The Nordic Master programme in Maritime Engineering deals with ships, yachts and offshore structures. It includes their design, construction and operation and their interaction with the environment. It covers the engineering disciplines naval architecture and offshore engineering. 

You learn to apply rational methods within mathematics, numeric analyses, fluid mechanics and structural mechanics to analyze, design and technically operate ships and offshore structures. Moreover, you learn to understand the special, high demands to these structures for instance with respect to safety and consideration for the environment.

The study track Passenger Ships gives you comprehensive overview of the different aspects related to the design, analysis and optimization of passenger ships. The studies cover both the basic knowledge as well as application of risk-assessment methods in ship design. The conflicting interests of various stakeholders will be addressed during the studies, and as a student you learn to create solutions that satisfy the stakeholders’ preferences.

The aim of the studies is to work on the same project ship throughout the specialization semester and work on different parts of this ship during different courses. The courses taken will be chosen so that they support the project work. The knowledge and know-how obtained in this way will at the same time be deep and synthesized. In addition you will be forced to plan the time spent on different parts, providing you the capability to work on challenging projects with limited resources.

Competences gained

After graduation you have acquired special knowledge related to the design and analysis of passenger ships. As a graduate you can:   

• describe the multidisciplinary nature of passenger ship design:
• arts/design: you can describe the connection between the general arrangement and the passenger experience and the related trends,
• economics: you can describe the economical relationship between shipyard, shipowner and passenger,      
• technology: you can classify and apply computational models and methods to assess the performance (stability, resistance, propulsion, structures, machinery) and risks of a design, 
• create a synthesis of the different disciplines of the design problem with emphasis on critical thinking,      
• formulate a design problem in the field of passenger ship design taking into account the multidisciplinary nature of the problem and solve the problem in a systematic and creative fashion,  
• work within a team of experts having different backgrounds (education, values, language, culture).   

Career Prospects

As a graduate you typically work at the shipyard design department, at design offices, classification societies, auth, or in the ship owner’s technical department.

The first two semesters can be done at either of the following universities:   

• Chalmers 
• DTU
• NTNU

Compulsory courses, choose 10 ECTS

Optional courses, choose 15 - 20 ECTS from the list below

^{*) MEC-E8006 does not exist anymore. Instead, choose equivalent course MEC-E8008 Fatigue of Solids and Structures.}

^{*) Students who have received their pre-university education in a language other than Finnish or Swedish, or received their education abroad, are required to complete only 3 ECTS in one foreign language, including both oral and written proficiency. Relevant courses (marked with ‘o’ and ‘w’) are offered by the Aalto University Language Center. The students who have received their education abroad and who already have excellent command of English (e.g. English as their first language) may choose 3 credits of Finnish or Swedish courses instead.}

The Ocean Structures study track is discipline based and gives you a strong foundation for design from first principles of any type of ocean structure. One may group individual courses into 

description of the marine environment, including oceanography and theories for ocean waves, current and wind,

environmental loads, primarily dealing with hydrodynamic forces from waves and current, and rigid body motions from such loads,   

load effects, which means methods for calculation of displacements, internal forces and stresses in any kind of structures from static and dynamic loads. Linear and non-linear finite element analysis is the main tool for such analyses,      

structural capacity, which covers fatigue and fracture based on material properties, but also buckling of structural elements and total collapse of structures,  

marine cybernetics, dealing with control theory relevant for marine operations like station keeping, offshore loading, and use of remote operated (ROV) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV).   

These disciplines constitute the basis not only for design-oriented courses related to offshore structures and conventional ships, but also for courses dealing with marine operations like pipelaying, towing and use of cranes on mobile platforms for installation of subsea modules.

The last year of the program will include a Master thesis pre-project (25-50 % of the 3rd semester) and the Master thesis (100 % of the 4th semester). In typical projects you will apply some of the disciplines on practical problems related to a large variety of ocean structures like new ship designs, offshore platforms, high speed vehicles, fish farms, wave energy converters and offshore windmills.

Career Prospects

As a graduate you will typically be employed in engineering companies involved in offshore projects for the petroleum industry, oil companies and marine entrepreneurs. The largest individual employer of engineers with this background is the classification foundation Det Norske Veritas, whose main activity is ship classification but also deals with risk management in other industry branches.

The first two semesters can be done at either of the following universities: 

•    Aalto
•    Chalmers 
•    DTU 

Compulsory courses, choose 40 ECTS

Optional courses, choose 15 - 25 ECTS

^{*) MEC-E8006 does not exist anymore. Instead, choose equivalent course MEC-E8008 Fatigue of Solids and Structures.
**) Prerequisites must be checked based on earlier studies}

For the most updated information on required courses, please visit NTNU website.

