The regional championship for the steelChallenge by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) took place online for a 24-hour period on 17 December 2014. This year’s steelChallenge attracted 1,566 teams and 1,922 participants representing 34 countries. There were 83,000 attempts with the basic oxygen steelmaking simulation, an increase of 73% compared to last year. Of these, 811 teams successfully completed at least one run of the simulation and 10,500 successful runs were completed.
The new regional champions in the ‘Industry’ and ‘Student’ categories will be invited with expenses paid to compete for the title of World Champion in Brussels in February 2015. They will compete in the presence of leaders of the global steel industry. All regional champions will be awarded certificates, cash prizes and an iPad in addition to their trip to Brussels. The World Champions in both categories will also be awarded a World Champion certificate, an additional cash prize and the steelChallenge trophy. Total prizes for steelChallenge-9 are EUR 43,000.
The entrants were challenged to create steel at the lowest total cost and required quality for a construction application, using the basic oxygen steelmaking method, in a simulation.