Group Tour of University of Michigan's Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Lab

February 11, 2025

On February 11, 17 members of Detroit Lodge 7 visited the University of Michigan’s school of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering in Ann Arbor. The school maintains the Aaron Freidman Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory on main campus that dates to 1904 and has been used to develop many innovative technologies in the maritime space, including the bulbous bow design. After a brief presentation from Professor Collette containing an overview of the program and what students are taught, the group was guided through the facility by Assistant Director Anika Szuszman.

Members were given a tour of the model workshop where project plans are built into scale models for testing, then rode the carriage in the Model Basin where the hulls are pulled through the water and observed for data collection. The school will be upgrading their wave generator in the model basin this year for the first time since the 1960s. UMich’s program is one of only a handful in the country that graduate naval architects for the industry and their current class sizes hover around 150 students although they say they have capacity to double that.

(click on photos to enlarge)

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