A few weeks ago students of the Msc on Smart Maritime & Surveying Systems from the SMARTSEA project completed an important stage in their professional development at the graduation of the first ever master’s degree in the smart maritime sector.

Students of the Msc on Smart Maritime & Surveying Systems of the SMARTSEA project.

The International Hellenic University (Greece) has been the meeting place for the 20 graduates who, during one academic year, have been trained in technologies such as the Internet of Things, Blockchain or Artificial Intelligence and in their application in maritime projects and solutions.

Juan Manuel Corchado, director of the BISITE group and the project’s coordinator, participated in the graduation to summarise the objectives achieved and congratulate the graduates.

Juan Manuel Corchado during the closing of the SMARTSEA project.

The occasion also served as a meeting for the project partners. Representatives of the BISITE Research Group from the University of Salamanca, University of Ljubljana, International Hellenic University, Maritime University of Szczecin, Tallinn University of Technology, Escola Superior Náutica Infante D. Henrique, a research centre (National Institute of Marine Research and Development Grigore Antipa), SMEs: Cerca Trova Ltd, ECQA GmbH and three environmental and shipping survey companies: Creocean, RINA Hellas SA, Danaos Shipping Company Ltd.

We appreciate the involvement of all partners over the course of the development of the whole project and hope that it has been of great value to the students.

The information and views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the institutions and bodies of the European Union nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Posted by Juan M. Corchado

Juan Manuel Corchado (15 May 1971, Salamanca, Spain) is Professor at the University of Salamanca. He has been Vice-Rector for Research from 2013 to 2017 and Director of the Science Park of the University of Salamanca. Elected as Dean of the Faculty of Science twice, he holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Salamanca and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of the West of Scotland. He leads the renowned BISITE (Bioinformatics, Intelligent Systems and Educational Technology) Research Group, created in 2000. Director of the IoT Digital Innovation Hub and President of the AIR Institute, J. M. Corchado is also Visiting Professor at the Osaka Institute of Technology since January 2015, Visiting Professor at the Universiti Malaysia Kelantan and Member of the Advisory Group on Online Terrorist Propaganda of the European Counter Terrorism Centre (EUROPOL). J. M. Corchado has been president of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, and academic coordinator of the University Institute for Research in Art and Animation Technology at the University of Salamanca, as well as researcher at the Universities of Paisley (UK), Vigo (Spain) and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK). He currently combines all his activity with the direction of Master programmes in Security, Digital Animation, Mobile Telephony, Information Systems Management, Internet of Things, Social Media, 3D Design and Printing, Blockchain, Z System, Industry 4.0, Agile Project Management, and Smart Cities & Intelligent Buildings, at the University of Salamanca and his work as editor-in-chief of the journals ADCAIJ (Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal), OJCST (Oriental Journal of Computer Science and Technology) or Electronics MDPI (Computer Science & Engineering section). J. M. Corchado mainly works on projects related to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, IoT, Fog Computing, Edge Computing, Smart Cities, Smart Grids and Sentiment Analysis. He has recently been included in the board of trustees of the AstraZeneca Foundation, along with other health professionals and researchers recognised for bringing scientific knowledge closer to society.