
Leading the Design and Operation of Electric Cargo Ships
Meet our Team
-
Prosser Cathey - CEO
Prosser graduated from MIT in three years, completing three majors. Upon graduation, he won a Fulbright Research Fellowship to study the German auto industry's transition to EVs in Munich. He also rowed for MIT's D1 Heavyweight Crew team, with whom he won a Gold Medal at Head of the Charles.
-
Mitchell Osborne
Mitchell has over a decade of experience overseeing technical design teams, system integrations, and shipboard modifications. He has served as an Engineering Officer onboard a variety of US Navy Vessels with experience managing high-voltage diesel-electric propulsion plants, auxiliary systems and shipyard repair periods. He is proud to have served as a Lieutenant in the US Navy Reserves.
-
João Seixas de Medeiros
João is a Naval Architect and Ocean Engineer with a PhD from MIT and over a decade of experience in hydrodynamics research and vessel design. He has developed advanced software to simulate nonlinear ocean wave behavior, applying it to optimize innovative vessel and wave energy converter designs. His work has earned recognition, including the MIT De Florez award for best graduate design.
-
Yuming Liu
Yuming is a senior research faculty member in MIT's Ocean Engineering Department. He has published over 84 times across a range of topics, including design and analysis of ships and marine structures, prediction of ocean environments, and vortical flow dynamics. He earned his PhD in Hydrodynamics from MIT in 1994.
-
Wim van Rees
Wim is an associate professor in MIT's Ocean Engineering Department. He has received numerous awards for his research, which focuses on biologically inspired flexible structures for locomotion and renewable energy harvesting. His awards and recognitions include an American Bureau of Shipping Career Development Chair (2017) and a Seagrant Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization (2019)

Pioneering Solar-Powered Cargo Ships
Winter 2023
Inspired by the research of Wim and Yuming, we launched Voltic with the mission of decarbonizing the shipping industry. We quickly received over $180M in signed LOIs from freight forwarders and cargo owners who want to ship with us.
Spring 2024
We completed proof of concept engineering work, utilizing computational fluid dynamic simulations to show our proposed vessel is capable of going the same speed as diesel ships. Building on this success, we won a grant from the Department of Energy.
Summer 2024
We began laying fiberglass for our ~1m scale prototype. Once completed, this will raise our tech to a TRL 5-6. We also brought on Ben Soltoff, head of MIT’s premier startup accelerator, to advise on business development and fundraising strategy.