benchmark January 2011

Catching the wind with CAE

In this Issue:

• catching_the_wind_with_cae.pdf
• fatigue_in_aluminium_honeycomb-core_plates.pdf
• half_a_century_of_finite_elements.pdf
• vendor_view_-_erich_buergel_-_mentor_graphics.pdf
• cae_guy_013.pdf

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2011. I can’t help but think “Where’s my hoverboard? Why am I still walking everywhere? Can’t the oven decide on, buy, and cook my dinner by itself?” whenever I look closely at the date – Marty McFly has a lot to answer for. But we’re here, and we’re hover-boardless, so my inner 10-year-old self will just have to grin and bear it like the rest of us.

It’s been a busy period for NAFEMS, and promises to get even busier in the months ahead. Last year saw us hold a number of large-scale regional conferences, with total attendance at these approaching the 2,000 delegate mark – a significant number for an organisation which started out as a ‘special-interest group’ over twenty-five years ago in a lab in East Kilbride, Scotland. We’ve moved on ever-so slightly since then, both physically (HQ is now 4 miles further south..), and as an internationally recognised authority on FEA, CFD and associated technologies. And (whether you like it or not), you are part of that.

The next NAFEMS World Congress will take place this May in Boston, MA, USA, and we are delighted to report that interest in the Congress continues to increase as each event passes. As we report in NAFEMS News, the number and quality of papers received for the event has been outstanding, and will go towards ensuring that the Congress is a truly un-missable event for everyone involved in analysis and simulation. For those of you who have never attended one of our Congresses, I would urge you to consider participating. We believe these events are unrivalled in terms of focussed, independent technical content for the analysis community, and the support we receive from our sponsors enables us to provide a fantastic overall “experience” for everyone who attends.

As I said in my last editorial, it really is not all about events, but the feedback we receive from our members is that, whether online or physical, gatherings such as this are key to ensuring effective professional development in terms of analysis and simulation. So while that’s what the community wants, that’s what NAFEMS will give you.

On that subject, you still have time to register and view the presentations from our first “virtual” conference, which was held in November last year (details on page 34). Whilst this was very much an “experiment” in terms of running a fully-fledged two day conference (complete with exhibition area!) online, the feedback we have received has been extremely encouraging. If you weren’t able to attend the “live” event, the beauty of a conference such as this is that you can still register and view the presentations online at your leisure. Whilst you won’t be able to spend the evening in the hotel bar discussing plate & shell elements with your colleagues, you will be able to view the presentations from your desk, with a warm cup of coffee in hand. 

The bar-discussions will just have to wait until Boston in May. See you there - mine’s a single malt. 

David Quinn I Editor I david.quinn@nafems.org I twitter.com/benchtweet

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