Visit to the Department of Naval Architecture, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade

Vice Dean for Development and Innovation of the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Kotor Tatijana Dlabac, PhD, visited the Department of Naval Architecture at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade, on Wednesday, June 1. The Department of Naval Architecture is one of the 25 departments of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade, which is one of the oldest higher education institutions in Serbia.

Department of Naval Architecture of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering was founded in 1948. This department enables education of students in the master's program, who after graduation are able to deal with design and manufacture of all types of ships from design to final product - the ship. Next to students who have completed undergraduate studies in the amount of 180 ECTS credits at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, students who have completed undergraduate studies (BSc) in the amount of 180 ECTS at one of the related faculties, i.e. educational profiles, are also studying in the shipbuilding master program. The Department of Shipbuilding is proud of the fact that there is almost no graduate student of shipbuilding who does not work in his profession today. Moreover, a large number of current students work in the profession, because the needs of the market are great for this type of engineer.

During visit to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, members of the Department of Naval Architecture at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade are prof. Dlabac presented the resources available to the Faculty and a large historical collection of ship designs and their finished models that are designed and made for foreign clients. The ships were designed and built by engineers trained at the Department of Shipbuilding, and the shipyard "Tito" from Belgrade was most often hired for construction. It is interesting that one of the largest programs in the former Yugoslavia (Iraq program) included the complete design and construction of 98 dry cargo barges for Iraq. The project was so large that even the Bijela shipyard was engaged in the construction of one of the ships, although it dealt exclusively with overhaul. It is interesting that the barges were transported by stacking them on the deck of a large tanker in four rows in height. The barges were loaded in the Danube Delta and unloaded in the Persian Gulf. The construction of the ships was done according to the regulations of the then Yugoslav Register of Ships.

In addition to ship projects, the Department of Shipbuilding has its own student team called Confluence Belgrade, which has achieved a great success at international student competition Hydrocontest in St. Tropez. This competition brought together shipbuilding students from all over the world, from the most famous universities, with the aim of promoting the energy efficiency of ships. The students had the task to design and make the most efficient vessels of the given dimensions and to participate in the competition (race) with them in order to show their design skills. In 2017, the team won second place in the category of light cargo ships and third place in the category of heavy cargo ships. The following year, 2018, the student team from the Department of Shipbuilding became the champion, winning first place in the category of ships for the transport of heavy cargo. It is interesting that several shipbuilding students from the Bay of Kotor participated in the team.It should be noted that there are decades-long ties between the Department of Shipbuilding and especially - the Bay of Kotor. A huge number of shipbuilding engineers from the Bay of Kotor have completed this course. They work in their profession in Montenegro, Serbia and the world. In the world, they work in the most famous shipping companies and classification societies in jobs that require the greatest competence and responsibility. Some of them were or still are professors in the department. Some were the best students of this department and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in general, and as such they were remembered. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Department of Shipbuilding, out. prof. Dr. Nikola Momcilovic, ext. prof. dr Milan Kalajdžić and doc. Dr. Stefan Rudaković for a warm welcome and a separate time.