Modern world
Saving lives at sea
UWC Atlantic College and Rolls-Royce work together to save lives at sea A group of United World College students have been working with Rolls-Royce engineers to lay the foundations for a collaborative project which aims to design and develop new technologies that could save lives at sea. Seven students at UWC Atlantic College in south Wales have been developing their ideas for new marine technologies, such as scouting drones, which could aid the search and rescue process at sea, alongside three of Rolls-Royce’s most experienced marine specialists. The ideas were born from the students’ personal experiences of working on the rigid hull inflatable boat (RIB) – the world’s most widely used craft for inshore rescue, developed and tested in the 1960s by Rear-Admiral Desmond Hoare, the College’s founding principal, in collaboration with College students. The early RIB X craft were built and test-driven along the dramatic Bristol Channel coastline by Atlantic College students. Now known as the Atlantic Class, the design that developed from the original ‘X Alpha’ prototype revolutionised maritime rescue worldwide and became the model for RNLI inshore boats across Britain. UWC Atlantic College is recognised as the founding member of the global United World Colleges education movement and the development of the RIB commenced shortly after the College’s opening at the 12th century St Donat’s Castle near Llantwit Major in 1962. The patent for the RIB was created by Desmond Hoare who donated it to the RNLI for £1 in 1973. A copy of the still uncashed cheque hangs framed on a wall at Atlantic College. Having experienced the difficulties of searching for and rescuing people in trouble at sea at first hand in the course of their College service and lifeguarding training programme, the project team felt driven to come up with new solutions to aid the process, utilising their knowledge of drones and unmanned aerial vehicle technology in combination with artificial intelligence (AI).
28
Spring 2019
UWC Atlantic College’s collaboration with Rolls-Royce is part of its commitment to forging relationships between education and industry, as the College plans to develop a new 21st century diploma pathway in collaboration with the International Baccalaureate. Impressed by the students’ ideas and enthusiasm, Rolls-Royce assigned a team of marine engineering specialists to collaborate with the students and help transform their ideas into reality. Simon O’Connor, a marine engineer in Rolls-Royce’s naval business, Bernard Twomey, regulatory development lead (marine), and Don Murray, senior vice president (manufacturing), travelled to the College to work with some of the students to develop systematic approaches to solving problems faced by search and rescue teams at sea. Each year, the 360 Atlantic College students who come from more than 90 different countries spend ‘Project Week’ participating in co-curricular and experiential activities as part of their UWC education programme. Erol Balkovic, 18, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, a secondyear student involved with the project said: ‘In our first year at UWC Atlantic College, we had the opportunity to experience real search and rescue missions aboard the RIB. It can be incredibly hard to find what, or who, you are looking for in those conditions. One of our ideas revolves around the idea that technology can essentially become the eyes and ears of a search and rescue team, pinpointing the location of a person or boat in trouble and making the entire process more efficient. This could help save lives otherwise lost at sea. This mentoring opportunity with Rolls-Royce allowed us to develop our ideas. It was an eye-opening session for us, and we cannot wait for the next one.’ The day included discussion around topics such as automation and physics, and the group also considered the materials and manufacturing processes that could be utilised when turning their ideas into physical products.
