Germany opens a new EAGE student chapter
3 October 2019
Since September 2019, RWTH Aachen University, Germany’s largest technical university
is home to the newest EAGE Student Chapter. The chapter was initiated by students of the master
programme Applied Geosciences with specialisation on Energy and Mineral Resources focusing
strongly on the E&P related topics but also on emerging geothermal topics. It will be led by
Alexander Jüstel, and will be supported by the vice president Luis Alberto Pizano Wagner,
secretary Alexander von Schéele and treasurer Mohamed Moursy as well as several student
members.
The EAGE Student Chapter is the second student association within the Department of
Geosciences and Geography next to the already existing SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers)
Student Chapter. The current board aims at merging these two student chapters in order
to create synergies and provide the most benefits for the student members of both chapters.
The EAGE Student Chapter can thereby use the pre-existing infrastructure and contacts of
the SPE student chapter which has established tight relations with members of the
university, representatives from industry in Germany and internationally but also other
student associations such as the local student council.
As RWTH Aachen University is close to the EAGE Headquarters in Houten, the Netherlands,
tight connections to the EAGE representatives are aimed to be established, too. This could
be realized by Student Lecturers Tours by EAGE representatives at RWHT Aachen University to
further elaborate on the opportunities with EAGE. As RWTH Aachen University is
known for its international connections throughout the industry and academic world,
the freshly founded EAGE Student Chapter aims at giving even more companies a
chance to present themselves, their fields of expertise, and internship possibilities or
graduation programmes for students of various study programmes. The student chapter
would like to provide an opportunity to all interested students to expand their professional
network to get a job right after graduating.
The newly established EAGE Student Chapter at RWTH Aachen University would like to
thank the EAGE Student Fund for the opportunity to promote the development and
application of geosciences and related engineering subjects, to promote innovation and
technical progress and to foster the communication, fellowship and cooperation between
the industry and local Aachen students according to the mission of the ESF.
The chapter would like to invite interested companies and representatives to share their
expertise during a technical talk or workshop at RWTH Aachen University or during a
company visit.
We are going to organize the 9th International Geosciences Student Conference (IGSC),
5-11 June 2020 in the The RWTH Aachen University. The scientific purpose of this conference
is to provide a platform for students to present their current research and thesis work to
other students from around the world, scientists from different universities and research institutes,
industry representatives, and sponsors. With this opportunity, students will have an impact on
the geoscience community, exchange ideas, enhance their knowledge, and expand their
professional network. Also, we plan to conduct soft skills workshops in order to strengthen
and expand participating students speaking and presenting skills. The chapter also invites
other EAGE Students Chapters to participate in the Conference and take the chance to visit the
historic city of Aachen and to explore the many possibilities at this university or to
organize a joint event in Aachen or at the respective Student Chapter´s university.
Please contact the chapter president Alexander Jüstel if you are interested in organizing such events.
The EAGE Student Chapter Board of the RWTH Aachen University at the EAGE Booth,
in the SEG 2019 Conference.
Student Chapter learns all about the Italian (Energy) Job
29 August 2019
Earlier this summer, thirteen students from the EAGE Student Chapter Freiberg set off for a company
visit to the ENI headquarters, Milan, Italy. The EAGE Student Fund supported this activity
with the main purpose of offering the opportunity to learn about the organisational dynamics
and research of the company. The excursion was held from 26
to 27 June 2019.
Following the trip, the chapter is keen to share their experiences.
The study trip started with a welcome speech and introduction by Riccardo
Pessina, who guided
the students to the Core Exhibition with its many different drilling cores
and associated oils.
The programme kicked off with a visit to GEOLAB, where students had the change to learn about
the application of Scanning Electron Microscopy that supports characterisation
of the pores in rocks and assess their diagenesis. This procedure is suitable for clarifying the
composition of mud and to find answers to questions related to clay minerals and oil flow.
Next, the student chapter had the opportunity to visit the Mineralogy and Chemical Analysis
(XRD & XRF) department where they learned a lot about the X -ray diffractometer
and X-ray fluorescence, which is used to define the chemical composition of samples to enhance
the mineralogical data’s quality. This, in turn, allow the quality of the reservoir to be evaluated.
