are 14 faculty members listed with OE in their titles. In addition there are numerous lecturers, instructors, and technical instructors listed, but the author could not discern with certainty which are related specifically to OE. However, there are definitely a number of additional teaching staff with these designations.

MIT is one of the oldest programs in this area and has undergone some recent churn with regard to its identity. At the January workshop sponsored by the Committee on Naval Engineering in the 21st Century it was reported that the department was seeking two additional faculty members in ship structures and propulsion. This is an encouraging sign that the Ocean

41 http://meche.mit.edu/academic/undergraduate/course2oe/.

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Engineering Program may continue to thrive in its new home as part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. With the continuation of the naval postgraduate program at MIT, one may be cautiously optimistic that the prospects remain good for this university to continue to be among the leading educational institutions in providing a sound education for prospective future naval engineers. Prior to the amalgamation, one of the weaknesses of the program was the rather anemic enrollment at the undergraduate level. However, the strength of this program likely resides in its graduate program discussed in the next section. Virginia Tech The Virginia Tech webpage for the Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering describes itself as “...a unique blend of two disciplines that takes advantage of commonality in the analysis and design of aerospace and ocean vehicles.” Undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered in both disciplines. They have a yearly graduation rate of some 100 bachelor’s, 25 master’s, and 15 doctorate degrees. However, as noted in the Supply section of this report those numbers are highly skewed toward the aerospace part of the department.

Within the OE part of the department the program is described as:

“[T]he major focus areas are ocean vehicles and structures including ships, advanced marine vehicles, offshore platforms, and submarines. Both undergraduate and graduate programs focus on computer-aided analysis and design of ships, using methods based on first principles. Hydrodynamics: The flow of water around a ship’s hull, into the propeller, and over the rudder are critical to its performance, as are stability, slamming, and minimizing resistance. Structures: Loads on ocean vehicles are severe, ranging from extreme diving pressures to huge storm waves, to thousands of tons of cargo. Finite element analysis is used to design structures to withstand these loads. Vehicle Dynamics: An understanding of the motions of ships in a seaway and ship maneuverability is important to designing a functional and comfortable ship.”42

There are about 20 professional courses in the OE major, of which students must take at

least 16 to graduate. Graduates must complete a 136-credit program to earn their degree.43 A six-credit, two-semester ship design sequence is required in the senior year.

As for laboratory facilities, the catalog states: “The Department has extensive facilities including world class wind-tunnels, water tunnels, structural test equipment, high-performance computer systems, and state-of-the-art spacecraft simulators.” Clearly the focus is on aero in this area, but they also have a 98-foot towing basin for small ship models. OE undergraduate students perform two experiments in the basin. They test the resistance of both a surface ship and a submarine.

42 http://www.aoe.vt.edu/academics/undergrad/OE.php 43 http://www.aoe.vt.edu/academics/undergrad/OEcurric.php


The department has 17 faculty working in aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, structural mechanics, dynamics and control, and multidisciplinary design optimization.44 Four clearly focus on the OE part of the program. These four are very closely linked to naval engineering, and this fact coupled with the focus on design in the program leads this reviewer to conclude that the discipline is well served at Virginia Tech. University of New Orleans The School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of New Orleans was established in 1980 and based on demand by the local shipbuilding and offshore industry. Since then the School of NAME has provided the marine industry with well-educated graduates and supports its progress through basic and applied research. The online catalog includes the following description of the program:

• “Although naval architecture and marine engineering seems to be a very specialized discipline of engineering, it is this only in the sense that its objectives are systems operating in a marine environment: ships, boats, yachts, offshore structures, submarines, etc. However, the very nature of these systems require naval architects to have a broad understanding of general engineering topics, because there is no marine system without mechanical subsystems and electrical or electronic equipment. Thus, besides the specific methods to design and analyze marine systems, naval architecture and marine engineering also comprises the integration of many different subsystems into a functional whole. • The degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering prepares majors for careers in the US and international shipbuilding and offshore industries by applying the principles and laws of basic sciences and mechanics to the design and construction of commercial, naval, and recreational vessels as well as offshore structures and other floating systems.”45

A total of 137 credit hours must be completed before graduation. And like Michigan and

Webb, the degree earned is a bachelor of science in naval architecture and marine engineering (BS NAME). The required naval architecture courses provide access to specific methods necessary to design and analyze ships and offshore structures. The nine required courses culminate in the senior design class with its associated capstone design project in which student groups design a ship of their choice. The 13 NAME elective courses allow students to deepen their knowledge in selected subjects and provide access to cutting edge tools and research. There are also numerous special electives listed in the catalog that allow special studies with close oversight by selected faculty. It is also possible for exceptional students to enter an honors program that would include a thesis as part of the graduation requirements.

Included in their laboratory facilities is a towing tank with a length just under 31 meters. The student body exceeds 100 enrolled and rivals Michigan for the largest student body. The faculty is comprised of four professors and four adjunct professors/instructors.46 They are all focused on the core program related to naval engineering.

44 http://www.aoe.vt.edu/ 45 http://www.name.uno.edu/undergrad/overview.aspx. 46 http://www.name.uno.edu/faculty/overview.aspx.

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The catalog also stated: “It is note-worthy to mention that the BSc in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering program is short-listed as one of the key programs essential for the future development of the University of New Orleans.” This coupled with the concentrated and undiluted focus of the university leads this reviewer to conclude that this is another effective program supporting the naval engineering discipline.47 United States Coast Guard Academy Located in the Department of Engineering is the USCGA’s program in NAME. The catalog states that the NA&ME major provides a strong undergraduate educational program in engineering, mathematics, and sciences. It emphasizes development of the student’s ability to understand and apply engineering principles to the design and analysis of surface ships. Key features include

• Practical, hands-on engineering applications; • Computer-aided design and analysis methods; and • Coordinated blend of theoretical and practical engineering education.48

Students follow a rigorous and broad-based curriculum. There appear to be eight

engineering courses in the program. In addition students have opportunities for internships. These six-week engineering experiences occur during 1/c summer (entering senior year) at one of several USCG units that are performing NA&ME work for the fleet and industry. This program is limited to NA&ME internships that are directly related to naval engineering career paths. The NA&ME specific locations are Engineering Logistics Center/CG Yard, Project Manager’s Representatives Office Pascagoula, and Marine Safety Center.49

Students are also afforded an opportunity for directed studies in the NA&ME major, conducting individual or small team engineering research under the close guidance of a faculty member. Students who choose this experience do so as a 3.0-credit free elective within the NA&ME curriculum.50 Finally, there is a senior-level Capstone design course. The capstone senior design experience in the NA&ME major at USCGA involves the conceptual and preliminary design of a Coast Guard ship. During this year-long experience, students work in design teams, combining their fundamental engineering skills with the latest analysis tools in the NA&ME discipline. Their challenge is to develop an understanding of how subsystems interact and gain an appreciation for the compromises that are necessary to fully integrate a complex engineering system with an expansive mission profile.51

Among the facilities is a towing tank devoted primarily to educational purposes. The program faculty is comprised of six professors and four instructor lecturers.

Although the mission of the academy is focused on “educating, developing, training, and inspiring leaders of character who are ethically, intellectually, professionally, and physically prepared to serve their country and humanity,” their program provides a sound basic education in naval engineering. Since academy graduates are obligated to serve five years in the Coast Guard

47 http://www.name.uno.edu/undergrad/overview.aspx. 48 http://www.cga.edu/display.aspx?id=507. 49 http://www.cga.edu/display.aspx?id=9691. 50 http://www.cga.edu/display.aspx?id=6541. 51 http://www.cga.edu/display.aspx?id=6543.


they are not an immediate source of naval engineers for the civilian community. Many of the faculty are drawn from graduates of the program who go on to earn advanced degrees. United States Naval Academy Like the USCGA the USNA has a mission that differs from civilian colleges and universities. The naval academy’s curriculum blends professional subjects with required and elective courses similar to those offered at leading civilian colleges. Its curriculum has three basic elements:

• Core requirements in engineering, natural science, the humanities, and social

sciences, to assure that graduates are able to think, solve problems, and express conclusions clearly;

• Core academic courses and practical training to teach the professional and leadership skills required of navy and marine corps officers; and

• An academic major in a subject chosen by midshipmen to develop their individual interests and talents. 52

The mission of both the naval architecture and OE majors is to provide graduates with a sound understanding of marine vessels and ocean environment, respectively,53 and the engineering methods necessary for life-long contributions to the navy and marine corps, government, and industry in the analysis, design, construction, and operation of complex marine systems. This mission reflects the fact that our graduates will serve in technically-demanding jobs, on or under the sea, during their naval careers. In addition, many will continue later in civilian life in engineering or engineering management careers.54

Approximately 142 credit hours are required to complete the program. The two majors combined have an offering of 33 different professional courses in naval engineering topics of which a typical graduate would have completed about nine due to the other demands of the overall program to educate a naval officer.

Excellent laboratory facilities are available at the Naval Academy Hydromechanics Laboratory (NAHL). The primary purpose of the laboratory is to further the education of midshipmen. All midshipmen receive instruction in the laboratory during the course of their studies. Those who major in OE or naval architecture participate in more advanced laboratory work. Midshipmen in these majors often undertake independent research projects that involve NAHL staff and facilities. The lab includes the following:

• A 380-ft towing tank, • A 120-ft towing tank, • A coastal engineering basin, and • A circulating water channel.

The secondary purpose of the NAHL is to support research for naval academy faculty and

for outside organizations. Faculty in the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean 52 http://www.usna.edu/academics/accurric.htm. 53 http://www.usna.edu//NAOE/oemission.htm. 54 http://www.usna.edu//NAOE/namission.htm.

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Engineering (NAOE) use the facilities for research of ship resistance and propulsion, ship motions in wind and waves, basic ocean wave mechanics, and wave-structure interaction.55

Combined, there are 12 professors in the two programs, supplemented by 8 instructors. Since academy graduates are obligated to serve five years in the armed forces they are not an immediate source of naval engineers for the civilian community. However, the selection of courses, the faculty size, and quality and the facilities enable the academy to well prepare its graduates for careers in naval engineering. State University of New York Maritime Academy The State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime Academy is a four-year college offering a solid academic program coupled with a structured cadet life in the regiment for both men and women. Maritime College prepares students for careers in the maritime field. It offers undergraduate degrees in many marine related areas, but of interest in this report are marine engineering and naval architecture.56 It should be noted that it also offers a program leading to a bachelor’s of engineering in electrical engineering,57 which has a heavy naval engineering orientation. However, only the naval architecture and marine engineering programs are ABET accredited.

