Dr.-Ing. Setyo Nugroho of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) has developed iStow since 2006 for various types of ships and purposes, a.o. for container ships, LNG/ LPG/ chemical/ product Oil tankers, LCT and barges.
iStow, a stowage planning software, is a tool to assist a ship to plan the allocation of cargoes on board a ship, where the ship in all conditions must meet all safety criteria of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). IMO has obliged that all ships over 65 meters long must be equipped with a stowage planning software.
At present, iStow has been certified by BKI/ Indonesia, ClassNK/ Japan, IRS/India, RINA/ Italy, and since recently also by the oldest and among the largest ship classification societies in the world Lloyd’s Register (UK).
Two additional variants of iStow have also been developed namely iStow CHS (cargo handling simulator) which has been in use by a maritime polytechnic in Semarang for seafarers’ education, and iStow LPH (Loadout Planning of Heavy and Large Objects) which assists the loadout process of large and massive cargoes such as offshore structures, bridges or harbour cranes.
A startup company has been established to produce and market iStow. The company is in the phase of scaling up, by enhancing its production capacity and marketing. At present, iStow eyes at the ASEAN and African maritime industry.
In parallel, Dr. Nugroho has resumed an array of applied research projects on the Case-Based Stowage Planning System, also known as Casestow. This method has been filed at the German Patent Office and European Patent Office in 2005 and 2006. The objective is to develop Casestow into a module to be adopted by iStow and other stowage planning software.