Earlier this week one of the most recently founded student chapters visited the EAGE office to learn more about the EAGE and EAGE Student Fund. This Wednesday, Alexander Jüstel and Luis Alberto Pizano stopped by for a couple of hours to discuss their upcoming events and get advice on the further development of the chapter and projects.
The RWTH EAGE Student Chapter was created a couple of months ago, following the university’s participation in the IGSC’8 conference in Uppsala, Sweden. Situated close to the Dutch border, the university has a wide spectrum of earth science courses. This multi-disciplinary approach is also stimulated by the ESF as activities like the Geo-Quiz and Laurie Dake challenge stimulate cooperation between disciplines.
The visit allowed the students to learn more about the work of the EAGE Student Fund, the activities supported and to see how future initiatives could be developed. With the student chapter working on the next International Geoscience Student Conference – scheduled for summer 2020 – the team was keen to know how the ESF supports student-led activities such as this conference.
Student Chapter RWTH Aachen representatives and student community manager Rosmery at the EAGE office.
Student Chapter initiatives
Student chapter development is key in the work of the EAGE Student Fund. As skills are not developed in a single day, the ESF looks for longer term involvement with students.
Student Chapters are a great way to do so. They help to build longer lasting initiatives, create structure for cooperation and help students make the best of their involvement with the activities we support. We are therefore always keen to hear about your chapter’s activities and projects. Not active with a chapter at your university yet? You can get started today!
Membership grants are – together with conference abstract submissions – often the first point of contact for students with the EAGE and EAGE Student Fund. EAGE membership grants give students the opportunity to get involved with the association and gain access to number of projects and resources otherwise not available.
With 2019 coming to a close, the EAGE Student Fund looks back at a year of continued global presence and spread of student membership grants. European students still make up the largest group of recipients, with Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America following suit. In total, the ESF was able to reach 60 countries worldwide. We are pleased to see the involvement from students globally with strong involvement coming from outside of Europe.
ESF membership grants 2020
Student membership grants will be available for the upcoming membership year for eligible students. If you are new to the EAGE and interested to apply for a grant, we encourage you to learn more on the EAGE student pages. We want to thank our supporters from the EAGE community to help fund these membership grants to the global student community.
2019 ESF grant recipients
For the recipients of 2019 membership grants are encourages to remain involved in the year(s) to come. Renew your membership, or make sure to investigate the opportunities for a student chapter at your institution to build on your earlier involvement.
In October, the EAGE Student Fund was able to support two Student Lecture tours, bringing our lectures to the Middle East and Russia. In total, you were able to find our deliveries at six universities. We are please to have been able to bring engaging courses to students at these universities. Many thanks to Dr. Humphrey and Dr. Demyanov for their crucial role in teaching these courses!
Student Lecture Tour – ME
The Middle East student lecture tour constituted four of the lectures in October. Dr. John D. Humphrey delivered two lectures in Saudi Arabia. His course Understanding Carbonate Mudrocks was delivered at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Tuwal and the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dahran.
Two more took place at the Sultan Qaboos University of Technology and the German University of Technology, both based in Muscat, Oman.
Moscow focus for Russia SLT
In addition to the lecture tour in the Middle East, two additional lectures took place in Moscow, bringing the SLT to students of the Moscow State University and Moscow Physics Technical University. At these universities, Dr. Vasily Demyanov taught the course Challenges and Solutions in Stochastic Reservoir Modelling – Geostatistics, Machine Learning, Uncertainty Prediction.
About EAGE Student Fund lecture tours
The SLT programme allows student chapters to engage with though leaders from the EAGE community. The lecture tour consists of two or more deliveries in the same region or city. Students and supporters can learn more on the tours and how to get involved in the EAGE Student Fund activity overview.
The EAGE Annual Conference & Exhibition 2020 is taking place in Amsterdam 8 – 11 June. That feels like an era from now, but it is already possible for students to submit their research to be considered for the Technical Programme.
The Technical Programme – a platform for student excellence
So, why already start today? The answer is simple: inclusion into the EAGE Technical Programme is one of the prime opportunities for students to be part of a high profile and diverse community. You will not only be able to present and therefore hone your skills, but you will also have a chance to get feedback from the audience present on your research. Instead of one reviewer of your work, you will have dozens!
In order to do so, you will be asked to condense all research into 4 pages – the length of an EAGE Extended Abstract. The combination of boiling your research down, writing it up in a coherent way and turning it into an engaging presentation are skills you will be able to build on for the rest of your career.
ESF support for excelling presenters
The EAGE Student Fund will provide support for a limited number of excelling students with strong papers. These funds will be used to offset registration and contribute towards the travel expenses to get to the conference.
Only limited funds will be available, so we encourage you to get started on your abstracts and research!
It is now possible to register or renew your EAGE Student Chapter for 2020. If you are keen to build on your interaction with the EAGE Student Fund in the upcoming year, we therefore recommend you to start your renewal today.