Their marine engineering program prepares Maritime College graduates with a broad understanding of the energy and power industries. This program is offered with a Third Assistant Engineer’s License. Engine license candidates get the experience of operating a live power plant aboard the training ship, a powerful combination of design engineering and hands-on technology. The naval architecture program provides instruction in the design of ships and sea-based structures, with specialty concentrations in the study and design of commercial ships, small craft, naval vessels, and offshore structures.58

Students do not necessarily need to be enrolled in the cadet regimental program for certain majors. These two programs, while permitting the student to sit for a USCG license, are oriented toward engineering design. The catalog specifically states: “For students who wish to earn a USCG license as a Third Assistant Engineer, but who do not wish to prepare for a career in engineering design, we recommend the BS in marine operations program in the Marine Transportation Department.”59

Because design courses are mixed with licensure and operational engineering courses, it is difficult to discern which are truly professional engineering type courses. It is estimated that there are, perhaps 12 each in the two disciplines. Most students would likely take them all in their chosen field. One hundred sixty-six credits are required for the naval architecture degree, but this includes 18 credits for the sea term and internships. A similar situation exists for the marine engineers. All students will have at least one voyage on the TS EMPIRE STATE, which is the primary laboratory for these programs.

There are four faculty members devoted to each program. The program is a definite source of well-educated and practically oriented naval

engineers. One must be concerned about the operational and maintenance costs associated with

55 http://www.usna.edu//NAOE/hydrolab.htm. 56 http://www.sunymaritime.edu/About%20Maritime/index.aspx. 57 http://www.sunymaritime.edu/Academics/Undergraduate%20Programs/index.aspx. 58 http://www.sunymaritime.edu/Academics/index.aspx. 59 http://www.sunymaritime.edu/Academics/Undergraduate%20Programs/Engineering/index.aspx.


the school-ship, but being the oldest state academy in the United States, prospects for the future should be good. United States Merchant Marine Academy The USMMA webpage states:

“A ship at sea does not operate in a vacuum. It depends on a framework of shore side activities for its operations. This industry includes companies that own and manage the vessels; ports and terminals where cargo is handled; yards for ship repair; services like marine insurance underwriters, ship chartering firms, admiralty lawyers, engineering and research companies; and increasingly today, intermodal systems of trucks and railroads to distribute goods around the country.

The purpose of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is to ensure that such people are available to the nation as shipboard officers and as leaders in the transportation field who will meet the challenges of the present and the future.”60

There are three programs that are closely related to naval engineering, of which two are

ABET accredited. • Marine Engineering. An engineering program focused on shipboard engineering

operations. • Marine Engineering Systems. An engineering program emphasizing marine

engineering design. Accredited by ABET’s Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC). • Marine Engineering and Shipyard Management. An ABET-accredited program

based on a marine engineering core and emphasizing the management of shipyards and other large engineering endeavors.

The Marine Engineering Systems (MES) program prepares midshipmen to serve as licensed officers in the USMM; provides an engineering education that prepares them for a wide variety of professional positions in such career fields as ship systems and marine equipment design, research, construction, operations, marketing, maintenance, repair, and survey; and imparts to them an engineering education that permits them to pursue graduate study or to become licensed as a professional engineer, or both, should they so choose. This program focuses on the design of marine power plants and their associated systems.61 An important element in the MES program is the design experience that is interwoven throughout four years, culminating in a major design project in senior year. The student participates as part of a team tasked with the design of a ship power plant. The project is spread over two terms and concludes with the presentation of the final design to a panel of faculty and invited industry professionals.

The Marine Engineering and Shipyard Management program prepares midshipmen as licensed officers in the USMM; provides an engineering education that prepares them for a wide variety of professional positions in ship construction and repair, ship systems and marine equipment design, research, operations, marketing, maintenance, and survey; and imparts to them a solid engineering education that permits them to pursue graduate study or become 60 http://www.usmma.edu/about/default.htm. 61 http://www.usmma.edu/academics/curriculum/marineengineeringsystems.htm.

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licensed as a professional engineer, or both, should they so choose. This curriculum puts particular focus on the management of ship construction and repair.62

Each graduate in the ABET-accredited programs will take about 18 professional courses, aggregating around 145 credits. There are laboratories for diesel and steam engineering, refrigeration, marine engineering, thermodynamics, materials testing, machine shop, mechanical engineering, welding, electrical machinery, control systems, electric circuits, engine room simulators and graphics.

There are 23 professors engaged in teaching these and other programs. Like the program at SUNY Maritime the program is a definite source of well educated and practically oriented naval engineers. Periodically there are attempts to abolish the college as a federal budget cutting move, but these have always been overcome. This source should be available for many years to come. Maine Maritime Academy The only program accredited by the EAC of ABET is Marine Systems Engineering (MSE), which integrates systematic principles used in mechanical engineering design with hands-on operations of industrial scale equipment, especially of systems used in the marine vehicle and industrial power fields. The BS degree may be earned through either a 5-year track that also enables the graduate to sit for a USCG engineer’s license or a 4-year track that includes industrial internships.63

MSE was created with the belief that the best way to learn how to design for the real world is to integrate engineering science and design principles with actual hands-on experience with real-world machines. These systems include, but are not limited to, diesel and gas turbine engines, steam boilers, turbines, electrical generators, water distillation and purification systems, and their control mechanisms. Both tracks

• Are designed for students with a strong mathematical and analytical ability as well as

interest in practical engineering. • Offer an opportunity to sit for the fundamentals of engineering examination. • Prepare students for careers in applied or design engineering, engineering consulting,

or management positions in maritime, industrial power, or general engineering fields. • The Marine Systems Engineering-License Track program combines many of the

technical courses of the engineering operations and the engineering technology programs with a 10-course calculus-based design and analysis sequence. In addition to the 180 days of industrial practice at sea offered by the other programs, “Systems” also includes a three-to-four month co-op term in a shore side industrial or government engineering facility.

• The complete program takes five years, with the opportunity to sit for the USCG Third Assistant Engineer’s License in the fourth year and for the fundamentals of engineering examination at the completion of the first semester of the fifth year.

• The program in Marine Systems Engineering-License Track is designed for students with a strong mathematical and analytical ability as well as interest in practical engineering. It is the most academically rigorous course of study at USMMA. Only a few engineering programs in

62 http://www.usmma.edu/academics/curriculum/marineengineeringandshipyardmanagement.htm. 63 http://www.mainemaritime.edu/academics/Wc32787fe1d426.htm


the United States offer a comparable curriculum. The synergy of the 10-course design and analysis sequence with a strong hands-on marine component is the hallmark of the MSE license track.64

The primary laboratory is their ship the TS STATE OF MAINE. The four year track requires 145–148 credits to graduate and this includes 7–9 credits for

a sea term on the TS STATE OF MAINE. The five year track requires about 175 credits. Approximately 10 courses appear to be professional engineering courses. It is worth noting that Maine Maritime has a satellite program at Bath Iron Works teaching a ship design and a ship production sequence for apprentices leading to an associate’s degree.

It was not possible to discern which faculty were associated with the MSE program. The ABET accreditation along with an assessment of the courses in the program is sufficient to conclude that this program is another quality source of naval engineers—again with a strong practical orientation. Florida Atlantic University At Florida Atlantic University (FAU) OE is in the Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering. They define OE as

“... a multidisciplinary engineering field aimed at solving engineering problems associated with working in the ocean environment and wisely exploring and harnessing the ocean’s resources. Ocean engineers design, build, operate and maintain ships, offshore structures and ocean technologies as diverse as aircraft carriers, submarines, sailboats, tankers, tugboats, yachts, oil rigs, underwater robots, and acoustic sonar. Ocean engineers study the oceans to determine the effects of waves, currents, and salt water environment on ships and other marine vehicles and structures and develop methods and materials to withstand wave forces and protect against corrosion ocean engineers are involved in development and use of manned and remotely operated sub-surface vehicles for deep-sea exploration and resource recovery.”65

The program requires completion of 136 credits and would include at least 12

professional level courses. The senior year of the undergraduate program includes a two-semester Capstone Senior Design sequence where the students work in teams to design, build, and test selected OE projects.

The catalog described two laboratories. The first was the Advanced Marine Systems Laboratory. An example of the work done in this lab concerned naval shipboard automation, and it included such things as

• Dependable Topologies with Network Fragment Healing in Component Level

Intelligent Distributed Control Systems (CLIDCS) for Naval Shipboard Automation. In this project a network of multiply connected rings is used to provide a dependable damage resistant topology. The network can reconfigure itself to repair or heal fragments in the network due to loss, failure, or damage.

64 http://dean.mma.edu/newcatalog/Default.htm. 65 http://www.ome.fau.edu/oe_what.htm.

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• An Automated Chill Water Demonstration System Using CLIDCS. The CLIDCS concept was applied to a bench top working model of ship’s chill water system to demonstrate the technology.66

The second laboratory was the Nanocomposites Laboratory, which is pursuing research in the area of nanostructured materials covering a wide range of polymers and their composites. The goal is to disperse nanoscale reinforcement into structural polymers and produce components for structural applications. It would appear that these labs are oriented towards research and graduate level studies.

The department has 28 faculty, but it was not possible to determine how many were working in OE.

