Navantia Australia and UTS launch Marintec

Navantia Australia and UTS formed a joint institute of digital technologies for the maritime sector in May 2022. During the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition, on Monday 8 November 2023, the two organisations officially announced the Marintec brand, and provided an update on key milestones achieved during the past twelve months.

Since its establishment in May 2022, Marintec has made significant progress in developing digital technologies for the maritime industry. The Institute has collaborated with industry partners to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and automation. Marintec has also engaged with key stakeholders in the maritime industry to identify and address challenges facing the sector.

The launch of Marintec is a significant milestone for Navantia Australia and UTS, as it demonstrates their commitment to advancing the maritime industry through digital innovation. The Institute will continue to collaborate with industry partners and stakeholders to develop cutting-edge digital technologies that will transform the maritime industry.

The collaborative R&D activities of Marintec are focused on delivering advanced technologies that are beneficial to the Royal Australian Navy and the wider industry. Navantia Australia’s investment commitment is being allocated towards several areas of collaborative research and development, focusing on advanced software engineering, UX digital expertise, game design, and AI.

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I'm here to launch Marintec, a joint institute, between the Nevantia Australia and the University of Technology Sydney. It's taking a world class maritime company, working with a world class university of technology to deliver real world outcomes not only the industry, but for Australia as a whole, particularly in the space of sovereign capability and delivery of workforce of the future. I'm really excited to be here today for the launch of Marintec, the Maritime Institute of Technology. Right now at Nevantia Australia we'd like to help support the growth of a truly Australian naval shipbuilding and sustainment industry, to have a focus on digital technologies for the maritime industry have research translation to commercially relevant work, and also support workforce development. The collaboration between UTS and Nevantia Australia is great because we can work together where we can get their expertise on the Navy side, we can get the researchers from outside and we can collaborate and make really interesting projects that do solve a genuine need. The scope of Marintec is indeed limitless in terms of what we can actually do together. We will have r&d projects that could help us either train for example, the graduates and PhD students that will be part of the institute, but also move digital technologies forward in the maritime industry. Working with Nevantia Australia through Maritec is amazing. We work on a lot of different projects with real life Navy use cases. I've been involved in a couple of projects with Nevantia Australia are one of them being ship routing, this platform accounts for things like weather risks, geopolitical risks, safety risks. It's a very collaborative approach all about co creation for us. So I think that's how we believe that our solutions will succeed. So in the gamification training project, I worked on the system architecture to enable the remote training using the project. The project allows for remote training for cadets, recruits, and trainees in navy processes. With training specifically, you really want to feel like maybe you have that sense of danger, give the trainees a real world experience of what it might be like. This would empower recruiters or even possible recruits as to what a career in the Navy might be like. All of this really goes to the maritime industry push for the best world in class digital technologies to deliver real world outcomes not only to benefit industry, but also for Australia as a whole.

Marintec and UTS Rapido, an industry focused R&D team, are working together on commercial R&D activities to deliver higher technology readiness level (TRL) solutions that have been presented to the Royal Australian Navy and are being demonstrated during Indo Pacific 2023. Projects include automatic ship routing using digital twin technology to optimise fuel usage, gamification and distributed architecture for naval personnel recruitment, attraction, training, and development, anomaly detection using deep learning models, situational awareness tools, and telecommunications and AI for the operation of autonomous uncrewed surface vehicles.

Marintec is also in the process of developing a joint doctoral degree and mobility agreement with universities to begin PhDs in Spain and Australia. The output of academic research is expected to feed into the R&D activities. Additionally, the Institute is exploring micro-credentials around ship control systems with UTS Enterprise and the Faculty of Engineering and IT teaching and learning teams.

Presently work is underway to complete the fit-out of a purpose-built facility to house Marintec, located in the heart of the Sydney’s Tech Central on UTS’s campus. Marintec’s location in Tech Central will foster collaboration between industry and academia as it is situated in close proximity to the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT, the Robotics Institute, and the Rapido R&D team and prototyping facility. This strategic location will enable Marintec to leverage the expertise and resources available within the precinct to drive innovation in the marine technology sector. The facility will commence operating in January 2024 and house 20 researchers.

The first round of internships and graduate employment opportunities have been offered to UTS students with Navantia Australia, a tangible outcome of Marintec and thus nurturing talent within the Australian Defence Industry labour market.

Marintec’s research focus is on the development of cutting-edge marine technologies. The research conducted at this facility will help to strengthen the Australian Defence Industry’s capabilities and contribute to the nation’s sovereign defence capabilities.