The Department of Nautical Science and Engineering is involved in research on national and international projects and has entered into collaboration agreements with other universities, research centres and private and public sector companies, primarily in the field of marine transport. The Department also has a Doppler current profiler for depths of up to 150 metres, and a manoeuvre simulator that can be used to design the hulls of ships and ports, as it allows manoeuvres to be studied under different atmospheric and oceanographic conditions. A further major resource is the Payara, a vessel that enables researchers to carry out oceanographic studies.