The International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) has released a new design for its award-winning steeluniversity.org website. The new site includes a four-dimensional (4-D) tour of a virtual steelworks. The site also shows the new steeluniversity.org logo which has been adopted by the project.

The new steeluniversity.org site offers improved navigation as well as a number of new features. These include the tour of a virtual steelworks, featuring a fly-through of the complete plant. Users can also take a self-guided walk through the virtual plant. This is an ideal introduction to the scale and complexity of a modern, integrated steelworks, where raw and recycled materials are transformed into valuable steel products.

The site also contains a new “study and work” section. This section provides case studies and ideas on how to use steeluniversity.org in industry, universities and schools. It contains announcements of career and research opportunities in steel.

The education modules are now easily accessible through the e-Learning menu on steeluniversity.org. The modules are organised into four sections: Steel Applications, Steel Processing, Ferrous Metallurgy and Sustainability. The Steel Processing modules contain game-like simulations that provide open-ended problem solving exercises and hands-on learning, enabling the user to run their own virtual steelworks.

steeluniversity.org is an on-line initiative to provide a comprehensive set of informative, advanced, sophisticated and highly interactive e-learning resources. The modules are aimed at steel industry employees and university students. steeluniversity.org was one of the finalists in the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2006 Education Innovation Award. The project also received the 2004 European Academic Software Award (EASA).