Recently, the Ministry of Education officially approved Shanghai Jiao Tong University to establish China’s first undergraduate major in “Marine Intelligence and Unmanned Technology” (081907T), a new specialty that will fill the gap in systematic talent cultivation in this field.
In recent years, with the rapid growth of unmanned equipment, its research and development focus has gradually shifted from traditional design to intelligent solutions. The ship and marine industry has seen a surge in demand for innovative talents who “understand both equipment and intelligence.” In response to this industrial demand transformation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University follows the laws of emerging technology development, constructing a new training framework centered on intelligent design, supported by intelligent perception, decision-making, and control. It aims to cultivate chief engineer-type talents for intelligent equipment and promote the intelligent transformation and upgrading of the marine field. As the technological revolution and industrial transformation deepen, in the ship and marine equipment industry, intelligent and unmanned technologies have moved from conceptual research to engineering-oriented and systematic deployment, creating a sustained and urgent need for talents who integrate “ship and marine equipment + artificial intelligence.” In recent years, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has focused on new strategic frontiers such as the deep sea and polar regions, as well as new trends in intelligent and green industries, comprehensively implementing educational and teaching reforms. It has launched a series of innovative measures, including the “Xuhua Class” under the Strong Foundation Plan and deepening the cultivation of outstanding engineers. Particularly in the field of marine intelligence and unmanned technology, it has systematically planned and built new courses, reshaped knowledge systems and teaching content, and its training framework has received high praise from the Ministry of Education’s Steering Committee for Marine Engineering Majors and industry experts.
Addressing future development needs in marine equipment technology, the new major deeply embeds the “gene” of artificial intelligence into the “body” of marine equipment, extending the major’s connotation from “design and manufacturing” to “intelligence and unmanned.” The training framework does not simply add information and control courses to traditional ship and marine specialty courses. Instead, it reconstructs knowledge systems and designs classroom teaching plans around typical scenarios such as multi-source heterogeneous marine information fusion, situational reasoning and wide-area perception, marine intelligent unmanned operational equipment, surface and underwater intelligent navigation, digital waterways, and smart shipping. The targeting is more precise, the cases more valuable, and within limited class hours and student effort, it guides students to acquire the knowledge and capabilities needed for the industry’s “intelligent transformation and digital upgrade.” This represents an important exploratory reconstruction and strategic extension of the traditional mechanics-centered knowledge system.
The new major will place greater emphasis on linking to industry frontiers and technological trends. Graduation project topics will directly address the real-world needs of intelligent and unmanned equipment development, jointly proposed and supervised by scientists and units such as China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited and COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited. It aims to build a ladder for enhancing key capabilities in “analysis and design, evaluation and decision-making, and integrated innovation,” cultivating students’ knowledge structure, systems thinking, and continuous learning abilities for solving complex giant system engineering problems. Students will develop the competency qualities of future equipment “chief engineers,” actively shaping and leading the future marine equipment industry ecosystem. Currently, Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering is exploring new interdisciplinary graduate training models with disciplines such as Control Science and Engineering, providing more diverse development options and growth pathways for students in majors like Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, and Marine Intelligence and Unmanned Technology.
