Reveille! Reveille! All Hands Heave Out and Trice Up!

Reveille! Reveille! All Hands Heave Out and Trice Up!

2014-01-23



Hello,

I am mocking up a GUI for an enhanced, quick-cartoon-to-Initial Design to make designing ship hulls and superstructures faster and easier. Current CAD systems and specialist ship design interfaces are too simplistic or too complex, too expensive and modular, and too unapproachable and mind-numbingly user-unfriendly. I want to create something in between, with more balance. Something to wrest back more time for the Designer so he or she has more time for exploring and creating alternative GAs (General Arrangements). The tool will be for those who do not have access to things such as what large navies, specialist shipbuilders, or marine engineering firms of capacity have. Besides, in the ID (initial Design) stage, most people may not need a computer to spend 8 or 18 hours grinding through 800 or 2 million arrangements alternatives when, in the end, a human will make the final design nuances effectively based on national or personal style and client expectations.

I want to team up with developers from different backgrounds and different countries. This is NOT a mono-nation project. So, blatantly, bluntly, a team will have on it no more than two passport-holding persons from the USA (I count as one for counting purposes), 1 or 2 from South Korea, 1 or 2 from Russia/Ukraine, 1 or 2 from Japan, 1 or 2 from China, and 1 or 2 from Europe. We will be joint-ownership in nature, and not allow the entity to be bougth out, certainly not before we have have a good run of five to 6 years of activity, ownership, and disruptive influence on the industry. Roles in the company will include:

-- Design Interface Evangelist (1) (that might be my role, jack of many trades, but non-programmer and master-of-none)
-- Principal Architect (1) (overseer, not necessarily an NA with 20+ years)
-- Data Wrangler (1 or 2) (not IT, but database maestro who has user-friendliness in his/her heart, and who avoids vendor lock-in products)
-- Interface Programmer (2) (Platform agnostic tools-using developer-- LCD is that the code must port to Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS)
-- CAD Graphics Engineer (2) (Graphics Kernel)
-- Payroll Specialist (1) (no overlap with bookkeeping)
-- Bookkeeping Specialist (1) (no overlap with payroll)
-- Office Facilitator (1) (multi-hatted person, second or 3rd face of the non-tech side of the office)
-- IT Manager (verse in Linux as well as, not just, Windows, and Mac)
-- Marketing Specialist (1) (when the time comes)
-- Multi-Lingual Programmers/Document Writers (4-6) (passable but non-distracting fluency) (E/K/J/Cn/Ru/Ge)
-- Mentor/Second Community Contact (1) (maybe a former professor, able to speak to professionals, students, companies, and enthuisiasts simultaneously)
-- Drafters (3) (Skilled in how to produce construction documents, but with an emphasis on helping polish the interface, not actually daily produce revised working drawings)

We will get the appropriate visas and backgrounds simply because it by design will be an international entity, and because funding can become dramatically simplified if all employees come from countries likely to want to fund us on the expectation that will generate ground-breaking/envelope-pushing tools. We may also get around to opening localized offices and rotate staff among them if we an de-localize our work enough to permit such (annual) rotations.

Hopefully, we strategize and successfully receive funding/support/equipment from multiple sources, particularly sources not out to hijack our activity or manipulate it. However, we will certainly entertain licensing our products according to funding support/benefactors facilitation.

It is my idea that the product interface will not mimic but will improve upon in a new way the best or worthiest features of:

-- Ship Constructor (huge, heavy, intrusive, expensive)
-- Cafe (powerful, but....))
-- FreeShip/Hydronship (great reports, semi-tedious modelling)
-- PolyCAD (powerful surface-making tools, some ability to compartmentalize a model)
-- AutoShip (similar to Ship Constructor)
-- Friendship (mentioned as a reference)
-- MaxSurf (mentioned as a reference)

And a few others. Again, he GUI will be completely unlike any of them. It has to -- for various reasons. It has to be disruptive and game-changing, yet non-destructive to the community. Not all firms or engineers or architects need to be turned, just enough and enough companies to license our work as complementary if they are engineers. Non-engineers and NA/ME-minded fence-sitting enthusiasts might choose us instantly.

It will initially start out small (small is a stretch), and encompass areas including:

-- Upright/Initial Stability
-- Damaged Stability
-- DC Zones
-- Compartmentation
-- Hydrostatics
-- Hydrodynamics
-- Curves of Areas
-- Powering/Speed/Acceleration/Turn Prediction
-- Alternative designs incorporated into the model
-- Masses, Areas, and Centers of Gravity
-- Weight Groups
-- Proxy Geometry Placement
-- Rapid resizing of compartments and zones
-- Rapid resizing of decks and structural supports
-- Ventilation calculations
-- Real-time tallies on critially important properties as the model is edited
-- Boundary/Envelope markers to warn of modeling that deviates from performance targets
-- Quick Insertion of and trimming of deck plates, pipes, joiner partitions, generic furnishings/equipment/
-- Back-end database (not just programmatic, but also in USERLAND) work sheets and reporting tools as easy as Lotus Approach


We most likely will not engage in:

-- GA rearrangement algorithms
-- Explosion/Shock modeling
-- Advance DFM/DFP capability (other than high-quality fairing and watertightness and weld calcs of the plates)
-- Assembly Planning
-- Numerous other areas too costly to engage

As an ex-Sailor who before and after naval service studied ships far more than I did while in the service, I have my own opinions of ship aesthetics, payloads, mission targets/capabilities, and so on. I am not given to fanciful or cartoon-world ships. Also, since I served in many roles, from being the Captain's Phone Talker (during Special Sea Detail and sometimes UNRPS), being on the Security Alert/Back-up Alert Force, Roving Patrol, Flying Squad (Rapid First Team and Damage Control Teams), Repair Locker Plotter, in Deck Department and on the Mess Decks, and in other areas, I have ideas about how *SAILORS* need their ships to be designed, not just what a naval officer, a non-seagoing architect, or some policy wonk thinks or cookie-cutter patterns to.

