“A former Southampton Institute PhD student has won a prestigious international maritime industry prize for the research work he did at the institute. Dr. Mohamed Farghaly, now Vice President of the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport in Egypt, was presented with one of the Seatrade Awards at the London guildhall in front of the world’s maritime industry. The awards were presented by William O’Neil, Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization. He was also Chairman of Judges. Dr. Farghaly, who in 1996 became the first student to gain a PhD from the Institute’s Maritime Faculty, won the innovation category of the awards for his PhD thesis work on a decision-making system for collision avoidance. The Seatrade Awards are like the Oscars of the maritime industry. Most of the major shipowners and shipping organization were among the 330 guests. Dr. Farghaly’s work involved the development of an expert system able to perform intellectual processing of collision avoidance factors. This was the eleventh annual Seatrade Awards which attracts entries from all over the world. This year there were 79 entries from 18 countries."

Extracted from “PhD Research wins maritime industry Oscar”, page 17, the magazine of Southampton Institute’s Alumni Association – issue 7 autumn 99.

Winner of Seatrade Awards, 1999