Singapore’s offshore and marine industry has a new testbed for digital and green technologies, with the opening of a digital learning lab at Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT)’s Punggol campus.
Established by SIT and Seatrium, the Offshore & Marine Digital Learning Lab is designed to link shipyard operations with applied research and workforce training in artificial intelligence (AI), digital twins and smart energy systems. The initiative is backed by cash investments from Seatrium.
Over the next three years, more than 700 undergraduates and 1,000 mid-career professionals are expected to train there as yards move toward automated processes and lower-carbon power models.
“Digitalisation, sustainability, automation, and artificial intelligence are no longer emerging trends – they are defining the operating model of the next era of offshore, marine, and energy development,” says Seatrium chief executive officer Chris Ong at the launch event earlier today.
He adds that the facility would be “a strategic platform for talent renewal, capability building, and leadership development across the entire sector,” drawing on Seatrium’s global experience in complex offshore and marine projects.
Applied research will focus on three areas:
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- Sustainability and energy efficiency – Microgrid digital twins, energy-system modelling and simulation to support infrastructure for near-shore and coastal power demand;
- 5G maritime industrial use cases – AI-driven remote inspection, monitoring and mixed-reality collaboration to improve operational efficiency;
- Digital yard technology – AI-enabled digital twin simulators for “what-if” scenario planning to strengthen resilience and decision-making.
The partners are developing measurable targets, including a 10% increase in the adoption of greener embedded generation to curb emissions, a 20% improvement in the accuracy of remote operations through vision-AI, and a 20% reduction in the time needed to generate operational scenarios using new digital yard tools. Together, these goals are meant to deliver clear, quantifiable and industry-relevant results.
At the same event, SIT president Professor Chua Kee Chaing says the collaboration was structured to integrate education with real industrial problems. “The SIT-Seatrium partnership goes far beyond a conventional academic-industry collaboration. We have intentionally designed a partnership that brings together applied learning, workforce upskilling, and industry-driven applied research.”
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The lab, he adds, will serve three roles: preparing graduates for digital yards, upgrading the current workforce and supporting problem-driven research.
“The future of the offshore and marine industry is not built in silos. It is built through partnerships and shared purpose. Through this Digital Learning Lab, SIT and Seatrium are making that future tangible, here, today,” he says.
Both organisations expect the centre to help maritime companies adopt AI analytics, remote operations and energy-optimisation systems as Singapore’s yards compete for projects tied to the global energy transition.
