NEWS

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HDKSOE) is joining forces with MIT to conduct research into future technologies for the shipbuilding and offshore sector.

HDKSOE announced that on March 18th (local time), it held an inauguration ceremony for the MIT Maritime Consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. The consortium, led by MIT’s Department of Ocean Engineering and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, aims to drive technological innovation and decarbonization in the maritime domain.

Founding members of the consortium include HDKSOE and MIT, as well as Greek shipping company Capital and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), among other leading entities in the global shipbuilding and maritime industry. Greek shipping firm Dorian, the Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI), and the UK-based renewable-energy investor Foresight Group are also joining as “innovation members” to collaborate on R&D.

Through its participation in the consortium, HDKSOE plans to demonstrate Avikus’s autonomous navigation solution HiNAS Control and its integrated AI-based autonomous navigation solutions currently under development, and then work with MIT researchers to establish a robust, credible verification framework for fuel-saving performance. In parallel, the company aims to further advance the development of SMR-powered vessels—seen as a future ship type for the industry—and thereby accelerate the commercialization of marine nuclear technologies.

Professor Themis Sapsis, Director of the MIT Center for Ocean Engineering, said, “This consortium will play a key role in developing new technologies and setting international standards for decarbonization in the maritime sector,” adding, “We will strive to deliver the best possible outcomes in a wide range of fields that MIT is focusing on, including autonomous navigation, artificial intelligence (AI), and the integration of nuclear technologies—areas that are central to the ships of the future.”

Chang Kwang-pil, Head of Advanced Research Center at HDKSOE, said, “We plan to carry out integrated verification of various AI-based autonomous navigation solutions that we are co-developing with Avikus,” and added, “By participating in the consortium, we will take the lead in setting global technology standards and spearhead the development of next-generation eco-friendly ships that combine both economic feasibility and safety.”

*MIT Schwarzman College of Computing: An AI-focused college at MIT established through a USD 1 billion investment. It is named after Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone, who donated USD 350 million toward its creation.