Article originally appeared on www.simulia.com

An engineering team from Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada earned recognition in what is considered to be the premier event for American civil engineering students: the 18th Annual AISC/ ASCE U.S. National Student Steel Bridge Competition.

After qualifying with a first-place finish in the Mid-West Regional Competition, the Lakehead University team went on to compete against 46 other teams at the 2009 national event in Las Vegas. Scores among the top six teams were extremely close, and the Lakehead University team earned third place overall. This is the fifth time that Lakehead has placed in the top five overall in the competition, and is especially notable given that the Lakehead team is the only Canadian team to place in the top five since the competition’s inception.

The Lakehead University used Abaqus FEA software for their project, and found it to be an effective and advantageous tool for designing their entry in the competition.

Learning and utilizing the software also gave the students finite element software experience that they felt will be extremely valuable in their careers.