What is MAST?
MAST! Institute was founded in 2018. Its objective is to bring together and build multidisciplinary competence with the aim to become an acknowledged research institute in the area of maritime digitalization and smart shipping. This is achieved by combining the expertise from Åbo Akademi University’s Software Technology Research Lab and Novia’s Maritime Academy, Aboa Mare - Two well established and internationally acknowledged educational institutions. This novel combination and cooperation creates high potential to respond to arising research and educational needs regarding maritime digitalization and autonomous systems.
Strategical objectives:
- Research maritime digitalization and smart shipping,
- Contribute to the research community and maritime industry by developing new solutions for smart shipping,
- Ensure future seafaring competence.
Expertise
Maritime Simulations
Novia´s Maritime Academy, Aboa Mare, has been a forerunner in maritime simulation in Finland since 1980s. Our state of the art simulators are upgraded on a regular basis to meet the future challenges. Aboa Mare simulators can be used in maritime training, R&D activities and in various testing and product development of our industry partners. The simulation center has ten full-bridge simulators equipped with real navigational systems. An interface between bridges and simulation software makes it possible to connect any kind of navigational or other instrument to the simulator for testing and developing purposes.
Maritime Operations
Shipping operations and marine technology are our core maritime competences. We have a staff of 30 experts specialized in navigation, maritime safety, maritime legislation, winter navigation, environmental friendly shipping, ship machinery and equipment, autonomous vessels, port operations etc. We also have a global stakeholder network to help you to find the connections you need for your R&D activities. Combining maritime expertise to ICT knowledge already in the early stages of the development process ensures that the final product meets user’s requirements.
Software Technology
The Software Technology Lab at Åbo Akademi University has over 20 years of experience in engineering software intensive systems. We do research and development in close cooperation with the industry in foundations and applications and provide academic education and industry training. Our core competences cover the whole software stack from IoT technologies, to cloud computing. In cooperation with our extensive set of industrial partners, we have developed techniques for optimizing the performance of our customers system beyond state-of-the-art, as well as improving the software construction process itself.
Autonomous Safety-Critical Systems
We have more than 200 of person/years of effort in model-based software engineering of safety-critical systems. The Software Technology Research lab is in a unique position to provide solutions to the needs of the autonomous shipping industry. The techniques that we apply in industrial settings include traditional model-based software engineering approaches like UML, SysML, Simulink and model-based testing as well as more advanced techniques like formal methods and model-checking. We cooperate extensively with European networks and have applied our methods in such areas as digital hydraulics, telecommunication networks, and satellite systems.