However, the ships have to appear as if professionaly produced for presentation to a real-world client willing to pay for such shps. They need to be progressive yet conservative, balanced. They need to LOOK "kewl", yet subtly borrow facets from multiple nations and yet simultaneously appear as if any borrowed-from nation is the key inspiration. And, they should not look like uninspiring clones of a senior nation partner or design bureau.

Also, having been exposed to no fewer than 10 ship design or hydrostatics tools/programs, none has had in one place the key, core items that would excite me:

-- Ease of 3D modeling (Think: Punch! ViaCAD and Punch! Shark)
-- Ease of sketch
-- Ease of converstion to a faired hull
-- Internal hull library as a comparator/limiter
-- Hydros
-- Powering
-- Tank generation
-- Ease of modeling and revision
-- EASY-to-use and very flexible layer and geometry management system
-- Non-stifling, non-intimidating, non-overly-engineering-oriented menus and tools
-- Less than $500 per seat price tag

Intellectual Property Considerations: If you approach me, and your background cannot withstand an employability check, or if you are into using software cracks/codes, or use unlicensed software, or have as part of your activity anything that could imperil a startup or ongoing business, please sniff elsewhere.

Personality/Background Expectations: Open-mindedness; sense of humor (safe but not litigation-inviting); diversity; wordly; like military ships but not necessarily anxious to see them used; educated or able to convince by behavior and knowledge that you are; some academic, government, or naval connections who can be willing sources of funding; maritime/naval/engineering background; programming background; clear articulation in English but multilingual nevertheless; respect for intellectual property; disdain for vendor lock-in; level-headedneess; background devoid of serious crimes; drugs-free; hygienic on a daily basis; not too rich or so wealthy as to be bored or hostile toward the goals of the team; have a valid passport; no connections to entities or persons who will harm you or the team; have a passion for helping demystify the world of Naval Architecture; have a passion for model ship building or creating with your hands something useful, fun, or entertaining to others regardless of their backgrounds, education, or life experiences.

It is my intention to create and product able to reduce ship GA/ID to childsplay, blazingly fast and simple, inexpensively, and yet be appealingly tantalizing to professionals, students, and artists/animation designers.

And, now, to whet your appetites, some images of some recent activity


And:





And:

This is another incarnation of the CGHRD-1065-II

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Turn Predicton:

Below is a draft of someting in intend to post to a number of parties. If anyone is reading this, please offer up your comments. Thanks!



NASCENT -- Naval Architecture, Shore, Civil Engineering, Nascent Technology


To:



[Recipient List Suppressed]



Greetings,

First off, I must disclose a few things so that you know a little more about me: I am NOT a college graduate. I have not achieved credits in any naval, maritime, civil, or other engineering courses. I am not much of a CAD operator to speak of or to credit.

I am a USN Veteran, but that is not what I am going to stand on in this open letter to all of you. I like modern ships particularly naval ships, specifically frigate/destroyer/cruiser types, and to an extent, submarines. Prior to graduating high school, during my time in the US Navy, and ever since departing the USN, I have in some way or another kept naval ships in most of my personal activities. Some of my paper drawings have been on the Internet since 2005, and intermittently between 2003 and 2005. Some of my digital (3D CAD) developments have been online since 2007 and to a much greater extent, since early 2013.

Some of you I've met, some I've not (and probably will not be able to due to your busy schedules), and some of you I've attempted but was unsuccessful in meeting even thought I visited some of your offices, campuses, or cities. One of you I met but failed to follow up with due to some personal issues I was having at the time. One of you I've worked for, and one of you was impressed with or astonished by my drawing, saying in astonishment "YOU SHOULD BE GETTING *PAID* FOR DOING THIS!" upon seeing my drawings in late 2006. (Later, I was employed in a naval architecture firm that had hopes for me, but I did not live up to expectations.

After 5 years with my most recent employer, I departed to take time out and visit Korea and China. My activities in Korea included visiting my existing and new friends and to seek legitimate ways to immigrate to Korea. My activities in China included visiting new friends and my former employer's Shanghai office. I was in Asia recently during these time frames:

Korea, 20 May 2012 - 18 August, 2012
China, 19 August - 17 September
Korea, 17 September - 18 December

Since my return from Korea, I have remained unemployed because it is my dogged determination to create or to inspire the creation of naval architecture-related, CAD, and others courses schooling having twin offices in San Francisco and in a lesser expensive area of Seoul (either in Incheon or Songdo), Daejeon, or maybe in the Ulsan or Busan area. I also did not file for Unemployment Compensation because: 1) I voluntarily quit when my under performance became too much to ignore anymore, and 2) for the five years I was with my employer, it was gracious, fair, honest, and consistent with me. It trained me or paid for training, tried to evolve me, and allowed me to transition to various functions to retain value in having invested in me. The company offered (and I took advantage of) very generous and open-minded/forward-thinking health and medical coverage, and 3) the company, to my recollection or understanding, never had a Workers Compensation or Unemployment Insurance Compensation filed against it in its 49 years of existence, and I had no intention of being the first to file for UIC regardless of the chances of being awarded funds.

