Tim Morris, CEO of NAFEMS.
NAFEMS, the International Association for the Engineering Modelling, Analysis and Simulation Community, will host their World Congress June 21-24th in San Diego, California. NAFEMS is a global organization advocating simulation, best practices, and education. The World Congress will include the Simulation Process & Data Management (SPDM) Conference and participants will be able to attend both events.
“Back in the 80’s, there was a lot of concern about engineers extracting bad results from using simulation incorrectly,” said NAFEMS CEO Tim Morris. “Now techniques are more endemic in industry as the software has become easier to use and the emphasis has shifted towards training engineers in the appropriate use of the techniques and increasing the fidelity of the simulations . Therefore there are a lot of things NAFEMS need to address.”
The NAFEMS World Congress & SPDM Conference
The World Congress, will focus on simulation technology and how it affects many different sectors. “This will not just be an automotive or aerospace simulation conference. We will have users and presentations from the energy sector, biomedical, and more. We will highlight what is interesting, key technologies, and emerging technology,” said Morris.
Another feature of the World Congress is that it acts as neutral ground for simulation users, experts, and vendors. Various vendor representatives will be present to display their latest products to the user community.
The SPDM conference component of the Congress will look at the processing and management of simulation data. “SPDM is something that many companies are looking to deploy but have yet to devise a strategy for,” mentioned Morris. “These projects tend to be delayed based on their difficulty. We want to help companies find a method to success. We will be featuring case studies in the industries that make good use of data management and processing technology.”
Morris adds, “Anyone with an interest in simulation will find things that interest them at the conferences. However, the key attendees are the industrial practitioners that want to share their experiences and learn from others.”
NAFEMS’ Call for Papers
“We seek out really interesting stories to be selected as keynotes,” mentioned Morris. “After the conference they are made available on the NAFEMS website. But, you should really see them live if you can. The keynotes love to tell us what they are working on, like Volvo’s crash analysis. It’s hard to pick a favorite though.”
NAFEMS Beyond the Congress
For professionals interested in taking a more active role in simulation, NAFEMS is a good place to start, offering their membership special events, professional development, technical/regional groups, publications, and more.
Despite the organization’s roots in Finite Methods, NAFEMS also has a long history in simulation training. In fact, simulation education is a mantra of the organization. Morris said, “We teach how to best use simulation, how to interpret it, and what you can safely ignore in an analysis. As such, we tend to focus on introductory topics like best practices, FEA/CFD, or use topics like composites and fracture analysis. However, we don’t train on how to use an independent vendor’s software; that is their job. We also don’t test the theory of how simulation works; that is for academia. We serve the gap in between.”
NAFEMS offers classroom learning for UK-based professionals, however, for those outside the UK e-learning is a good option. Morris reports that NAFEMS’ e-learning programs are growing and that they have received a lot of positive feedback.
If you wish to submit a paper to either conference, follow this link.