THE Singapore Chapter of the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (IEEE OES) is at the final stage of bidding for the hosting rights to the OCEANS 2020 global conference on marine technology, science, education and policy, an event that is also sponsored by the Marine Technological Society.
Speaking to TTGmice e-Weekly, Venugopalan Pallayil, general chair of the OCEANS 2020 organising committee and deputy head of National University of Singapore, Acoustic Research Lab, Tropical Marine Science Institute, said the results are expected to be announced after the OCEANS 2015 conference in Washington this October.
Should the bid be a success, Singapore can expect to welcome 650 delegates and over 50 exhibitors to its shores. It will also be the citystate’s second OCEANS, with the last being held in 2006.
Venugopalan revealed that the only other destination vying for the event is Chennai, India. “It is not a tough fight,” he said. “I am hopeful of pulling it through.”
Venugopalan is eager to score OCEANS 2020 for the benefit of the local oceanic engineering community.
He explained: “Fourteen years is a long enough time to bring the oceanic engineering community back to Singapore and show them what we can offer in terms of furthering this area of technology. In 2006 our organisation was young, just four years old, hence our reach to overseas organisations was limited. Today we are better known among the international community and we believe that organising a conference here would provide more visibility to Singapore, especially in the academic area.”
The conference will also seek new opportunities for collaboration in the technical area among local and overseas institutions, and an exhibition on products and services will be held to achieve this.