While the description of OE contained in the catalog referred to ocean engineers designing, building, operating, and maintaining ships, a review of the curriculum did not indicate a strong set of courses oriented to ships. However, the program was clearly strong in engineering and systems design and development. Therefore, it has strong potential to provide naval engineers for the naval engineering community. Florida Institute of Technology At the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) the OE program is located within the Marine and Environmental Systems Department of the College of Engineering. FIT describes Ocean engineering as

“A multidisciplinary field of technology applied to the ocean environment. It is a combination of the classical engineering disciplines such as civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, with naval architecture and applied ocean sciences. Opportunities exist for Ocean Engineers in the private, educational, corporate, and governmental sectors. Some career areas to consider are: Offshore Oil Recovery, Marine metals and corrosion, Environmental Protection, Global Climate Monitoring, Renewable Energy, Underwater Vehicles, Remote Sensing, Marine Transportation, or Naval Architecture and Defense.”67

The Department of Marine and Environmental Systems combines the expertise of both

scientists and engineers. The OE faculty includes highly qualified researchers engaged in the study of port and harbor facilities, the modeling of estuarine environments, the design and construction of marine vehicles, the impact of waste disposal in the sea, the effects and prevention of coastal erosion and sediment transport, offshore engineering, hydrographic surveying and corrosion in the marine environment. In addition to these studies, various scientific investigations in the bioenvironmental, chemical, physical and geological oceanographic fields incorporate ocean engineering expertise.68

Undergraduate students earn a BS in OE upon completion of 135 credits in science, engineering, and mathematics, including a summer program in engineering design. During the junior year, the student acquires knowledge of ocean science and the basics of engineering

66 http://www.ome.fau.edu/lab_ams.htm. 67 http://coe.fit.edu/dmes/ocean.php. 68 http://www.fit.edu/catalog/documents/2010-2011.pdf.


analysis. The fourth year is oriented toward the application of these basic techniques to ocean engineering problems. All students are required to obtain firsthand field and sea experience during the marine field projects held during the summer between the junior and senior years.

There is a large selection of courses, with about eight that would be considered as naval architecture. However, in the typical curriculum there appears to be little opportunity to include more than a few of these courses, for example, ship design was an elective.

Being a large research-oriented university there are likely many laboratories, but this author was unable to locate specific information on those which would pertain to this major. There were 16 faculty listed with 19 adjuncts. A review of their biographies would indicate that four professors were OE specialists. These faculty were responsible for four BS programs plus three additional and distinct graduate degree programs.

While the courses to produce well-qualified naval engineers at the BS level are in the catalog, it is the author’s opinion that the focus is not on this area. It would take a uniquely motivated undergraduate to select a naval engineering–oriented curricula. However, the BS graduate would have a broad and sound grounding in fundamentals and would remain a good candidate for the naval engineering community. Texas A&M At Texas A&M, OE is the application of basic engineering principles to the analysis, design, construction, and management of systems that operate in the ocean environment. As such, OE is a hybrid technical area using techniques from many branches of engineering. Typical OE application areas include beach protection and nourishment, coastal structures, coastal erosion, development of ocean energy resources, instrumentation for coastal and offshore measurements, marine dredging and dredged material placement, moored and towed systems, ocean mining, offshore petroleum recovery, offshore structures, ports and harbors, search and salvage, suspended and dissolved constituent transport, subsea pipelines and cables, submersible vehicles, and underwater acoustics.

The curriculum leading to a bachelor of science, master of science, master of engineering, and doctor of philosophy degree in OE is administered by the Coastal and Ocean Engineering Division of the Department of Civil Engineering.69 Graduation requires completion of 131 credits, including about 11 professional type OE courses. Courses that directly apply to OE include coastal engineering, dynamics of ocean systems, engineering design of offshore and coastal systems, fluid mechanics, marine hydrodynamics, naval architecture, numerical methods, ocean engineering laboratory, ocean wave mechanics, oceanography, offshore and coastal structures, underwater acoustics, and underwater and moored system design.70 It should be noted that there was only one naval architecture course and one hydromechanics course.

The OE Program has approximately 125 undergraduate students and 40 graduate students.71 OE students are encouraged to pursue summer internships and may participate in the university cooperative education program. There is a capstone design experience where students design structures, equipment and systems for the ocean; environmental, taking into account logistical and reliability requirements.72

69 http://oceaneng.civil.tamu.edu/About/index.htm. 70 http://oceaneng.civil.tamu.edu/Academics/UGCurriculum.htm. 71 http://oceaneng.civil.tamu.edu/About/index.htm. 72 https://www.civil.tamu.edu/capstone/ocen407.html.

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There are three significant laboratories (the Haynes Coastal Engineering Laboratory, the Ocean Engineering Wave Tank and the Hydromechanics Laboratory).

This program will yield good quality ocean engineers, but perhaps better suited for the offshore and coastal engineering community in contrast to the naval engineering community. Based on their educational background they could be quickly adapted to naval engineering in the workplace. Texas A&M University–Galveston Texas A&M University–Galveston is a special-purpose institution engaged in teaching, research, and public service pertaining to the general field of marine resources. Within this context, the goal of the Department of Maritime Systems Engineering is to prepare students for performing engineering work and advanced study in the offshore and coastal realm The Houston–Galveston area is regarded as the international focus of the oil industry. As this industry ventures into ever-increasing water depths, it presents a wide array of engineering challenges. Similarly, the exposure of its coastline to the extremely energetic climatic regime of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the impacts of a high level of urbanization and industrialization in the area, call for novel sustainable engineering approaches to deal with widespread coastal erosion and various environmental issues. Finally, the extensive port facilities in Galveston and Houston and the recreational and ship traffic on navigable waterways, afford opportunities to design and maintain a variety of associated engineered structures. 73

In recognition of the breadth of structural engineering and OE, the Marine Systems Engineering Department (MASE) has developed two integrated areas of study: offshore engineering and coastal engineering. The study of offshore engineering addresses the design of marine structures; the calculation of wind and wave forces on marine structures; hydrodynamics; design criteria for marine structures; and ocean engineering technology. The study of coastal engineering addresses the applied engineering technologies associated with the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of coastal structures and facilities including breakwaters, piers, wharves, channels, and pipelines. Coastal processes and offshore engineering involving integration of structural, geotechnical, and construction are strong themes of the program.74

Like Texas A&M, 131 credits are required for a BS degree. The curriculum would include about 10 professional type courses. There are over 20 courses available in the department. There is a capstone design course, but it is described as pertaining to the development and presentation of detailed proposals for off shore or coastal engineering projects.75

The facilities include a training ship, bridge simulation facility, radar training facility, and shore side maritime safety training facilities.76

There are six faculty assigned to this program. While the students in the program would have a naval engineering orientation they would

clearly be better suited for the offshore and coastal engineering community in contrast to the

73 http://www.tamug.edu/mase/Mission.htm. 74 http://www.tamug.edu/mase/EducationalProgram.htm. 75 http://www.tamug.edu/catalog/132/PDF/2009-2010Catalog132.pdf. 76 http://www.tamug.edu/corps/index.html.


naval engineering community. Based on their educational background and the ABET accreditation, they would be quickly adapted to naval engineering in the workplace. University of Rhode Island URI has a Department of Ocean Engineering with about 125 undergraduates. This program was the first of its kind in the nation. They conduct research and teach in the areas of ocean robotics, underwater acoustics, tsunamis, coastal circulation, marine geomechanics, ocean structures, and offshore energy generation.77

The curriculum in OE offers a firm foundation in engineering fundamentals and prepares students for professional careers or for graduate school. The required OE courses begin at the freshman level and include engineering science laboratory, analysis, and design courses. The design component of the curriculum includes 17 credits of course work. There is a strong emphasis on the practical application of scientific principles in the ocean environment.

Experiments in several basic areas provide an integrated approach to investigations into ocean phenomena and processes. Students plan and execute experiments, collect and analyze data, and report results. Through this hands-on experience they gain an understanding of the role of ocean engineering in scientific and industrial fields. Professional elective courses in ocean engineering are also required and introduce students to such topics as ocean instrumentation and seafloor mapping, underwater acoustics and data analysis, marine hydrodynamics and water wave mechanics, coastal and nearshore modeling, marine geomechanics, coastal and offshore structures, and corrosion.

An ocean systems design course in the senior year integrates previously obtained knowledge in a comprehensive design project. This design experience may be obtained through on-campus instruction, through participation in an ongoing university research project, or through an off-campus summer internship in an ocean-oriented private company or government laboratory. The internship allows students to take advantage of the many opportunities available in the region.78

The department maintains and operates a wave and tow tank that is 30 m long, 3.5 m wide, and 1.5 m deep. They also maintain and operate an acoustics test facility that is 4 m wide, 7.6 m long, and 3.6 m deep.

The degree requires completion of 131 credits and about 14 professional type courses. There are about 38 courses listed in the catalog for this department and there are 14 full-time faculty in the department.

The program appears to produce an excellent ocean engineer. However, the focus is not on vehicle design, which is akin to naval engineering. Despite this and as noted earlier in this report, the acoustics emphasis and the proximity to the naval undersea warfare center makes this university a good potential source of a naval engineering specialty. Other Colleges and Universities The following six schools teach courses or programs that relate to naval engineering, but they do not have an accredited program in naval architecture, marine engineering, ocean engineering, or marine systems engineering.

77 http://www.oce.uri.edu/. 78 http://www.oce.uri.edu/undergrad.shtml.

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University of California–Berkeley The University of California–Berkeley (UC Berkeley) has granted degrees in naval architecture and offshore engineering since 1958. Unfortunately the department was eliminated in favor of a new department of bio-engineering in 1996. Since 1998, OE is the programmatic name used in UC Berkeley to encompass naval architecture, offshore engineering, coastal processes, and ocean renewableenergy. Since 2005, the OE program has been administered under mechanical engineering. The program is primarily a graduate program as it has been historically.

The undergraduate components of the program are offered as an option within mechanical engineering with core courses in marine statics and marine structures, and marine environment and marine-vehicle dynamics, which are complemented by mechanical engineering’s own strengths in control and robotics, materials and composites, machinery and manufacturing, and outside of ME, business and entrepreneurship. Typical undergraduate core-class size has grown from less than 10 in the 1990s to about 20–25. Students receive an ME degree but can designate their choice of option emphasis.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is a large academic department within the College of Engineering comprised of approximately 45 faculty, 350 graduate students, and 600 undergraduates. There are five faculty members listed with primary roles in OE.79

Significant laboratories used for both instruction and research include the Computational Marine Mechanics Laboratory (CMML) and the Richmond Model-Testing Facility (RFS). The RFS consists of a water basin 68 m long, 2.6 m wide, and 2 m deep. Physical models are tested in the basin in simulated wave environments of the proper scales. The facility has both low-speed and high-speed tow carriages, a computer-controlled wavemaker, and a hydraulic oscillator. Instrumentation capabilities include some of the latest techniques, such as systems for laser fluorescence imagery and digital-particle image velocimetry. Contemporary research issues include vortex and free surface interaction, roll-motion damping and dynamics of ships, dynamic positioning of mobile offshore bases, hydroelastic behavior of floating airports, waves in a two-layer fluid, marine composite materials, reliability-based structural design, fatigue behavior of marine materials, and high-speed multi-hull configuration optimization, alternative renewable energy: floating offshore wind park, ocean wave energy.80 The future for this program is uncertain, but historically it was a strong contributor to the naval engineering community. It still appears to have potential, but may be difficult for students to locate. Yet, recent core-class sizes of 20–25 indicate that there is a strong desire among students to study in this discipline. University of Washington The University of Washington (UW) is a major university in the Pacific Northwest. It has no naval architecture, OE, or marine engineering program per se, but it has one well-known naval architecture professor, Bruce Adee, who teaches a three-course sequence in the curricula of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The courses are

79 E-mail with Professor Ronald Yeung, 5-6-1. 80 http://www.me.berkeley.edu/Grad/Areas/ME_Main_Frame_Ocean_Eng.htm


• M E 490 Naval Architecture (3) Theory of naval architecture; ship's lines, hydrostatic curves, intact and damaged stability, launching.

