NTU-CEE Distinguished Seminar Series: Sharing My Educational Approach and Outputs of Some Recent Projects

Host

Prof Tan Soon Keat

About the Seminar

The seminar will begin by giving his educational philosophy that focuses on developing the learning and research skills in students so that they can achieve an equal balance of competence, confidence, and communication skills. The approach is structured into four stages of

(a) building the foundation,
(b) doing the research,
(c) completing the project and
(d) providing the outputs in the form of reports and presentational power point slides.

Two examples of individual projects are highlighted, and these include the devising of an emission methodology for estimating the carbon footprint of ships and safety management of interfaces for ships planning to use ammonia for its fuel. Educating the doing of group or team project is then considered. The background to group project work is first given before examining the communication requirements of the team, members and their contributions.

Two group projects are outlined as examples, and one relates to decommissioning of an offshore oil and gas installation platform for use as a fish farm and the other is concerned with offshore production of hydrogen and the use of the decommissioned jackets as artificial reefs. The lessons learned are highlighted.

The main conclusion is that there is a need for a structural procedure to guide students in developing their research and organizational skills, and in addition special efforts should be devoted to training on all forms of communication.

About the Speaker

Professor Kuo is an academic motivated by the challenge of providing innovative teaching and applying research advances to practice in a range of subject areas. Graduated from the University of Glasgow with PhD degree on ship hull vibration Prof Kuo pioneered the application of computers to ship design and shipbuilding on the Clyde in the 1960’s. He gained experience working in U.S.A on propeller-excited vibration and on his return to Scotland he joined the University of Strathclyde with responsibility for developing postgraduate education and research programmes. He became a professor in 1972 and served as the Head of Department of Ship and Marine Technology for 20 years. Presently his research interests include decommissioning of offshore installations, generation of offshore renewable energies and safety management on the use low greenhouse gas as marine fuels.

Professor Kuo believes in the need to share knowledge with students and professional colleagues, and he is the author of six books on computer applications, business fundamentals for engineers and the latest one, entitled “Safety management and its maritime application was published in 2007. He also written over 160 papers in Conferences and Journals. In all the areas of his interests he has gained international recognition.