SFI AutoShip Days 2026

Our main annual event, the SFI AutoShip Days, was held on October 13-14 at Scandic Nidelven in Trondheim, bringing our partners and researchers together for two days of presentations and discussions.

Presentations included perspectives from Kongsberg Maritime on taking autonomy from project to product, and from Gard on the transition from test areas to commercial operations, DNV's experiences with simulation-based testing of autonomous navigation systems, examples from Maritime Robotics of how research within SFI AutoShip contributes to product development, supervision and control of autonomous and remotely controlled ships, presented jointly by NTNU and Massterly, and updates on Elly’s journey towards autonomy by SINTEF Ocean.

Furthermore, several NTNU researchers presented on topics including W-band radar, risk-informed navigation, COLREGs-aware trajectory prediction and mission planning, new work on risk-aware AI agents, the relationship between compliance and safety, language-guided collision avoidance, and insights from low-fidelity noisy simulations, and a research expedition to the North Pole, with the Eurasian Basin Transect 2026. We were also joined by guest presenters from the student competition Njord.

Many thanks to all our presenters, partners and researchers for making this year’s SFI Days a great event!

Susanna Dybwad Kristensen's PhD defence

We congratulate our excellent SFI AutoShip graduate Susanna Dybwad Kristensen on her successful PhD defence on September 17, of her thesis titled “Online risk modeling of autonomous surface vessels – Risk based decision-making for improved safety and intelligence in operation”. We wish Susanna all the best going forward, in her new position at Kongsberg Maritime. 

Autumn Researcher Workshop

We arranged our Autumn researcher workshop on September 14, with participants from both research and industry partners. The day started with updates on the Centre, Use Cases and WP5 activities. The rest of the day was dedicated to researcher presentations and discussions focused on webinars, partner collaboration, and the annual work plan for 2027. 

Spring Researcher Workshop

The Spring Researcher Workshop was arranged on March 16. Most of the PhD and PD researchers in the Centre presented their project status and plans, after overviews on Use Cases and partner cooperation presented by Maritime Robotics and SINTEF Ocean.

From this workshop and going forward, all WPs participated in the same session, allowing cross-WP discussions and collaborations. The workshop focused on planning more webinars, as several researchers are due to complete their projects in the next year or so.

Felix-Marcel Petermann's PhD defence

SFI AutoShip congratulates WP3s excellent Felix-Marcel Petermann on his successful doctoral defence on May 28. We thank him for all his contributions to the Centre and wish him all the best going forward in his continued career as a researcher at NTNU and HVL. Felix's thesis is titled "Designing the human-autonomy interface for autonomous ferries" and he has been supervised by Professor Ole Andreas Alsos and Associate Professor Eleftherios Papachristos (NTNU). The assessment committee consisted of Professor John Zimmermann (Carnegie Mellon University), Researcher Nicole Costa (RISE Research Institutes of Sweden), and Associate Professor Yngve Dahl (NTNU).

Spencer Dugan's PhD defence

SFI AutoShip congratulates the first PhD graduate from WP4, the brilliant Spencer August Dugan, on his successful doctoral defence on Wednesday February 18, 2026. We are very grateful for all his contributions to the Centre and wish him all the best for his future career, which will start at DNV. Spencer’s thesis is titled “Methods and tools for the analysis and mitigation of drift grounding risk”. The assessment committee consisted of Professor Jin Wang (Liverpool John Moore University), Dr. Martin Hassel (Safetec AS), and Adjunct Professor Arne Ulrik Bindingsbø (NTNU). His main supervisor has been Professor Ingrid Bower Utne, and he was co-supervisor by Professor Mehdi Zadeh. 

SFI AutoShip Days 2025

90 participants from our consortium attended our main annual event, the SFI AutoShip Days, on October 14-15 at Scandic Nidelven in Trondheim. Presentations included Kongsberg Maritime's updates on the Reach Remote project, NMA's insights from the ongoing MASS code process, DNV's Simulation Trust Centre, Maritime Robotics' results on situational awareness and safety equivalence assessment, and developments on remote crane operations by NCL, SINTEF Digital and SINTEF Ocean. We were also joined by guest presentrs from the Norwegian Mapping Authority as well as the international studetn competition Njord. Results and ongoing research were presented by several of our recent graduates and current researchers from NTNU. 

Autumn researcher workshop

We arranged our Autumn researcher workshop on September 15, 2025, with 50 participants from research and industry partners. The day started with plenary updates on the Centre and Use Cases, and presentations by Kongsberg Maritime and DNV. During the parallel sessions, discussions focused on the annual work plan for 2026, the status of research activities and collaborations, and input for the upcoming SFI Days. 

Luka Grgičević's PhD defence

We congratulate the excellent SFI AutoShip researcher Luka Grgičević with completing his PhD. The public defence took place at NTNU's Department of ICT and Natural Sciences (IIR) in Ålesund on September 10, 2025, and the title of the thesis was "Game-Theoretical Maritime Guidance Algorithms". The research focuses on ship control - how to coordinate vessels in a safe and efficient manner in areas with many ships and other obstacles, while also adhering to maritime traffic regulations. His main supervisor has been Erlend Magnus Lervik Coates, with co-supervision from Ottar L. Osen, Robin Bye and Thor Inge Fossen. 

Daniel Menges' PhD defence

We congratulate the wonderful SFI AutoShip PhD graduate Daniel Menges, who successfully defended his thesis "Digital Twin for Situational Awareness and Optimal Control of Autonomous Surface Vessels" at NTNU's Department of Engineering Cybernetics on May 7, 2025. We enjoyed an engaging discussion with opponents Prof. Kari Koskinen (Tampere University), Dr. Kamyar Azizzadenesheli (Nvidia Corporation), and Dr. Tom Arne Pedersen (DNV). Prof. Konstantinos Alexis (NTNU) was the administrator for the assessment committee. Daniel's main supervisor has been Prof. Adil Rasheed, and co-supervisors have been Prof. Edmund Førland Brekke and Assoc. Prof. Anastasios Lekkas.