MY PROPOSITION TO SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER PARTIES ADDRESSED

Fortunately, I think, today I decided to read yet another daily news article in the SFEXAMINER, dated 24 September 2013, on page 5. The article is, to me, timely because it touches on the issue of crime and victimization of residents of the Bayview Hunters Point area of San Francisco, a former naval shipyard and ship construction area of the West Coast of the USA. In the article, District Attorney George Gascon is reported to have visited Washington for help in reducing crime in San Francisco and for creating brighter futures for these troubled, victimized youth. The US Department of Justice granted $1,000,000.

I would like to recommend that DA Gascon and a delegation return to Washington and ask for more, to use in parallel to the studies of the mental heal care problems the youths booked into Juvenile Hall. Many of these youth presumably suffer from PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Concurrently, San Francisco, Korea, and Hallyu fans as well as others should lobby various countries to amass the funds necessary to make the proposition carry enough weight to table a discussion that could move quickly and hopefully not degenerate into arguments and disagreements over sharing, percentages, and other matters. As for Korean food, San Francisco is woefully short on affordable, easily-available street-side Korean food. I quicky got over not having a Blondies in Korea, but I am still suffering withdrawals from not having a Yoogane in San Francisco, and particularly the more affordable Happi Goong.

I would like to participate in that reduction in crime and creation of job opportunities, but not just locally. I want to relate this to Korea, and other countries as well.

SAN FRANCISCO A WORLD CLASS CITY -- not completely (but, what city truly is?)

Currently, "a world-class city" is what San Francisco bills itself. I would respectfully say, "not quite" since from my perspective, a world class city needs to have many, many more open coffee shops, and these need to be chain as well as mom-and-pop types, as I've seen in Seoul, Daejeon, and Busan. Starbucks in San Francisco would be mortified to have to compete with Tom N Toms, Coffine Guru Naru, Zoo Coffee, Coco Bruni, Hollys, Homestead, Angel-in-Us, and others, particularly since they tend to be 24-hour shops, given the Korean mindset about students studying hard, and given the daytime pressures of work, students and workers in Korea can be found allowed to sleep or doze off to re-energize, as long as they buy something.

...
(Top view, (cartoon form) of a notional campus near a pier in Hunters Point)

The best, most viable but fastest way to get SF into a little more of the "world-class city" status is not necessarily by inducing more high tech workers to here, but to increase or spark an influx of many, many more Asian students who have the spending power and drive to study long hours in Internet cafes. If many more such students are here, then San Francisco could see more money spent here, money spent by students already inclined to be up at all hours of the night, unlike many students already here. This would help transform some areas of the Downtown Business District, and into the Mission Bay and south of Mission Bay areas. In order to revitalize these areas, and not just have gentrification transformation, San Francisco MUST think of the "rising tide" metaphor in order to bolster the incomes south of Mission Bay as well. To do otherwise would be to exacerbate problems that can be remedied with less damage to them, less risk of impact by gentrification.

This increase in benefit to the Bayview area and south of Mission Bay can come from an increase in student-affordable housing that aimed at local and international students who drive up the income seen by many businesses, not just coffee shops. These students need to be able to say here more cheaply and for longer than just seven months, and some will need to be able to have the right to work. Japan and Korea offer it to citizens of or passport holders of numerous countries, but not the USA. I understand this to be due to tit-for-tat response to each of the involved countries' deliberate caps on tourists perceived as "stealing" or "choking off" jobs availability to other nations' tourists. Not only do these tourists obtain 180-day visas, they receive permission to work in order to subsidize their travel in Korea and in Japan. Because of politics, I felt severely cheated out of being able to stay in Korea longer, pay my bills back in the States, and make my stay in Korea more exciting. The same applied to my 3 months in Japan in 2004.

ASIAN INVESTMENT INTO CCSF (Community College San Francisco)

San Francisco City College is facing an accreditation withdrawal. Around 10,000 students might end up with their credits becoming non-recognized at other campuses. Even if the credits retain value for the short term, many of these students may find themselves unable to transfer to an accommodating university or college in a timely manner that seamlessly allows continuity in their studies. It would be a great misfortune were that scenario to happen.

If a group of Asian countries invested in the CCSF system, they could do so with the stipulation that they be granted rights to:

-- Convert CCSF into a 4-year college

-- increase the size of the student body

-- use that right to populate it with more students from Asia, obtain for them 2-, 4-, and 6-year student visas

-- expand the curriculum to include accredited or other material relevant to some of those students (from Asia but particularly USA students) desiring to seek employment somewhere in Asia

-- bring in additional teachers, accredited teachers who will teach material that is taught in their respective Asian countries, for the benefit of USA-rooted students wishing to transplant to Asia.

Forcing USA-based accreditation upon such teachers would not serve the best interests of the students if the target and purpose will be to diversify post-graduation offerings to students.

So, Asian investment into CCSF would also aid in increasing business in the Balboa area as well as the Bayview area. The Mission Bay and Downtown Business Districts already have much business traffic, but still may benefit, too.

HALLYU

Currently, Korea is looking to expand Hallyu, the Chinese term for the "Korean Wave". Koreans and other nationals coming to the USA for English studies tend to arrive with 7-month study visas. I personally think a 7-month window is a possible if not likely waste of Korean's time, resources, and opportunity except in the case of students who are expecting to soon thereafter return to the home countries' colleges on a timeline. The window should be expanded. Not just Koreans, but, other persons coming to the USA do so at great expense, personally and to their families. When they return home, invariably many of them gradually lose their English language skills because back home the severe competition for English-using jobs is so high that many will not get those jobs, further forcing them to spend even more money to brush up on their skills. Some become despondent, some commit suicide, some just end the dream of using English and revert to their native languages. I've met some number of Koreans who have fallen into this.

