AVEVA Names Winners of its Chemical Engineering Student Simulation Competition

AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software, driving digital transformation and sustainability, announces the European and North American winners of its fourth annual Process Simulation Competition. This year’s contest was made to address energy storage, viewed as one of the biggest challenges of transitioning to sustainable energy

The competition asked participants to explore the process design choices that must be analyzed to store energy in the form of methanol. This year’s best project was won by Italy’s Davide Perico, who received the highest scores from the judges for his innovative idea that stood out amongst all the entries.

The 2022 competition winners are:

• Best Overall – Davide Perico, Politecnico Di Milano, Italy
• Best Steady State – Aritz Fraga and Aimar Martín, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Spain
• Best Steady State - Matthew Cochran and Jose Pena, Texas A&M, USA
• Best Economics – Maximilian Jacob, Hochshule Mannheim, Germany
• Best Dynamics—Sebastian Pichler, Stefan Lindhuber, Friedrich Alexander Universitat, Germany and Michael Mirkes, Technical University Munich

“This academic competition enables us to harness the creativity and inspiration of young engineers and coders just completing their studies and getting ready for the real world of innovation,” says Andrew McCloskey, executive vice president of R&D, AVEVA. “It’s great for us because we get access to truly fresh thinking and creativity and great for them as they can build their portfolio and get a taste of real-world product development thinking. AVEVA is delighted to be supporting the young coding engineers of the future!”

“On behalf of AVEVA, I congratulate all the participants of this year’s Process Simulation Competition,” says Mihaela Hahne, senior director, Industry Segment, Academia at AVEVA. “We saw a fantastic response to the challenge, as well as many insightful submissions that offer hope for a future underpinned by sustainable energy. Picking the groups of winners from all the quality submissions has been a particular challenge, however I’m pleased with the final choices, and offer them my best wishes for the future.”

The competition, first launched in 2018, is a platform for chemical engineering students to develop their process simulation skills. Students are invited to tackle the challenge by using AVEVA Process Simulation, an integrated platform covering the engineering lifecycle of design, simulation and training. The software was developed to empower the next generation of engineers, so students with no prior experience were encouraged to participate in the competition.

Entrants were judged on different criteria including the quality, completeness and precision of their project entry, as well as their process engineering and simulation abilities. The first place “Best Overall” winner receives either $3,000 or is eligible for an internship at AVEVA’s offices in California. Second, third and fourth place go to “Best Steady State,” “Best Economics Optimization” and “Best Dynamics” respectively. All three categories receive $1,000.

 “The competition is a great way for outstanding young talent to build academic credibility and experience. It enables students to demonstrate original thinking and apply their knowledge in a real-world environment. The competition also gives them hands-on experience with AVEVA’s powerful Process Simulation software, all of which better prepares them for life after graduation,” Hahne adds.

The 2022 competition was split into three segments, with deadlines in February, March and April. The modular approach enabled students to enter the competition multiple times, while supporting their academic coursework, allowing participants to tackle a different project challenge each time. The 2022 competition was announced in November 2021.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.