Since the 6.25 War, Korea has gone through an incredibly difficult time: the country was devastated by the war and its people lost their homes and lives, and the miracle of the Han River, and the ship industry and shipbuilding and offshore engineering are contributing significantly to Korea’s economic growth and sustainable development for environmental protection.
After the 6.25 War, Korea faced an incredibly difficult time: the country was devastated by the war, the population was reduced by the war, and many people lost their homes. However, Korea has developed rapidly and is called the “Miracle of the Han River”. There were many factors that allowed Korea to grow so economically, but among them, ‘ships’ played an important role. Even now, ships are the largest export of Korea. Therefore, I would like to introduce ‘shipbuilding and marine engineering’, which deals with the study of ‘ships’.
Shipbuilding and marine engineering, as its name suggests, is simply summarized as an engineering that deals with shipbuilding and marine engineering. Shipbuilding means building ships, and it produces many different types of vessels such as merchant ships, yachts, fishing boats, warships, and submarines. Offshore engineering is the study and design of offshore structures and related equipment, which can be represented by offshore plants that harvest and process resources buried in the ocean. This kind of engineering is based on disciplines such as hydrodynamics, which deals with fluids such as water and air, and statics, which examines the stability of structures, and I am currently in the process of learning these subjects.
Korea’s shipbuilding industry is now said to be the best in the world. Seven of the world’s top 10 shipyards are in Korea, and we account for 40% of the world’s shipbuilding orders. In recent years, China has been entering the shipbuilding industry with price competitiveness. Korea’s shipbuilding industry is trying to respond by creating a kind of ‘luxury ship.’ To explain ‘luxury ship’ by analogy with automobiles, there are companies that produce cars that are expensive but of high quality, such as Lexus and Infiniti. Similarly, we are trying to produce ships that are slightly behind China in terms of price, but are of high quality and performance. To improve this quality and performance, many students and researchers, including myself, are designing models and experimenting in water tanks.
Currently, most land on Earth has an owner. It is not in our national interest to discover resources on land that has a clear owner, such as the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, but there are still many unclaimed oceans, which make up a much larger portion of the planet than land. These oceans are expected to be rich in resources, such as oil, that we need. If we can bring these resources to Korea with our technology, it will be a great benefit to Korea, both economically and scientifically. That is why many shipbuilding and offshore engineering students are studying offshore structures, and I am also interested in these offshore structures and strive to contribute to the development of this discipline in the future.
Furthermore, the advancement of marine engineering can play an important role in environmental protection beyond just economic benefits. The marine environment is an important part of our planet’s ecosystem, and it is vital to protect and sustainably utilize it. Through marine engineering, we can develop more efficient and environmentally friendly ships and offshore structures to promote the sustainable utilization of marine resources. I think it is very important to research and develop the discipline in this direction.
In conclusion, shipbuilding and marine engineering is a very important discipline not only for the economic development of Korea, but also for environmental protection and sustainable development. I hope to become a scholar who can contribute to Korea and the world by doing more research and efforts in this field in the future.