Also, as with the USA, Korea has a non-insignificant population of those who are at risk of suicide or extreme depression or acting out in violence due to severe shortage of job prospects, loss of income, or denial of access to entrepreneurial startup because traditional funding sources are very strict in their guidelines, and crowd funding is still not feasible for others -- particularly those who have no banking accounts and poor credit, meaning they cannot even receive income supporters would try to send to their blogs, web sites, or online crowd funding campaign sites. Worse, some governments still insist that low-level, non-investor crowd funding campaigns be subject to Securities laws when in reality MOST crowd funding that is performed under the term "crowd funding" is really poor people not seeking traditional "investors" -- they are explicitly, unequivocally, undeniably, openly stating they are seeking DONORS, not investors, and that the donors/sponsors will receive either nothing in return (philanthropy donation) or some small give (a public thank you, a key chain emblem, a branded or supporter T-shirt, an early access to the product being produced, or a discount on the product, and so on) thank you.

Such donors or sponsors are not the category of people who will lose large sums of money. The campaign sites and checks and balances in them are set up such that there is great public pressure on the campaigners to expose themselves publicly so as to keep social pressure on them to deliver a product. In summary, crowd funding results because banks and those controlling access to desperately needed funding are not loosening their grip except for the most promising of potentially good ideas. Most start ups fail due to improper or inadequate funding, lack of professional guidance, and excessively heavy-handed paperwork requirements imposed by multiple, overlapping, confusing, and poorly coordinated government offices all vying for some cut of an entrepreneur's cash flow. All too often, ONE single application can capture the repeated information, and then all the other concerned departments or agencies could then supply to the application the relevant fields to be filled. After an applicant supplies information common to all cognizant agencies, the applicant need no more be dragged through or slog through the process of submitting the same information repeatedly. It would save time for all involved, reduce paperwork, and enable multiple agencies to work together at almost the same time for each applicant, so that creative yet still lawful solutions can be rendered to those entrepreneurs or businesses having outlying circumstances where timeliness in government response is critical to the inception of the business plan into operation.


INTERNATIONAL MARITIME CAMPUS

(An ortho view of the notional campus, showing some underground parking or storage)

I would propose a nexus of:

-- extended student visas with explicit permission to subsidize the stay here (enhanced work/study visa)

-- a declaration of Eminent Domain (if necessary and if enforceable) upon a suitable area of the Bayview Hunters Point district

Since San Francisco is famous for excelling in acting as a nation-state more than as a city (and as a Sanctuary City for an impressive array of reasons, conditions, and circumstances from political to humanitarian to health-related), it should have no problem with, for humanitarian reasons, making it possible for longer-term English language students to enjoy more time and reduced financial pressure related to their declared purpose for being here. I also propose that Korea reciprocates in kind, as it is immensely difficult for people such as myself to legitimately, inexpensively, and long-term "stay" in Korea and develop ourselves to fitting in unless we have a degree in hand, or fit an exquisitely refined narrow category. One exception would be I I were to arrive to Korea with between $100,000 to $500,000 to invest in creating a company and actually hiring Koreans. Other than drugs dealers, fraudulent immigrations brokers, and legitimate business people with deep pockets, lesser but honest people with great intents and potentially possible idea are unable to contribute to Hallyu or other activities in Korea. The same can be said about Koreans or other nations arriving to the USA.

Some of my ideas about transforming the area are :

-- designate a 4-10 square block area of Hunters Point (ideally under performing warehouses, rather than residences) for tear-down, similar to the UCSF and biomedical corridor at the northeast, termination area of highway 280, near to and south of Mission Bay

-- immediately set up temporary classrooms and temporary housing, with fencing, and security checkpoints to separate the youth and international students from the current bad elements in the area

-- compel San Francisco to allow ONLY San Francisco residents having provable 5-year in-city domiciles to work on the construction projects, and include some of these local students as "sweat equity" to help defray the cost of their education

-- raze some number of ramshackle, decrepit, eyesore structures on either side of the MUNI Light Rail, making way for a corridor of international shops, restaurants, and Asia-themed businesses, some of which might be operated by some, but not all, of the families of the local and international students

-- build up the international naval architecture school campus with housing for the students, and provide a pier (or renovate one nearby) for maritime regattas and other matters

-- build up the mechanical, civil, and residential school campus similarly to the above

-- require the students to learn and become proficient in at least one of the Asian languages that will be present on the campus, and which will be relevant to and be expected to see stable or increased hiring over the next 20 years

-- offer tax breaks or other incentives to major nearby and international universities that would be tempted to rotate in an ample supply of visiting professors, mentors, advisors; the deans could be rotated on a 1-year basis, the professors on a 2-4 year basis

-- offer tax breaks and other incentives for maritime, engineering, and architecture executives and their employees to rotate in as distinguished speakers, mentors, and facility assistants so as to foster ad hoc and pre-planned internships for these students

-- grant to the local executives and visiting employees an exemption from having to have a teaching credential, in order that the most number of visiting directors, accountants, drafters, designers, and others can lend or contribute their day-to-day experiences and expertise in class and on campus

-- where acceptable and in keeping with the mission of the school program/charter, hire at least 80% of the teachers from within California, ideally those with exceptional ability to not only teach their appointed courses, but also teach or assist in enhancing the learning of English

-- create rooms (class and berthing, lab and study) to accommodate at least 500 students initially, with capacity 2,000 or more. At least 20% to 30% of all seating and student housing/berthing should be allocated to international students, and those countries sponsoring the revitalization of Bayview Hunters Point should be granted autonomy to register as students ANY foreign national who is crime-free or otherwise can legally pass an Interpol, USA, and home-country background check and be able to receive a Letter of Apostille or the acceptable equivalent

