Our mentors take on a central role in providing our team with knowledge and experience by sharing generously, openly and altruistically from their own experiences and careers. At Njord we will always push for you to be able to learn from the best while expanding your network.
Tom Arne Pedersen has a MSc (2002) and PhD (2009) in Marine Technology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He has worked for Marine Cybernetics since 2008, holding positions as senior project engineer, R&D Manager Drilling Systems and Product Manager Drilling Systems. Marine Cybernetics was acquired by DNV GL in 2014 and Tom Arne Pedersen currently holds the position as Principle Researcher in DNV GL Group Technology and Research, working on a testing framework for autonomous navigation systems.
Dr. Stephanie Kemna is a Principal Researcher at DNV in the Simulation Technologies team, as part of Group Research & Development. She obtained BSc and MSc degrees in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Groningen (2008), and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (2018), focusing on multi-robot strategies for adaptive informative sampling using autonomous underwater vehicles. From 2009-2012, she worked at the NATO STO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation. She has over 14 years of experience developing adaptive behaviors, autonomy and mission planning for aquatic robots, including AUVs and ASVs.
Jan Onarheim has a MSc (cand.real) from 1978 from University of Bergen. He has worked for University of Bergen, NUI/NUTEC, Statoil (Equinor), Interconsult, SIVA and The Norwegian Research Council. He has been cofounder and CEO of Leksvik Industriell Vekst and Idletechs. He was the initiator of Spark NTNU, a low-treshold support organization for students that want to commersialize own ideas and FRAM (Students innovation centre). He is presently Innovation manager at the Department of engineering cybernetics, and deputy head for innovation at the same department. He was the initiator of Njord.
Morten Breivik has a MSc degree (2003) and a PhD degree (2010) in engineering cybernetics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. He has experience from NTNU as a head of department (2013-2021), researcher, teacher, supervisor and entrepreneur, at a leading international level in engineering cybernetics. He also has industrial experience as principal engineer and R&D manager from Kongsberg Maritime, which is an internationally leading company in the maritime industry. In 2019, he was one of the co-founders of the company Zeabuz, which focuses on autonomous urban passenger ferries. He is currently a member of the Norwegian Board of Technology, and has previously been a member of the expert group on enabling technologies for the Norwegian Digital21 strategy. Together with Jan Onarheim, he was one of the initiators of Njord.
Frode Halvorsen has a master's degree in strategy and business development from NTNU, in addition to a lector degree in natural sciences. Since March 2020 he has been the Cluster Manager for Ocean Autonomy Cluster situated in Trondheim. Frode has previously been working several years at NTNU with entrepreneurship education and innovation projects between industry and students. He has also been a part of several startups.