Afterwards Riccardo provided to the group a presentation about the theory to analyse
the reservoir’s quality. Using the software Geocosm Touchstone the age of the rocks
can be estimated based on different petrophysical parameters. That way important
questions regarding oil content and economic efficiency can be answered.
The field trip concluded with a visit to the department of geochemistry. Where Danilo Dolci
and Isabella Flores guided the group through various laboratories and explained in detail
the main topics of research there. Mainly three analysis are of importance. Firstly, the produced
oils are analysed, which is important to determine the oil’s quality and its content. It also clarifies
questions regarding the economic efficiency of the reservoir as well as questions about
possible relations between adjacent reservoirs and between the reservoir
and the bedrock.
Secondly, the oil bedrock is analysed to estimate the diagenesis’ rate of the rocks by vitrinite
reflectance. Another way to estimate the rate of diagenesis are spores or pollen in the rock.
Thirdly, the gas is analysed, mainly its composition, its organic or inorganic origin and gas content.
The group wishes to thank the EAGE Student Fund for providing the financial support to this activity.
Laurie Dake Challenge 2020 -Do you have what it takes?
15 August 2019
The Laurie Dake Challenge, previously known as the FIELD Challenge (a Fully Integrated EvaLuation
and Development), is a competitive challenge organized by the EAGE Student Fund (ESF)
since 2011. It brings together teams from around the world to compete
at the annual EAGE Conference and Exhibition.
The Laurie Dake Challenge 2020 will once again challenge students to work on a cross‐disciplinary geoscience and engineering
integration challenge within their universities. The competition has several rounds:
(1) an exploration round;
(2) an intermediate deliverable of the field development plan; and,
(3) the final presentation of the field development plan. All teams work with the same data set, this
year provided by Shell.
Are you keen to get involved, make sure to follow the EAGE Student Fund blogs and students
social media updates! A first tip to get ready: aim for a diverse team – history shows the
best results in the competition build on a variety of personal and scientific backgrounds.
Insights from last years’ winners
IFP School team – winners of the Laurie Dake Challenge 2019 – provide a good example. The
team defined themselves as both multi-cultural (with people from Venezuela, France,
Brazil and Argentina), as well as multi-disciplinary in gathering one geologist, one geophysicist,
two reservoir engineers and one petroleum engineer.
They have been through a workflow which aimed to build an integrated development plan, from the
geological study to the design of the subsea facilities, while assessing the
economics of the
project and taking into account potential additional prospects in the immediate surroundings.
It can be summarized as follows:
• Definition of a geological conceptual model.
• Building of the static reservoir model.
• Computing simulations through a dynamic model.
• Designing the subsurface facilities and the global development plan.
• Economic analysis to see the feasibility of the project.
The team defined the integration of seismic data as a constraint for the facies modelling of
the turbiditic complexes as one of the most challenging parts. A great amount of
time and effort was need to understand the geological model of the field, prior to building
the dynamic model. For them, another point was to make important assumptions derived
from analogs in order to address a certain lack of data.
This experience has allowed the IFP team to apply the skills acquired in their various training
programs at IFP School in concrete terms. It was a real challenge to reconcile this project
over 6 months in parallel with their studies, but the team worked in a good mood and with enthusiasm.
Having different backgrounds and fields of study helped them to support each other and overcome
the different steps of the challenge.
IFP team:
” It was interesting to assess our capacity to be flexible
and adapt to the challenge’s demands: each step carried its load of
expectations, goals and deliveries (report, videos, presentation).
A communication, regular meetings and team spirit were key
elements to carry out this project alongside our studies.”
Five other finalist teams were involved in the 2019 edition of the Laurie Dake Challenge:
University of Stavanger ( second place), Dalhousie University and Instituto Mexicano del
Petroleo ( Third Place), Institut Teknologi Bandung , Petroleum University of Technology. All of them
worked very hard and have delivered impressive presentations to the jury.
Since the same data set was given to all the participants, it was exciting to see how all the different teams
interpreted and used the information at their disposal.
Damarys Castillo, Serugue Abreu e Santiago, Gregory Charles Barrere, Diego Potenzoni and Floriane Mortier;
who are members of the the IFP Team, wish to thank the pedagogical team of IFP School for its
support and guidance, as well as the EAGE and EAGE Student Fund for this rich opportunity that
allowed us to learn a lot and meet with teams from all over the world.
