In a country like India, surrounded by water on three sides it is very surprising that only 500 students graduate every year as Naval Architects. GyanCentral provides insights into the course and career options for a naval architect.
A Naval Architect is primarily concerned with the effects of all ocean forces acting on a ship or structure, studying and optimizing the designs of ships, and coming up with cost-effective solutions to chronic prevailing problems.
The reason for such low number of aspirants for this discipline is due to lack of awareness. A student or professional naval architect would by now be accustomed to large number of people who do not even know that such a profession exists. Very few realize that naval architecture is a niche yet booming industry. Ship and naval architects are required to design vessels which transport some of the most precious global commodities. A naval architect with a good vision and observation, would soon realize that optimizing a ship's hull (for those who are not aware about a hull, please find it here) is a lot difficult than it seems to the naked untrained eye. Another factor which contributes significantly to the lower aspirational value of naval architecture is the lower salaries on offer. Every student who passes out of an IIT will dream of working at Google or Mckinsey with salaries running in millions or crores. On the contrary a naval architect passing our from IIT's will usually attract a salary in the range of 4-8 lakhs per annum. This field demands experience and salary levels improve as you gain more professional or industry experience.
The job of the Naval Architect is the most basic and yet a tough one. The designing of a vessel will always be an exciting journey where one has to deal with structures equal to the so called skyscrapers on land. Most of the preliminary work is done by the architect based on which further construction of the ship is based upon.
Capacity, Safety and Comfort will be the primary parameters for a naval architect. The design and fabrication revolve around these parameters and the naval architect has to choose based on the objective of the ship.
1. Capacity quantifies the objective of the ship, specifying the weight or volume of cargo in case of merchant ship, speed or other advantages in case of naval ships, etc.
2. Safety talks about the ship's stability and the localized safety of the cargo and crew.
3. Comfort takes care of the crew, their health, facilities and environment.
In India some of the better institutes awarding a degree in Naval Architecture are
- IIT Madras
- IIT Kharagpur
- Academy of Maritime Education and Training (AMET)
- Cochin University
- College of Engineering, Andhra University
- Kerala Engineering Colleges, Kerala University
- Calicut University
- Kannur University.
The course covers minute structural details, tried and tested orientations of various outfitting, propulsion efficiencies, non-corrosive methods, controls and auxiliary systems, production processes, legal formalities and patterns set by classification societies to name a few.
There are ample opportunities to study further, but are offered predominantly abroad. Few Indian institutes also provide quality education however institutes abroad offer a broad spectrum of information and infrastructure for research. Many institutes in Denmark, Norway, USA, UK, Germany, etc offer sponsored programmes to qualified students. Among them, preference is given to students recommended by reputed professors. Particularly, a fair amount of knowledge about concepts like FEM (Finite Element Method), CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) give students the edge for seeking admissions abroad.
Naval Architecture is a diversified branch and is intuitive (demands the student to innovate and implement) and is not stuffed with formulae. The field of Naval Architecture gives you the freedom of implementing your ideas. The field has heavy dependence on your view of design and does not pertain to any rigid set of rules.
Globally there are ample job opportunities for naval architects. The same can be demonstrated by the fact that approximately 90% of the students pursuing naval architecture from IIT's are placed on campus. A naval architect need not work off shore nor it is mandatory for him to travel on a ship. The placements are usually offered in both public and private sectors. A decently equipped naval architect will find employment opportunities in Classification Societies, Shipyards, Design Consultancies or Organizations like Indian Navy where they work in a tight code of conduct (due to secrecy of operations).
With the hype surrounding other sought after disciplines, Naval Architecture will not be able to compete with computer science or other such disciplines even in near future. However academia and the industry do hope that in the long run naval architecture also shares a top of the mind recall among engineering aspirants.
The author, Ashish Korada is a 3rd year student of Naval Architecture at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.