Following the success of last year’s competition in Orlando, FlexTerm is once again sponsoring the Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) Simulation Challenge. This international event challenges students and early-career professionals to apply simulation, optimization, and data-driven methods to complex, real-world problems in ports and logistics.

Start Now: Round One Begins This Month

Students and emerging researchers interested in competing should begin preparing now, as the first round of submissions is already open. Early preparation is critical, since teams will be expected to not only model large-scale terminal environments but also test, compare, and refine strategies under realistic operational constraints.

The 2025 challenge, building on WSC’s theme “Look to the Future! Simulation 2050 and Beyond,” focuses on the maritime industry, particularly port operations and cargo logistics. Teams will develop simulation models of container terminals, integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve throughput and efficiency, and evaluate how their systems respond to uncertainty, disruption, and sustainability requirements. By running multiple scenarios and stress tests, participants will show how simulation can reveal trade-offs, highlight bottlenecks, and support long-term decision-making for port operators.

Last year, 20 teams from around the world submitted solutions that highlighted the creativity of the global simulation community. Their work demonstrated how simulation is increasingly central to designing smarter, more resilient port systems. The 2025 competition is expected to raise the bar even further, with AI and advanced optimization adding new complexity to the challenge.

The Simulation Challenge is co-organized by the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Department of Engineering at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, with leadership from ACM SIGSIM, IEEE, and INFORMS-Sim. FlexTerm is proud to support this global effort as a returning sponsor, advancing the next generation of maritime simulation experts.

Enroll here to join the challenge!

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