BENCHMARK April 2026

Virtual Testing

Accelerating Innovation

In this Issue:
(click on the titles to download the individual articles)

• Application of a Credibility Simulation Framework for Virtual Testing
• Simulation + Physical Testing = Engineering Superpower
• Turning Up to the Party Empty-Handed
• NAFEMS Regional Conferences 2026
• That’s a Wrap! - ASSESS Simulation Leadership Summit 2026
• From Coupons to Aircraft: Advancing Towards Full-Scale Virtual TestingThrough Simulation-Test Integration
• Bridging the Gap: The VMAP Converter Toolkit 
• The State of Composites Manufacturing Simulation 
• Upfront Simulation: What it is, and why you need it

BENCHED

View From Your Editorial Team

There’s an interesting reversal going on in this issue of Benchmark. Anyone who has been reading the magazine for a while will know it’s not uncommon for some slight shade to be thrown the way of marketing departments by simulation engineers (even though marketing keeps you in a job… never forget…), with the use of non-expert language questioned and challenged. It’s a bit of a trope, and a game both sides enjoy, I think. In this issue, we have a number of articles looking at virtual testing, with our regular columnist and motorsport enthusiast (dinosaurs too, apparently), Laurence Marks pondering if the term is just a description of what all you simulation engineers have been doing all along. But what’s in a word?

During the dark times of mid-2020 to 2021, the various NAFEMS offices must have got sick of hearing me proclaim that we needed to stop using the term “virtual” so much. My take was and remains that the term “virtual conference” is a bit of a misnomer, as it’s an actual conference, just taking place online. I get irked in the same way by “virtual testing”. Whilst recognising that technically it’s fine because of the other definition of “virtual”, I still can’t shake off the sense that it describes running real tests, just on a computer and not physically. Because the English language is essentially, at a minimum, three languages standing on top of each other under a trench coat masquerading as one, someone will be along shortly to tell me why virtual is absolutely fine, but that’s the thing with feelings – no matter how irrational, they stick with you. Just ask some of my colleagues about my aversion to a particular usage of the word “yourself”.

I digress. We’re delighted to bring you the April issue of Benchmark with some great articles focusing on virtual testing, including a look at tackling the credibility issue in virtual testing and thought-provoking insights from a recent survey about composite materials. We also have a summary of the recent ASSESS Simulation Leadership Summit, an interesting guide on upfront simulation - a topic Monica Schnitger also covers in her column - and much more besides.

Conference season is upon us, and we’ll be kicking off our Regional Conferences run in late April in Budapest. While itis always a hectic time, it is also a time of year we get to remind ourselves of the vibrant and enthusiastic community that has grown around modelling and simulation. A community we are grateful for and are proud to be the face of. With conferences around the world this year, we hope you’ll try to come along to the one nearest to you. And if none of them are close enough for you to attend, drop me a note 

A few of you picked up on the phrase I used in my last editorial to describe our community: “stale, male and pale”. I thought this might ruffle a few feathers and prompt comment, and it did. Each of those comments, without exception, agreed with the description and that it’s right to address it plainly and discuss it openly. The simulation industry is fond of talking about “barriers to adoption” of our software tools – it’s also our job to recognise and acknowledge “barriers to entry” to careers and community, whether they are obvious to us or not. A community is more welcoming when you recognise yourself in the people already in it, and it’s the responsibility of each one of us to use whatever privileges we have to open doors so that everyone recognises themselves in our community.

I’ll be at a few of our regional conferences over the next few months – if you see me there, come and say hello.

David Quinn - Editor

If you have feedback or would like to see your article featured in benchmark contact benchmark@nafems.org