NAFEMS in Canada: The Engineering Simulation Roadshow

NAFEMS is bringing a week of one-day events to Canada, built around a question every analyst has to answer: how do you know your model is right?

Four cities, four keynotes, and one practical training session at every stop.

Each day pairs a keynote from a working engineering leader with a focused verification training session led by senior FEA consultant Dominique Madier, plus a short introduction to NAFEMS and the resources open to engineers, analysts and technical managers.

The events are open to all. Members and non-members are welcome.

The four stops

• Montreal - 15 September - Invited Speaker: AI for Simulation Engineers: Looking Beyond the Hype
  (Jean-Francois Labrecque, Maya HTT)
• Toronto - 16 September - Invited Speaker: Taking Simulation from Design into Manufacturing (Dr Deepak S. Gupta)
• Calgary - 17 September - Keynote: Simulation-Based Product Development at Cummins (Bob G. Tickel)
• Vancouver - 18 September - Keynote: Simulation-Based Product Development at Cummins (Bob G. Tickel)

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 ever runs, and most are preventable with the right pre-solve discipline. This session sets out a complete verification toolkit: accuracy checks, mathematical validity checks, and a structured pre-solve quality gate, followed by a dedicated look at test-analysis correlation. You leave with a working framework for judging whether a model is mathematically sound and whether it reflects physical reality.

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

About the trainer: Dominique Madier

Dominique Madier is a senior FEA consultant with over 25 years of international experience in structural analysis and numerical simulation. He has logged more than 40,000 hours of FEA modelling in NASTRAN and has worked on projects for Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Safran, Bell Helicopter Textron Canada, Bombardier Aerospace, Pratt and Whitney Canada, and Beta Technologies, across fuselages, wings, nacelles, empennages, engine pylons, helicopter airframes and mechanical systems.

He is the author of Practical Finite Element Analysis for Mechanical Engineers (2020) and Harness the Power of Finite Element Analysis (2024), and the founder of FEA Academy. He was named Engineering Education and Training Provider of the Year at the 2024/25 Corporate LiveWire Global Awards.

The Keynotes and Invited Speakers

Montreal - AI for Simulation Engineers: Looking Beyond the Hype

Jean-Francois Labrecque, Maya HTT. A practical read on where artificial intelligence adds real value to simulation work, and where it does not, closing with two working examples including an AI assistant that uses the Model Context Protocol to interact directly with simulation models. Full details on the Montreal page.

Toronto - Taking Simulation from Design into Manufacturing

Dr Deepak S. Gupta. How rigorous 3-D modelling, validation and optimisation were applied to a continuous composites manufacturing process, and the plant-floor work needed to make it stick. Full details on the Toronto page.

Calgary and Vancouver - Simulation-Based Product Development at Cummins

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

This keynote describes how Cummins moved from a traditional build-and-test approach to a simulation-based product development strategy. It traces the path through analysis-led design, the growth of modelling and simulation capability, and the adoption of high-performance computing, automation and multidisciplinary optimisation.

A central theme is the progression toward optimisation, automation and robustness, which speeds up design exploration, improves product quality, lowers development cost and shortens decision-making. The talk uses practical examples where automated workflows and machine learning widened design exploration and lifted engineering efficiency. It closes on the democratisation of simulation: extending simulation-driven decisions beyond specialists through workflow automation, reduced-order models, standard processes and user-friendly tools.

Bob G. Tickel is a veteran engineering leader with nearly four decades of experience in simulation-driven product development, integrating modelling, simulation and analysis across engineering domains. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and an MS in Engineering from Purdue University, and is based in Columbus, Indiana.

Full details on the Calgary page.

Full details on the Vancouver page.

N​ote - all prices are in US Dollars (USD)

Venues

Montreal - 15 September
Sheraton Montreal Airport Hotel, 555 Boulevard McMillan, Montreal, QC H9P 1B7

Toronto - 16 September
Toronto Marriott City Centre, One Blue Jays Way, Toronto, ON M5V 1J4

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

Vancouver - 18 September
Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, 6083 McKay Ave, Burnaby, BC V5H 2W7

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. Each roadshow event includes a short briefing on NAFEMS membership, technical resources, working groups, PSE Certification and our event programme.

Book your place

Choose your city and register on the event page. Early booking rates apply.