Beyond Conventional

• Higher Order Methods
  
• Particle Methods
  
• Virtual Engineering to Ensure Excellent Customer Experiences for Life
  
• Introduction to LOTAR of Engineering Analysis and Simulation Data
  
• What is Equilibrium Finite Element Analysis
  
• Unfitted Finite Element Methods: a Modern Paradigm for Advanced Numerical Simulations
• NURBS-Enhanced Finite Element Method: Towards a Seamless CAD-FEA Integration
  
• and more....
  

Oooooo – intriguing. ‘Beyond Conventional’. I can hear the collective gasp from the analysis community upon seeing the title of this first benchmark issue of 2017. And what a pertinent title it is, given events all over the world last year. Certainly, if there’s one way you could describe 2016, it would be unconventional. Not sure about it being ‘beyond conventional’, but I do get the feeling that convention is still sitting outside in the car, sipping coffee and munching on drive-thru donuts, waiting for an SMS to tell it to come in. 2016 was a party that convention just wasn’t invited to, and I for one hope it makes a grand entrance at some point this year.

But enough of my musings – you’re here for the techy stuff! We have another bumper edition of benchmark to kick-off 2017 with, and the focus this time is on looking further than the day-to-day and examining new techniques and use-cases from across the community. Part of our core mission at NAFEMS is to keep pace with the use of simulation in the real-world, as well as promoting the safe and reliable use of the technology. As the organization grows to cover even more aspects of simulation and analysis, it’s part of our commitment to the community to give these new methods and ideas exposure to the widest audience possible. In this issue, you’ll find discussions on several new and innovative approaches, which we hope will expand your knowledge and pique your interest.

And so to the sales pitch. Unless you’ve been living in an isolated cave in the back of beyond with no access to electricity or (shock!) wifi, or our marketing has been horribly ineffective (in either case, please do let me know urgently and we’ll send help and/or promotional materials) you’re probably aware that the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 is taking place in June this year. We had our most successful call for papers ever for this run of the congress, with over 400 abstracts submitted for consideration. This congress will have it all, from presentations on cutting-edge from global conglomerates to technical overviews on unique approaches from one-man consultancies. If you’ve never attended a Congress, this one is a great place to start. And if you’re a Congress veteran, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Promise.