Today, we visited a training center for Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, or BSM, in Limassol. In this location, they train students to become seafarers and work on shipping boats. They have t stay in the dorms for several months as they train, until they eventually pass and receive their license. With this license, they will then go onto work on a shipping boat to continue the global trade of goods.

When we were given a tour, they showed us a handful of simulation rooms. One was the engine simulation room, which was broken up into three sections. The first section was for the instructor, where they would cause problems that the tested group of students would need to solve. The other two sections were essentially large walls made of touch screens that described the whole ship in simple graphics on the screen. However, whenever you tapped on any of the items in the simulation, you could interact with 3d models they realistically portrayed what the system would look like on the ship. They also had a simulated alarm that was not played for us, but we were shown the large speaker it came out of. It seemed evident it would be quite loud.

After the engine room, we were taken to the deck simulation room. Here, the students had to work in a team to navigate various real world scenarios as if they were actually at the helm of a ship. In this room, we got to see some students actually going about the simulation. There were two groups in the two rooms that were available for the simulation. Both groups were just finishing a simulated run through the straight of Singapore, which is supposedly the most difficult place to maneuver a ship in the world. It was fascinating watching them navigate the boat with mountains of information on the screens that was nonsense to me but clearly very important.

Overall, I believe that this company visit was my favorite because we got to see a lot of hands-on material, rather than just being lectured at about how the company works. After visiting BSM, we also saw a couple other areas in the Cyprus mountains, one a tourist trap projecting a quaint village ideal and the other a nice little square with a hiking trail not hiding its tourist-oriented nature. After all of this, I look forward to the next activities that are in store!