The education of naval architects and marine engineers in North America

The education of naval architects and marine engineers in Canada and the U.S. is a small but important part of the overall engineering education, at about a dozen institutions. Over the past ten years there has been contraction in the number of institutions offering such education, and significant curriculum re-organization, partly to suit the institutions (Curriculum 2000) but also driven by ABET (accreditation) requirements. The paper will describe the current state of NA&ME education institutions in Canada and the U.S. This will include the stated vision, current programs, number of students enrolled and recently graduated, recent developments, and a look at the future. The role of SNAME in the education of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (high school, university, and continuing education focus) will be discussed, as well as their student design competitions. The U.S. Navy is the source of most ship design and shipbuilding employment (direct and indirect) in the U.S. and it has been active in ensuring that sufficient and appropriately trained professionals are available to support its future ship design and shipbuilding needs. This has been achieved by the formation of a Center for Innovative Ship Design within NAVSEA, developing a progression plan for engineers in NAVSEA, the establishing of programs to support research for faculty at universities thus promoting strong faculty with work that can attract the best students and sponsoring a new summer naval surface ship design program. These programs will be briefly reviewed in the paper.