Newsletter from NTNU Digital

On Tuesday 6 June, Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, and Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Sigbjørn Gjelsvik visited NTNU to kick off the work on the new Norwegian strategy for digitalization. The strategy is predicted to be finished in 2024 and will set the course for further digitalization of the public sector, better facilitating industry-oriented digitalization and addressing crucial societal concerns, such as the need to regulate artificial intelligence. 

To achieve this the government invites you to provide your input to the strategy. We are following the development of the strategy closely and will be checking the status during the NOKIOS conference in October. 

Photo: Morten Breivik

The world's first commercialized autonomous ferry, MF Estelle, started operating in Stockholm on 12 June, transporting passengers from Kungsholmen to Södermalm. MF Estelle is the result of a collaboration between Torghatten and Zeabuz, an NTNU spin-off with links to the Autoferry project. 

It has been seven years since Associate Professor Egil Eide came up with the idea to create an autonomous ferry as a sustainable and flexible alternative to bridges. Since then, a cross-disciplinary team has developed the idea into the milliAmpere 1 and 2 ferries, which together with a shore control lab creates an excellent research infrastructure for autonomous ferries here in Trondheim.

The NTNU Digital team congratulates the members of the Autoferry-project, and everyone else involved, with their achievement of this significant milestone.            

The CESICT Virtual campfires are weekly online/hybrid meetings for the CESICT group to present research work (published, to be published), research ideas on papers or project proposals, and interesting readings (scientific articles).  External invited guests are welcome.

The meetings are informal and have a duration of 30-45 minutes. They will normally occur between 11:30-12:15 and be held on Teams. 

Vision: to increase communication within the group and to develop common research plans and collaborations. Also, to provide valuable feedback to colleagues. 

Join the CESICT mailing list to receive updates on upcoming events. You can also find an updated list of upcoming events on the CESICT webpage. 

Many of the PhD candidates financed through NTNU Digital and the Digital Transformation projects are finishing up their degrees in 2023. In the past few months, several of our PhD candidates have submitted and defended their dissertations, and the NTNU Digital team would like to congratulate them on finishing their degrees.

Michail Spitieris (MYMDT) – 30. May

Øystein Kaarstad Helgesen (Autoferry) – 3. May 

Ahmed Walid Amro (Autoferry) – 3. May 

Anton Hasselgren (Blockchain) – 14. April

On our PhD webpage, you can find updated information on upcoming defenses for all candidates related to NTNU Digital.

NTNU Digital will also be present this year at Arendalsuka. Together with SINTEF Digital, we address the topic Why do large ICT projects often go wrong? And what can we do to succeed in the years to come?  

The event will take place on Wednesday 16 August at MS Lofoten. Among the confirmed participants are Morten Dalsmo (Executive Vice President, SINTEF Digital), John Krogstie (Director, NTNU Digital), Hans Christian Holte (Director, NAV), Kolbjørn Haarr (CEO, Kernel/DIPS), Elisabet Haugsbø (Vice President, Tekna) and Gunn Karin Gjul (State Secretary (Ap), The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development). The discussion will be moderated by Aksel Faanes Persson from SINTEF Digital. 

Photo: Kai T. Dragland/ NTNU

The Norwegian Research Council has announced the allocation of 280 million NOK for 24 research projects within the maritime sector. Two of the 3 projects receiving funding at NTNU are on autonomous waterborne transport. The two projects are " Seamless human-machine teaming for safe and scalable operation of autonomous passenger ferries" and " Safe and Resilient Control Systems for Autonomous Ships", they will receive 12 million NOK each.    

Photo: Thor Nielsen

On 22 May, NTNU Digital hosted the second finalisation event for the projects under NTNU's Digital Transformation initiative. For this event, results from the Digital Economy, World of Wild Waters and Autoferry projects were presented. To finish off the event, all participants were invited for a demo trip with the milliAmpere2 ferry across the canal.