The SimScalator – A Challenge You Didn’t Know About

The vision behind the SimScale platform is to make engineering simulation a standard tool in every designer’ and engineer’s software stack. Making sure that every SimScale user gets the simulation results they need quickly, reliably and robustly is essential to achieve this.

To set our users up for success, we use different quantitative and qualitative methods, such as user surveys, user experience tests, forum discussions, product metrics tracking, user interviews, etc., to constantly identify aspects of SimScale that could be improved.

One method that might be a bit more exotic is the “SimScalator”. This is an internal competition that aims to encourage all the SimScale team members—especially those without an engineering background—to learn simulation through the free learning resources we provide on the website. Our team members perform a simulation on the SimScale platform and share their experiences and improvement suggestions with the rest of the team.

Not only does their work and feedback help us to improve the user experience of the SimScale platform, but the winners also receive a special trophy that they can keep on their desk for four weeks, until the next session of the SimScalator takes place and a new winner is proclaimed.

Previous Winners

The SimScalator is a contest that enables us to have some fun while discovering new UX improvement possibilities. So be prepared to enjoy yourself with the past winning simulations:

July: Particle Analysis in a Screw Conveyor

Richard Szöke-Schuller is our senior solid mechanics engineer and was the first winner of the SimScalator.

You’ve seen his project a few times before and might have even used it as a template from the Public Projects Library. His project demonstrates the mixing and moving of granular particles through a screw conveyor.

For his simulation and the list of improvement ideas, he was declared the first SimScalator winner in July 2015.

August: Water Droplet Simulation

Bogdan Daqui Herrera is our senior software engineer at SimScale. In August last year, he won the contest after impressing the team with his multiphase simulation of a droplet hitting the water surface.

With his ideas for product improvements and an interesting simulation, Bogdan definitely deserved the SimScalator cup. Here you can see a video of his simulation.

September: Simulation of Sneezing in a Plane

In September, Kristina, our business developer at SimScale, won the SimScalator for her passive scalar fluid flow simulation of a sneezing process within an aircraft.

The simulation results, together with three very well considered UX suggestions won her the title.

Watch a video with her simulation here.

October: CFD Analysis of Flushing a Toilet

As product management director (and co-founder) with a background in FEA, Alexander Fischer chose to perform a simulation outside of his area of expertise, so he focused on CFD (computational fluid dynamics). And because he’s also a funny guy, he simulated flushing a toilet.

As funny as the idea might initially seem, this was actually a serious simulation: multiphase flow analysis focusing on the shear-stress on the inner toilet surface.

Next SimScalator Award Ceremony

After a break of a few months, on Friday, March 18th, we will choose a new winner for the contest. Watch out for the results—some great projects have already been submitted.

And with the new Community Plan, you will not only be able to see these simulations in the Public Projects Library, but you can also copy and use them for your own simulations projects.

Let the SimScalator begin!

To discover all the simulation features provided by SimScale, download the document below.