Compulsory courses, choose 22.5 ECTS

^{*) Exam for this course will be arranged in the exam period during the spring semester.}

Optional courses, choose one (7.5 ECTS)

^{*) The language course is mandatory for those who have not completed a similar course in their bachelor degree in Finland or who have not completed / will not complete a similar course at the partner university. LC-1310 Academic Communication for MSc Students (o,w) is recommended to avoid recognition problems at partner universities. Possibilities to take other language courses fulfilling the compulsory foreign language course requirements at Aalto University must be discussed and pre-agreed with the programme coordinator.}

Large quantities of raw material and manufactured products are transported all over the globe by ship. It is a great engineering challenge to develop new ship systems that can make future shipping an even more efficient, safe and environmentally friendly means of transportation than it is today. The aim of the Ship Design track is to give you an internationally attractive and competitive education within planning, design and analysis of large structures from the point of view of strength, hydrodynamic and systems engineering.  

After the first year you will have a thorough knowledge within all main topics of marine engineering: ship stability, resistance and propulsion, seakeeping, manoeuvring and ship structural design. Depending on your previous education, e.g. BSc Naval Architecture or BSc Mechanical Engineering, and the first year at the university, you will also study different elective and speciality courses (see curricula). 

In the second year you will be part of a project team and work with a problem oriented and realistic ship design project with a company from the maritime industry as the “customer”. The student teams will be guided by professional engineers from industry and faculty members from Chalmers. The initial design process prior to an order of a new ship is covered during the project following the demands of the customer. In the project you must utilize and link together knowledge from all the marine engineering courses of the first year. During the Ship design project you will also study two elective courses chosen from a pool of various relevant courses.  

Career Prospects

After graduation you will typically be employed by a ship owner, a consultancy, a classification society, a supplier of marine equipment, a maritime administration or a research institution. Your work will involve a large degree of development, if not entirely directed at research, and it will be done in an entirely international atmosphere and require cooperation with people with different backgrounds, mainly from the maritime world.

The first two semesters can be done at either of the following universities: 

• Aalto 
• DTU 
• NTNU

Compulsory courses, choose 40 ECTS

Optional courses, choose 15 - 25 ECTS

^{*) MEC-E8006 does not exist anymore. Instead, choose equivalent course MEC-E8008 Fatigue of Solids and Structures.
**) Prerequisites must be checked based on earlier studies}

Compulsory courses, choose 22.5 ECTS

Optional courses, choose one (7.5 ECTS)

^{*) The language course is mandatory for those who have not completed a similar course in their bachelor degree in Finland or who have not completed / will not complete a similar course at the partner university. LC-1310 Academic Communication for MSc Students (o,w) is recommended to avoid recognition problems at partner universities. Possibilities to take other language courses fulfilling the compulsory foreign language course requirements at Aalto University must be discussed and pre-agreed with the programme coordinator.}

In popular terms the definition of this study track is that it mainly deals with naval architecture and maritime engineering from the point of view of the ship owner, i.e. it deals with ships at sea. You will learn to apply rational methods in analysing the performance of ships (container ships, tankers, bulk carriers, Ro-Ro ships etc.) with respect to safety, efficiency, economics and environmental considerations. In this way you will learn how to improve and optimize vessel performance from a technical point of view for operation and to participate in design of new vessels with better operational performance.

In the study track the topics of classical maritime engineering (basic naval architecture, stability, resistance and propulsion, seakeeping, manoeuvring and ship structures) are applied in an approach where the ship operation is in focus. In this view, for instance the ship in waves is not only important for the sea loads and motions, but also for the ship structures and the fatique life of the structural elements. The ship motions also result in added resistance and drift forces that should be taken into consideration not only when designing the ship, its propeller(s) and selection of its engine(s), but also for evaluation its best course and speed under given weather conditions.

In addition to the subjects mentioned above, the track contains the following topics:  

• decision support systems for navigational and operational guidance of ships,
• risk-based approaches in the prediction of statistical response values for operational and design evaluations,
• human factors that affect ship operations,
• human factor disciplines in the design process with regards to decision support systems.

The first two semesters can be done at either of the following universities:

• Aalto
• Chalmers
• NTNU

Compulsory courses, choose 40 ECTS

Optional courses, choose 15 - 25 ECTS

^{*) MEC-E8006 does not exist anymore. Instead, choose equivalent course MEC-E8008 Fatigue of Solids and Structures.
*) Prerequisites must be checked based on earlier studies}

Compulsory courses, choose 20 ECTS

Optional courses, choose 10 ECTS

^{*) Not for students who have taken Finite element course from NTNU.}

^{*) The language course is mandatory for those who have not completed a similar course in their bachelor degree in Finland or who have not completed / will not complete a similar course at the partner university. LC-1310 Academic Communication for MSc Students (o,w) is recommended to avoid recognition problems at partner universities. Possibilities to take other language courses fulfilling the compulsory foreign language course requirements at Aalto University must be discussed and pre-agreed with the programme coordinator.}