Why few people study naval architecture in university?

Hello
I live in Iran,here there is just about 4 schools that have ((Naval architecture)) in B.S,and as you see number of people that can study this field in university would be few,i though this is in Iran but i asked about this field from 5 engineers that live in US and all of them said in US and most other first world countries students show a very little interest for this field and all they go to fields like mechanical engineering or electrical engineering or other fields like this,
so it seems there is not much interest for people to study naval architecture.

Why is it like this?is there any problem with this field that most people do not like it?

thanks

 

I think at a certain age every young bloke out there wants to be a gynacologist, then later in life realize he should rather become a motor mechanic instead

You do what your heart tells you, and become the best of that you can. There are few things worse than to have to do a job every day that you hate.
Life is just too short.

 

Naval architecture is a vocational or "i dream of being" type of job as Fanie says. If you wish to be a mechanical engineer there are also many more companies to work for once graduated too. So the number of companies or job opportunities is less as a percentage too. Hence if you love/want to design boats/ships etc....you select it. If you're not sure what you want...you choose mechanical engineering...as this allows one to do almost any other job much more easily.

Many people want to be rich or make money..so they choose 'business studies' hoping they can start a business to make money. But a business doing what??..they haven't a clue..they think doing business studies or an MBA automatically means making money. Still needs a sound idea or product!

Hence you choose the course which attracts you and your desires..

Which university in Iran are you studying at?

 

Two things:

First; very few people who study Naval Architecture, especially hydrodynamics, actually end up good at it, and that includes people who did well scholastically. I will stand behind the statement that hydrodynamicists are born, not made. Many people can just not "see" flow, which leads to all the hackney flow visualization programs which do no good to anyone. This tends to reduce the effective number of real Naval Architects as those with the degree usually find other lines of productive work, like weight engineering, accounting, or <shudder> Law.

Second; just how many "dream jobs" do you think are out there for Naval Architects where they get to run the show? Boats, ships, and yachts are commodities, not art or valuable unto itself. 2 or 3 dozen naval architects is all the world really needs, as most everyone else just needs the education to have the tools to copy previous art. We see so far because we stand on the shoulders of giants, and really only once or twice a generation anyone comes along and move us to a higher shoulder.

 

Most of the real advancement in the science comes from mathematicians. Look at what Ernie Tuck and Leo Lazauskas have produced. The basic science that they built on regarding wave drag goes back a hundred years. The work Leo has done on the optimising algorithms are not to be underrated either.

 

you will always find proportionately more studying, at traditional seaports, cities with a strong history of shipping e.g Rotterdam, Netherlands, Ukraine, St Pete Ru -- and Pt orchard)
\say hello to Steve Davis for me
In these place s there is work and specialist univercitys

If I were young and bright I would study Nuclear Engineering, this is the future of power generation you could do that maybe in Moscow Kiev
but I would imagine Norway De, UK would not be open to you?
What HARDIMAN says is maybe true, although it is way over my head, take people in the sailing INDUSTRY, like Bruce Farr, thats a born thing , yes siree Bob

 

Good point

i have seen this MANY times on the mines, where i was in charge of the Mineral Benefication Plants.

 

What mine/s Manie?

 

Rick

We were subcontractors to Xstrata at a chrome mine "Kroondal" in South Afirca, 25 43 00S 27 19 14E i was in charge of re-cycling the old slimes dams that still contained a lot of chrome fines. My forte was 80 to 200 micron with cyclones and spirals that we designed and built ourselves. We also designed and built our own verical slurry pumps BUT the best rubber lined pump for normal slurry applications is still a Warman that comes for the good ole land of OZ. All the Yanks Pommies Japs and other wannabees combined will NEVER build a slurry pump as good as a Warman

cheers

 

Manie
In my last real job I became the authority on bug dust. We were grinding to a P80 of 5.5um to liberate. You may wonder how an electrical engineer gets into such things but that is the nature of employment.

I also become very good at designing with Warman pumps. I think our biggest was 14X12 but I would need to check. Even so these were babies compare with the Wirth HP pumps we used.

 

Nizar

Strictly speaking, only a few naval architects are required even in a country. Because there are specialists to do every single job. But the overall coordination of a project could be done only by an experienced naval architect.

 

There simply isn't that great a demand for Naval Architects. I have spent much of my life working alongside Naval Architects and even shipbuilding companies usually have only a few, usually to over see all the other engineering disciplines that do the various systems. Most of them are mechanical, or electrical engineers. I started out to get an NA degree but ended up with Operations Management.

Also in the USA, most naval architects work for the Government, and many people simply do not want to work for the government. (WHY? I dunno. I did and it was great! And I have a great retirement) I suspect that is also true in most maritime nations. The NAs work for the government.

As has been said getting a job designing yachts is a great dream job, but there are probably even fewer NAs making a good living at designing yachts, than people who call themselves Yacht Designers.

 

There are about 8,000 - 9,000 naval architects and marine engineers in the USA, with a huge percentage of these being engineers. As Ike mentioned, the US government employs about 800 NA's and the private sector about 500, with about 500 designers also working in the private sector.

Of the independents, about 1/3 are employed by the industry as line engineers and designers, for the major manufactures. Another third, possible a little more, are solely independent and have hung their own shingle. These do work in the industry, for the government and take commissions. The last batch, about 1/4 of the designers are hobbyists. They take an occasional commission, possably do some work for custom or semi custom shops, but generally they have a day job that can't live without.

Naval architecture isn't something you get into because it's the glamor job you've dreamed of all your life. I've never met an NA that was like this. We all do it because it a passion, a love and a long driven desire. We've been doodling boats since early childhood and it hasn't stopped since. I've never met someone that's just "falling into it" as a career path and everyone I've known has been passionate about the profession they don't get paid enough to preform.

Simply put, there's just not a lot of call for custom boat designs. There is quite a bit of work for industry shipping and of course the government, but this is wholly different then designing the next 40' ketch to replace the Concordia.