Technology

Meet the team

A warm welcome from the Technology Higher Education team at University Centre South Devon.

Matthew Prowse

Main areas of teaching

Marine

Bio

Studied HNC/HND Boat Design and Production in Falmouth, followed by a BSc (Hons) Marine and Composites Technology at Plymouth University, graduating in 2006. Accumulated 10 Years of industry experience in Boat Design and Composites Engineering, including companies such as Princess Yachts PLC, Pipex PX and Babcock. Now a lecturer at South Devon Marine Academy in Boat Building and Marine Technologies since 2011. Studying towards PhD/M.Phil in Mechanical Engineering with Plymouth University based on “Technology and Fishing” commenced October 2018, complete approximately 2024.

Research and scholarly activity

The purpose of my PhD is to seek the opinion of leading experts to assess which factors should be considered when creating and adopting new technologies within the fishing industry, to ensure that any new technologies implemented, whilst meeting demand of future populations, are environmentally sustainable. Stakeholders will be selected to explore all Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental (PESTLE) considerations using a Grounded Delhi Method approach. By identifying key themes amongst the PESTLE based areas, a consensus could be agreed upon which will provide a grounded and non-biased theoretical approach to new technologies and their impact on their future use in commercial capture fisheries.

The FdSc Marine Technology students have been researching and designing Marine Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) for the use in collecting litter that has made its way into the ocean. The proposed design will enable a drone to navigate its way around local inland waterways particularly harbours to remove waste from the surface of the water. The technology is new in the sense of applying control systems to marine vessels to self-navigate and be able to defect rogue litter. The system has also been successfully entered into a national university competition that uses automation in marine vessels to solve the marine waste problem.

The technology is also being utilised alongside his PhD in autonomous fishing vessels that will use MASS to solve the sustainability and recruitment issues currently facing the fishing industry. It is anticipated that a working model will be operational this time next year to demonstrate the benefits of robot technology in marine occupations.