-- allow the international students' representative countries to have a block of between 20% to 30% of the teaching representation in the form of those teachers being from their countries, not merely USA-resident or USA-born teachers whose backgrounds are of the international students' backgrounds; as with the students, the teachers or teacher equivalents must be able to pass muster, able to obtain a Letter of Apostille or the equivalent

-- allow the international students to act as or earn income acting as language tutors, but probably only ON campus, but with some exceptionally talented students, allow off-campus earning of income provided that the off-campus learners are taught in rooms that are on campus, rooms specially designated for this tutoring

-- declare the school zone as a special protection zone so that criminal elements are thoroughly dissuaded from entering, influencing, or otherwise attempting to inappropriately exploit the campus, its activities, or its students and workers

-- grant the students the right to take time off for emergencies, reasonable travel to other countries or around the USA without the threat of their visas being in danger of accelerated expiry, and right-to-work status within a narrow scope

If the USA, Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, India, and a few other countries collectively are marketed properly and if they collectively contribute a minimum $50,000,000, and appoint as leader someone who has full authority and responsibility.


(Another ortho view)

BENEFIT TO ME

In all this, I would like to see my drawings/designs be licensed (inexpensively but meaningfully useful to me as an income stream) in these areas:

-- use as source and introductory material for students interested in naval ship design (nonmilitary designs can come from the commercial naval architecture firms in the East Bay which may specialize mostly in noncombatant vessels)

-- use as source material for game design, simulation design, and prototypes for other purposes

-- possible from-scratch design and development of a new ship design software interface based on some ideas I came up with after seeing around a dozen interfaces that I found "unapproachable" or tedious to work with from a non-engineer's perspective

POSSIBLE RISKS/OBJECTIONS

The greatest obstacles to these ideas:

-- Tight workload schedules of some of the local area and distant area companies that might be able to provide mentors or instructors
-- Political and local foot dragging
-- Jockeying and grandstanding for "ownership" and "stewardship" recognition of the whole idea
-- Environmental reports on the condition of Bayview Hunters Point
-- Environmentalists exploiting the location
-- Local area schools and universities, some of which will clamor to be satellite campuses even though they do not offer and until realization of this idea and the potential to latch on to federal or international support would not create curricula for this effort
-- Local area businesses and residents who do not understand the potential transformation for the betterment of local and international relations

(And, yet another ortho view)

IN CLOSING

Considering the possibility of lack of funding from the State Capitol, San Francisco must plan to act on its own. It must be prepared to defend the increase in rights of the Asian Pac Rim investors commensurate with their investment in the CCSF, Bayview, and Mission Bay areas. San Francisco must tame any expansion that is threatening gentrification of neighborhoods, and must become creative, committed, and convincing in the endeavor to keep that hard work in San Francisco to the benefit of local residents who live here and contribute to the local tax base, and must also protect the investment of the Pac Rim nations' investment so that any and all graduates sponsored or funded can improve their lives domestically or by taking overseas employment due to increased professionalism, acquisition of applicable language skills, and a possible resurgence in a need for more engineers who are of greater ethnic diversity and who are relevantly multi-lingual.

I firmly believe that transformation of the Bayview Hunters Point area from an impoverished, crime-blighted area to a thriving, relevant, showcase area is possible, and it is doable, and ground could be broken in less than six months if Eminent Domain is necessary, valid, enforceable, and funding all agreed to within 4 months. It would be a win-win for San Francisco and any Asian partners contributing to the transformation. It would be not just a neighborhood transformation, but a city and trans-Pacific strengthening.

Temporary classrooms could be in the form of cleaned-out hulls of cargo ships. China has a huge workforce that could make this possible and complete within weeks of a confirmation of joint agreement being in place. Also, semi-permanent classrooms in the form of active or semi-retired ship hulls, depending on compliance with ECA/SECA and upon favorable final EIR (Environmental Impact Report) content, could be done, even including temporary housing to gear up the students to maritime and civil engineering life.

The students would have to waive some of their rights, similarly to the conditions required when civilians join a military academy or ROTC unit or attend an exclusive, private college or university.

Parents of the local and international students would want assurances that their children are being sold a real and not fake dream. Having them be able to live nearby means some level of "groundedness" remains in the students. However, the campus still should not encourage nor arrange for constant and daily visits as this would make the campus too open for the goal of transforming the lives of the students.

Upon graduation, these students would be hirable, and ideally all hired prior to graduation, as their mentors and visiting instructors from the various industries would all have daily or quarterly access to the students, their team projects, their grades, and more. These students would be even more hirable due to being required to learn and become proficient in at least one language spoken on the campus.

As for the naval architecture/maritime courses, even if local firms are not hiring as many as some may hope, some of these companies have current executives and directors who are of retirement age, and some are actively internally grooming their junior staff to take over the positions of their seniors. Along the way, will mentor junior architects, engineers, and others as was done for them. However, this would be an opportunity for them to expand interest into naval architecture, marine engineering, and civil engineering to many more people who could benefit immensely from the potential emotional and morale boost of the prospect of being mentored by professionals to professional levels. Not all will make it there, but some, if not many will.

I thank you for your time spent reading this, and I hope that the City of San Francisco can help me found my entrepreneurial endeavors which include using my drawings as source material for the students.


David Syes

Intro - Images

Here are some images to pique your curiosity.



My design tools are:
Free!Ship/Hydronship 3.32+
Punch! ViaCAD Pro 7
Punch! Shark LT v8

Experimenting with/Exploring:
PolyCAD
formZ
Others



TSUUNAMI

* Trans State Unofficial, Unconventional Naval Architecture and Maritime Innovators
* TransState Unaccredited, Unofficial Naval Architects and Marine Innovators
* TransState Unconventional, Unofficial Naval Architects and Marine Interlocutors

For What Navy or Client Would YOU Like to Design? How about SEVERAL?


