Media report UMaine a partner in Navy-funded boat hull building project
The Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald, Maine Public, Mainebiz and the Republican Journal reported the University of Maine is a partner in a boat hull building project led by the Portland, Maine location of Honolulu, Hawaii-based company Navatek and funded by an $8 million U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research contract. The goal of the project is to design safer hulls and hybrid-electric propulsion systems for planing craft, a type of small, speedy boat. UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center will design new materials for prototypes for the boat hulls, and will use the university’s 3D printer — the largest in the world — to print boat molds. Twelve of the Navatek’s employees are UMaine mechanical engineering graduates, and the company is looking to continue this trend as well as hire UMaine electrical engineering graduates, the Press Herald reported. The Times Record carried the Press Herald article.