30 years ago NAFEMS started life as the National Agency for Finite Element Methods and Standards. One of the organisation’s initial aims was to design a series of benchmarks that could be used to determine the accuracy of an analysis code. Guidelines on what makes a suitable benchmark can be found in many of our early publications. One of the guiding principles behind the benchmarks that readers may not be aware of is that: “The benchmark should have some educational merit”. Education and best practise are still at the heart of NAFEMS activities and it is with this spirit and a hint of fun that we would like to introduce the Benchmark Challenge Problem series and Angus Ramsay, who will be acting as Independent Technical Editor. Angus will be posing a series of challenge problems that will be hosted on our website at www.nafems.org/challenge. You can view the first in the series there now - We recommend that readers check the challenge problem website regularly, as Angus will be posting hints and tips relating to the challenge problem. NAFEMS invite readers to send their responses to challenge@nafems.org.