Career Services

Career Fair Figures

The 17th annual MMA Career Fair was held on the traditional third Thursday in October.

New Career Services Director, Joe Curtis ’97 arrived just in time to help the Career Services team—Chuck Easley ’08, Deborah Harman, and Christine Spratt—host the event.

Due to the new continuous lunch service in the Alfond Student Center, we discontinued lunch service in the field house (except for company representatives). This change allowed us to expand the table layout, making navigation through the company tables much easier and less congested, which was well received!

More than 550 students and some returning alumni attended to visit with 68 companies.

Among returning companies were: Cianbro, Crowley, Dunlap, Hannaford, Kiewit, and PepsiCo. We also welcomed some new ones: Arizona Public Service, ISO New England, and Schuyler Line Navigation.

All majors were served by this year’s diverse group of companies.

Many companies interviewed immediately after the fair for summer internships and jobs.

—BY DEBORAH HARMAN, CAREER SERVICES COORDINATOR

Photo: Jennifer Dejoy

Waterfront

Bowdoin Crew Lauded

Maine’s official vessel held in high esteem

Maine Maritime Academy was exceedingly well represented this summer at the Tall Ships Rendezvous 2017 (RDV2017) in the Canadian Maritimes by schooner Bowdoin, her captain, and crew.

Quebec City events were kicked off by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, drawing thousands of people to the waterfront. Capt. William McLean ’12 and students in the CR214 and CR313 courses welcomed nearly 4,000 visitors in four days, all while maintaining an immaculate ship, for which they were recognized by the Government of Quebec with the coveted Top Crew Award. Among 39 tall ships from around the world, many of which were representing their home countries, the Bowdoin crew was acknowledged as the very best.

“It was an honor and a great experience for the student crew to take part in the maritime traditions on display in Quebec City,” says McLean. “The recent work done to refurbish Bowdoin’s deck, top-timbers, and topsides triggered many comments about how well the ship looked, and how she stood out as a well-maintained ship within the fleet.”

Student, faculty, and staff volunteers helped to welcome the crowds of visitors for boat tours during the student crew change as CR214 ended and CR313 began in Quebec City.

Blog posts from Bowdoin training cruises are viewable at bowdoincruise.mma.edu.█

Photo: JM Payne

Academics

Smart Moves

Honors seminar teaches critical thinking

Chris Mank, marine transportation operations major, often opens a game of chess with the classic King’s Indian defense: 1) d4 Nf6, 2) c4 g6.

“Tactically, it provides a very flexible position and is very aggressive at times,” he says.

“It relates to real life as does the strategy of a well-made corporation: you build a very good defense at the beginning, then go on the offensive, taking risks to gain advantage.”

Exploring what the game of chess reveals about human nature is the heart of this year’s honors seminar “Chess as Metaphor” taught by Thomas Batt, Arts and Sciences Department Chair; Paul Wlodkowski, Professor of Engineering; and Amy Gutow, Assistant Registrar.

At its most fundamental level, chess is a purely logical function of its parameters: 64 squares, 32 pieces and a set of rules. Yet, when people face each other across the board, logic is only one element in the mix. Memory, imagination and intuition all play a role, along with our ability to handle adversity, read our opponent and solve problems. The many aspects of chess serve as excellent metaphors applicable to everyday life.

Students are nominated by faculty for the seminar from across all departments. Three seminars were held previously on the topics of Cape Wind (offshore wind farm), Communities and Conflict, and Moby Dick. The impetus was to bring together and engage some of MMA’s best and brightest students and allow faculty to collaborate across disciplinary lines in team teaching.

While the discussion-based class (limited to 18 students) draws from diverse subjects ranging from history and culture to spatial thinking and computer science, “it boils down to two words: critical thinking” says Batt.

Wlodkowski notes German philosopher, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who said, “Chess is the touchstone of the intellect.”█

Photo: Shutterstock

Engineering

Engine Lab Cranking

There is a powerful roar coming from the new Andrews waterfront laboratory.

In the spring of 2017 the Marine Engine Testing and Emissions Laboratory (METEL) began its first testing with a medium speed diesel engine. The lab utilizes a Wartsila 6L20 engine coupled with a 1200 KW generator along with associated monitoring equipment to evaluate the operational and combustion performance of alternative fuels and emissions, along with after-treatments. The system is seawater-cooled and set up to operate like an actual shipboard diesel generator set.

“So far,” says Rich Kimball, Professor, Engineering and director of the lab, “we have brought the Wartsilla medium speed diesel lab online and successfully performed tests for industry clients on new fuels and lube oils, including heavy fuels. There are few independent laboratories in the world that have our capabilities,and it is becoming important as the maritime industry is developing new technologies to meet the emissions regulations dictated by the International Maritime Organization, slated to come into effect in 2020 worldwide.”

The engine, which is the heart of the $1.5M facility, was primarily funded by a DOT University Transportation Center grant and is engineered to utilize light and heavy fuel oils, as well as emulsification and continuous fuel-switching capabilities to serve the broadest range of emerging alternative fuel technologies. The lab’s exhaust piping system allows installation of various emissions after-treament technologies, and the emissions measurement system is state-of-the-art in characterizing gaseous emissions (NOx, SOx, CO, etc), as well as particulate emissions.

The METEL lab is set up to conduct test work for industry clients, as well as high-quality engine research on fuels, lube oils, fuel and intake pre-treatment systems and post-treatment emissions systems.

“The lab is a critical component to the training of our students in areas of engine emissions and performance,” says Kimball.█

Photo: Billy Sims

Arts & Sciences

War Talks

Speakers series and class probe the implications of war around the world.

In October at the Alfond Center, author, journalist and filmmaker Peter Davis screened his Academy Award-winning film on the Vietnam War, Hearts and Minds (1974), to the MMA community and public, invited by Adjunct Instructor Katharine Turok and her class, “Documenting War Around the World,” as the first in the “War Talks” series sponsored by Arts & Sciences.

For moments after the profoundly moving film was shown there was silence, punctuated with muted sighs. They were thoughtful moments.

“A lot of students come to the course thinking what’s occurring in the world is represented soley by CNN or Fox News,” says Turok. As they discover in the class and series, “it’s so much more complicated than that.”

Students use an interdisciplinary approach to study the human experience of war, including unintended consequences, from post-World War II through present-day events in areas such as Sudan, Syria and Afghanistan.

It is not an ideologically driven course.

They are assigned international press coverage and authors, such as the classic Michael Herr’s Dispatches and Janine di Giovanni’s recent memoir about Syria, The Morning They Came for Us.

“Some of the issues we deal with are theoretical,” says Turok, “even anthropological—for instance, human nature and aggression—peaceful resolutions, options that include military intervention or diplomacy, rather than taking military action. But also, the class touches students on a very personal level right up to their friends and family, where there might be discussion of a family member’s military experience being shared for the first time.”

The “War Talks” series included Davis, Capt. Nathan Gandy ’92, Commandant; Adria Horn, Director of the Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services; author Sarah Smiley; and Joseph Miller, Iraq veteran and military science and history instructor.

“It is not an ideologically driven course,” Turok says. “It’s simply an attempt to take an impartial look at the human experience of war and its aftermath in literature, film, visual arts and memoir. Most students entering the course believe war is inevitable. By the end, they have a broader, deeper appreciation of the moral, political, military and psychological dimensions.”█

Photo: Shutterstock