• M E 491 Naval Architecture (3) Theory of naval architecture; strength, ABS rules, water waves, ship and platform motions.

• M E 492 Naval Architecture (3) Theory of naval architecture; dimensional analysis, resistance, model testing, propellers, steering. 81

Clearly, UW graduates in mechanical engineering may have some fundamental naval engineering orientation, if they completed Professor Adee’s courses, but it is difficult to say they are a center of naval engineering. Massachusetts Maritime College Mass Maritime is another of the state maritime academies preparing young men and women for careers in the maritime industry. They grant a BS degree in marine engineering, but it is not ABET accredited. Their program is described as follows:

“The marine engineering major prepares students for careers as licensed engineering officers in the United States Merchant Marine and engineering positions in associated shore side industries. Courses include internal and external combustion engines, electricity and electronics, auxiliaries and main propulsion machinery, and the organization and operation of merchant vessel engineering plants. In addition, students study preventative maintenance, gain practical experience aboard ship in port and on the high seas, and work in laboratories to learn other skills in a variety of closely connected fields.

Four sea terms, including the opportunity to sail with a commercial company during Sea Term III, provide an excellent chance to learn the industry first hand, establish contacts and better prepare them for graduation the next year. This program requires satisfactorily completing STCW 95 requirements. Graduates must qualify through examination by the United States Coast Guard as Third Assistant Engineers, Steam and Motor, Unlimited Horsepower. The ultimate aim is to prepare the student to eventually reach the level of Chief Engineer.”82

Here again, graduates of this program may have the ability to become valuable naval

engineers through on the job training and additional engineering education to strengthen their design and analytical skills. Mass Maritime should not be considered to be one of the primary schools preparing graduates for careers in naval engineering. California Maritime College California Maritime College (Cal Maritime) is another of the state maritime academies providing a specialized education combining classroom instruction, experiential learning, and professional 81 http://www.washington.edu/students/crscat/meche.html 82 http://www.maritime.edu/l2.cfm?page=85.

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development. They prepare students for successful careers in international business and logistics, maritime policy, engineering, technology, or in the maritime and transportation industries. The curriculum includes a two-month international training cruise onboard the Training Ship GOLDEN BEAR.83

They have a mechanical engineering program with two options that students may follow to obtain their degree. Both options result in a BS degree in mechanical engineering and provide students with strong hands-on experiences and an international experience to complement their engineering education. Both options have the same core mechanical engineering curriculum and were defined to maintain the mission of the academy and the four objectives of intellectual learning, applied technology, global awareness, and leadership. Also, both options are essentially identical in the first year, allowing students to explore their interests before deciding upon an option. All students, regardless of their option, are part of the corps of cadets, which is the focal point for the leadership facet of our mission.84

Once again, graduates of this program may have the ability to become valuable naval engineers through on the job training and additional engineering education to strengthen their design and analytical skills. Cal Maritime should not be considered to be one of the primary schools preparing graduates for careers in naval engineering. Villanova University Villanova was included in this list because they have a student section of ASNE. The faculty advisor for the section is Professor C. “Nat” Nataraj, PhD, and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He has conducted research under ONR sponsorships, and a recent project was entitled “Unmanned Sailboat, Unmanned Ocean Vehicles, August 2008–December 2009.

The curriculum has no special relationship to naval engineering, but the fact that there is a student section of ASNE may make their graduates more attuned to the naval engineering field. It is also noteworthy that in the navy, more flag officers have graduated from Villanova than any other college other than USNA. Old Dominion University ODU has a mechanical engineering technology program accredited by the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission of ABET. The Department of Engineering Technology in the Batten College of Engineering and Technology at ODU, in conjunction with members of its advisory board and other industry representatives, has begun a sustained effort to promote and develop a strong course of study in marine engineering technology. Located in Norfolk, Virginia, ODU, and particularly the Department of Engineering Technology, is uniquely positioned to develop such a program. With strong ties to the world’s largest naval base and superlative shipbuilding, maintenance, and repair facilities, early qualitative research indicated high interest for development of such a program in support of one of the region’s largest industries.

The goal of the marine engineering technology program is to provide the student with the skills necessary for success working in the commercial or naval ship design field and includes exposure to basic ship characteristics, the unique aspects of ship design, familiarization with ship

83 http://www.csum.edu/about/index.asp. 84 http://www.csum.edu/academics/MechanicalEng.asp.


construction processes and techniques, various shipboard systems, basic shipboard operations, and maintenance principles and philosophies.85

Incidentally there is also a nuclear technology option in mechanical engineering technology. It is a special program available only to graduates of the U. S. Navy Nuclear Power School. Graduates of this program receive advanced standing credits that apply to the mechanical engineering technology degree based on their professional education in nuclear power systems.

While this is not an accredited engineering degree program, it is clear the graduates would be well prepared to enter entry-level areas in the naval engineering community and with on-job training and further education become full-fledged naval engineers. GRADUATE PROGRAM STATUS AND OUTLOOK As one focuses on those colleges and universities having graduate programs, the number of schools decreases dramatically to only the following 12:

• Stevens Institute of Technology,* • University of Michigan,* • Virginia Tech,* • University of New Orleans,* • Florida Atlantic University,* • Florida Institute of Technology,* • Texas A&M,* • University of Hawaii,* • University of Rhode Island,* • University of California–Berkeley, • MIT, and • Naval Postgraduate School.

* Denotes those schools with ABET-accredited programs in ocean or marine engineering or naval architecture.

The University of California and MIT programs are accredited but in mechanical

engineering. The Naval Postgraduate School is included because it has a systems engineering program with a ship systems engineering track that relates closely to the hull, mechanical and electrical areas included in naval engineering. The program at each of these 12 schools will be briefly discussed in the remainder of this section. The University of Florida program has not been described in any detail, although it is listed as having a SNAME student section The section was described as “barely active with little student interest” by the executive director of SNAME.86 Located in Gainesville, Florida, the university has a graduate program in coastal and oceanographic engineering. There were six faculty members, but their backgrounds were all related to the coastal zone activities, not platform design. There was no indication that anything

85 http://eng.odu.edu/et/academics/met/marine.shtml. 86 Telephone conversation with Phillip Kimball, Executive Director, SNAME, 4-29-10.

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significantly related to naval engineering that was a core part of their program.87 Therefore, in the author’s judgment this university is really no better aligned to naval engineering than dozens of other large high-quality universities around the nation. It was decided not to include them in the detailed discussions that follow. Stevens Institute of Technology A general description of the program at Stevens was provided in section three. Within the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering there are programs to earn a master of engineering degree or a PhD in OE. Areas of emphasis include

• Coastal engineering, • Hydrodynamics, • Naval architecture, and • Oceanography. 88

Clearly, hydrodynamics and naval architecture are areas of interest when exploring the

status naval engineering. For 75 years, many of the world’s finest maritime researchers—and their doctoral students—have built successful careers in Stevens’ OE program. Their PhD candidates actively collaborate, submit funding proposals, and advance the state of the art with the faculty, many of whom have distinguished themselves in research to advance national security and address pressing social issues. Students might study with the co-creator of the global standard for ocean modeling, experiment in the nation’s largest university-based towing tank, or work aboard a research vessel to test the latest theories on estuaries and coastal oceans.

Areas of research described on their website include • Maritime security. This $4 million project, funded by ONR, strives for technological

breakthroughs to improve security throughout New York Harbor and nationwide. • Flood forecast modeling. Researchers are developing a sophisticated model to

predict coastal flooding and thus issue warnings for the New Jersey coast. One PhD student is incorporating CODAR measurements into the model, while another seeks to improve inputs.

• Advanced warship design. Stevens is collaborating with the USNA, the University College of London, and a naval architectural firm to develop advanced concepts for high-speed ships to give the navy a competitive advantage.

• America’s Cup. One department staff member spends half the year in Barcelona, collaborating with the Oracle team (which just recently recaptured the America's Cup for the United States), while on campus Cup contenders test designs in the department’s tow tank.

Pertinent facilities include • The largest university-based hydrodynamic testing tank in the United States—330’

long, 18’ wide, 7’ deep—in which researchers continually test the performance and speed of new concepts in ship design;

87 http://www.ce.ufl.edu/coastal/Coastal%20Program%20Requirements.html 88 http://www.stevens.edu/gradacademics/graduate/masters/engineering.html#15631


• Two research vessels with state-of-the-art instrumentation to support field observation of estuaries, bays, and the coastal ocean; and

• High-performance computing cluster for computational fluid mechanics and the testing of estuary currents.89

The Stevens program has a long history and has demonstrated recent investments in the facilities that would indicate it is considered a vibrant area for the university. It may be regarded as a proven source of naval engineers in the past and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. University of Michigan A general description of the program at Michigan was provided in section three. The graduate program in NAME leads to the MEng., MS, MSE, professional or PhD degrees. The MS, MSE, professional, and PhD programs are administered through the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, while the MEng. Program is administered through the College of Engineering Center for Professional Development and leads to the master’s of engineering degree in concurrent marine design.

The NAME program has been restructured to accommodate the needs and demands of present technology. The academic focus areas consist of two major divisions as follows:

• Marine mechanics

− Hydrodynamics, − Structures, and − Coastal processes.

