By the end of the year (2014), a new simulator will be installed in the Laboratory for Information Systems for Vessel Traffic Monitoring at the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy (NVNA). It will be used for the training of students and cadets, as well as for maintaining the qualifications and training newly appointed employees of the State Enterprise ‘Port Infrastructure’ (SEPI).
The new equipment will be delivered as part of the project “Vessel Traffic Management Information System (VTMIS) – Phase 3”, funded under Operational Programme ‘Transport’ 2007 – 2013, which envisages, in addition to expanding the currently operating vessel traffic monitoring system, the construction of two specialized coastal complexes in Varna and Burgas and the delivery of 2 new simulators, one of which will be installed at NVNA for joint use.
The simulator will replicate the functioning of the vessel traffic management information system implemented at SEPI. The modernized laboratory will provide better training conditions for future specialists in the field of navigation. Students in engineering disciplines related to the technical aspects of building, maintaining, and developing port facilities will also benefit from it. The laboratory will support training in the management, analysis, and forecasting of vessel traffic, cargo flows, human resource management, and a number of other activities related to the maritime business.
Seven students and cadets from the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy were awarded by the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Danail Papazov, for excellent achievements in their studies.
Prof. Peycho Tomov – lecturer in the Department of ‘Ship Power Plants, Machines and Mechanisms’ – and Assoc. Prof. Blagovest Belev from the Department of ‘Navigation’ were recognized for high scientific achievements during the year.
Second-year student Ralitsa Zlateva, Chief Petty Officer Niko Ivanov Kukov – a fourth-year cadet in the specialty ‘Navigation’ for the Ministry of Interior – and the Head of the Department of ‘Social, Economic and Legal Sciences’, Prof. Dimitar Kanev, personally received their honorary awards from Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski.