Introducing: The Surface-Topography Challenge in Practice! [Surface-Topography Challenge Update, June 2026]

Dear STC Community,

Three new updates about the Surface-Topography Challenge.

• First, a new series! The Surface-Topography Challenge in Practice.

  • The Surface-Topography Challenge was launched to improve the understanding and control of surfaces among manufacturers, researchers, and scientists.The original investigation created a comprehensive description of a real-world surface, and suggested some best practices.

  • Since the publication of the Surface-Topography Challenge paper, people from around the world have been using the samples and the data in various ways in their work.

  • In this series, we will be sharing out different ways that people have used the samples and the data.

  • Please consider submitting your own example to help others.

    • (Do you have a way that you’ve used the STC sample/data? Email us to have it featured!)

• Second, this month’s featured investigation: On the Artifacts Involved in the Measurements of Engineering 3D Topography and a Correction Method

  • Mikhail Popov and coworkers showed that measurement artifacts—spike-like outliers and uncorrected surface curvature—can distort a surface's power spectral density (PSD) by orders of magnitude, and proposed a correction procedure combining nonlinear median filtering with a robust PSD rebuilt from the median of many 1D line scans.

  • They use the STC as the central motivation, framing their method as an attempt to explain the orders-of-magnitude discrepancies the Challenge exposed—and comparing 1D line-scanning methods against 2D optical ones.

  • Read the full paper here.

    • (Do you have a paper that cited the STC challenge? Email us to have it featured!)

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• Third, are you going to the Gordon Research Conference on Tribology? If so, do three things:

  • (1) Contact us. (Use the Contact the Organizers link)

  • (2) Come see the STC poster. (Visit Tevis Jacobs’ poster about the Challenge and ongoing work.)

  • (3) Tell us how you are using the samples/data! We want to hear!

Take care,

Tevis, Arushi, Simeona, Martin, and Lars

Learn more and get in touch at SurfaceTopographyChallenge.org