A senior professor from the Department of Marine Engineering and Naval Architecture in Andhra University noted that a lot remains to be explored about the water bodies in the world and with the rising crunch on the land resources; the seas and the oceans could be the next destination. "Floating cities would become a reality one day," he said.

Be it floating cities or floating international airports or for that matter bulk transportation of goods by marine vessels, across continents, water bodies serve to be a useful medium, and the engineering and science needed to understand its dynamics is in demand. The demand opens up new vistas in the discipline of naval architecture.

Naval architecture is an engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, maintenance and repair of all types of marine vehicles. It practically deals with any body that has to work on water, just like civil engineering that has to deal with anything on land. Naval architects say that the discipline is part of the core industries and it can play a major role in the overall economic development of a country.
Course

The course is a four-year B.E. or B.Tech degree programme that covers the aspects of ship design, ship construction, ship theory, ship maintenance, ship hydrodynamics, ship hydrostatics and ship structure. All the four years are interspersed with practical and hands-on training. The basic idea is to make the students employable from day one after passing out.
Career options

There is a huge demand for naval architects in countries where ship building industry is in a large format like U.S., Korea, Singapore, U.K. and the Netherlands. Naval architects can not only fit in the ship building industry but also in naval dockyards and ship design and research centres. They are in demand both in the private and government sectors.

Naval architects can also join ships for on-board duty after undergoing the one-and-a-half-year practical training on a ship and after receiving the MOT certification from DG Shipping.

Naval architects are considered to be professionals who not only understand the design, construction and running of ships but also the commercial aspects involved in building a ship. This puts them in a niche segment over others.