Singapore Marine and Offshore R&D centre to boost innovation

The Technology Centre for Offshore and Marine Singapore (TCOMS) is Singapore’s first research and development (R&D) centre for the industry.

Jointly opened by A*STAR and the National University of Singapore (NUS)- the centre will receive $107 million in government investment. TCOMS enables the local marine and offshore engineering industry to undertake higher-value activities through various global partnerships.

The new centre announced eight memorandums of understanding with various industry players - including Singapore's Keppel Offshore & Marine and Sembcorp Marine - to explore research collaborations in marine and offshore engineering technologies.

TCOMS’ anchor research facility will be the next-generation Deepwater Ocean Basin (DOB)- an ocean basin facility equipped with state-of-the art wave and current generation systems that can simulate harsh ocean environments - including those in ultra-deep waters.

The facility- slated to be complete in 2019- will facilitate the development of innovative concepts including intelligent floating platforms and ships- autonomous systems- marine robotics and subsea systems.

Research at the facility will be aided by petascale supercomputing capabilities. This allows researchers to access leading technologies such as smart sensing- physical modelling- numerical simulation and real-time data analytics to better understand non-linear fluid structure interactions in complex sea states.

Besides being a research and development facility- TCOMS also acts as a platform to train and nurture upcoming talent in the marine and offshore industry- ensuring the industry’s sustainability and growth.