• Marine systems design − Marine design analysis, and − Concurrent marine design.90

Research is important at the University of Michigan and the areas of interest for this

department include the following: • Acoustics and vibration, • Analytical marine hydrodynamics, • Coastal processes, • Concurrent marine design, • Dynamic control and systems response, • Experimental hydrodynamics, • Fluid-structure interactions, • Marine engineering, • Marine robotics, • Marine systems management, • Naval engineering and naval energy,

89 http://www.stevens.edu/gradacademics/graduate/doctoral/ocean.html. 90 http://name.engin.umich.edu/grad_intro.

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• Nonlinear dynamics, • Offshore mechanics, • Remote sensing, and • Structural mechanics.

The University of Michigan remains one of the leading universities in the education of

naval architects and marine engineers. It has been around for over 100 years and the prospects look bright for its continuation as a leader for years to come. Virginia Tech A general description of the program at Virginia Tech was provided in section three. The Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering offers an MS degree in OE. Doctorates are available only in aerospace engineering.91

The Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech has many excellent facilities, available for computational and experimental research and study, but without having a doctoral program they are highly skewed toward aerospace. The review conducted found little research related to naval engineering on the website. However, a review of the OE faculty resumes reveals that there is considerable activity in naval engineering related topics. The Virginia Tech program is small relative to its aerospace brother in the department, but it appears to have sound linkages to NAVSEA and should continue to be a strong source of both undergraduate and graduate-level naval engineers. University of New Orleans UNO’s graduate program offers a MSE degree of NAME and a PhD degree in engineering and applied science.

There are two options for the master’s degree, one with a thesis and one based on course work only:

1. Thesis Option—This option requires 30 credit hours, of which no less than 15 credit hours have to be taken at the 6000 level and out of which 6 credit hours are reserved for thesis work.

2. Course Work Option—This option requires 33 hours, of which at least 18 credit hours are to be taken at the 6000 level. Students of naval architecture will choose at least 18 hours of engineering courses from a list of 21 graduate-level courses.

The UNO PhD in engineering and applied science requires the successful completion of the following requirements, in the order listed:

• Qualifying (first) examination on entry into the PhD program, • Course work, • Comprehensive (second) examination after completing the PhD course work, • Dissertation prospectus presentation to the dissertation committee,

91 http://www.aoe.vt.edu/academics/grad/.


• Dissertation documenting the student’s research, and • Final dissertation (thesis) defense.92

The facilities are good and have been briefly described in the undergraduate section of this report.

The close proximity of UNO to a major shipbuilder and the large selection of naval engineering–related courses make this program a valuable addition to the group of universities producing engineers with postgraduate degrees.

Florida Atlantic University The Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering at FAU offers extensive MS and PhD degree programs in OE with the aim of preparing individuals for engineering challenges while working in the ocean environment. Specialization in specific OE programs is offered through in-depth studies in the areas of acoustics, vibrations and signal processing, materials and corrosion, marine structures and geotechnique, marine hydrodynamics or autonomous undersea vehicles or other special topics. Students develop skills in computational, laboratory, and field work through comprehensive coursework and thesis or dissertation work. Each graduate student is assigned a faculty advisor who will guide the student’s course and thesis or dissertation work and evaluate his or her performance with the help of a supervisory committee.

Applications for admission to the graduate program are invited from students with a bachelor’s degree in any field of engineering, mathematics, the physical sciences, chemistry, or oceanography.

Accelerated programs in joint BS and MS and BS and PhD degrees that involve acceptance of up to 9 dual degree credits are available for eligible students. Outstanding graduating BS students may apply directly to the PhD program.93

As mentioned in the undergraduate section of this report and as indicated above, the program at FAU is not strongly related to the naval engineering core areas, but the program is clearly strong in engineering and systems design and development. Therefore, it has strong potential to provide naval engineers into the naval engineering community. Florida Institute of Technology An MS in OE can be earned on either a full-time or part-time basis and the degree is conferred on students who have completed a minimum of 30 credit hours (including thesis) of course work. A non-thesis option is also offered with three additional courses required instead of thesis research. For the PhD, 48 credit hours are required (including 24 hours of dissertation) beyond the master’s degree.

Florida Tech's ocean engineering graduate program is one of 20 ocean engineering programs in the United States, but is the only program that deals closely with oceanographers, meteorologists and environmental scientists. The university is located on the Atlantic Coast in Central Florida. Nearby facilities include NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the Disney Complex,

92 http://www.name.uno.edu/graduate/overview.aspx. 93 http://www.ome.fau.edu/oe_g.htm

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Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Hubbs Sea World Research Institute, Harris Corporation and many other advanced technology corporations.94

As mentioned in the section on undergraduate programs, this program is not oriented very closely with traditional naval engineering courses. In the judgment of this author it would seem unlikely that graduates with advanced degrees would gravitate toward naval engineering. Texas A&M Students entering the graduate degree program have widely varied engineering backgrounds. Each graduate student is expected to become well versed in the appropriate support disciplines, particularly mathematics and hydromechanics. The student is expected to achieve reasonable competence in the principal areas of offshore structures, estuary and coastal engineering, dredging and/or mining processes, or marine hydrodynamics. The graduate program is designed to provide students with knowledge of engineering in the ocean environment and to establish a base for ocean engineering research. In addition to areas of study available in the undergraduate program, advanced courses are given in hydromechanics, oceanography, mathematics, coastal engineering, environmental fluid mechanics, estuary hydrodynamics, offshore structures, marine foundations, marine dredging, ocean, port and harbor design, laboratory modeling, nonlinear hydrodynamics, and numerical methods.95

Degrees offered in the OE program include the following: • Masters of Science

− The pre-requisite for the OE graduate program is that a degree candidate have a bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline. The master of science degree requires a minimum of 32 credit hours and a thesis. • Masters of Engineering

− The pre-requisite for the OE graduate program is that a degree candidate have a bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline. The master of engineering degree requires a minimum of 30 credit hours and a written project report. • Doctor of Philosophy or Doctor of Engineering

− Students are formally admitted to the PhD program after passing a written and oral general exam to be taken at the end of the first semester of PhD studies. The PhD degree requires a minimum of 64 credit hours beyond the master’s degree and a dissertation. Of the 64 credit hours, typically 32 hours must be in coursework. To complete the coursework for the PhD, six credits must be selected in the area of mathematics, statistics, and numerical methods and three credit hours in the area of fluid mechanics in addition to the requirements for the master’s degree.96 Like the undergraduate program at Texas A&M, graduates of this program will be better

suited for the offshore and coastal engineering community in contrast to the naval engineering community. Based on their educational background they could be quickly adapted to naval engineering in the workplace, but with reduced likelihood of being attracted to the naval engineering community. 94 http://coe.fit.edu/dmes/ocean.php. 95 http://oceaneng.civil.tamu.edu/Academics/GRProgram.htm. 96 http://oceaneng.civil.tamu.edu/Academics/GRPhD.htm.


University of Hawaii The University of Hawaii does not offer an undergraduate accredited program in OE, but the Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering offers a graduate program leading to the MS and PhD degrees. The goal of the program is to prepare students for the engineering profession and to conduct research in support of the education program. 97

The Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering offers a graduate program that includes a core program; an option-area program; electives; and either a dissertation, thesis, or independent project. The 15-credit core program covers (each course 3 credits). Below is listed detailed information of the courses:

• ORE 411 Buoyancy and Stability • ORE 601 Ocean Engineering Laboratory • ORE 603 Oceanography for Ocean Engineers • ORE 607 Water Wave Mechanics • ORE 609 Hydrodynamics of Fluid-Body Interaction

The students select a 9-credit option-area program in coastal engineering, ocean resources engineering, or offshore engineering.

For coastal engineering, students take

• ORE 661 Coastal and Harbor Engineering • ORE 664 Near-shore Processes and Sediment Transport • ORE 783B Capstone Design Project-Coastal

For offshore engineering:

• ORE 612 Dynamics of Ocean Structures • ORE 630 Structural Analysis in Ocean Engineering • ORE 783C Capstone Design Project-Offshore

For ocean resources engineering:

• ORE 677 OTEC Systems • ORE 678 Marine Mineral Resources Engineering • ORE 783D Capstone Design Project-Ocean Resources

Although the University of Hawaii graduate division requires a minimum of 30 credits

for graduation, most students take more than the required minimum, averaging around 33 credits.98

With respect to laboratory facilities, there are three that are worthy of note in this report:

97 http://oe.soest.hawaii.edu/OE/ore_objectives.htm. 98 http://oe.soest.hawaii.edu/OE/ore_courses.htm.

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• Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory—The Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering's Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (EFDL) focuses on the study of coastal marine processes including turbulent dispersal of pollutants and nutrients, wave dynamics, and sediment transport. Cameras are used for flow visualization and measurement.

• Kilo Nalo Oahu Reef Observatory—The Kilo Nalo Oahu Reef Observatory, on the south shore of Oahu, provides a window into the near shore coral reef physical, biological, and chemical environment.

• The Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) is one of six national laboratories comprising the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Undersea Research Program. HURL operates two deep diving (2000m) submersibles, the PISCES IV and PISCES V, and a remotely operated vehicle. The ROV and submersibles operate off the 225-foot research vessel, Kaimikai-O-Kanaloa, obtained for the university and largely supported by HURL. The submersibles, ROV and their mothership conduct a wide range of engineering and science research activities. Time on the submersibles and ROV is available to the faculty and students through submission of proposals. In addition, many students in the Ocean and Resources Engineering program find thesis projects, financial support and advisors studying various aspects of the dynamics of submersible and ROV operations as well as new instrumentation, control and equipment applications. HURL and the Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering have a close working relationship at all levels.99

There are seven full-time faculty. The latest demographic information on their website

showed 19 MS students enrolled and eleven doctoral students. It is interesting to note that 45% of the students are from foreign countries.100

The course details were included to demonstrate that while the program is called ocean engineering the thrust bears little similarity to traditional naval engineering. Like many of the ocean engineering programs the orientation is more towards coastal and offshore engineering.

University of Rhode Island The Department of Ocean Engineering at URI was the first institution (1966) to establish the MS and PhD degree in OE. Over 300 students have graduated from the program. These students are employed by major corporations, small companies, large and small consulting firms, in addition to major government research laboratories.

