Good afternoon, everyone! On behalf of SNAME, the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, it is my great pleasure to offer a few closing thoughts as ICCAS 2026 draws to a close.
SNAME has been proud to serve as a co-partner with our colleagues at RINA of this important gathering. I want to thank the organizers, the technical committee, our speakers and presenters, and everyone else whose hard work made this conference such a success. I also want to thank all of you who traveled from across the maritime world to participate—and who successfully overcame jet lag and busy schedules to be here.
As the owner of a maritime design and consulting firm, I have spent much of my career working my way around—and occasionally trying to find my way out of—the design spiral. The design spiral of today looks rather different from the one many of us first learned, doesn’t it? We still work through mission requirements, hull form, machinery and cargo arrangements, propulsion, structure, stability, cost, and all those other familiar considerations. But now that spiral is surrounded by data, connected models, advanced simulation, artificial intelligence, digital twins, virtual and augmented reality, cybersecurity, and increasingly autonomous systems. After all we have seen and heard here at ICCAS, it just may be time to update the traditional design spiral. Today, it probably needs several dashboards, a cloud connection, a cybersecurity protocol; and, of course, a software update that begins five minutes before you’re ready to do an important presentation.
But beneath all that technology, the essential challenge remains the same: How do we make better decisions earlier? How do we communicate them more clearly? How do we turn a complex collection of requirements into a safe, efficient, sustainable—and buildable—ship?
That final word, “buildable,” remains especially important. A sophisticated digital model is valuable only if it ultimately helps real people design, construct, operate, maintain, and improve real vessels.
Over the course of this conference, we have seen how artificial intelligence can help us evaluate enormous numbers of alternatives; how digital twins can support decisions throughout a vessel’s operating life; how advanced modeling can identify problems even before steel is cut; and how virtual sensors and connected systems can provide insight that would once have been difficult, or even impossible—to obtain.
But we have also been reminded that none of these tools succeeds on its own. They require reliable data, careful validation, sound engineering judgment, strong cybersecurity, and, perhaps most importantly, people who understand both the technology and the ships to which it is being applied. AI can produce answers very quickly. But our responsibility as engineers and designers is still to determine whether they are the right answers.
That is why what we do here at ICCAS matters. The challenges facing our industry are too large, too interconnected, and changing too quickly for any one company, nation, institution, or discipline to address alone. Progress depends upon designers speaking with builders; builders speaking with owners and operators; software developers speaking with naval architects and marine engineers, and occasionally, all of us finding a common language. We heard that theme a number of times in our presentations.
This week, visionary ideas have encountered practical experience. Researchers have gained a clearer understanding of what industry needs. Practitioners have seen what may be coming next. All of us have had opportunities to question assumptions, compare experiences, and begin new professional relationships. That exchange of knowledge is also central to SNAME’s mission: to advance the art, science, and practice of naval architecture, marine engineering, ocean engineering, and the related maritime professions.
One of the most important ways SNAME fulfills that mission is through our highly respected technical journals. I am especially pleased to announce here today that SNAME’s journal publications are now moving to a fully digital, open-access model, with continuous publication scheduled to begin in January. This is a really important step forward. It means that high-quality maritime research can become available more quickly and reach a much broader global audience. Knowledge should not remain confined to one organization, one country, or one conference. It should be shared, examined, challenged, applied, and built upon.
I encourage the researchers and technical leaders gathered here to consider SNAME’s and RINA’s journals as a home for your work. The ideas presented at ICCAS should not end now that our final session has concluded. They should continue to circulate throughout our profession, inspire further research, and ultimately contribute to better ships and a stronger maritime industry. The future of shipbuilding will certainly be more digital, more connected, and more intelligent. Whether it will also be safer, more efficient, more sustainable, and more resilient depends upon what we do with those capabilities—and upon how well we continue the collaboration that has taken place here.
As we leave ICCAS 2026, I hope that we take more than presentation slides and business cards with us. I hope that we take new ideas, new questions, new professional relationships, and perhaps a renewed determination to turn promising technology into practical maritime progress. For naval architects and marine engineers, of course, this is not really the end. It is simply time for another turn around the design spiral.
Thank you again to our organizers, presenters, sponsors, and participants for making ICCAS 2026 such a successful and worthwhile conference. I wish you all safe travels home, and I look forward to seeing where the ideas and collaborations begun here will take our industry next. See you at ICCAS 2028! Thank you!