When all the junior researchers were asked to introduce themselves, I realized that the best adjective to describe myself is “Junior”. My name is Wikke Witteveen and as a fresh graduate of the Nautical Sciences from the Antwerp Maritime Academy, I am now taking my first steps into the academic research world. Being new to this world, every week or even every day is full of exciting experiences.
My bachelor and master’s thesis focused on the evaluation of ship’s hull coatings. This introduced me to a research area where corrosive seawater and marine life meet steel, ships, and marine infrastructure. I was given the opportunity to go deeper into this topic by starting a PhD within the Socorro project. As my studies prepared me for a career in the maritime sector, I am very excited by this project, as it is a great opportunity to scientifically explore the maritime industry.
Within Socorro, I am currently developing a laboratory setup to perform corrosion measurements in water with a set of water quality and corrosion sensors. The main idea is to be able to simulate water conditions that can be met in a real environment and to evaluate the corrosion by precise measurements. The data collected with this setup will be then used by other Socorro partners that will develop an AI risk algorithm. This risk model could be used for preventing corrosion in, for instance, offshore structures.
As SOCORRO is a multidisciplinary project, it is a lot of fun to get to know other research field such as machine learning or risk modelling. It is also very interesting to get an introduction into scientific communication and to discuss corrosion with different experts. This makes the project very insightful!