Get started!
Exited to give the challenge a shot yourself? Time to start thinking about composing your team!
Applications for the Laurie Dake Challenge open on 13 October 2019. From this date, teams
can apply online at EAGE Students site.
Each university team should include a multi-disciplinary team of full-time geoscience and
petroleum engineering students, with a maximum of one PhD student per team.
AGH Cracow reveals the secret to being the best EAGE SC
2 August 2019
The AGH University of Technology and Science in Cracow in the Southern part of Poland is
part of the Scientific Student Society called Geophone. We are members of the AGH EAGE
Student Chapter(SC) which is a student organizations gathering young people
passionate about geophysics and other geosciences, who are active and unstoppable from
broadening knowledge by many various activities.
Our initiative and hard work took us to organize seven editions of the Polish Nationwide
Student Geophysical Workshops called “Geosphere”, and we are preparing the eight edition
which will take place in spring 2020, and the four edition of Nationwide Student Conference
“Geophysics in Space”. Members of the Student Scientific Society. We work in cooperation
with multidisciplinary geo-scientific associations as the European Association
of European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) and the Society
of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG).
We enhance our professional career thanks to many years of experience in organizing events,
we understand the needs of our partners. Therefore, our participation
in the EAGE Annual conferences has broadened our geophysical knowledge
but also support our partners, and get knowledge from them during their workshops and
presentations.
The vision of our chapter in the future is “Students for Students”. We would like to
grow up as a strong and very well known chapter in student communities in Poland but
also worldwide by organizing more and more conferences. To spread the geophysical
knowledge as broad as we can.
We would like to focus on only on spreading the geoscientific knowledge because our
members got this knowledge already, but we would love to help our members to
prove their soft skills, practical skills by preparing geophysical surveys, participating
in boot camps and presenting results of this activities worldwide on geoscientific
conferences.
One of the previous Geofizyka Cracow employees said” EAGE SC AGH Cracow was the biggest surprise for me and Polish geosciences and I am sure this chapter is
the future of Oil & Gas industry in Poland but also
worldwide”.
We want to thank to EAGE Student Fund for the support provided as the best EAGE
student Chapter 2019, and specially to our mentors in the student chapter,
Ms. Ph.D. Kamila Wawrzyniak Guz, Ms. Ph.D. Paulina Krakowska and Ph.D. Anna Kwiatkowska.
Report given by the EAGE SC AGH President Partosz Pudlo
Sclocchi Award nominations open
18 January 2021
We believe student excellence should be recognized. For that reason, the
EAGE Student Fund works together with the SPE Italian Section and
Assorisorse to make the 28th Gustavo Sclocchi Thesis Award possible.
About the Sclocchi Award
The award was established to reward high quality thesis work at Italian
universities as well as Italians completing degrees abroad. The award has
two categories: Level A (Master of Science (Laurea Magistrale) theses and
Doctor of Philosophy (Dottorato di Ricerca) theses and Level B (2nd Level
Master Reports and Bachelor of Science (Laurea di I livello) theses). In
addition to a certificate, awardees will receive EUR 2 400,– (category A) or,
EUR 1 200,– (category B).
2020 Sclocchi Award now open
The organizers of the award are currently welcoming submissions from
recent graduates – anyone graduating between 1 October 2019 and 31
December 2020 can apply. Are you a recent graduate? Make sure to check
on your eligibility and how to apply today, as the deadline to submit details
and abstract of your research is 28 February 2021.
Gustavo Sclocchi Award Application – Eligibility & Procedure
Student Chapters & Membership Support
5 January, 2021
Happy new year!
The EAGE Student Fund will endeavour to make a wide range of activities to
students available in 2021 virtually and, where possible later in the year, in
person.
Key to this is our Student membership support programme. Student
chapters can receive up to 15 membership grants for their members to
access EAGE materials and services. Students exploring EAGE membership
for the first time can also apply to a student membership grant.
Setting up a student chapter provides you with several benefits, amongst
them the membership grants. In addition to this, you can count on support
for the developments of your own activities and you can participate in
student chapter only events, such as the online geo quiz programme and
the option to request virtual online student lecture deliveries.
