The Regional Championship took place online for a 24-hour period on 29 November 2017. This year’s steelChallenge attracted 1,515 participants representing 50 countries. The 12th edition added more participants and countries than the previous year.
There were 175,416 attempts with the secondary steelmaking simulation with 736 people successfully completing at least one run of the simulation and a total of 7,866 successful runs completed.
The top placed people in the ‘Industry’ and ‘Student’ categories will be invited with expenses paid to compete for the title of World Champion in Mumbai, India, on 10 April 2018. Qualifying for the World Championship are the first place people in each region plus the person with the best result worldwide.
The award ceremony will be held in the presence of leaders of the global steel industry. All Finalists will be awarded certificates, cash prizes and an iPad in addition to their trip. The World Champions in both categories will also be awarded a World Champion certificate, an additional cash prize and the steelChallenge trophy.
steelChallenge-12 utilised steeluniversity’s secondary steelmaking simulation. Competitors were tasked to produce a grade of steel meeting technical requirements at the lowest cost per tonne. The simulation used a grade of steel specifically designed for steelChallenge-12.
Competitors could undertake unlimited ‘runs’ of the simulation during the 24-hour competition period. A ‘run’ was concluded when the simulation had completed the set time, the result had been registered in the competition database, and the competitor had received a confirmation of successful completion.
The 3 best ‘runs’ of each competitor were averaged to determine their score and placement in the Regional Championship.
The World Championship Finalists are:
Student Category
| Person | Affiliation | Country |
| Anže BajželjRegional Champion Europe, CIS, Middle East, Africa | University of Ljubljana | Slovenia |
| Jamil Nobre de CastroRegional Champion North and South America | Universidade Federal Do Ceara | Brazil |
| Park EunSungRegional Champion Asia and Oceania | Chon Buk National University | South Korea |
| Zhaopeng Zeng / 召鹏 曾Regional Champion China | Chongqing University of Science & Technology | China |
| Shijun Zhang / 张时君(Best runner-up) | Chongqing University of Science & Technology | China |
Industry Category
| Person | Affiliation | Country |
| Stevo Akkerman Regional Champion Europe, CIS, Middle East, Africa |
Tata Steel Europe | The Netherlands |
| Francisco Alberto Rocha Regional Champion North and South America |
Gerdau | Brazil |
| Ho Yeon
Regional Champion Asia and Oceania |
POSCO | South Korea |
| Huan Ma Regional Champion China |
China Baowu Steel Group Corporation Limited | China |
| Xiaoyu Tang / 笑宇 唐 (Best runner-up) |
HBIS Group Co., Ltd | China |