New trophy for steeluniversity Challenge

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Charlotte Booten with Ian Christmas, worldsteel Director General

The winner of an international design competition seeking a new, modern look for the Virtual Steelmaking Challenge trophy was announced today as Charlotte Booten, a final year student at the Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.

The Challenge is an annual event where young steelmakers from around the world compete to see which team can produce a specified grade of steel at the lowest cost within a 24-hour period. In this virtual competition the sophisticated steelmaking simulation software on the steeluniversity.org website serves as the steel plant, and competitors are able to "produce" multiple batches of steel in order to fine tune the results.

Winners from both industrial and education sectors are awarded a cash prize and a trophy at a prestigious World Steel Association event.

The competition for design of a new trophy was held in November 2010 with the intent of updating this important award in order to symbolise the re-dedication of worldsteel to develop and promote steeluniversity.org as an increasingly important educational tool in training the next generation of metallurgists. The competition attracted highly creative designs from around the globe – most notably from China, India, Belgium, Brazil and the UK.

The trophy design is inspired by distorting the profile of the steeluniversity.org logo which depicts molten steel pouring out of a crucible.

Ms Booten said that the design concept "makes a reference to the steeluniversity.org logo without using it directly. The spiral form of the award has been generated by twisting the shape of the crucible used in the logo and securing it to the brushed steel tube. I also wanted the design to be interesting from all angles, not simply an engraved plaque, the spiral draws the eye around the whole award."

Raul Topolevski, the Chairman of the Working Group on steeluniversity.org said, "The Virtual Steelmaking Challenge is an excellent opportunity for the steelmakers to identify young talent, both within the industry as well as at universities. The new trophy carries deep symbolic meaning and will certainly evoke pride in recipients for their achievement."