Engineering Research Overhaul Announced

The Australian Maritime Engineering Cooperative Research Center (AMERC) has announced a major restructuring of its research program aimed at capturing new opportunities for Australia in a sector with enormous growth potential. Announced by Chairman Dr. Don Williams at AMERC '96, the first annual meeting of all researchers and participants of AMERC at the Launceston (Tasmania) headquarters, the restructuring signals a new direction in Australia's already internationally recognized maritime engineering sector. The new research program will encompass all forms of ships, structures for offshore oil and gas activities, as well as fisheries technologies. The first major initiative will be an extensive market evaluation to quantify opportunities from the ocean for Australia. "We have already built a strong research resource to tackle industry's research problems and we are continually attracting some of the country's leading companies as participants in our research program," said Dr. Williams. "What we are aiming for now is to turn our efforts toward capitalizing on new opportunities presented to us, and the bottom line is to ensure that research results are quickly translated into practical use by the Australian industry."