Who Is the Greatest Blacksmith of Today? ... Pukyong National University Student Wins 'Steel Challenge' East Asia Regional Grand Prize

Im Jong-deok (right) is receiving the grand prize and posing for a commemorative photo at the award ceremony held at Engineering Building 1, Pukyong National University.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Dooyul] Lim Jongdeok from the Department of Metallurgical Engineering at Pukyong National University received the grand prize and a cash award of 2 million KRW at the 16th STEEL CHALLENGE East Asia & Oceania regional competition.

The competition featured over 800 university and graduate students from 90 universities worldwide, held across five regions: Americas, West Asia, North Asia, East Asia & Oceania, and Europe & Africa.

Lim achieved the highest score in the East Asia & Oceania region, securing the grand prize.

The STEEL CHALLENGE is a global competition organized by Steel University, an educational institution under the World Steel Association, since 2005.

In Korea, the Korea Iron & Steel Association has been managing the event since 2007.

The competition proceeds through the “secondary refining” and “electric furnace” processes using an online process simulation module installed on the Steel University website.

The module determines rankings based on the success of simulated steelmaking within a given time and a comparative competition of steel production methods with minimal manufacturing costs.

In the process simulation, Lim systematically and strategically designed the input amounts and sequences of ferroalloys and steel scrap, as well as the timing and order of carbon and oxygen injection, successfully completing the simulated steelmaking and producing steel at the lowest manufacturing cost among participants.

As the East Asia & Oceania regional winner, Lim is scheduled to participate in the STEEL CHALLENGE world competition in London, UK, this April, competing against winners from other regions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.