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April 2012 www.sname.org/sname/mt scientific work, these students are exam- ined and can obtain the PhD degree. As part of the research education, all graduate students should work in close relation with industry and present and represent Chalmers University of Technology worldwide at work- shops, seminars, and conferences. The Department of Shipping and Marine Technology was established in 2006 during a major reorganization of the departments, and its current organiza- tion with two divisions became e ective in January 2012. Since it was established, the strategy has been to perform multidisci- plinary work across the natural borders of all research groups, both in education and in research. As a result, the department hosts internationally recognized compe- tence centers such as Lighthouse, the Ocean Energy Centre, the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Computational Hydrodynamics, and a Simulator Centre for full ship operation and cargo operations. e sta at the department is a mix of personnel with either several years of prac- tical experience from shipping, higher academic degrees, or a combination of the two. e education and research within the department creates knowledge and people with competence to develop shipping to be an integrated part of safe, ecient, and envi- ronmentally-friendly transport systems. The Lighthouse Competence Centre Lighthouse is a multidisciplinary maritime competence and research center initiated by Chalmers University of Technology; the School of Business, Economics and Law at Gothenburg University; and the Swedish Shipowners Association. It was established in 2006 with the aim of making shipping more efficient, safer, and more environ- mentally friendly, as well as to ensure that Swedish shipping continues to be compet- itive. Lighthouses vision is to be a beacon for research projects, educational e orts, and innovation activities within the mari- time sector. The mission for Lighthouse is to con- tribute to a clean and safe globalization through the communication of new knowl- edge retrieved from multidisciplinary ways of working. e center brings research into ship construction, maritime safety, human factors and hydrodynamics together with maritime environment, logistics, maritime law, business analysis, and world trade along with other nancial issues. It serves as a knowledge bridge between research, education, and active shipping in close cooperation with the shipping industry. To fulll its mission and be able to coordinate and communicate activities and scientic results, Lighthouse is divided into six the- matic areas: business ship, cargo ship, eco ship, ergo ship, info ship and safe ship. We will describe two of the ships in more detail, together with some recent activities. Joint background: cargo ship and ergo ship Shipping at present is a business with more and larger ships, fewer crewmembers, more technology, and more accidents. e demands this puts on people onboard needs to be studied and the tasks and workplaces must be developed in step with technologi- cal, regulatory, and organizational changes. It also is important that this be done in close cooperation with the professional end users. Human factors, also known as ergonom- ics, is a scientic discipline, dealing with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and is a profession that applies theory, prin- ciples, data, and methods to design in order to optimize human well being and overall system performnce. e shipping business is about how to carry out seaborne transportation with the highest possible transport efficiency at the lowest possible cost. Todays mea- sure of transport eciency may, however, not be tomorrows as the sizes and proper- ties of vessels of tomorrow will be di erent from the fleet of today. Cargo ship is the Lighthouse theme area in which we study, assess, improve, and develop marine structures, and cargo operations and load handling equipment primarily based on a need, functionality, or safety driven request. e focus today is on the ship as a cargo car- rier with transport eciency as the overall driver considering, among other things, safety, sustainable development, global wel- fare, and environmental impact. Research strategy The interaction between activities in the Lighthouse thematic areas is necessary to fully reach the ambitions of the Lighthouse core values and the objectives with the the- matic areas themselves. Cargo ship deals with education and research with focus on marine structures, marine transport solu- tions, and their characteristics and roles in the transport chain. With the ship as the cargo carrier in focus, all activities in cargo ship are by definition multidisciplinary. Ergo ship has the aim of contributing to the working environment onboard and at relevant places ashore, to make them safe, ecient, e ective, reliable, satisfying, com- fortable, and finally attractive as a work place for new generations of seafarers. We are actively involved in the development of usable technical systems, well designed with and for seafarers; systems with a high degree of consistency, requiring a low amount of training, and ideally, systems for which no manuals are needed. Multidisciplinary research Ergo ships mission in Lighthouse is stated as shaping ships for people by providing human factors knowledge, meth- ods, and tools.? In this context, human factors is defined as a multidisciplinary area of research that focuses on the human element in the work environment. Human factors scientists aim to limit the risk of accidents and improve work conditions by foreseeing possible problems early. To do this, they incorporate contributions from psychology, engineering, design, and operations research. e research concerns evaluation and analysis of shipping-related onboard work, and planning and design of control centers on ships; that is, mainly the ships bridge and engine control room. Ergo ship works Approximately 14,000 people, including 2,500 employees, work and study in Chalmers 17 departments.