Certification in Practice of

Finite Element Principles

About this program

The Certification in Practice of Finite Element Principles is a 100% online,
non-credit, four-course certification program provided by The Ohio State
University College of Engineering SIMCenter. The program is designed for
engineers and other practitioners who wish to learn more and increase their
skills in Finite Element Principles. All four courses must be completed in
order to earn the certification, but students have the option to take
standalone courses for targeted learning.

Upon completion students will be able to:

1. Recognize connections between theoretical (mathematical) concepts and
modeling choices.
2. Recognize that the data generated by CAE tools needs to be critically
evaluated.
3. Pursue integrating CAE into their work.

The online delivery of each course is comprised of:

• Instructional material equivalent to a one semester credit hour class
• A typical week will take the average person approximately 2 hours "in-
class" work and 4-6-hours of "homework" for a total weekly time
commitment of 6-8 hours. Please note, every learner is different so this is
only a guideline. Some learners may need to budget more time to complete
the requirements of this course.
• All course lectures are recorded and available to you 24/7 through the
university's Learning Management System called Carmen.
• Course duration of approximately 7 weeks. See the individual course pages
for exact schedule
• 4 CEUs are granted upon successful completion of each course

Pre-Requisites
1. A bachelor's degree in engineering or a related field is strongly
recommended.
2. Enrollees should also have a background in the following areas:
o Calculus
▪ Differentiation
▪ Integration
o Linear Algebra
▪ Matrix Multiplication
▪ Matrix Transpose
▪ Identity Matrix
o Computational Skills
▪ Using computational approaches will reinforce skills required for
computational engineering in a broader sense.
▪ Homework problems should be solved using MATLAB, Python, or other
computational tools. Octave is similar to MATLAB and is freeware.
▪ Student will be asked to solve problems by generating basic scripts for
homework assignments
▪ Minimal previous experience will be needed
o Engineering Concepts
▪ Basic concepts of stress, strain, Hooke’s Law
▪ Material properties such as Young’s Modulus and Poisson’s Ratio
▪ Free body diagrams
▪ Beam equations
o Finite Element Software
▪ Basic knowledge on how to build a mesh from CAD geometry
▪ Apply material definitions to model
▪ Apply loads and boundary conditions
▪ Visualize results