Hello,


I want to form an international maritime and naval architecture teaching organization for those who aspire to naval architecture and marine engineering. The institution I envision will be either 2 or 4 years, designed for inner city impoverished, and staffed by accredited permanent and accredited visiting instructors, funded by either crowd funding or by "public/private partnerships". The core student body will consist of around 400 students from the USA, and around 40 to 50 from several nations, initially Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, Burma, and several others. The purpose will be to introduce students to marine engineering, naval architecture, but also some degree of civil engineering, aviation design, and automotive design. If possible, I will attract professional engineers who are either presidents, chairmen, or project engineers and staff architects of local or distant firms. The students will not earn engineering accreditation, but they will be so exposed as to be able to receive invitation from numerous campuses around the world where naval architecture, marine engineering, and ocean studies exist.


The entity is called: TSUUNAMI.

TSUUNAMI (the name) originated in November 2008 after I had been employed at a naval architecture firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally (before my employment there), it was going to be TSUUNAME, but the NAME part was a bit too close to SNAME, as in SNAME/ASNE. Since my intended organization would not be populated by accredited professionals, and more by students, dilettantes, and the average person, a slight change in the acronym probably will be appreciated. I registered the web sites tsuunami.org on November 10, 2008, and tsuunami.com in November 1, 2008.

TSUUNAMI is, as stated above, the acronym for "TransState Unaccredited, Unofficial Naval Architects and Marine Innovators" (and the other two mentioned above), and it will not be assigned to any particular nation. Its initial chapter or foundation will be founded in either Berkeley or San Francisco (most likely San Francisco), and will strive to launch chapters in Korea (yes, I know there are two political Koreas, but there is only one Korea), China, Japan, India, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, various African nations, and other places.

TSUUNAMI will be for geeks and non-geeks. Also, the poor from various nations are to be recruited as students, to introduced them to naval architecture, marine engineering, programming, gaming engines, databases, spreadsheets, office skills, entrepreneurial thinking, business management, and more. The sections of foreign students will study English. The sections of native English speakers will study a foreign language that is represented among the foreign student body.

TSUUNAMI will:


Introduce students to basic ship theory, the history of ships, and more
Introduce students to naval architecture and marine vessel design, some basic aeronautic design, some civil architecture and civil engineering, and some urban planning
Invite guest speakers, role models, mentors, others from professional services corporations and other firms
Study and publish the results of calculations and planning methods for hulls designed


The basis for the core curriculum will be my six or 7 current and several previous rough-draft ship designs. These will then be examined, analyzed, dissected, and redesigned by students who:


Possess or acquire 2-D CAD or paper drafting skills
Possess or acquire 3-D CAD skills
Have multi-lingual capabilities
Are artistic
Are worldly
Come from all economic, cultural, and political walks of life


The students will use either averaged requirements of rules, or will directly constrain themselves to requirements of rules by various classification societies such as DNV, ClassNK, RINA, HR, CR BV, RS, RU, ABS, Lloyd's, GL, KR, and others according to the ship types in team projects. For example, my CGHID-1298-K (a cruiser I notionally designed to be of interest to the ROKN) will be dissected and redesigned according to Korea Registry rules. However, my CGHID-1298 (the same hull but not endowed with some conceptual modifications I customized for my notional Korean Navy acquisition) might be redesigned according to KR, GL, DNV, ABS, Lloyd's, or another Classification Society.


SETTING:

Currently, I envision the initial and maritime campus to be in the Bayview area of San Francisco, possibly near BAE engineering, but near the shipyards. An alternative location is at the The Presidio. Also, alternative sites might be at Treasure Island or for former Alameda Naval Air Station. (I was born on The Presidio, at Letterman General Hospital, in 1965, and so it is symbolic to me. But, I do realize that real estate on The Presidio is coveted, expensive, and probably not inviting of upwards of 400 students in housing or in classroom capacity.)

At this point, as for funding, it may be that one or two local animation firms on The Presidio may wish to be cosponsors of my adventure. However, I want it to be distinctly independent of and not responsible to any outside funding sources. Their key officers are invited to speak and instruct, but the Institution should be its own entity.


TOOLS and EDUCATION

As for ship drawings, TSUUNAMI will entertain but not fixate itself with catamaran and trimaran hulls (at least not in the early stages) except to produce prototypes against which to compare single-hull designs. As for student skills acquisition, one goal will be to empower the students so inclined or talented to develop from scratch CAD plug-ins or API code, principally to hook databases into the CAD programs; to semi-automate space planning and insert piping and doors and structures into the model; to create a home-made version of ASSET and similar. Some students will be provided tools to create tablet-based programs. As for empowering students with access to various industry-regarded tools, not every student will use or explore every application or tool available. But, most will be exposed to at least 3 different ship design programs in the professional (expensive) category, and up to 5 in the lesser expensive ranges. As for project tools, when there are 4 teams competing, each will have a choice of 2 programs not used by other teams, and each ship or vessel designed by a team will be produced in two different applications. Through balanced exposure, these students can become more attractive to existing and future design firms, and might even be able to work as independent but non-W2 contractors on projects needing CAD operators, software developers, and so forth.


