Purdue Northwest’s CIVS Earns 2 Top Awards

Purdue Northwest’s CIVS Earns 2 Top Awards

Association for Iron & Steel Technology recognizes PNW research center

Staff, students and collaborators of the Purdue University Northwest Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation (CIVS) have received two prestigious awards from the Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST).

AIST presented its Josef S. Kapitan Award and Computer Applications Best Paper Award to participants of the PNW research center. The awards recognize individuals who are advancing the steelmaking process in support of the global iron and steel industry.

Back to back awards for CIVS This marks the second consecutive year a team of educators, students and industrial collaborators from Purdue Northwest’s CIVS facility has earned the Kapitan award for research relating to steel-producing blast furnaces.

Kapitan Award recipients are CIVS Director and Professor Chenn Q. Zhou, graduate student Tyamo Okosun, AK Steel Technical Manager Stuart J. Street and former CIVS research engineer Bin Wu.

Recipients of the Computer Applications Best Paper Award, for reheating furnace research, are Zhou, Wu, graduate student Guangwu Tang, senior research engineers Dengqi Bai and Yufeng Wang of steel processing company SSAB, and SSAB Director of Research and Development Rick Bodnar.

Submitted papers were evaluated by peers and judged on economic impact of the topic process and impact on quality of steel, steelmaking cost saving potential, clarity of story line and research thoroughness.

Reflection of student quality “I am very appreciative and thankful for our industrial collaborators who have dedicated their time and resources to this research and to our students,” PNW’s Zhou said. “These awards reflect the quality of our students and exemplify the great partnerships between CIVS and industry.”

AK Steel’s Street, a close collaborator and mentor to CIVS students for many years, added, “I have enjoyed, not only the technical aspects of the interaction, but also the personal interaction. Working with students and researchers is always a highlight. Being awarded the Kapitan Award this year is a deserved recognition from peers of the excellence one’s team can achieve. Over the next few years, I would expect more similar accolades to be earned.”

‘Excellent example of collaboration’ Rick Bodnar, director of SSAB Americas R&D, called the award-winning paper “an excellent example of collaboration between SSAB and CIVS. Together, we developed a very convenient and user-friendly model that can be used by researchers and mill metallurgists in troubleshooting and optimizing SSAB-Mobile’s slab reheating furnace.”

Added AIST Executive Director Ron Ashburn, “I applaud PNW / CIVS for quality work and innovative contributions to the advancement of steel manufacturing technology. By winning these two notable AIST awards in one year, a passion and unrivaled commitment to leverage advanced simulation and modeling techniques in order to tackle sophisticated, real-world technical challenges have been clearly recognized by the steel industry.”

Purdue Northwest’s CIVS is an interdisciplinary applied research center that combines advanced simulation techniques with 3D visualization and virtual reality technologies to produce innovative solutions in response to industrial and research challenges.