Professor Mi Weijian with his team Won the First Prize of Next Generation Container Port Challenge Competition
On April 11, 2013, the Minister of Transport, Singapore, Lv Deyao announced that Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Company Limited and the National University of Singapore won the Singapore International Maritime Awards and shared a prize of 1 million dollars. The local TV station broadcast the award ceremony on live and the mainstream medium including Lianhe Zaobao, Economy Times and the Straits Times, etc widely reported it.
New Generation Container Port Designing Contest is a global event, co-sponsored by Singapore National Maritime and Port Management Administration and Singapore Maritime Research Center.The contest is oriented to glean excellent designing project for the construction of new generation container port in the next decade. The players are divided into groups and each group is required to design a highly-efficient, sustainable and advanced container port on the rectangular land with the length of 2.5km and the width of 1km. The handling capacity is needed to reach 20million TEU, 80% of which are international transfer and the rate of punctuate mooring to reach at least 90%. 56 groups from 25 countries and regions take part in the contest. Besides the champion awarded 1 million dollars, there will be another 6 groups awarded 100 thousand dollars respectively.
1. Coordination and Innovation in the World
The research team led by Professor Mi Weijian of Shanghai Maritime University joined the contest with Singapore National University and Shanghai Zhenhua Industrial Corporation. The name of our project is "SINGAPort", an abbreviation of “Sustainable Integrated Next Generation Advanced Port”. Unlike the traditional "Plane Terminal" model, this project proposes the double-tiered cubic automated port with the help of three car gantry cranes so that the high standard of the contest can be met and the land utility efficiency and productivity can be raised. Meanwhile, our project boasts the features of low cost and low carbon. In this way, our group won the contest. The Singapore Government will take into consideration the thinking model and ideas of this project in the future construction of port. The relevant research result will also play its part in the automated terminal construction both home and abroad.
Our success can be boiled down to the coordinated and innovative model and mechanism, formed by relying on the complementarity of three parties, taking full advantage of multiple discipline and function of university, joining hands with innovative power both home and abroad, and systemizing innovative resources. Behind the impressive creativity are the long-term research result of SMU in the field of application and development of port advanced technology, the cutting edge of Zhenhua Industrial Corporation in research and manufacturing of port facility and the accumulation of Singapore National University in international maritime logistics. It is these advantages that make us win the award.
2. Manifesting Distinctive Features
SMU has long formed the distinctive school management and traditional advantages with the "Logistics Engineering and Management "as the key discipline. Our logistics is comprehensive, covering logistic economy, management, information and equipment. And our overall academic achievement is at the advanced level in China. Since 2006, SMU has been the director unit of the directing committee of university logistics of the Ministry of Education. The logistic engineering and management of SMU, as the priority of Shanghai "085 Project", play an important role in facilitating service economy, especially the modern logistics of Shanghai.
Based on the advantages of SMU in logistics,especially in port logistics, the research team led by Professor Mi, with the common research interest and goal of team members,oriented to port intelligence, informationalization and automatization, has conducted in-depth research in artificial intelligence, automated loading and unloading control, and the vision of loading and unloading equipment. The achievements have also been applied to the future development and overall planning of port, automated loading and unloading, production, energy saving,green port, and the integrated system of information, collecting and distributing. Several research projects, such as "Water Free Collecting and Distributing Information Platform Engineering Project based on Cloud Computing","Container Ship Automated Intelligent System"and "Bulk Cargo Vessel Automated Loading System" have been put in use, earning the applause of the profession.
Production, academy and research have employed their own advantages and formed the strong integrated system of research, development and production. These advantages are displayed in operation. At its core is the facilitation of effective combination of production elements needed in technological innovation so that the scientific theory and social production practice can be tested in joint exploration, leading to creativity and inspiration. Our team has made a lot of achievements and accumulated a great deal of experience in cooperation with international famous enterprises such as Shanghai Zhenhua Industrial Cooperation, Port of Shanghai, Port of Tianjin, and International Bidding. This contest is a window to showcase our capability.
3. Keeping abreast of Times
With the improvement of the container port equipment designing and manufacturing,as well as the new techniques and technologies, China is embracing a wave of constructing ACT （Automated Container Terminal). More than 20 ACT have been built or under construction in the world, while several ports in China such as Shanghai, Tianjin,Dalian, Xiamen, and Guangzhou are in preparation. The informationization, automatization and intelligence are 3 basic development trend of logistic systems. These also serve as the strong technological support of innovative development and model transformation. According to the team, adhering to the basic research direction, they will continue their efforts in building SMU into a world famous research base with the advanced academic capability in new generation port development, through cooperation with Shanghai Zhenhua Industrial Cooperation, Port of Shanghai, Port of Tianjin, and International Bidding and 3-5 years of intensive construction.
