NAFEMS in Canada: The Engineering Simulation Roadshow - Calgary

17 September 2026
DoubleTree by Hilton Calgary North, 2120 16 Ave NE, Calgary, AB T2E 1L4

The roadshow's third stop is Calgary. The keynote traces how one of the largest engine makers in the world rebuilt its development process around simulation, paired with Dominique Madier's practical session on checking a model before you trust its results. The question behind the day is the one that runs through every stop: how do you know your model is right? Open to members and non-members.

Keynote: Simulation-based product development at Cummins

Bob G. Tickel, Director of Multi-Disciplinary Simulation, Cummins Inc.

Bob Tickel follows how Cummins shifted from build-and-test to simulation-led development: through analysis-led design, growing modelling and simulation capability, and the adoption of high-performance computing, automation and multidisciplinary optimisation. A central theme is the move toward optimisation, automation and robustness, which speeds up design exploration and cuts development cost, with real examples where automated workflows and machine learning widened what teams could explore. He also looks at making simulation accessible well beyond specialists, through reduced-order models, standard processes and simpler tools.

Bob G. Tickel is Director of Multi-Disciplinary Simulation at Cummins Inc., with nearly four decades of experience in simulation-driven product development. Full abstract and biography are on the roadshow programme page.

Training session: The Model Verification Toolkit

Led by Dominique Madier, Founder and Director, FEA Academy. Most FEA errors are built into a model before the solver runs, and most are avoidable. In this working session Dominique walks through the checks that show whether a model is mathematically sound and whether it reflects physical reality, then covers test-analysis correlation.

Topics include:

• Accuracy checks against mathematical checks, and the verification against validation distinction
• Singularities, mechanisms, and the epsilon vector
• Weight, applied load, and reacted load checks
• Free-free modal and ground checks
• Unit gravity, unit enforced displacement, and free thermal strain checks
• A structured pre-solve verification checklist
• Test-analysis correlation: strain gauge measurement, FEM strain extraction, validation factor calculation, and correlation plotting

Dominique Madier is a senior FEA consultant with over 25 years of experience and more than 40,000 hours of NASTRAN modelling, and the founder of FEA Academy. Full session breakdown and biography are on the roadshow programme page.

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About NAFEMS

NAFEMS is the International Association for the Engineering Modelling, Analysis and Simulation Community, a not-for-profit organisation that has supported the global simulation community for over 40 years. The day includes a short briefing on NAFEMS membership, technical resources, working groups, PSE Certification and our event programme.