Prospective OE students can choose from a diverse group of graduate level courses in widely different ocean related subjects as a result of the broad and interdisciplinary background and research interests of the faculty. Opportunities exist for the student to work with an individual faculty member or small groups of faculty members from other engineering departments and the Graduate School of Oceanography on specific problems in ocean engineering.101

A full description of the faculty and facilities is provided in the undergraduate section of this report. The program appears to produce an excellent ocean engineer. However, as noted earlier the focus is not on vehicle design which is akin to naval engineering. Yet the proximity to

99 http://oe.soest.hawaii.edu/OE/ore_facilities.htm. 100 http://oe.soest.hawaii.edu/OE/ore_students.htm. 101 http://www.oce.uri.edu/graduate.shtml.


the naval undersea warfare center makes this university a good potential source of engineers migrating to a naval engineering specialty in their employment.

University Of California–Berkeley A general description of the program at Cal was provided in section three. At the graduate level, OE is administered as a major field of study within mechanical engineering. A major field of study is a programmatic status that allows the graduate courses offered within the OE curriculum be used for three graduate degrees: MS, MEng, PhD, and doctor of engineering (DEng). Within mechanical engineering, there are eight other major fields complementing and competing that include: continuum mechanics, control and dynamics, materials, fluid mechanics, manufacturing, design, nano-MEMs, energy S&T. OE can also serve as a minor field of study for any graduate degrees on campus.

The graduate population of the OE major field is capped at 16 because of space limitation. Admission to the OE graduate program is very competitive, only about 6–7 applicants are admitted from a pool of some 70 graduate applicants expressing interest in OE and research of the ocean faculty. Core course of graduate ocean engineering is about a dozen students in size. The graduate curriculum includes marine hydrodynamics, marine structures, risk and reliability, computational modeling, control, and electrical machinery. The OE graduate program has two active core faculty members (R. W. Yeung and A. E. Mansour) with five other affiliated faculty members; a third core faculty member is in the plan of the system.102

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is a large academic department within the College of Engineering comprised of approximately 45 faculty, 350 graduate students and 600 undergraduates. There are five faculty members with primary assignments in ocean engineering.103 The MS and PhD degrees are awarded for study and research emphasizing the application of natural sciences to the analysis and solution of engineering problems. The MEng and DEng are awarded for study and research in professional engineering emphasizing design and include study in fields other than mechanical engineering.104

OE at UC Berkeley involves the development, design, and analysis of man-made systems that can operate in the offshore or coastal environment. Such systems may be used for transportation, recreation, fisheries, extraction of petroleum or other minerals, and recovery of thermal or wave energy, among others. Some systems are bottom-mounted, particularly those in shallower depths; others are mobile, as in the case of ships, submersibles, or floating drill rigs. Most are designed to withstand a hostile environment (wind, waves, currents, ice) and to operate efficiently while staying environmentally friendly.

OE study as a major field within mechanical engineering requires satisfying core requirements in marine hydrodynamics and marine structures. Individuals are expected to have undergraduate background in marine statics and structures, and ocean-environment mechanics. Disciplines supporting OE include materials and fabrication, control and robotics, continuum mechanics, dynamical system theory, design methodology, engineering analysis, and statistics. OE can also be used as a minor subject with one of the discipline areas as major.

The laboratories were discussed in section three.

102 http://www.me.berkeley.edu/Grad/Areas/ME_Main_Frame_Ocean_Eng.htm. 103 email with Professor Ronald Yeung, 5-6-10. 104 http://www.me.berkeley.edu/new/grad/prospective.html.

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The future for this program is uncertain, but historically it was a strong contributor to the naval engineering community. It still appears to have potential, but may be difficult for students to locate. Yet, 70 applicants for 6–7 positions would indicate otherwise and also indicate that there is a strong desire among students to study in this discipline.

MIT The OE program at MIT is described in some detail in the section on undergraduate education. Embedded in the mechanical engineering department, the program provides opportunities for graduate work leading to a number of pertinent degrees. These include

• MS in OE, • MS in NAME, • Degree of naval engineer, and • PhD or doctor of science.

The master’s degrees are 12-month professional degrees intended to prepare students for

technical leadership in manufacturing industries. The naval engineer’s degree prepares students for a career in advanced engineering practice through advanced coursework that goes well beyond the master's level, but it is not a stepping stone to the PhD. The doctorate requires (in addition to coursework) significant original research, design or development.

The curriculum leading to an MS in OE is based on a broad working knowledge of all the basic engineering skills. The intended outcome of this program is to prepare a person to use whatever engineering disciplines are needed to address engineering problems in the sea.

As part of the more general field of OE, naval architecture and marine engineering are concerned with all aspects of waterborne vehicles operating on, below, or just above the sea surface. The MS in NAME is intended to develop an individual who plans to concentrate in areas related to waterborne vehicles or their subsystems, or both.

The program leading to the naval engineer’s degree requires a higher level and significantly broader range of professional competence in engineering than is required for an MS in NAME or OE. The program for an engineer’s degree ordinarily includes subjects in the areas of economics, industrial management, and public policy or law, and at least 12 units of comprehensive design.

The Naval Construction and Engineering (NCE) program provides U.S. Navy and USCG officers, foreign naval officers, and civilian students interested in ships and ship design a broad graduate-level engineering education for a career as a professional naval engineer. The program focuses on naval architecture, hydrodynamics, ship structures, materials, power and propulsion, and ship production in a total-ship-design and engineering context. Students learn to apply a total-system-design approach to large-scale complex systems—in particular, surface naval combatants, submarines, and high-performance commercial ships. The program is appropriate for naval officers and civilians who later actively participate in concept formulation, design, and construction of naval ships, as well as for those interested in commercial ship design.105

Given the size of the faculty engaged in OE and the small size of the undergraduate enrollment, it is expected that MIT will be a significant contributor to the number of graduate

105 http://web.mit.edu/catalog/degre.engin.mecha.html#grad.


degrees awarded in this discipline. The program appears to offer the opportunity to develop highly qualified applied practice graduates as well as those with a particular interest in more scientific and research oriented areas. It can be expected to continue to be among the elite programs in the nation.

Naval Postgraduate School The Naval Postgraduate School has been included for completeness. While not having a naval architecture, marine engineering, or OE program, they do have a systems engineering major with strong links to naval engineering. Over the course of the university’s 100-year history, the Naval Postgraduate School has established a superior level of academic excellence.

The Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Sciences supports the navy and the Department of Defense by educating future leaders to lead, innovate and manage in a changing, highly technological world, and by conducting research recognized internationally for its relevance to national defense and academic quality.106

Systems engineering focuses on the development of large and complex systems. The program proposes to provide its graduates with

• Understanding of engineering methods and its application to problem solving—such as how to make a radar work effectively in a destroyer; and

• Understanding of the spectrums of systems engineering—life-cycle, analyses and integration of systems, balancing resources to ensure completion in a timely manner through hands-on research projects (with navy sponsors).107

The mission is stated as follows:

• Prepare our graduates to help meet today’s and tomorrow’s national security challenges by giving them the technical education they need for designing, building, operating, maintaining, and improving reliable, capable, effective and affordable complex systems of systems that meet the user’s needs.

• Perform research to improve existing and develop new systems engineering techniques and methods.

• Apply systems engineering techniques and methods to develop cost-effective, timely solutions to priority national security problems.

To carry out this mission, the NPS Department of Systems Engineering has 30 faculty

members with primary appointments, 19 with joint appointments, three research staff, and three administrative staff.

The school offers masters degrees and will soon be offering the PhD in systems engineering. They have about 60 resident students and about 340 non-resident students. They partner closely with the Wayne E. Meyer Institute of Systems Engineering at NPS, especially for research programs.108

106 http://www.nps.edu/Academics/Schools/GSEAS/Index.html. 107 http://www.nps.edu/Academics/Schools/GSEAS/Programs/DegreeProg/DegreeProg.html. 108 http://www.nps.edu/Academics/Schools/GSEAS/Departments/SE/.

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NPS offers a resident, seven-quarter (eight-quarter with summer math and physics refresher courses) MS in systems engineering (MSSE) degree with tracks in ship systems engineering (SSE), combat systems engineering (CSE), and network-centric systems engineering (NCSE).

Capable ships have been and will continue to be crucial enablers for meeting military, economic and political objectives. National priorities and international commitments increasingly require advanced technologies and design methods be used to construct naval ship systems. Once operating in an integrated battle group and joint environment, these modern ships will be part of a system of systems—a network-centric warfighting system. Of particular relevance to this report is the MS in systems engineering (SSE), which provides the technical graduate education needed to build, operate, and maintain effective, cost-efficient naval ships and ship systems.

Systems engineering is a relatively new discipline that is poorly understood by much of the academic community. Even the name is not universally recognized. Both systems engineering and system engineering are in widespread use. NPS has opted for the use of the term systems engineering as opposed to system engineering. An elementary definition of systems engineering has been used for years by the Total Ship Systems Engineering (TSSE) program and was agreed to by consensus of the 1997 Ad Hoc Committee on Systems Engineering at NPS. It can be stated as:

“Systems engineering is an integrated approach to the synthesis of entire systems, (and the processes to produce them), designed to perform tasks in what is expected to be most efficient possible manner, with each component of the system designed to function as part of a single entity.”109

The SSE track courses include a choice of one of two options:

• Option 1 (SSE with electives): • TS3001 Fundamental Principles of Naval Architecture • TS3003 Naval Combat System Elements • Select 5 electives in ship systems from other departments

• Option 2 (SSE from TSSE): • TS3000 Shipboard Power Systems • TS3001 Naval Architecture • TS3003 Naval Combat System Elements • TS4000 Combat Systems Integration • TS4001 Ship Design and Integration • TS4002 Ship Design Integration • TS4003 Total Ship Systems Engineering

The TSSE program is under the Department of Mechanical and Astronautical

Engineering. The objective of this program is to provide a broad-based, design-oriented

109Departmental statement on systems engineering scholarship, Systems Engineering Department, Naval Postgraduate School, August 2004.


education focusing on the warship as a total engineering system, including hull, mechanical, electrical and combat systems. The program is for selected Naval/Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Combat Systems Sciences and Technology students and is structured to lead to the MSME, MSEE, or MS in physics. Students in this program take a sequence of courses as follows:110

• Fundamental Principles of Naval Architecture, • Electrical Power Engineering, • Fundamentals of Systems Engineering, • Naval Combat Systems and Sensor Elements, • Combat Systems and Sensor Integration, • Design of Naval Engineering Subsystems (HM&E), and • Ship Design Integration (Capstone, team-performed design project over 2 quarters).

