June

We are now into the second week of the IC-ENC International Validation Training Course, which is currently being held in Australia. The delegates have spent the first week learning about IC-ENC's mission, aims and process, in addition to data supply and IC-ENC's internal software. The delegates then spent the weekend exploring Sydney and Wollongong, and getting to know each other better over a nice meal and a drink or two. The second week of the course will focus on data consistency, validation reports and the distribution of data. ​

The third training course to be held this year will take place in Panama. Initial invitations to attend the Panama course will be sent out this week. Please contact Mike Hawes at mike.hawes@ic-enc.org for further information, or if you have any questions.

The concept of providing ECDIS software to IC-ENC members was discussed and agreed at SC15, and so we have spent some time evaluating two options, TRANSAS and 7Cs, for functionality and cost benefit. As a result, the 7Cs eGlobe2 ECDIS has been selected for its ease of installation on office hardware, its performance for data quality assessment tasks, and its value for money.

Accordingly, IC-ENC has purchased 40 licenses for this software, for use in our offices and to supply to members. Familiarisation training will be delivered to delegates attending the Australia and Panama training courses, and they will return to their home organisations with software to install locally. The delegates who attended the UK training course in February will also be provided with the software, and guidance will be provided directly from IC-ENC as required. To provide further guidance and support for all members, IC-ENC has developed a comprehensive installation and user guide, alongside 7Cs, which focuses on data quality and data assessment.

Again, the dataflow within IC-ENC remains high, and as of week 22 we have now released a total of 5,577 ENCs. This number will continue to increase over the next couple of weeks as we validate and release 50 new cells produced by the Netherlands Hydrographic Office (NLHO).

We are pleased to announce that IC-ENC has appointed a new member of staff at the UK office, Ms Liz Hahessy. Liz has been appointed to prepare IC-ENC for future services and the changes that will be required to support our members as the S-100 suite of data standards develop, most notably the ENC Standard S-101. Liz will also contribute to other areas, in addition to providing cover to our business critical post of Technical Manager.

Liz's background is in Geography and Geology, having achieved a BSc in Geology from Cardiff University, as well as an MSc in Quaternary Science from the University of London. Following her academic studies, Liz went on to work for the Environment Agency as a Regulatory Water Quality Officer. Subsequently, she joined the UKHO in 2007 as a Mapping and Charting Officer in the VAR Team prior to the launch of AVCS (Admiralty Vector Chart Service). In 2009, Liz undertook the UKHO compilation training course, achieving IHO Cat B accreditation and then settling as a compiler in the Home Waters chart branch. In 2011, Liz became a DDMT (Digital Data Management Team) Manager, where she was responsible for acquiring and quality assessing ENC data from RENCs and FGHOs for inclusion in the weekly AVCS and AIO (Admiralty Information Overlay) service. This required a good working knowledge of IHO Standards, ECDIS systems and validation software tools such as Jeppesen's dKart Inspector and 7Cs ENC Analyzer. In this post, Liz was also involved in two major projects developing the CASTLE independent validation tool and Torus, which is due to replace the Moebius database. Liz was promoted to Digital Team Leader of the DDMT, AIO and RENC Liaison teams in January 2014, where she led, managed and supported the teams through UKHO restructure and process changes.

We are very much looking forward to working with Liz and welcoming her to the team!

As part of the staff structure review, and in order to realistically balance IC-ENC headcount and budget for staff costs, Mr Kevin Black, IC-ENC Assistant Technical Manager, will be transferring to the UKHO. The Assistant Technical Manager role is responsible for delivering IC-ENC's new technology and will cease upon completion, so this role will be filled by a short term secondment from the UKHO and specialist contractor skills.

Kevin has been with IC-ENC for over two years, and will be known to most of your teams as the first line of support for any technology queries such as data transfer account set up. He has also briefed the Steering Committee on IC-ENC technology, and has put in place the foundations on which our new technology will be built.

Kevin has always been a pleasure to work with, and we wish him the best of luck with the next stage of his career.


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