Belfast Maritime Consortium lead Artemis Technologies hosted the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon Oliver Dowden CBE MP, on Tuesday.
The Minister met Dr Iain Percy, CEO of Artemis Technologies, and the senior management team to see the company’s digital design work which will create transformative marine technologies and a new range of zero-emission vessels. During the visit, the Minister experienced the company’s full motion platform simulator, a unique digital technology which streamlines the development process and prototyping of the company’s various vessels and technologies.
Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said:
It was great to visit Artemis Technologies and see its fantastic work tackling climate change through digital innovation. We’re working tirelessly to help firms like Artemis create new jobs across Northern Ireland and make sure we all feel the benefit of this golden age in UK tech.
Dr Iain Percy OBE, said:
It was fantastic to host the Secretary of State Oliver Dowden today, who is responsible for a few areas close to my heart. My background is in sport, competing in the Olympics and America’s Cup, but perhaps what is most relevant to us is digital design, which is central to what we do at Artemis Technologies. Building on our design approach from our racing heritage, we take designs to a really high level in the digital world before moving to prototype manufacture and serial production.
Our mission is to support the decarbonisation of maritime through the development of new green high-speed vessels, specifically targeting the passenger ferry and workboat markets. We welcomed the opportunity to discuss with the minister the future of digital design within the maritime sector, and to showcase our innovative simulator, which represents a multi-million-pound digital investment over recent years by Artemis Technologies.
Through representation of the same physical forces experienced on the water, the simulator can be used to create a digital environment which allows for the testing of new equipment, crew training, and system improvements, without the need to physically manufacture prototypes.
Iain added:
Today’s visit allowed us to communicate how our digital design concepts have allowed us to reap major benefits in terms of increased productivity, cost savings, product improvement, and waste reduction, demonstrating to the Minister how crucial digital innovation and use of ‘digital twins’ can further advancement of the maritime industry. At Artemis Technologies we are committed to helping the UK reach net zero and we are confident that by continuing to develop and improve our digital technologies, we will play a pivotal role in facilitating the green revolution both on a local and global scale. Oliver Dowden was really interested in this aspect, I think it opened his eyes to the potential of using digital design and ‘design smarter’ techniques to increase productivity and allow us to bring to market products for customers all around the world.