• The academic focus areas consist of two major divisions as follows:
  • Marine Mechanics
  • Engineering for the marine environment requires the analysis of complex systems including their hydrodynamic charecteristics, strucural integreity, and dynamic responses. 
  • Marine Systems Design
  • The naval architect's role in advanced marine design may be one of applying the latest design methods to specific design issues or one of overall design integration and leadership of integrated product/process development teams. Naval architects may also have the leading roles in the management of marine systems. 
  • Marine Robotics and Controls
  • Marine robots cannot use GPS since they operate underwater. Therefore, it is necessary for robots to use computer vision and image processing in conjunction with time-synchronized acoustic navigation for autonomously mapping their environment and navigating in it.