The Nagapasa Team, consisting of 10 students of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, Faculty of Engineering (FT), Universitas Indonesia (UI), won 3rd place in the prestigious 11th Annual International Student Design Competition, Safe Affordable Ferry Design Competition 2024, organized by the Worldwide Ferry Safety Association (WFSA) based in the United States. The team consists of Rifqianda Fadlurrahman, Muhammad Elvan Nawawi, Muhammad Akbar Ramsha Oetama, Vincent Collin, Daffa Sulaiman Kamil, Ken Nafilahshafa Sahatisae, Rawhul Ihsan Setyoko, Dzakiah Mardiah, Felicia Rachel Taruli Siregar, and Reisya Putri Ariyan, supervised by Dr. Eng. Ir. Muhammad Arif Budiyanto, S.T., M.T., IPM. They designed an innovative ferry named MV Omnia: Safe & Affordable Ferry for Niger River.
The MV Omnia is designed with a flat monohull barge and is equipped with two 300 KW CSI Ningdong DF170 marine dual fuel generators, which allow the ship to reach a speed of 8.5 knots. “With a ship dimension that is almost 40 meters long, an overall width of 16.01 meters, and a draft height of 1 meter, the ship we designed can accommodate 10 crew, 170 passengers, 16 cars, and agricultural cargo. This ship is built using a pre-cut concept, which facilitates the transportation and assembly of construction parts of the MV Omnia and can reduce production costs to an estimated $1.5 million,” said Rifqianda, team captain.
Not only is it cost efficient, the MV Omnia also has two superior features, namely an anti-piracy device equipped with a water jet gun and razor wire, as well as a ship monitoring system equipped with long-range ship radar, weight monitoring sensors, and multivis surveillance cameras with infrared that can detect objects in the middle distance. Powered by CNG diesel with additional environmentally friendly solar power, the ship is also equipped with a tilt-up thrustmaster that facilitates ship maintenance and repairs. In addition, the production cost of this project is $1,516,633.18 and the operational cost is $461,653.44.
The International Student Design Competition organized by WFSA is an annual competition that aims to support innovation in safe, affordable, and environmentally friendly ships. In 2024, the focus of the competition is to design a Roll-on / Roll-off Passenger Ship (RoPax) ferry that will be used on the Niger River in Nigeria. This ship must be able to operate in shallow waters in the Anambra State region, Southern Nigeria, and serve routes from Onitsha Jetty to Idah Jetty and Ndoni Jetty. The ship is designed to overcome specific challenges related to river conditions and local transportation needs. This year, the competition runs from December 2023 to May 2024 and the winner will be announced on June 20, 2024 online in Marrakesh, Morocco. Furthermore, the Nagapasa UI team along with other winners were invited to Morocco in October to receive the award directly from WFSA.
Acting Dean of FTUI, Prof. Ir. Mahmud Sudibandriyo, MSc., Ph.D., appreciated the achievements of the students. He said that as the largest archipelagic country in the world with more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia has enormous maritime potential. In this context, Indonesia should play an active role in innovation in the maritime sector, and this achievement is the first step in this major role. “The Nagapasa UI team demonstrated technical capabilities and innovation in presenting relevant solutions to issues in the international arena,” said Prof. Mahmud.
