Oct. 4, 2006 — Think you have what it takes to make a heat of steel? Test your skills at the International Iron and Steel Institute’s next steeluniversity.org Challenge, a virtual steelmaking competition aimed at students, graduates and young steel industry employees.

The competition challenges entrants to develop and produce a particular grade of steel for a demanding application in a limited time and at the lowest cost. Entrants will use steeluniversity.org’s Electric Arc Furnace simulation to make a batch of steel, and will then refine it using the Secondary Steelmaking simulation to produce a cast of the correct composition. Entrants can repeat the exercise as many times as they wish during the 24-hour event, which runs from 12:00 noon (GMT) on Wednesday, Nov. 8, to 12:00 noon on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006.

There will be two levels of entry with two separate winners—a university student entry and a steel industry entry. Each winner will receive a check for €250 and will be presented with the prize at an IISI event. Last year’s winners were treated to a weekend in Barcelona and, along with the cash prize, they received a specially commissioned trophy.

Last year the competition attracted more than 600 registrations with participants from 28 countries. One of the entrants spent 18 of the allocated 24 hours making and refining the grade of steel chosen for the competition, and more than 50 of the entries successfully completed the exercise. The winners were those who successfully produced the selected grade of steel at the lowest cost.

For more information and competition guidelines visit www.steeluniversity.org or contact Dr. Ruth Hambleton at steeluniversity@iisi.be