TELFORD INSTITUTE
CONTAINMENT SPECIAL
The National Telford Institute Workshop
DOES ENGINEERING HAVE A GREATER ROLE TO PLAY IN AQUACULTURE? By Peter Davies, Director of the National Telford Institute
E
ngineering as an academic discipline has largely been ignored by the aquaculture industry – but engineers and aquacultur- alists are now beginning to work together to share ideas. In a bid to inspire greater col- laboration between the two fields, on 24th and 25th February 2010 the National Telford Institute (NTI) and SARF staged an aquaculture Orientation Workshop at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This discussed the strategic de- velopment of engineering-related aspects of aquaculture in Scotland and, it was hoped, the workshop would pave the way for future aqua- cultural innovations and engineering solutions. NTI is an alliance of Scottish universities, formed in 2007 to facilitate and promote research collaborations in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering and to enhance the position of Scotland as a world class centre for engineering research. The idea of holding an Orientation Workshop to bring together researchers in the Scottish universities with practitioners from the aquaculture industry, Scottish government representatives and other interested stakeholders arose from a conver- gence of interests identified by Mark James and Bill Ritchie from SARF and Vlad Nikora and me from NTI.
AUTOMATED METHODS FOR THE DETECTION OF BREACHES WOULD HELP
94
Against the background of the imminent Scottish Marine Bill and the publication of A Fresh Start, their principal preoccupation at that time was with exploring and identifying areas of opportunity for the university research sector to contribute to long term strategic developments in the aquaculture industry, not least in the wider contexts of movements of production to exposed sites and progressive up-scaling of installations. It became clear from such discussions that many of these developments would be associated with a wide range of technical challenges, many of which would (or already do) require engineer- ing solutions and engineering innovation. This is particularly true if speculations concerning combinations of aquaculture operations with renewable energy and/or large-scale biofuel production are to be realised in the long term. Of course, solutions to practical problems (particularly those associated with contain- ment) are required urgently. But whether the emphasis is placed on such pressing issues or the longer term the exploitation of engineering research expertise available within the Scottish
universities offers an opportunity for a profit- able partnership with the industry. The Orientation Workshop was a first step in identifying common interests between aca- demic researchers and the significant stake- holders in the aquaculture industry. At the very least, it has established a ‘first port of call’ facility for practitioners in the industry wishing to interact with the research community and it has provided an international perspective through the participation of Norwegian col- leagues. The ideas developed at the Workshop have exposed researchers to a wide range of new applications and it is our hope that these synergies can be developed further. As organisers of the Workshop, Mark and
Peter were gratified by the response and com- mitment of the participants and pleased to note the emergence of individuals and groups having the enthusiasm to explore some of the new problems to which they had been exposed. They now seek to investigate oppor- tunities for closer, specialised interaction with relevant parts of the aquaculture industry. The National Telford Institute is in an excellent po- sition to take forward these embryonic interac- tions, particularly in the areas of hydrodynam- ics, foundations and moorings, fluid-structure interactions, sensors and monitoring devices, materials, structural design, transport and renewable energy. The Workshop has provided an excellent base on which future projects can be built as well as informing the ministerial sub-group on contianment.
A total of 48 delegates attended the work- shop from 28 different organisations – includ- ing 11 delegates from the industry, 6 Gov- ernment/Regulators, 29 from the academic community and 2 from an NGO. In addition to online briefing material, plenary presentations were delivered to delegates to familiarise them (where appropriate) with aquaculture and to ensure a common understanding of some of the opportunities and challenges.
The primary aims of the workshop were: • To raise awareness of the aquaculture sector amongst the engineering research community (particularly within the university sector). • To enhance Scotland’s engineering research capacity and expertise in the aquaculture. • To identify knowledge gaps and, where ap-
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100