The remainder of their two years of course work are in the area of their degree. So an EE

student will have a much wider EE foundation, with these TSSE courses broadening him/her to be a valuable member of a ship design team and, if he’s enrolled in the EE department’s Power Engineering program won’t have to take the TSSE Electrical Power Engineering course—or more accurately, he will have already taken it as part of his EE program—as the Power Engineering course, even for the other TSSE students, is taught in the EE department. Similarly, for the ME and Combat Systems Student (by the way, even the Combat Systems students take the two combat systems courses in the TSSE program because the TSSE courses approach combat systems from an integrative viewpoint rather than the phenomenological approach taken in their Combat Systems/Applied Physics courses).

About 12 students a year from the three curricula (ME, EE and Combat Systems) take this program. In addition, about 4 MSSE students per year take the Ship Systems track. So, in essence, about 16 students (from ME, EE, Combat Systems and SE) complete the core of the TSSE program.111

While the program should produce well qualified naval engineers, it should not be viewed as a truly unique feed source, since most of the students are naval officers already engaged in the business of naval ships and their creation, operation, maintenance, and disposal. College and University Summary Table 6 on the following page summarizes some of the key information presented in sections three and four. The author has regrouped the schools covered in this report according to his subjective judgment concerning the applicability of their respective programs to the education of naval engineers. All figures shown were obtained from websites to the best of the author's ability. Institutions rated excellent had programs closely aligned to naval engineering and ABET accreditation. Within a subjective ranking there is no particular significance to the order listed. The purpose of this subjective ranking was not to denigrate the quality of the education at any of these institutions, for I believe they all do well in their chosen mission, but to further highlight just how fragile and small is the group of colleges and universities closely aligned to the naval

110 http://www.nps.edu/Academics/GSEAS/TSSE/index.html. 111 Email from Capt. Charles Calvano, USN (ret) OPNAV Systems Engineering Analysis Chair, May 10, 2.

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engineering profession. Only 12 are listed as excellent, and if all those better than fair are counted the total only rises to 17—a number that should give any assessor of the robustness of the educational supply in this area serious pause.

Lest it be thought that a new graduate program in marine engineering offered by the USMMA has been overlooked, that is not the case. The USMMA website states the following about its program:

“The United States Merchant Marine Academy’s Master of Marine Engineering program is designed for you, the engineering professional seeking graduate education that is relevant to your profession without the need to leave your employ or commute to a special site or campus. Ending at the master’s level with the potential of continuing on for additional professional education, the MMarE program is a natural extension of undergraduate programs in Marine Engineering. If your undergraduate education was not formally dedicated to Marine Engineering, the MMarE program can complete and enhance your education as a practicing marine engineer.

The MMarE program is designed for the practicing professional who seeks to enhance and accelerate his or her career development. There is an entrance requirement of at least two years of professional experience. Designed to allow enrollment by working professionals throughout the world, the program uses a combination of asynchronous and synchronous distance-learning delivery. Some courses may be enhanced by mid-semester, two-day in-residence sessions.

The 36 credit program consists of a 21 credit core addressing all the principal aspects of Marine Engineering including a course in maritime policy. The core program is augmented by15 credits of electives. The course offers students the opportunity to undertake independent design and research activity. The courses are all taught by subject experts and are designed to blend theory and application in a manner that enhances learning and develops skills in creative thinking.”112

This is a distance learning program for professionals already working in some aspect of

naval engineering. It is not an opportunity to grow more engineers and is more properly considered as a new addition to the workforce development activities discussed in the following section.

112 http://www.usmma.edu/gradcourse/.


TABLE 6 Summary of Key Elements of Relevant Institutions

School Number of

Professional Courses

Credits to Graduate

Labs

Number of Faculty

Subjective Assessment as a Source

of Naval Engineers

University of Michigan 20 128 Towing Tank 9 + 6 with Joint appointments in other depts.

Excellent

Virginia Tech 20 136 Towing Tank 17 Excellent Webb Institute 16 146 Towing Tank 9 Excellent University of New Orleans 22 137 Towing Tank 8 Excellent USCGA 8 Not determined Towing Tank 10 Excellent USNA 33 in two majors 142 Towing Tank 12 Excellent

SUNY Maritime College 24 in two majors166

(including 18 for sea term)

Training Ship 8 Excellent

USMMA 18 145 Machinery 23 Excellent

MIT 21 Unique credit

system Towing Tank

14 Excellent

University of California, Berkeley Not Determined 30 (Masters) Towing tank 5 Excellent

Maine Maritime Academy 10 145–148

(including 7–9 credits for sea term)

Training Ship Not

Determined Excellent

Stevens 15 132 Towing Tank 22 Excellent Univ. of Rhode Island 38 131 Towing Tank 14 Very Good

Naval Postgraduate School 8 Not Determined Not

Determined Not Determined Very Good

Florida Atlantic University 12 136

Marine Systems

28 Good

Texas A&M - Galveston 10 131 Training Ship 6 Good

Villanova University Not Determined Not Determined Typical for

Large university

Not Determined Good

Univ. of Hawaii 14 30 (Masters) Oceanographic 7 Fair

Texas A&M 11 131 Coastal Labs Not Determined Fair

FIT 8 135 Undetermined 35 Fair

Old Dominion University Not Determined Not Determined Not

Determined Not Determined Fair

University of Washington 3 Not Determined Typical for

Large University

1 Fair

Mass Maritime College Not Determined Not Determined Training Ship Not Determined Fair

California Maritime Col. Not Determined Not Determined Training Ship Not Determined Fair

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WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT STATUS Since the supply of engineers with focused education related to naval engineering does not begin to approach the demand, employee development is a critical factor for most large employers of naval engineers. Engineering organizations require experienced talent to deliver cost effective, high quality engineering products. If we do not retain our talent we will be unable to perform the challenging engineering required for naval ship design, construction and operation. Schools that train new engineers must provide the entry level and special talent, but there must be rewarding career paths for these new naval engineers to follow so that they remain in the industry and gain the practical experience needed to establish and maintain a productive workforce. Employee development programs are essential to meeting the community’s needs. To plan for effective employee development one needs to

• Understand the different types of employees that must be served; • Identify mechanisms for employee development; • Assess employee development mechanisms and identify those that have proven

successful and those that have not; • Formulate a strategy for implementing a broad, effective, integrated employee

development program that complements individual employee development programs that are organization or corporation specific; and,

• Establish a means for evaluating performance and guiding continuous improvement of these programs. Employee Domains Within the Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise The naval shipbuilding enterprise is broadly comprised of three distinct groups as shown in Figure 18:

• Engineers developing requirements, preparing designs, and performing engineering in support of the fleet;

• Engineers in the shipbuilding industry supporting detailed design and construction of new ships, and providing engineering in support of ship maintenance and modifications; and

• Educators that provide instruction to engineers across the industry. In each domain there are design agents or consultants that support the primary organizations.

The U.S. Navy and USCG have similar objectives and responsibilities, with obvious differences in scale and mission. The navy’s NAVSEA is responsible for engineering related to ship acquisition and maintenance and, with the PEOs, for managing related acquisition processes. NAVSEA and its affiliated laboratories employ over 30,000 people with a wide range of degree credentials. The disciplines in the navy community are extremely broad and include complex subjects. In addition, NAVSEA is supported by contractors serving as design agents to supplement the workforce and provide specialty skills, and also a variety of other contractors large and small. The USCG performs engineering related to design and acquisition of the USCG Fleet and must maintain those ships in service. The USCG also employs contractors as design agents to supplement the engineering workforce.


Similarly, the shipbuilders are supported by design agents that specialize in detail design or provide unique expertise. In the naval shipbuilding enterprise there are two large shipbuilding corporations, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman operating the largest facilities. There are also many smaller shipyards and builders of small craft that support the navy and USCG. The quantity of engineers and other employees in the shipbuilding domain is large in comparison with the other domains. The nature of the work follows a different cycle than the pace of engineering performed by the government to determine and define requirements. Ships, large and small, require many years to design and build.

The engineers in these two domains are educated and trained through a wide range of educational resources, including on-the-job training. Due to the nature of defense related programs, engineers in the domains of interest are generally U.S. citizens that are capable of obtaining security clearances and working at sites where sensitive information is handled. Because of this, and for other reasons of national interest, this report is primarily interested in domestic educational resources.

Educational resources in the United States include major universities such as the University of Michigan, MIT, and Virginia Tech and specialty schools such as Webb Institute, Maritime Academies, and a wide range of local state and community colleges. In addition, there are many local schools and community colleges that provide employees directly to the industry or provide students that go on to further their education at the schools listed. At each of these facilities there are faculty and staff supporting the industry. These faculty and staff are the employees that are planting the seeds that produce future engineers. We not only need to develop the careers of the graduates from these schools, we need to develop the careers of the educators.

In each domain there are a wide range of positions or roles, each requiring different skill sets. There are many potential career paths. It is also important to recognize that there are future roles that do not even exist today. Thirty years ago, the concept of an integrated design environment manager or an information assurance specialist would not have been the highest priority, but now they are very important to distributed ship design teams. The role of the

FIGURE 18 The three domains of the naval shipbuilding enterprise.

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survivability engineer for a surface combatant has developed along with the available analytic tools and with the complexity of the modern warship. Employee development must meet the needs of the employee and must also meet the needs of the organization, and these needs are constantly changing.

To have a robust naval engineering workforce, the excellent graduates that enter the workforce need to be retained. To retain these employees, opportunities must be provided for personal growth and reward and employees must be equipped with the required skills. It is necessary to ensure that there are employees with the required skills across the full matrix of required roles. As more experienced employees exit the workforce, effective employee development must replenish the community with new, well prepared engineers and employees that can fill the gap. In addition to normal career progression that results in employees leaving the workforce, the roles are changing along with the development of naval warfare. Employees must be brought into the industry to fill emergent needs, such as the need for power system engineers that can design integrated power systems. There is also a need to train and develop the educators that will help to provide the necessary talent and are expert in the new required curricula. Employee development cuts across the three domains of education, ship design from the owner’s perspective, and ship design from the shipbuilder’s perspective. Similar approaches will be tailored to suit each domain. Sharing experiences across these domains will strengthen these employee development programs. Mechanisms for Employee Development Employee development and career development go hand-in-hand. For the purposes of this discussion, employee development includes both the interests of the individual and the organization. How should an individual’s career progress to provide the desired levels of satisfaction, financial reward, security, and satisfy other goals? How should the integration of individual careers progress in order to provide an organization with the necessary mix of talent to meet its obligations? This discussion will consider that employee development is like solving many simultaneous equations; many individual career development choices must combine to provide satisfactory organizational development. On a broader scale, the entire naval shipbuilding enterprise requires employee development to meet the community’s needs and those needs are dynamic.

