William Webster, Academician of National Academy of Engineering, Professor from UC Berkley

Harbin, August 23, 2024

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

I want to thank the ICNAME for inviting me to say a few words to you this morning. It's a great honor. I have been associated with HEU for almost 20 years, and as a result of this experience, I've been able to do research together with many fine researchers, including Professor Zhao Binbin and Professor Kang Zhuang, and this experience has made me aware of the great opportunity that international cooperation of words.

As stated in the introduction, 70 percent of the earth is composed of oceans and is a source of abundant resources. The development of them requires a variety of complicated engineering, artifacts that present a challenge for any endeavor. The deep ocean isn't a very bad place to do anything. It is a corrosive medium that corrodes almost anything we put there. The sea has waves. They can be very large storms and other things. The result is our environment that we have to work in is an extremely difficult one for us as engineers. The success that we have been able to achieve in conquering these challenges has, in a large part, been the result of the innovative and imaginative research of engineering pioneers by a lot of people like yourself. So I'm proud of my role as one of the fellow naval architects and marine engineers from across the globe for the progress we've made.

The work is a long way from being finished. The problems of pollution, global warming, increased demand from a large population that is yet to catch up with the developed world in terms of needs of resources. It will take the expertise from all around the world to meet these challenges.

As Professor Xia has mentioned, the ICNAME includes a consortium of universities and research institutions from all around the world, from the UK, China, France, Russia, the US. And this consortium, I think, is an important foundation for the making communication amongst all of us work. And I applaud the goals of ICNAME. So ICNAME is now a vibrant group, aiming at developing the new technologies needed for the frontiers opened by the digital age, such as sophisticated networking, artificial intelligence, unmanned and green development of ships and marine equipment. ICNAME builds a cooperation and exchange platform for globally renowned universities, research institutions and industrial sectors to promote high level research, cultivation of talent, technology transfer and most important, sharing this knowledge amongst ourselves.

So the 7th ICNAME meeting, as a special academic conference, will establish a joint industrial project, a joint educational project that involves talent training and academic exchange. This level of cooperation is, I think, essential for us to meet the challenges of the deep ocean. The aim is to provide the infrastructure to facilitate cooperation across these areas, to accelerate the incorporation of these new technologies and to supply the industry with the tech specialists in all phases of the Marine field. It is necessary so that we will be well prepared to meet the challenges ahead. I am proud to be a part of this noble effort.

Thank you.