President of the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) Professor Andrew Spencer (left) and secretary general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Arsenio Dominguez. While fully autonomous vessels remain limited and are not yet operating at scale, CMU president Professor Andrew Spencer said the emergence of the technology means the industry must begin preparing now for the seafarer of the future. “There’s a discussion about autonomous shipping, which really just means ships that are unmanned. This is not happening on a large scale yet, but we need to be thinking about the seafarer of the future,” Spencer said. As the global shipping industry moves towards greater automation, both Dominguez and Spencer agree that the workforce of the future is being prepared in classrooms today.