If you are renewing your student chapter or if you are interested in
establishing a chapter at your university, make sure to read up on the
guidelines and steps here.
Include the ESF in your end of year giving
With the year coming to a close, we look back at a disruptive, but also
innovative year. Working from home and the move to online activities
allowed for the development of new initiatives to continue our work and
help students prepare themselves for a strong start of their career.
Innovation in 2020
In March, a full transition to online activities was made. A red thread
throughout was the inception of our e-Summit series, but also other
activities traditionally taking place in person, such as the Laurie Dake
Challenge, Geo Quizes and student lecture tours all moved online
successfully. We want to thank all people who helped us make this happen!
Support innovation – donate today
In order to keep on innovating and offer students continued support both
online and in person, the EAGE Student Fund relies on donations from
companies and individuals. We would therefore like to ask you, where
possible, to consider donating to the EAGE Student Fund.
You can do so via the website, or by contacting us directly about your gift.
Many thanks for your support!
Laurie Dake Challenge 2021 now open
The Laurie Dake Challenge is one of the cornerstone projects the EAGE
Student Fund supports throughout the year. We are therefore happy to
inform you it is now possible for students to participate in the 2021 edition
of the event.
For our tenth ever delivery of the Challenge the EAGE Student Fund
partners with Wintershall DEA, which provides the dataset for this year.
In order to be successful, students have to cooperate in multi-disciplinary
teams. We encourage students to have variation in both disciplines as well
as study level. Diversity and team work is going to be key!
Student Applications open
Students interested in participating should submit their application,
including a motivational letter, by 18 January 2021. For questions on the
procedure you can contact the organizers at students@eage.org.
The application process is available here.
Strong student contingent at EAGE December conferences
Thursday 17 December,
On 7 – 11 December, EAGE organized two of its leading conferences – Near
Surface Geoscience (7-8 December) and the EAGE 2020 Annual Conference
& Exhibition online (8-11 December). Students and their contributions were
key to making the conferences a success, with over 300 students
participating in the meetings.
At the EAGE 2020 Annual Conference & Exhibition a dedicated student
programme was offered. This included the traditional geo quiz (albeit
virtual this year) as well as a dedicated e-Summit delivery and a academic
networking cafe. We want to thank your e-Summit panellists Alexander
Juestel (RWTH Aachen), Myrna Staring (Fugro), Rumbidzai Nhunduru
(Heriot-Watt University) and Valerie Krampe (ETH Zurich), as well as our
university representatives from the University of Leeds, Uppsala University,
IFP School and Delft University of Technology for their contributions!
The conferences provided a strong conclusion to a rather eventful year. We
are looking forward to supporting students in their career development in
2021!
Student Webinars on Machine Learning upcoming
5 October, 2020
In October and November, a trilogy of webinars on machine learning in
geoscience will be organized. Organized on three consecutive Mondays,
students will have the chance to participate in standalone webinars on this
hot topic.
The deliveries will be scheduled for 19, 26 October and 2 November.
Each of the three webinars will focus on a different aspect of machine
learning: Outlier Detection (19 October), Image Analysis (26 October) and
Geomechanical Prediction (2 November).
The webinars will be delivered by Prof. Siddarth Misra from the Texas A&M
University, USA. The EAGE Student Fund would like to thank Prof. Misra for
his time and dedicated putting forward this interesting set of webinars for
students to participate in.
About the instructor
Prof. Siddharth Misra is an Associate Professor in Harold Vance Department
of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University. He is an educator
across the disciplines of formation evaluation, petrophysics, geophysics,
and subsurface data analytics. His research focusses on machine learning,
subsurface characterization and sensing.
Misra holds a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Texas
at Austin. Prior to that, from 2007 to 2010, he worked as a Wireline Field
Engineer in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and USA with Halliburton. He received his
undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay, India, in 2007.
Student Chapters leading deliveries
Similar to our Student Lecture Tours, Prof. Misra’s webinars will be
delivered as part of our dedicated offering to student chapters. Student
chapter representatives from our Latin American university chapters play
an active role in the organization and promotion of the events. Through this
approach, we give student chapters an active role on determining what
courses to get involved in.
