NAFEMS in Canada: The Engineering Simulation Roadshow - Vancouver

18 September 2026
Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, 6083 McKay Ave, Burnaby, BC V5H 2W7

The roadshow closes on the west coast in Vancouver, where we'll pick back up in April 2027 with the NAFEMS World Congress. The programme brings together a keynote on simulation-based product development at Cummins and Dominique Madier's model verification toolkit, returning one last time to the question 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.

This closing keynote covers Cummins' journey from physical build-and-test toward a simulation-based approach used right across the enterprise. Bob Tickel walks through analysis-led design, the growth of high-performance computing, and automated, multidisciplinary optimisation, with examples of where machine learning has opened up far wider design exploration. He ends on democratising simulation: putting reliable, simulation-driven decisions into the hands of non-specialists through workflow automation, reduced-order models and user-friendly 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.

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

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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.