Session: 16-09-01 Ocean Engineering Education and Research Program I

Submission Number: 182251

Developing the Brazilian Offshore Industry Through Ocean Engineering Education and Research 

Since the 1970s, Brazil has become a leading country in deep and ultra-deepwater oil and gas exploration. This pioneering effort required significant commitment from national universities, institutes, and research centers to develop the necessary technologies, as the urgent demand was driven by challenges from the continuous discovery of new exploration frontiers, each with its own particularities and specifics. It became essential to train a new generation of highly skilled professionals with the mission of expanding and improving this strategic activity to achieve Brazil’s autonomy.

This paper aims to demonstrate how education and research related to the design and analysis of offshore systems have been conducted by the University of São Paulo and partner institutions. This work is set within the context of an industry that has faced significant challenges but also presented numerous opportunities. The paper will discuss the experiences from the past decades teaching various undergraduate and graduate courses, conducting research, and educating engineers, master's students, and PhDs who are now working in different areas of this industry.

First, the evolution of topics across various courses, such as platform sizing, mooring systems, riser design, and offloading operations, among many others, will be described in detail. Additionally, recent experiences using active learning methodologies will be presented, including exchange programs that adopt Project-Based Learning (PBL) to compose teams, solve an ocean engineering problem, and ultimately present their solutions and conclusions through a competition. In this competition, each group built a scaled model to be tested in a towing tank to determine which team achieved the best performance.

Finally, current efforts to address the new challenges of Industry 4.0 in the ocean context will be outlined, emphasizing the need to update courses and curricula, especially at the graduate level, to cover urgent topics like decarbonization, digitalization, and energy transition. These activities have occurred within an expanding framework of national and international collaboration, involving student and researcher exchanges, faculty collaborations, and remote classes with participants from multiple countries.

Presenting Author: Daniel Prata Vieira University of Sao Paulo

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Daniel Prata Vieira is a Professor in the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. His teaching and research focus on the design of ships and ocean systems, integrating technical, computational, and operational aspects. He specializes in hydrodynamics, vessel motion in waves, mooring systems, port navigation, and naval operations. His experience covers hydrostatic and stability analyses as well as the development of innovative methodologies for the design and simulation of ocean systems. He is also engaged in extension and innovation projects aimed at sustainable marine solutions, including floating renewable energy and coastal adaptation. With an interdisciplinary approach, he seeks to bridge theory, practice, and societal impact, preparing engineers to address current and future challenges in naval architecture and ocean engineering.

Authors:

Daniel Prata Vieira University of Sao Paulo
Henrique Gaspar Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Rodolfo Gonçalves Japan Blue Energy
Pedro Mello University of São Paulo
Claudio Sampaio University of São Paulo
Bernardo Andrade University of São Paulo
Kazuo Nishimoto University of São Paulo