Mechanical Engineering Magazine

MARCH 2018

OCEAN OFFSHORE & ARCTIC ENGINEERING NEWSBRIEF

Amajority of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans, and human activity across and within
the waters of the world’s oceans have
persisted for centuries. The
OOAE Division members
make significant contributions
to ongoing research and
development activities
relating to the oceans,
including offshore oil and
gas drilling and production,
petroleum engineering,
coastal and ocean engineering,
design and development
of offshore structures, their safety and
reliability. There is even a special interest
group focused on ice-laden cold waters of
the Arctic. In the past decade, the Division
has diversified its interest into all forms
of ocean space utilization, including
marine renewable energy, aquaculture
and geotechnical engineering. Altogether,
the OOAED is comprised
of an amazing group of
individuals, who silently
contribute significantly
to safe and sustainable
production and harvest of
ocean resources for human
consumption. Many of the
activities of our members are
showcased in our flagship
annual Ocean Offshore and
Arctic Engineering (OMAE) conference!

Increased intensity of natural events are reshaping our thought processes.

The hurricanes and tsunamis are getting
fiercer causing significant damage to
coastal and island communities. These
bring to light the importance of the work
we do, particularly with respect to safe
and reliable offshore structures and
development of offshore wind energy.
With this in mind, the Division along with
the support of other interested ASME
Divisions is initiating the International
Offshore Wind Technical Conference
starting in 2018.

I welcome you to peruse the next few pages of the OOAED news brief, and please get in touch if you would like to become a member of the Division.

KRISH THIAGARAJAN

University of Massachusetts Amherst email: kthiagarajan@umass.edu

OMAE 2017 was a Great Success!

Welcome Message from the Division Chair

OMAE 2017 was organized in Trondheim, Norway, June 25–30. This is the third time that Norway hosts the OMAE conference. Local hosts for this year's conference were The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (N TNU) and SINTEF Ocean (former MARINTEK).

The participation at the conference was very good with almost 1100 registrants. Approximately 1000 papers were presented in 12 parallel sessions. Two of the sessions were honoring symposia to

Prof. Carl Martin Larsen (NTNU) and Prof. Owen Oakley (Chevron), and Prof. Torgeir Moan (NTNU), respectively. As a new feature, a lecture series in hydrodynamics was also introduced at the end of the conference days. Lecturers were Prof. Odd Magnus Faltinsen (NTNU), Prof. Bernard Molin (Ecole Centrale de Marseille) and Prof Ronald W. Yeung (University of California at Berkley). All well known capacities in hydrodynamics.

The day after closing the conference, a technical tour was organized to Statoil Research Centre and the Marine Technology Centre in Trondheim with 120 participants.

This tour was so popular that there was even a waiting list for participation.

As part of the conference, cultural performances for each day giving some flavors of Norwegian culture were accomplished. Feedback from the participants confirms that they really enjoyed it. As local organizers, we are very pleased that so many of our friends around the world came to Trondheim, Norway, to take part in OMAE 2017.