Application & Success

My first contact with the Knowledgebase Project was through the Brazilian Navy. Commander Rafael Vieira informed me that among the women in the Hydrography and Navigation Directorate, I had been selected as a candidate to be enrolled in the selection process for IC-ENC's Knowledgebase Project.

When I read the context, tasks, and goals, I felt it would be an incredible opportunity to develop and enhance my leadership skills, and deepen my knowledge in nautical cartography and hydrography, especially for the S-100 era.

The next steps were related to the submission of the documents, resume, and a questionnaire asking about personal information. As a member of the military, the process takes place in two parallel stages. One related to enrollment into IC-ENC and the other within the Navy, requesting authorisation.

I then had my first virtual contact with IC-ENC, meeting Ruth White (IC-ENC Production Support Officer) and Laura Tyzack (IC-ENC S-100 Support Officer), who let me know my application was successful.

After receiving authorisation from the Brazilian Navy on August 29th 2023, a formal document is still required. With it, the Embassy can then give me permission to enter the UK and work on the secondment. At the same time, some processes take place within IC-ENC, such as filling out the Electronic Request for Visa, booking tickets, and providing guidance on accommodation and the project itself.

The following week, I had my second virtual meeting with Laura and Ruth, which was great as I began to understand more about the Knowledgebase Project and deepen my knowledge about IC-ENC activities. In addition, I received the official document from the Brazilian Navy authorising me to travel to the UK and on October 1st 2023, I arrived in Taunton.

Week One

The long-awaited week has arrived! The facilities and building are very technological. I loved the layout of the tables and rooms, in my opinion it really helped with working dynamics. I have been very well received by everyone at IC-ENC. The entire team is very courteous and friendly. Even the weather welcomed me like I love, with lots of sun.

During the first week I attended overview meetings to explain various work carried out at IC-ENC:

Distribution Overview with Jake Sharland;
S-100/Tech Overview with Su Marks, Laura Tyzack, and Gregory Smith;
Validation Overview with Aaran Champion and
Production Support Overview with Ruth White

The meetings were very interesting as they gave me greater insight into the work of each team and what the plan is for the coming years. For example, Jake, presented a new project where they are able to track a vessel’s route and check if they have acquired the required ENCs.

Another super interesting meeting was related to Psychological Safety, where for two years they have been discussing activities to improve the social environment and share personal and professional interests.

Ruth White (Production Support Officer), Juliane Affonso & Laura Tyzack (S-100 Support Officer)

Week Two

During my second week, I had an excellent opportunity to sit down with some of the Validation team and better understand the work they do. They explained the entire process that takes place in the DMD, how the ENC registration works, and how the report is carried out. Alex and Dan (Data Validators) showed me a deeper analysis of what they were reviewing at that time, explaining editing and updating ENCs assessments, and then how the errors are analysed using the Knowledgebase and later compiled to prepare the Validation Feedback Report. They also mentioned their thoughts on access, content, training, updates, and suggestions, which will be useful in the Knowledgebase Project. I really appreciate the attention of the whole team and my sincere thanks, especially to Dan, Alex, Bhavya, Ana and Bruna who were very helpful with all of my questions.

We are now in the IHO’s S-100 Implementation Decade and IC-ENC is working closely with Members on S-100 Services, with S-101 being one of the priority services. IC-ENC is assessing Members’ S-101 test datasets using CARIS HPD and 7Cs Analyzer and providing assessment reports back to Members. During my secondment, I helped IC-ENC to prepare several assessment reports for Italy and the Netherlands. These reports are based on CARIS HPD and 7Cs Analyzer with consultancy of S-65 Annex B (S-57 to S-101 Conversion Guidance), S-101 ENC Product Specification 1.1.0 and S-101 Data Classification and Encoding Guide 1.1.0. I am aware of how important it was to participate and contribute to this activity, since we are in the early days of the S-100 era and each step has a very valuable weight in the final process.

Additionally, I met with Hazel Westlake, Technical Standards Lead at UKHO, who explained the current S-101/S-57 production options they are investigating, and their future plans. Whether it would be better to produce S-101 products first and then convert the product back to S-57 (serial process) or whether to produce S-101 and S-57 in parallel from the S-101 Database, and then test separate or combined schema.

Juliane working on the Knowledgebase Project at IC-ENC

Week Three

As part of the IC-ENC Knowledgebase Project, I sent a survey in early October to all IC-ENC Members to help highlight improvements to support users and better understand their views and familiarity on the current use of this resource, and consequently identify and analyse potential issues. I have also been in contact with internal and external stakeholders, asking their opinions and thoughts about the Knowledgebase. Following the collation of the survey results, I could see that users are very satisfied with the current use of the Knowledgebase, and complaints are minor. Most of the suggestions are related to access (how to access and how to use) to the Knowledgebase. Based on survey results some improvements have since been made:

A separate S-100 Knowledgebase has been created and published within the IC-ENC Members Area (SharePoint) and now all IC-ENC Members can access it. This list contains IC-ENC’s Ingest & Registration Checks, for S-101, S-102, S-104 and S-111.
More than 25,000 fields in the Knowledgebase were analyzed, of which 487 presented sentences with incomplete text. Truncated fields were identified and almost 30% have been corrected. This work will be gradually completed by Validators.
A new link has been created at the top of the IC-ENC website home page as Quick Links/HO Login or Quick Links/IC-ENC LMS. By clicking on both, Members will be able to enter their username and password to access the Members Area (SharePoint) more easily.

To keep users updated, I have suggested scheduling periodic training to explain access and how the Knowledgebase works. To support this training, the IC-ENC Knowledgebase Guide has been created, a power point presentation containing topics related to access, content, facilities, and the S-100 Knowledgebase.

While the survey indicated that Members are very satisfied with the content of the Knowledgebase, improvements were suggested with respect to creating a compact view (with the most used columns); a folder with IHO Standards within the Members Area, and a hyperlink from the error to the referenced error within the Knowledgebase.

The Final Week

To round up my secondment in IC-ENC, I presented my project findings and recommendations at the IC-ENC Technical Conference (TC23_2) on Wednesday 25th October, and I received some great feedback from Members on my presentation.

In addition to the improvements in the Knowledgebase, which I have no doubt addressing these suggestions will secure better solutions, I want to highlight my participation in this incredible project (EWH). Seeking to contribute to good hydrographic practices, I had the opportunity to share not only good experiences, but also challenges. The hydrographic community has been going through a sudden change, where everyone is focused on providing great results. Seeing women at the forefront of such important activities, and being a part of it, makes me very grateful. It is with great gratitude that I thank the IC-ENC team for all of the support and for being so friendly and helpful throughout this whole period.

Extra Activities

The UK has many amazing places and activities to explore, and luckily, I had an opportunity to visit London for the first time, this beautiful city exceeded all my expectations. The energy, the people, all those so detailed buildings, pubs, parks, so many beautiful places. I really enjoyed being in London and hope to return very soon.

Taunton is the county town of Somerset, in the West Country, and where UKHO/IC-ENC is located. It is a town with a wealthy history. During my stay here, I ran around pretty places, such as the Hankridge Nature Reserve, an incredible area with lots of greenery and fresh air, perfect for outdoor exercise. I was also introduced to Skittles, which is a fun and unique English game, much like bowling but in a quirkier way. I also had an opportunity to visit Edinburgh for a weekend, another city that breathes history and has a unique beauty, surrounded by castles. It's simply fascinating.

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