Regarding relatively inexpensive software, TSUUNAMI will use these applications principally (if favorable academic licensing can be obtained):


Punch! ViaCAD Pro (retails about $279; before coupons/discounts)

http://www.punchcad.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9P6oEEu-Kw


Punch! Shark Lt (retails about $669; before coupons/discounts)

http://www.punchcad.com/p-11-shark-lt-v8.aspx
http://www.punchcad.com/c-19-professional-cad.aspx
http://www.punchcad.com/p-2-shark-fx-v7.aspx


Free!Ship Plus 3.32/Hydronship (Open Source; GPL; maintained by a Naval Architect/Professor)

http://www.hydronship.net/
http://www.hydronship.net/index.php?lang=en
http://www.hydronship.net/compare.htm
http://www.hydronship.net/programs.htm


PolyCAD (Free; Licensed; registration required; maintained by a Naval Architect/Grad Student)

http://www.polycad.co.uk/
http://www.polycad.co.uk/downloads.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UwAvWMy8IY


Bricsys Bricscad (~ $700; Commercial, licensed)

http://bricsys.com/en_INTL/
https://bricsys.com/estore/estoreBcad.jsp


BVB Cafe (Commercial, licensed; Pricing at

http://www.bvbcafe.com/pricing.html
http://www.bvbcafe.com/software.html
http://www.bvbcafe.com/gallery.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etJlMgjkg7o



Regarding expensive, but academically-licensed software, TSUUNAMI will use these if licensed (as long as they do not compel the use of or installation of another, equally or more expensive CAD platform in order to run the ship design software):


Autoship

http://www.autoship.com/index.htm


Aveva

http://www.aveva.com/en/Products_and_Services/AVEVA_for_Marine/Integrated_Shipbuilding.aspx


formZ

http://www.formz.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdVm0dSn6mY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBuSkTdxgpg


Friendship

https://www.friendship-systems.com/products/friendship-framework



MaxSurf

http://www.formsys.com/maxsurf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f08F1XNtW_s


Beyond that, TSUUNAMI will to the greatest extent possible use any and all Open Source, non-proprietary, and non-lock-in-based operating systems and software as sensible for the conduct of business. Here are examples of the following that can be readily adapted to day-to-day operations:



Open Office.org (has word processing, spreadsheet, presentation applications and uses ODF and XML, avoiding proprietary document formats; also has a crude, but somewhat improving database application)
Koffice (similar to the above)
AC3D (proprietary but Open Source-friendly 3D animation application)
Blender (Open Source-friendly 3D animation application)
VariCAD for CAD work (~$300 per copy)
Bricsys
Defcar (if we can obtain legitimate copies from the company Defcar, which is in Spain)
Mandriva (from France, $0 to $80)
PCLinuxOS
Ubuntu/Kubuntu (sponsored by Canonical/Mark Shuttleworth)
Other distributions of Linux that can be managed under the KDE Kiosk tools
KDevelop (the KDE-based GUI RAD tool kit)
Glade (The Gnome-based GUI RAD kit)
Qt3 Designer and Qt Linguist (from Trolltech, for OS-agnostic IDE application development and for language localization)
Python (a language for developing applications)
MySQL (or, PostgreSql)
Samba for CIFS file sharing and management
CUPS for printing management
Compiere or Quasar for accounting
Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program)
KMail, Sylpheed, Mozilla Thunderbird, and other Open Source MTAs
Konqueror, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera (and others) for web surfing
Other software and applications as feasible or useful

Ship design-related goals of TSUUNAMI:

We will evaluate my ship designs and where necessary, effect modifications to make them seaworthy, useful, affordable, and realistic (in various areas of the drawings there exist items which need attention and would be useful for students to explore).

Further, we will calculate the existing values and make corrections for:


LWL (light, normal, and full loads)
Beam (light, normal, and full loads)
Draft (light, normal, and full loads)
Freeboard
Metacenter (variable)
Metacentric Height (variable)
Center of Gravity (variable)
Center of Buoyancy (variable)
Block coefficient
Prismatic coefficient
Elasticity of the hull/girder system
Prime mover (WR-21, MT-30, and LM-2500+GS)
Hotel Services
Auxiliary power
Various air and liquid piping (some 30 or more different supply and return systems, such as air, sea water cooling, fresh water cooling, potable water, sewage, freshwater fire fighting, sea water fire fighting, air conditioning, pneumatic, hydraulic, high pressure compressed air, low pressure compressed air; cutouts and jumpers, and their control panels)
Electrical supply (power, lighting (white, red, blue), transformers and power panels, electrical controls, monitoring, and cutout and jumper points, emergency lighting/lanterns, and so on
Distribution of staterooms and berthing compartments
Distribution of CBR/Flooding and smoke-containing citadels (my latest design has some 37, the previous has 30, and the first has around 19 or 20) which can act as secondary security alert lockout points
Spacing and positioning of the dry, chill, and frozen food stores
HVAC planning
Distribution of the command and control stations for the ship and the Commodore/Flag Staff
Replacement of the propeller shafts with the (patented, or any patent-evading) azimuthal propulsion pods
Positioning of the 3 retractable, trainable auxiliary propulsion/docking/station-keeping pods
Positioning of the two sets of twin, active, tactically-controlled stabilization/destabilization fins
Note: There will be no work explicitly related to blast/shock hardening from certain classes of weapons since this would enter more closely guarded or classified information not generally in the public domain. However, enterprising and resourceful students might choose to pursue these areas if sufficient information is publicly available and can be modeled.

Those students wishing to work on non-combatant maritime projects will have similar activities associated with their designs.


Some of the systems aboard ship (in the designs) may not yet exist, but can, if someone were inclined to specify, pay for, and manage them.

Some members of TSUUNAMI may find themselves hired out by other, professional design firms and ship yards as interns, or invited to naval architecture firms around the world. This is where it will be handy for students to be exposed to multiple professional and non-professional tools.

