Training

The 2009 Introductory Courses are now finished. Dates for the 2010 classes will be posted on the training schedule page later in the year.

Itasca offers introductory training courses for all its software products every Spring at their Minneapolis office. Courses are taught by Itasca engineers with several years experience using the software in question for real world applications. This experience guides teaching and presentations designed to provide new users with a recommended approach to apply Itasca software most efficiently for geomechanics analysis and design.

Each course day consists of two 90-minute sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon. Most are timed as follows:

• 08:30 AM to 10:00 AM - Morning Session 1
• 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM - Morning Session 2
• 12:00 PM to 01:30 PM - Box lunch catered by Itasca
• 01:30 PM to 03:00 PM - Afternoon Session 1
• 03:30 PM to 05:00 PM - Afternoon Session 2

To register for any of the annual courses, please download and complete our General Training Registration form. Space is made available on a first-come, first-served basis. Note that each class is limited to twenty participants.

The registration and payment deadline for each class is one month before the start date of the class. IMPORTANT: Itasca Consulting Group, Inc. reserves the right to cancel a class if a minimum number of attendees has not enrolled by the registration deadline.

Client-requested training courses are typically three to five days long and usually consist of instruction related to engineering application of our codes. Instruction is available either at Itasca or at the client's location. Itasca engineers have used Itasca software in a wide variety of geoengineering studies. This experience guides teaching and presentations designed to provide new users with a recommended approach to apply Itasca software most efficiently for geomechanics analysis and design.

The training courses are designed to fit individual user needs and experience. Emphasis is placed on setting up and running common user problems. Accordingly, users are encouraged to submit sample problems prior to the training session for our review and preparation. These problems would then be used as practical applications of the code during the training sessions.

Training sessions usually involve discussion of the fundamentals of the code(s) followed by "hands-on" training. Our experience has shown that users can learn most effectively when one PC is available for every two participants. We recommend that attendance at the training course be limited to six individuals per instructor. Training notebooks or manuals are also provided for each participant.