About us
The Workboats Division represents one of the four ship-newbuild domains of Damen Shipyards, alongside Offshore & Specialized Vessels, Yachting and Naval. Workboats focuses on designing, engineering, building and commissioning of Workboats, such as High Speed Craft, Fast&City Ferries, Stationary Dredgers and Tugs.

The Technology Management department of the division Workboats is responsible for development and standardization of the ship’s systems portfolio based on modular and scalable solutions.

This department works with so called system platform teams. A system platform team is a multi-disciplinary team responsible for one or more systems on board a ship. , The system platform team takes care of the development, standardization and maintenance support of the entire (standard) system during its full life cycle. This involves technical content, supply chain, production and quality control, knowledge management and documentation for in service support.

The role

As an intern, you will be part of the Electric & Hybrid Propulsion System Platform team within the Damen division Workboats. This team works on the development of electrification of the vessels. With Sustainability and Digitalization being the main themes for the Damen Group, it will be exciting times for an intern to take on an assignment in the field of electrification. We have multiple projects at hand to take on and also we would like to be inspired by your own ideas in this field. Please write in your motivational letter which project you would like to take on!

• Internship: Build a battery selection and design tool

Work on the selection of the appropriate battery type and design of the battery system. Relevant aspects should be taken into account such as: Ship profile (charge/discharge times), power/energy calculation, battery type characteristics, battery system characteristics (battery behavior, heat build up, cooling characteristics).

• Graduation: design and build a functional model of a DC power management system, for an electric propulsion system

Develop a model (simulation/MBSE/HIL) in which we can analyse and verify the expected functional behavior of the power management system for a DC power distribution system (DC PMS). Such a model would help us to analyse and define the required logic for a DC PMS considering different type of power sources and consumers.

• Graduation: design and build a functional model and/or test setup of a “Shore to ship” charging management system

Charging of ships is a bit different from cars, so we want to develop a model/setup in which we can analyze and test the expected functional behavior of the charging management of the shore to ship charging system.

• Graduation : Design of the on-board propulsion system alarm philosophy

Nowadays every system on boards creates alarms and warnings, being presented to the ship operator. In order to guide/assist a ship operator more effectively, we would like for this assignment to see a smart and reusable philosophy and layered approach as an outcome. So help identify and present important alarms to a ship operator, without jeopardizing safety and operability of the electrical propulsion system.

• Graduation: Develop methodology for efficient fault finding

See also topic above about propulsion system alarm philosophy, which focuses on the operator. The purpose of this topic is to assist the system designer and service engineer. Considering the complexity of current electrical propulsion systems on board, fault finding in case of system failure takes considerable time. We need to think about an approach which will help us to analyse problems in existing solutions based on improved feedback, to find the causes of errors/faults and enabling quicker response to minimize operational downtime. For example we could think about digital twin modelling and also logging of systems, providing continuous feedback on system reliability through the use of smart root cause analysis and key performance criteria.

Key accountabilities

As an intern or graduate student within the Workboats division, you will face multiple aspects of applying advanced measurement and/or simulation methods in one of these assignments. You will be working on different types of design, development strategies or actual hard/software. To carry out these tasks, various tools and equipment are available to achieve your goal. You will be responsible from day one for the planning and execution of your assignment. You are expected to deliver a detailed in-depth analysis of your research problem and meanwhile be able to communicate the results and conclusions to other departments.

Skills & experience

• You are currently enrolled in either a Bachelor or Master study, preferably in the field of Electrotechnical, Mechanical Engineering, Naval Engineering or similar.

• You are a proactive, result-oriented, with initiative taking ownership.

• Proficient in programming and simulation skills with Python or MATLAB and Simulink are a plus

• Experience with Systems Engineering approach

• Good command of English and preferably Dutch, especially in writing

What we offer

• The opportunity to be active in the forefront of our industry

• An internship/ graduation fee and travel allowance will be paid for the duration of the assignment.

• A pleasant and dynamic, international work environment with informal atmosphere

• Proper mentoring at academic level will be available throughout the internship.

Due to housing issues we cannot accept international students that do not have accommodation in the Netherlands yet. Be aware that this assignment will take place from February 2025 onwards.