International Day of Charity
2 September 2020
On 5 September we are celebrating the International Day of Charity. Are
you also looking to give back to the community? Consider supporting the
next generation of geoscientists and engineering and support the EAGE
Student Fund!
Over the years, we’ve been able to support thousands of students around
the globe to provide them with a platform for their research, support
student chapter projects and power team challenges such as our Geo Quiz
programme and the Laurie Dake Challenge.
Support the EAGE Student Fund today through an online donation.
Thank you!
Join our fundraiser and become quiz champion!
Thursday 20 August
Are you a geoscience know-it-all and interested in the mission of the EAGE
Student Fund? Considering the fact your are reading this actual blog post,
you likely are! If so, you should certainly join our fundraiser Geo Quiz on
Friday 28 August, 16:00 CEST.
What’s it all about
As a charity, the EAGE Student Fund support student excellence in
geoscience & engineering globally. Most of EAGE’s student activities are
made possible with the support of the fund. This includes our lecture tours,
e-Summits, student engagement at our conferences and chapter support.
Since the inception of our Fund in 2009 we’ve been able to help thousands
of students.
In order to continue our mission, we need your support. For that reason, we
are organizing a fundraiser online geo quiz. During the quiz, participants
will get a variety of questions about Earth Science and the EAGE Student
Fund in particular. Participation is free, but we would like you to consider
making a donation to the Fund and support our Mission.
How to get involved
If you think you’re up to the challenge, learn more and sign up today, or
donate directly online. Many thanks for your support and may the best
player win!
September & October student e-Summits topics selected
17 Augustus 2020
It’s almost September, time to get back to (online) classes. As you may have
noticed, the EAGE Student e-Summits have not taken a break this Summer –
we are keeping up our monthly deliveries.
Following our most recent delivery on Digitalization and career
development, we’re ready to announce our first Autumn e-Summits. In
September and October two new e-Summits for the upcoming months. In
September, our focus will be on mineral exploration and student career
development. October will see a return to energy transition, with a focus on
Latin America.
September e-Summit on Mineral Exploration
On Friday 11 September we are gathering a panel with speakers from
Africa and Europe to discuss careers in mineral exploration. What kind of
skills does one need to be successful here? What does the research scene
look like? How does the ongoing demand for rare earth minerals play into
this? Join our panellists on 11 September to see what our panellists deal
with this topic!
More information
Do you GE(E)T It – Latin America edition in October
In June, we organized our first e-Summit on geoscience & engineering in
the energy transition, focussing on the APAC and European markets.
Following a fruitful and constructive summit, we’re now bringing the topic
to the Americas – a region with incredibly potential as well as some well-
established communities working on the advancement of renewable
energy. We will bring together speakers from Brazil, Colombia and Costa
Rica to assess how students can create a career for themselves and
contribute to energy transition in the region.
Call for proposals future e-Summits
After October, the floor can be all yours for our next e-Summits. Do you
have a topic which you would like to explore? Get in touch with us today!
And the winner of the 2020 Laurie Dake Challenge is…
13 August 2020
The Laurie Dake Challenge, the integrated team competition in which
students have to come up with a development plan based on a real dataset
concluded last year with the announcement of the winners of this year’s
competition.
In regular years, this announcement would have been made during the
EAGE Annual Conference & Exhibition. This year, we opted for an online
ceremony streamed through EAGE’s Youtube channel.
Finals LDC 2020
The jury members of the Laurie Dake Challenge, consisting of company
representatives and members of the Student Affairs Committee, were
impressed with the outcomes of the final round. All teams were able to
come up with thought provoking solutions to develop the dataset provided,
making a selection of the top three a difficult task.
Only one team can be the winner though and this year these honours went
to the Mexican Institute of Petroleum (Mexico)! Runners up were Universiti
Teknologi PETRONAS (Malaysia), with the Bandung Institute of Technology
(Indonesia) completing the top 3. Congratulations to all participants for
your hard work and dedicated. We know it was an incredibly hard final
round, with self-isolation and university closures making work difficult.
Award ceremony recap
Did you miss out on the award ceremony but are you curious about the
award and the people behind the work? A recording of the ceremony is
available through the EAGE Youtube channel.