A review of the literature on employee development will return many models with different definitions for the stages of development. Figure 19 depicts a reasonable five stage model for employee development. For the purposes of this discussion it is unnecessary to distinguish the stages with great precision. What is important is to recognize the pattern of progression and to recognize that the disengagement stage should be managed and related to the development of engineers that will fill the vacated roles. Replacing engineers that are leaving the industry or retiring is a constant process, and it is incumbent upon us to capture the knowledge and expertise and conduct employee development so that advancing employees gain the knowledge, experience, and insight from the departing employees before it is unavailable.

There are some basic and proven employee development strategies. Companies and organizations generally implement performance reviews and periodic discussions about training, education, and experience-based learning. Current management trends promote metrics based or goal oriented employee development strategies. Each company and individual brings their own


The schools discussed in the previous sections provide excellent and varied programs that prepare engineers for the workplace. Some of the schools also provide programs supporting the continuing education or specialty training for employees in the workforce. Organizations that need a particular talent may elect to send an employee to school to obtain a masters degree, or to a short course. The naval shipbuilding enterprise must provide feedback to the educational community regarding emerging educational and training requirements. The educators can adapt their employee development strategies to prepare future educators to meet these needs. Figure 20 illustrates the added challenge that not only must future workforce requirements be predicted in time to prepare employees to meet them, but also the future requirements for the academic community must be defined and implemented in time to prepare effective faculty for addressing new requirements.

While all the linkages between academe and industry have not been determined, there is little doubt in the author's mind that there is room and need for more linkages. In particular the institutions specializing in fields closely aligned with naval engineering should also have close links with the major shipbuilders in this country.

FIGURE 19 Employee development stages.

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perspective to employee development. Different generations have different expectations and responses to different employee development approaches. The basic elements in the employee development toolbox include the following:

• Education and training, • Coaching and mentoring, • Work experience and on-the-job training.

Learning from experience is perhaps the most effective means of employee development.

It has been said that “it takes ten years to get ten years of experience.” It has also been said that “practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent.” Employee development cannot be done on an ad hoc basis. Employee development strategies must provide the most effective delivery possible of education and experience. Resources for employee development may be strengthened by programs that reach across organizations or gather insights from broad industry-wide perspectives. Exchanging roles may provide employees in one part of the community with greater understanding of how their actions impact employees in other parts of the community. Figure 21 provides examples of interactions between employees in each domain that can enhance employee development.113

Most of the large organizations employing naval engineers already have a collection of employee development programs tailored to their specific needs and to their geographic location. Often they have linkages to community colleges to begin the development of entry level technicians who may then gain on-job-training to be followed by college level programs which

113 The greater part of this section has been taken directly from: Shipbuilding Engineering Education Consortium (SEEC), Viability and Operational Concepts, Report prepared by the National Shipbuilding Research Program, June 16, 2009.

FIGURE 20 Inter-relationships for employee development.


are often presented at or near the industrial or laboratory location. It would extremely difficult to begin to identify all of these programs because they are being continuously modified to suit the needs of the organization and they vary widely across the industry. Suffice to say they are likely well defined at each individual organization, but they may not be well coordinated on a national basis. This committee may wish to consider whether there is a need that requires such coordination.

Finally, both of the professional societies with a naval engineering focus have a role and concern for continuing education. At ASNE continuing education activities are ad hoc at this time, but they are exploring more formal programs.114 An example of the ad hoc program conducted in association with ASNE is the forthcoming training course on Ice Class for Government Vessels conducted at ASNE Headquarters by ABS and BMT Technology. SNAME has a permanent education committee with the following role:

“The Education Committee makes recommendations on undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education in the fields of naval architecture and ocean and marine engineering; provides liaison among the institutions teaching naval architecture and ocean and marine engineering; surveys government and industry to learn educational needs; develops means for contact between practicing engineers and students and faculty;

114 Personal telephone conversation between Capt. Dennis Kruse, ASNE Executive Director and Mr. Ronald Kiss, February 2010.

FIGURE 21 Professional exchange to enhance career.

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recommends publication of textbooks to meet academic needs; and sponsors occasional seminars or meetings on educational matters.”115

In carrying out its role SNAME regularly conducts continuing education courses on

topics of interest to its members. Related to this is SNAME’s ongoing effort to support professional licensure. They prepare tests and provide test preparation educational programs. In recent years there was a joint ASNE/SNAME effort to forge a partnership in the education area. To the knowledge of this author, this effort has ceased. In my view this was a fertile area to join forces and this NRC Committee may deem it worthwhile to recommend reinstatement of this effort to cooperate. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS This paper set the stage with respect to the educational issues facing the nation concerning the education of the necessary numbers of students in all STEM disciplines. It drew heavily on the 2007 National Academy report Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America in a Brighter Economic Future. Section one provided some of the more relevant vignettes and some insight into current efforts to address the broader national issues regarding the STEM problem. Current initiatives in the “Educate to Innovate” program launched by President Obama were presented. The bottom line in this area is that this is a national problem that must be solved or it is unlikely that we will achieve success in strengthening our quality and quantity of naval engineers.

Section two of this paper focused on naval engineering and its particular issues. A preferred definition of naval engineering was provided along with an assessment of the demand for naval engineers based on recent work performed under the auspices of the NSRP sponsored by NAVSEA. It was concluded that the total demand for naval engineers was between 2,300 and 3,800 per year. The supply was also considered in the same NSRP study, and was found to be woefully inadequate. Section two also provided some insights into the colleges and universities that are likely potential suppliers to meet the demand, including a somewhat limited discussion and analysis of the enrollment at the bachelors, masters and doctoral level programs at these institutions. The primary indication is that the supply provided by those colleges and universities that are focused on programs closely aligned with naval engineering is woefully inadequate to meet the demand. However, this deficiency merely points out the importance of other sources of supply and the need for quality workforce development programs. These are discussed in following sections of this report.

Section three delves more deeply into the potential leading suppliers of naval engineers. Some 22 colleges and universities are identified as having undergraduate programs with some degree of naval engineering orientation. Each of these institutions is described briefly, and the author has taken the liberty and the risk of providing his assessment of their relevance to naval engineering. It may be concluded that not all of these 22 institutions are likely sources of well prepared naval engineers.

Section four focuses on the graduate programs which are in place at only 12 universities. Brief summaries of the program at each of the twelve is provided and once again it may be concluded that all of these are not strongly related to naval engineering. However, from the 115 http://www.sname.org/SNAME/Education/Home/Default.aspx.


perspective of ONR and its concern for S&T, these are all excellent programs and sources for PhD-level graduates. Yet, the miniscule number of universities involved again points up the crisis in providing both excellent research engineers and future faculty members in the areas of concern.

Section five provides a brief assessment of the workforce development issues and how they are being addressed. Less detail has been provided in this area due to the fact that the charge to the author focused on naval engineering innovation/research and development needs which require a robust and high quality engineering educational system in our colleges and universities. These workforce development programs are perhaps more important in training engineering graduates from universities with little maritime orientation, and transforming them into naval engineers capable of supporting the design of ship systems, development of ship concepts, and the construction of naval ships.

Following are a listing of specific conclusions that may be drawn from the contents of this report:

1. There are only 22 colleges and universities with programs having some link to maritime, naval, or ocean engineering disciplines at the undergraduate level. Not all of these have programs with a strong correlation to naval engineering.

2. Due to the relatively small number of undergraduate programs related to naval engineering, engineering programs and graduates at other colleges will remain a prime source of entry-level engineers for naval engineering.

3. Entry-level workforce development programs are vital to transition engineers from non-marine/ocean engineering colleges into competent naval engineers.

4. There are only 12 colleges and universities with graduate programs directly linked to naval engineering (and some of these are tenuous).

5. It is vital to support and nurture all programs that have a direct relationship to naval engineering, and this must include those that only provide baccalaureate degrees.

6. There is no single organization or entity that attends to the educational needs of naval engineering.

7. There is already a robust focus addressing the K–12 pipeline aimed at increasing the number of young students entering STEM college programs.

8. There are few programs that have strong electric power engineering components. 9. There are very few programs which focus on ship construction engineering.

RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the foregoing conclusions and a great deal of study both in the past year and over the professional life of this author I have a few, but I believe critical, recommendations for the committee to consider.

1. Provide some incentive or support for an organization to oversee and promote naval engineering education. Among its first tasks would be to convince ASEE to include a category like naval, ocean, and marine engineering in its histogram of degree disciplines. This could allow an easier means of tracking the output of degreed engineers in disciplines related to naval

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engineering, and it would provide a much needed recognition of these specialized engineering disciplines.

2. While the limited resources available to support naval engineering academic programs need to be husbanded for the colleges and universities focusing on naval engineering, some resources should be allocated to increasing awareness of naval engineering at the K–12 level. The current Sea Perch program is a good example of this kind of outreach.

3. While it is understood the ONR’s mission is not workforce development, it must be argued that development of strong, innovative science and technology cannot happen without a talented and robust S&E workforce. Arguably the most complex work requires talented PhDs, but it is critical that the feedstock quality and quantity of engineers and scientists with bachelor’s degrees not be ignored. ONR must be encouraged to provide financial support to colleges and universities that prepare men and women for careers in naval engineering. It is these graduates who will become the feedstock for S&Es in the S&T workforce. For those that do not pursue advanced degrees, their naval engineering education will likely lead them to enter career paths in applied naval engineering—helping to design, build and maintain tomorrow’s navy.

4. Due to the increasing importance of integrated electric drive in naval ships, it is recommended that the ONR naval engineering portfolio be expanded to include power engineering.

5. Added emphasis in the ONR naval engineering portfolio should also be given to ship construction engineering.

6. Since engineers engaged in work for the U.S. Navy are required to be U.S. citizens, all navy educational funding should carry the stipulation that it be used to support the education of U.S. citizens.

Documents

Examining the Science and Technology Enterprise in Naval …onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nec/51310Kiss.pdf · 2 Examining the Science and Technology Enterprise in Naval Engineering