The original drawings/designs we work on are and will remain my intellectual property. However, all members who actively participate in the redesign work will of course be credited by named, area, and contribution. All derivative works will be the collective property of the students or of the Academy. If or when the ships are proved to be seaworthy in design and (unlikely?) if someone wants to build one, we will endeavor to license the design, all to the benefit of every contributing member. Submitted modifications will be color and name coded to reflect the areas of responsibility.

We will seek an official recognition of TSUUNAMI. However, as TSUUNAMI will not be specifically a warship design bureau, and instead a general ship design learning center, other ships and ship types will be introduced over time.

=====

Possible conflicts and competitors


US Navy, NAVSEA, STEM

The US Navy, through NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems Command) and ONR (Office of Naval Research), has for several years been trying to formulate an outreach plan to help the USA regain some of its lost talent and interest in naval architecture and technology. It appears to be aimed at inner city youth from minorities and to reinvigorate fighting poverty. STEM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, which is located in Philadelphia. But, it also appears that the school first opened is focused on steam, diesel, and gas turbine engine design. I cannot determine yet whether that is about specific engines, or the engineering plant, taking into consideration electrical loads, switchboards, load shedding,

I have some of the same goals, too. Although I did learn about what NAVSEA was planning, while I worked at a naval architecture firm, and although I did feel a bit of competition or threat from this discovery, I think there is room for "coopetition", or cooperation and healthy competition. Typically, navies and design bureaus/agencies do not have members who individually take on the design of an entire ship. That is something I do. It is a massive undertaking, and it is not something an individual professional would ordinarily do. There is just too massive an amount of detail which requires many specialized disciplines to be coordinated and managed carefully throughout the life of a project. However, the regimented, isolated approach means that some personnel only see the global system design when working on student theses or projects. Once in the professional office as a junior engineer, or junior naval architect, it seems they will be so busy on certain projects that most see small areas of a ship, a platform, or a facility design. I want the students to be rotated through design areas frequently and widely.

However, since my goal is the global systems approach, to help spur gaming and entrepreneurs, not just NAME-bound students, the entire ship has to be shown quickly, and the students who are less into gaming will rather soon obtain a deeper appreciation for not just learning about the basic parts of a ship, but how to integrate them logically. If ships no longer interest them, there may be the aeronautical and the automotive track as well.

But, to secure and retain their excitement and imagination, ship model building will be one of the key activities.

I am looking to differentiate TSUUNAMI. It will make waves, and - to the extent possible- it will not transplant local impoverished or poor students from their families or from San Francisco. In general, to protect intending students and their families against disqualification in their housing situations, only prospective students who are imminently transitioning to adult from minor/dependant will be accepted for enrollment. Otherwise, if students younger than 18 and still legally or technically minors and dependants were enrolled, then some families might find their qualifications status recalculated and could lose their housing if in government housing. Those families not in government housing might find adversely negative recalculations jeopardizing their tax, education, or other planning in the event siblings still at home might be impacted.

Since the China Development Bank is a major contributor to the development or construction of some 20,000 new (low income) homes in San Francisco (Hunters Point and Treasure Island), I intend to solicit funding from there, but also from other countries' banks. The reason I think it will be successful is, again, "coopetition", or cooperative competition. If these banks all contribute to the construction of dorms in Bayview/Hunters Point, and a small academy there, then eventually, these students will be able to foster more global interaction. If USA-origin banks want to participate, then they can too.

However, I am going to ask that China, South Korea, and San Francisco fast-track the construction of the TSUUNAMI Academy. The students can be bussed in before the rest of the homes are opened by end of 2013, and some will probably be housed before then. However, a campus and an academy dorm for the student body would be a great initial start to relieving pressure from the living space in some of the families.

Also, since San Francisco is hemorrhaging families with children, the investment in those who are still here can be a future pay off for San Francisco and for BAE here in San Francisco.

However, I will seek guarantees that the 400 domestic students will have campus housing, and that the 40+ foreign students are housed on campus as well. All students, regardless of nationality, will have to undergo one or more background checks to minimize the risk to the student body that there may be criminally-minded individuals in the Academy.

The international student body angle I am seeking is distinctly different. I want the native English speakers in the student body to also have a peer who is non-English speaking, and that non-English speaker will benefit from having around 8-10 native speakers assigned to him or her over the course of 2-4 years. The nonnative English speakers, from the countries named earlier, will also have to be language tutors to their respective peers over the same 2-4 year academic period.

Domestic Students breakdown may be something such as:


100 from California
80-100 from the West Coast
80 from the Midwest
80 from the East Coast


Potential campus sites:


Bayview/Hunters Point area (near shipyards)
Treasure Island
The Presidio
Former Alameda Naval Air Station


Other potential competitors:

Other potential competitors can arise from naval academies, art institutes, vocational schools, shipyard-funded training centers, CAD courses, and so on. But, none of them individually will have all the courses, content, or software I intend to procure for the students.


FUNDING

Funding I am seeking will come not from the US Navy or US Government or solely from them, but from international sources such as development banks, interested corporations, and private individuals. In no case is funding to be offered or accepted if there is any desire or attempt to change the way this organization is founded or operated. There is no equity or ownership sharing (otherwise, why would it be seeking partial funding via crowd funding site?)


Initial banks approached will be:


Korea Development Bank (KDB)
Development Bank of Japan (DBJ)
China Development Bank (CDB)

Although no equity is exchanged, other offers will be made, suitably equitable for a non-equity arrangement.

Why these banks? The majority of my influences I intend to make or have received come from these countries. Other banks may approach, but there will be no equity exchange. Also, if any bank invests in my ambition the way China Development Bank invested in a certain under funded area of San Francisco, then it definitely will get my attention.



TransState Unaccredited, Unofficial Naval Architects and Marine Innovators; TransState Unconventional, Unofficial Naval Architects and Marine Interlocutors