TSUUNAMI Korea-San Francisco

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


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


Hello,

I want to form -- in two countries (in Korea and in South Korea) 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, 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. (Since then, mostly anime-related sites, unrelated to me, seem to have taken an interest in using the spelling I did. Other uses found in search engines appear as misspellings in the titles of articles, but correctly spelled in the body of the articles. TSUUNAMI is related to one of my other domains, DreadYacht, which I registered in 2006 and was first invoiced on 2006-03-25.

TSUUNAMI is, as stated above, the acronym for "Trans State Unofficial, Unconventional Naval Architecture and Marine Innovators", 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.



SETTINGS:

There are two settings in which I seek to set up the academy/institution: South Korea and San Francisco.


SAN FRANCISCO:

Currently, for San Francisco, 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.

SOUTH KOREA:

In South Korea, there are several locations from which to choose:

-- Songdo City
-- Incheon
--Daejeon
-- Busan
-- Cheonan
-- Jinhae-gu
-- Ulsan


Each location has its strengths and weaknesses, and all of them are tough choices!

Songdo City: New city, clean city, lots of shoreline, lots of land at which a campus could be built (Songo City is just a bridge-crossing from Incheon proper, and is considered part of Incheon) (I visited Songdo City around 7 times)

Incheon: near the maritime high school, shipping, and other maritime-related historic sites. It is in some ways reminiscent of San Francisco with the hills and vistas, and has an international ferry terminal that shuttles people to China, Russia, and other ports accessible from Korea's west coast. I used the Incheon ferry to travel to and return from Qingdao, China. (I visited Incheon probably 5 times, not related to the ferry and ticket process.)

Daejeon: one of the major seats of government, research, and education. In the center of Korea, I found it inexpensive to live in for two weeks. KAIST is there, as is a maritime research facility (I spoke by phone with a researcher there, from the gate guard house)

Busan: A very major seat of naval, coast guard, and commercial maritime activity. Lots of ship building occurs there, and there is an international passenger ship terminal, a national maritime university, and the recently-opened (July 2012) National Maritime Museum (which I visited at least 4 times in my two weeks in Busan.)

Cheonan: Cheonan just west of the center of the country, which I once visited around October of 2012, has a number of advantages in being near the center of the country, less expensive than other major cities, has a university and other education, and is the hub of almost every long-haul and other rail conveyance traversing the country. Cheonan is the namesake for the ROKS Cheonan, the corvette that was destroyed on 26 March 2010 by a torpedo attributed to North Korea. Many lives were lost on that day. I intend to present to Cheonan City one of my ship designs as a dedication/commemoration to the ROKS Cheonan.

Jinhae-gu: Jinhae-gu, on the east coast of Korea, is a special case proposition beyond country. Currently, the USN has a base there, but, due to recent events of 2012, it is more important than ever that Korea and Japan have smooth, clear, open communications and operations as far as naval security, regional security, and interactions go, without intermediaries or administrative overhead mediators of various types. It would be interesting if, similar to in Europe, a cooperative security arrangement somehow led to Korea and Japan -- in a limited experiment to strengthen relations -- built two to 4 ships, maybe even 4 to 6 ships, of the same type, using similar or same-source equipment, and during certain exercises, cross-decked crews. smoother military operations and relations could help the region feel safer, could re-warm the travel that has somewhat waned over the past 7-11 months. Possibly, more facts about the bitter past can be reconciled. Who knows? But, if Jinhae-gu is vacated by the USN (unlikely since there are updated piers to accommodate the USN's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers), there could be enough open infrastructure for the ROKN and JMSDF to set up sister ports (Kure, Hiroshima is a sister city (as are Annapolis, Maryland, and Vina del Mar, Valparaiso, Chile), and, interestingly, the emblem of Jinhae has in it a cherry blossom, per the wikipedia page about Jinhae-gu. It would be possible to foster closer relations if the Cherry Blossom festival celebrated in each country and other parts of Asia had alternating or concurrent celebration sites, between civilians and service persons. Of course, it will take some time to realize (effect) this and some effort to sustain it. (I have not yet visited Jinhae-gu.)

Ulsan: Ulsan, on the south eastern coast, has some major academic institutions, and naval architecture study is among subjects in which students may choose to major. It is a major city and has much maritime history. (I did not yet visit Ulsan. As for sister cities, Ulsan and Kumamoto, Japan have friendship agreements.)


FUNDING



COMPETITORS

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Trans State Unofficial, Unconventional Naval Architecture and Marine Innovators
TransState Unaccredited, Unofficial Naval Architects and Marine Innovators;
TransState Unconventional, Unofficial Naval Architects and Marine Iterlocutors