Naval Fire Fighting Training & Education System Erasmus Project

Project Title

Naval Fire Fighting Training & Education System

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Environment and climate change

Project Summary

Context/background of the project
NAFTES was based on an innovative idea at developing a holistic Naval Fire Fighting Training and Education System (NAFTES) to complement existing training infrastructure available in a special Unit of the HMOD (Hellenic Navy, Naval Training Command). The innovative aspect of the project was the development of specialized content, currently missing by the training and content market, but highly demanded from the naval industry, i.e., content for training crew members and staff of engineering premises on facing effectively fire situations. In addition, the business aspect of the project was to highly increase the training capacity of the Damage Control School, in order to meet the challenges and needs of modern maritime businesses. Finally, the technological innovation was the integration of Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, interfaces and equipment, for on-site training, enhancing NAFTES drills and exercises.

Objectives
The NAFTES project aiming at enhancing the quality of the training of ships crews, both military and commercial ones, on firefighting operations. The training is provided through an on-line platform, called NAFTES Etraining, which includes the use of rich media content, interactive content, innovative tools, mobile apps and AR (Augmented Reality) applications.
Participating organizations
The partnership comprises a multi-disciplinary team of four partners: naval firefighting experts from both navy (HMOD) and commercial shipping (DANAOS), education and pedagogic expert partners as well as ICT and multimedia specialists (GUnet, IES).

Impact
The ability to train crews and officers on a vessel stationed away from relevant premises or on board is will have a positive impact in the shipping businesses and in this sense it will have a broader international effect and impact. The Initial Training of a crew combined with traditional drills, and the completion of the training at a later time at the crew’s convenience will only have a positive effect. At the same time the use of cutting edge technology such as AR prepares the crew, both mentally and physically, to achieve better fire-fighting skills and techniques. The efficiency in dealing with similar crisis situations onboard is of paramount importance for all participating countries (e.g., Greece, Cyprus and Italy) where the maritime industry is a key asset.

Results
The most important results of the project are the following:
– The User Requirements Report (Output 1) made clear the need for onboard training, teleconference facilities, more AR Scenarios, in addition to the online blended firefighting training. The report includes analysis and discussions on the current state of art, good practices, pedagogical approaches, and the needs of the target groups. The main results had a major impact in the way that NAFTES was designed.
– The NAFTES Fire Fighting Toolbox (Output 2), aimed at developing original, high quality and interactive educational materials for NAFTES Firefighting Training that follow the requirements and the standards of both adult and vocational training. It includes: a) the NAFTES Fire Fighting Training Curriculum an outline of the two different levels of Fire Fighting Training – A. Basic Firefighting, B. Advanced Firefighting, b) Course modules design and development of all training materials, c) Video shooting complete firefighting scenarios into the Fire Simulator in the HN Damage Control School and d) Translations into partners’ languages: en, it, el.
– The NAFTES eTraining Platform and AR Application (Output 3) supports the delivery of all materials of the project and make online interactive tools such as teleconference, online synchronous and asynchronous communication, interactive modules, self-assessment exercises, etc. All educational materials are also presented open to the public through the NAFTES Open Digital library. Additionally, the NAFTES Etraining platform support the content downloading and its offline usage (without the need of Internet) supporting onboard training.
– NAFTES Mobile Etraining application is a native app that provides an alternative means of accessing the materials hosted in the NAFTES Etraining platform and can be used as a virtual information and learning environment as well as for disseminating the project results.
– NAFTES Firefighting AR Apps is one of the most important innovations introduced by the project and can be used as a tool for acquiring knowledge, motivating and encouraging trainees. At the NAFTES application only one AR App for Hololens Glasses was promised, but finally 3 different AR application for mobile devices and 3 for Hololens glasses were developed.

Longer-term benefits
NAFTES is expected to increase significantly the training capacity of the Damage Control School and can be considered as a stable basis for building new training activities for ship crews and for the personnel of any kind of engineering premises.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 239406,65 Eur

Project Coordinator

AKADIMAIKO DIADIKTYO & Country: EL

Project Partners

• MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENCE, GREECE
• INTELLIGENCE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND SECURITY SRL IES SOLUTIONS SRL
• DANAOS SHIPPING COMPANY LIMITED