​​​​More about the lecture

In January 2019, South Africa's polar supply and research vessel, the SA Agulhas II embarked on the Weddell Sea Expedition to hunt for Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance - a wreck lost 3000m deep under the multi-year ice of the Weddell Sea. Even today, the last vessel to navigate in this area was the German Polarstern in 2002. The SA Agulhas II and her ice-going capabilities would be put to the test in this extreme environment. Throughout the expedition - the ice pilot, a master mariner, recorded situations, where the vessel was operated to her limit according to his intuitive judgement. The SA Agulhas II is equipped with 200+ sensors as part of an extensive monitoring campaign - are these risks reflected in monitoring measurements? How can such data deliver insight to benefit ship operations and inform vessel management towards ship autonomy?

More about the presenter:

Anriëtte (Annie) Bekker pursued her under-graduate (2001) and Masters (cum-laude, 2004) degrees in Mechanical Engineering at StelIenbosch University in South Africa. She continued towards her PhD in injury mitigation in the development of landmine resistant vehicles at the University of Cape Town and graduated in 2008. From 2008 to 2011 she worked at Optimal Energy (Pty) Ltd, a South African company which endeavoured to design and engineer Africa's first battery electric vehicle. Since 2011, she has been permanently appointed at Stellenbosch University as a senior lecturer (2011 – 2018) and associate professor (2018 to present) in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering. She teaches under-graduate courses in Sound and Vibration and Strength of Materials and is the director of the Sound and Vibration Research Group. This Group is currently focussed on the psychoacoustic design of electric vehicles and vibration responses of polar supply and research vessels in the Arctic and Antarctic. Further research interests include occupational health studies on whole-body vibration exposure, signal processing and modal analysis.

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