worldsteel announces the steeluniversity Challenge regional winners

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) announced today the regional champions of the sixth steeluniversity Challenge.

The regional championship took place on 15 November 2011 over a single 24 hour period. The entrants were challenged to produce the ‘linepipe’ grade of steel using linked blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace simulations from steeluniversity.org at the minimum overall cost.

This round identified regional champions in the ‘Industry’ and ‘Student’ categories from the following five regions: North America, Latin America, Europe-CIS, Middle East-India-Africa, and East Asia-Oceania. The regional champions will be invited to compete for the title of World Champion at worldsteel in Brussels in February 2012. Leaders of the global steel industry will be present to watch the grand final as it unfolds.

Commenting on the results Edwin Basson, Director General of the World Steel Association, said: “The new structure of the Challenge brings a better balance of worldwide participation as well as representation and more excitement. We look forward to having the regional champions in Brussels for the final round and watching them battle it out in a more intensive environment”.

This year’s competition attracted more than 34,000 attempts from 650 teams representing 25 different countries. 382 teams successfully completed the task. The lowest cost achieved at the regional championship was $296.84/tonne.

The regional winners of the Industry category

The regional winners of the Student category

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Notes to Editors:

• The steeluniversity.org website is a free and innovative e-learning resource focused on all aspects of steel, including steelmaking technology and the multitude of steel applications. It provides highly interactive, game-like simulations of the major steelmaking processes in real-time. This award-winning, on-line initiative is developed and sponsored by the World Steel Association.
• steeluniversity.org resources are used by more than 100 steel companies and 400 universities worldwide. Many of its modules have been translated into other languages, including Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Korean, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese.
• steeluniversity.org won the European Academic Software Awards (EASA) in 2004 and the steeluniversity project team was recognised with the AIST’s Benjamin F. Fairless Award in 2008.  
• The World Steel Association (worldsteel) is one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world. worldsteel represents approximately 170 steel producers (including 17 of the world's 20 largest steel companies), national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes. worldsteel members represent around 85% of world steel production.

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