Students at the Fisheries and Marine Institute’s (MI) School of Ocean Technology have a new learning tool thanks to the donation of a LARS (Launch and Recovery System) modified davit crane by Kraken Sonar Systems Inc.

LARS is designed to lift and transfer machinery such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and underwater vehicles (UV) from land or a vessel to the ocean. This particular system is manufactured for smaller remotely operated and underwater vehicles and will allow students to practice launch and recover procedures.

“We are grateful to Kraken for their generous donation,” said Paul Brett, Assistant Head of MI’s School of Ocean Technology. “Our ROV and UV students study LARS as part of their coursework and will now have an opportunity to gain practical experience by putting their skills to the test with the equipment.”

Kraken’s Vice President, Engineering, Dave Shea says the donation of the LARS is an investment into the education of the next generation of ocean technology experts.

“Kraken is pleased to support the Marine Institute and its School of Ocean Technology. A number of Kraken employees are MI graduates, so we have directly seen the benefit of having a world-leading educational institution in our own backyard. We hope this donation will benefit students as they build the real-world skills that makes MI graduates so effective in industry,” said Mr. Shea.

MI took possession of the new system on December 14. It will be located at the Institute’s Ridge Road campus.

Kraken Sonar Systems Inc. is a world leading developer of Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS). SAS uses sophisticated signal processing of successive acoustic pings to form an image with much higher resolution than conventional sonars. This is made possible through recent advances in microelectronics combined with adaptive focusing techniques similar to those used in optics, but performed in software rather than in hardware.