Ireland Uniquely Positioned To Use Marine ICT

The workshop was organised by the Institute to explore the opportunities for economic growth presented by the convergence of new technologies such as robotics, sensors, grid and cloud computing, with applications to marine related activities such as environmental monitoring, ocean energy, marine safety and aquaculture.

“All across the world, next generation information and communications technologies are needed to allow the sustainable economic development of our oceans which, as a source of food, transport and energy is our greatest natural resource,” said Dr Peter Heffernan, CEO of the Marine Institute.

“Ireland has over 220 million acres of marine area and, as a country with a strong expertise in ICT, has significant potential to be a world leader in the provision ICT enabled decision support tools to the global marine sector.”

Ireland already has over 50 companies providing ICT solutions to the global marine sector.

Irish research expertise highlighted at the SmartOcean workshop included: the development of unmanned, autonomous and remotely operated underwater vehicles at the Mobile Marine Robotics Research Centre of the University of Limerick; advanced computer simulation of marine data from the company RealSim; and real time acoustic monitoring of marine mammals such as whales and dolphins by Biospheric.

Meanwhile, the MERC consortium in Cork have successful projects underway in ocean energy, maritime technologies and security and, at Dublin City University the MESTECH Marine & Environmental Sensing Technology Hub has successful projects underway in the areas of visual sensing, the prevention of biofouling in the aquatic environment and specialised sensing platforms that can provide biological and chemical analysis remotely.

“While there are significant challenges for the development of reliable technology solutions that can survive deployment in the challenging and dynamic conditions of our marine environment, great progress has already been made in Ireland,” said Dr Barbara Fogarty, Co-ordinator of Ireland’s National Marine Technology Programme.

“This is due to competitive research funding provided by national and international sources, including the Marine Institute which has supported projects across the ICT sector."

Presentations at the Conference ranged from updates on the development and use of intelligent machines for underwater inspection to the use of wireless technologies to enable offshore developments and environmental monitoring, as well as offshore aquaculture development, wave energy generation and marine security.