Big Data and Risk Analysis

1. Context, definition of the problem

The STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping) Convention requires that training and assessment of seafarers are administered, supervised and monitored in accordance with the provisions of the STCW Code.

Institutions and courses must be approved by the national maritime administrations of parties to the STCW Convention. Escola Superior Nautica Infante D. Henrique (ENIDH) is the only institution in Portugal approved by the national maritime administration (Direção-Geral de Recursos Naturais, Segurança e Serviços Marítimos - DGRM) to train and assess officers. ENIDH offers higher education courses which are audited by the national higher education accreditation agency (A3ES), by the DGRM and by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), as well as short STCW courses which are also audited by DGRM and EMSA.

The education programmes for officers also comply with the requirements of the STCW-F (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel) and with national requirements for pleasure craft operators.

The constant evolution of the maritime industry results in regular updates to the training requirements. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) regularly updates and publishes new model courses, designed to help training institutions to maintain the desired standards. On the other hand, regular audits put pressure on education and training institutions to ensure their programmes are always up to date.

One of the problems identified in the course approval processes is the fulfillment of all requirements defined in the applicable legal documents.

In this sense, the solution to be developed will allow the verification, that the courses contain all applicable legal requirements. In case of differences, the solution will identify those differences.

This solution will allow a better verification of compliance with legal requirements, comparing all course units with the contents of applicable legal documents and identify the missing contents or contents that are difrente of legal legislation applicable.


2. Challenge definition. Description of need

We propose the development of an intelligent solution to verify the compliance of the maritime course programmes with the various different requirements.

The main objective of the solution is to compare whether all the contents defined in the legal documents are introduced or not in the curricular units of the Bachelor and Master degree course in Bridge and Deck Operation.

If some of the legal requirements are not introduced in the curricular units, the missing content should be identified.

If the curricular units have content that is not part of the legal requirements, those contents must also be identified.

This solution shall be able to import the course programmes from the training institution database or from text files, import the files containing international Codes, applicable legislation, and other training requirements, and output which mandatory subjects are included in the course programmes and where, as well as compare the number of hours of training with the ones suggested by model courses, if applicable.

The solution shall suggest a human review of content matching when an obvious correspondence cannot be found.


3. Requirements

The solution must fulfil the following technical requirements, with the main propose to compare the curricular units contents  and the applicable legislation to maritime training.

Data inputs: The solution must create a collection of data (data set), of at least the following documentation:

- Create a data set of the curricular units of the Bachelor and Master degrees in Bridge and Deck Operation.

- Create a data set of the legal requirements applicable to maritime training, such as:

* International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW).

* International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel (STCW F).

* IMO Model Course 7.06 - Officers in charge of Navigation Watch on a Fishing Vessel.

* IMO Model Course 1.33 - Safety of Fishing Operation.

* IMO Model Course 7.03 - Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch.

* IMO Model Course 7.01 – Master and Chief Mate.

* IMO model course 1.34 - Automatic Identification Systems (AIS).

* IMO model course 1.07 - Radar Navigation at Operational Level.

* IMO model course 1.27 - ECDIS Model Course.

* IMO model course 3.17 - Maritime English.

* IMO model course 2.03 - Advanced Training in Fire Fighting.

* IMO model course 1.23 - Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boats Other Than Fast Rescue Boats

* IMO model course 1.14 - Medical First Aid.

* IMO model course 1.39 - Leadership & Teamwork.

* IMO model courses 1.19 - Proficiency in Personal Survival Techniques.

* IMO model courses 1.20 - Fire Prevention and Basic Fire Fighting.

* IMO model courses 1.21 - Personal Safety and Social Responsibilities.

* IMO model course 1.08 - Radar Navigation at Management Level (Radar, ARPA, Bridge Teamwork and Search and Rescue).

* IMO model courses 1.22 - Ship Simulator and Bridge Teamwork.

* Other IMO Model courses and other legal documents.


All legal documents will be provide by ENIDH.

Reading Formats:  The solution must be able to extract information from at least the following file formats:

- Reading of documents in PDF, Image, Word, e-book formats.

Updates to data set: The solution must allow at least the follow updates:

- Enable the introduction of new contents or new legal documents.

- Enable the introduction of new contents or new curricular units.


User Interaction: The solution must be able to allow the user to define filters to generate the information in the reports. The solution must be user friendly.

 

4. Expected Outcomes

The expected outputs of the solution to be developed are the following:

Reports: Creation of  reports that allow identifying the contents inserted or missing in the curricular units or courses comparing in the legal requirements select for maritime training. The solution must allow the selection of the information to generate the report. At least the following reports must be available:

- Identify the contents of the selected legal requirements in the selected curricular units or course.

- Identify the contents of the selected legal requirements not available in the selected curricular units, or course.

- Compare the number of training hours defined in legal requirements with the training hours defined for the curricular units and courses, whenever this information is available.

- Identify the contents of the curricular units or course that are not part of the content of the legal requirements.

- Identify the contents of the legal requirements that are not part of the curricular units or course.

- Historic reports of updates to legal requirements and curricular units.

Updates: The program must generate a historical record of all changes made to legal documents,  curricular units or courses with at least  the following information:

- Record all updates made to legal documents, curriclar units and courses.

- Identify last update made to the legal documents, curricular units and courses.

Automatic learning:  The program shall be able to query the user when a possible, but not clear match between the contents of the legal requirements and the contents of curricular units and courses is found. The program shall learn from these interactions with the user, for future content comparison.


5. Budget

The solution will have a 15,000€ budget to cover the proponent’s costs. The project will have a 3,000€ budget for hardware procurement, but this cost will be met by the tenderer independently of HR funding. The proponent will provide full details (brand, model, supplier and cost) of hardware procured for the project.