Students join Altair engineering for a three-day simulation seminar

Students enrolled in the College of Engineering explored the complexity of surface modeling using Altair Engineering software during a three-day training seminar hosted by Altair in Scott Lab.

Erik Larson, a technical relations manager at Altair, guided nine doctorate and master’s students through a simulation of a face while students developed their own simulations using the company’s CAE software. By exploring fillets and transition areas, such as the nose, students increased their mastery of the software and honed in on their ability to create functional models.

SIMCenter research associate Rodrigo Auza-Gutierrez believes that the training will help him expand his toolset as an engineer and work on a variety of real-world industry challenges. 

From an automotive perspective, understanding car behavior through virtual simulations before testing reduces cost and effort while maximizing efficiency during the testing process. Researchers can test a virtual car against a virtual wall to understand how a car and dummy respond to a crash before running a physical test.

“The goal of the crash test shouldn’t be to make a new discovery; it should be to tell us what we already know,” said Larson.

With each test costing upwards of $100,000, the integration of virtual simulation into the research and development process is the key to success and consumer safety.

While this is the company’s first training with SIMCenter research students, Altair has strong ties with The Ohio State University. Larson previously worked with the Ohio State Baja Buckeyes SAE Team and the Formula Buckeyes SAE race team on competitive design. In the future, Larson hopes to hold additional training programs to enhance students’ skillsets in simulation modeling while sharing his passion for finite element analysis.

“I’m currently pursuing my doctoral degree at The Injury Biomechanics Center, and I know that this training will help me with the preprocessing of the models,” said Vikram Pradhan.

Students interested in engaging with SIMCenter should contact Amber Pasternak at pasternak.6@osu.edu.

By Allison Mellor, SIMCenter marketing and communications student assistant