SINGAPORE: DMET-MERI Alumni (Singapore) conducted its first Technical Meet on September 20 at the Hilton Hotel. More than 90 alumni took time off from their busy schedules and attended the meet.
Manoj Bole, President of the Alumni association, in his opening address touched upon the purpose of organising such an event and also outlined the details of upcoming events.
There were two presentations, one by Avetics Global Pte Ltd and the other by Exxon Mobil Inc.
Weiliang Zhang, CEO of Avetics, explained the use of drones in marine industry and as to how this could assist with tank surveys inside ships, aerial photography of vessels at sea and delivering small packages offshore. Live demonstration of a drone was one of the highlights.
He concluded his presentation by briefly touching upon the technological advancements that are being worked upon for drones that would make them useful for the marine industry.
Wong Suan, Regional Technical Adviser, Marine Fuels, Exxon Mobil, spoke about IMO 2020 Compliance, a new regulation that requires ships to reduce sulphur oxide emissions into the atmosphere. He provided an insight into the challenges that the industry is likely to face in 2020 in terms of availability of low sulphur fuel and additional cost to the maritime industry due to the regulation.
V. Ramaswamy, Senior Territory Manager, (Asia-Pacific South), Lubricants, for Exxon Mobil, briefly touched upon the changes in lubricants that would be required when burning low sulphur fuels in ship’s engines in 2020.
The presentations struck a chord with the all-engineer audience as was evident from the several questions that were posed to the presenters. Based on the overwhelming response and feedback, the Alumni Association intends to host similar Technical Meets on a bi-annual basis in future.
DMET-MERI Alumni (Singapore) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to building a network of DMET-MERI Alumnus in Singapore, provide networking opportunities and boost mutual collaboration. The Association is an alma mater of the ex-Cadets from India’s premier Directorate of Marine Engineering Training (established in 1949 in Kolkata, India). The Institute was later renamed Marine Engineering & Research Institute (MERI). More than 300 alumni are based in Singapore and it is the largest cluster of alumni in any one location around the world.
