From left: Toh Ah Cheong, director of technology, MPA; Tay Lim Heng, chief executive, MPA; Yena Lim, managing director, A*STAR; and Dr Raj Thampuran, executive director, IHPC
SINGAPORE, 22 SEPTEMBER 2008 – In a move to enhance Singapore’s status as a maritime R&D hub, two key bodies have agreed to progress a SG$3.4 million (US$2.4 million) collaboration.
The agreement seeks to further enhance Singapore’s status as a maritime R&D hub. Consequently, maritime companies will be able to leverage on the Institute of High Performance Computing’s (IHPC) computational science and engineering capabilities through a three-year maritime research programme.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has signed a memorandum of understanding about the collaboration with the IHPC, which is a research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
Participating companies may explore research areas like the development of advanced designs for semi-submersible jack-up rigs and the application of large-scale computational fluid dynamics.
Promoting maritime R&D
"The MPA has been actively promoting maritime R&D and innovation development over the past few years,” said Tay Lim Heng, chief executive of MPA. “This MOU brings on board a national research institute’s involvement in the areas of port, shipping, and offshore and marine engineering.”
Tay welcomed the participation of maritime companies in the programme. “In the medium to long-term, maritime R&D would bolster the competitive edge of Singapore’s maritime cluster,” he said.
“Since its inception 10 years ago, IHPC has collaborated with the maritime industry through specific industry-oriented research projects,” said Yena Lim, managing director, A*STAR.
Lim said that the signing marked a “consolidated effort” to encourage Singapore-based maritime companies to take full advantage of advanced modelling and simulation methods. “This allows them to innovate and optimise on performance of engineering systems.”