Student Chapter engagement plays an important role in the activities supported through the EAGE Student Fund. After all, many student activities such as the online geo-quiz, membership grants and support for student initiatives are pursued through the engagement between the ESF and the chapters.
If you have any questions on the renewal of your chapter, make sure to read up on the dedicated webpage, or contact the EAGE Student Fund by email.
This year, the Laurie Dake Challenge will be back for another round of strong multidisciplinary competition between university students from across the globe. With the application window for teams opening soon, we already want to give a glimpse of what there is to expect in the months to come.
Looking back at the Laurie Dake Challenge 2019
Looking at the previous challenge round the LDC 2020 is set up to attract a diverse and international group of engaged students. In 2019, 47 teams showed interest in participating in the challenge. After two rounds, the final round was organised at the 80th Annual EAGE Conference & Exhibition in London. Here, six teams had to present their results in front of the jury.
After a day of presentations of the final results, the IFP School came out on top, winning the Laurie Dake Challenge 2019 and joining our growing lists of winning teams in the EAGE LDC Students Hall of Fame.
What’s scheduled for 2020?
This year, Shell will be providing the dataset and challenge for students. Details on the exact challenge will be revealed later in the process. We can already tell you the dataset and questions arising from it will demand a multidisciplinary and knowledgable team to make it to the two selection selection rounds. In the final round at the 81st EAGE Annual Conference & Exhibition in Amsterdam, the finalists will be asked to present their solutions to the challenge in front of a diverse and critical jury.
Although the final presentations will take place in June, students have to get started soon. In order to have a shot at making it to the final, students will have to start compiling their teams in the upcoming weeks as the registration window for the Laurie Dake Challenge 2020 will be open in October up to late December.
After registrations, students will be presented with the challenge and asked to complete two rounds of assignments, each round only move on the top performing candidates. It therefore requires careful planning from the students throughout Spring, something to keep in mind!
Laurie Dake Challenge Winners in 2018
If you are a student interested in participating make sure to look out for announcements in the months to come. If you are interested in attending the final round of the Laurie Dake Challenge in Amsterdam, any delegates attending the conference are welcome to see the students present their findings.
The EAGE Student Fund is proud to be bringing the challenge to Amsterdam this year. We want to thank Shell for their support of this year’s dataset and we wish all student participating good luck!
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.
As part of the 10 year anniversary of the EAGE Student fund, we share a different story every month. For September, we interviewed Anna Donczew, MSc student at the University of Uppsala on how what the Student Fund has helped her in her studies and activities.
Hi Anna, thanks for joining us! Can you introduce yourself?
Cześć! My name is Anna Donczew and I come from Poland. I hold BSc in Geophysics from AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, Poland and recently I have graduated from the joint international MSc in Sustainable and Innovative Natural Resource Management (SINReM) at Uppsala University, Sweden. I am passionate about science communication and providing geoscience students with the opportunities to build their leadership skills, network with peers and industry leaders, so they could make a difference in the community.
My first involvement was as a result of a student conference I helped to organize. I was a Project Leader of the 8th International Geosciences Student Conference (IGSC 2019), that took place in Uppsala, Sweden from 16-20 June 2019. Since its very first edition, IGSC was always working closely with EAGE and the EAGE Student community so it was a great pleasure to continue the legacy and have EAGE student fund supporting this student initiative. Thanks to the ESF we could improve student participants’ experience during the event and make IGSC fun & memorable!
As a recent graduate, what is the most valuable aspect of the EAGE Student Fund?
I just graduated, so this is still fresh in my mind so I actually understand student’s perspective very well!
I strongly believe that investing in the education of future professionals is the best contribution to the community, as it is the investment in the future problem-solvers and action takers. Providing students with equal opportunities to attend scientific events, help them to experience science outside the classroom and gives more exposure to industry and state-of-the- art research.
Investment in the youth and the generations of future geoscientists and engineers is the most valuable aspects of the EAGE Student Fund, as by providing financial help it allows the students to broaden their horizons and not only give the possibility to meet industry leaders but also helps them transition to a natural young professional at their early career stage.
Anna presenting at IGSC
Which EAGE Student Fund activity do you have the best memories of?
Definitely taking part in the EAGE Geo-quiz during our conference in Uppsala! This was so much fun and excitement! We signed up with my friend just to have a good time and challenge ourselves as fresh geoscientists.
The battle during the last rounds was quite heated and tight but we managed to stay cool and… won the quiz! As a reward, we received the EAGE Travel Grant that allowed us to take part in the EAGE Near Surface Geoscience in the Hague this month. It was a great opportunity for us to take an active part in the EAGE event, enabling easier access to industry professionals, technical sessions and joining networking activities.
Great to hear your positive experiences at Near Surface Geoscience 2019! To conclude, why do you think people or organizations should contribute to the EAGE Student Fund today?
Supporting ESF is great way of encouraging and activating students around the globe. By contributing to the ESF you really impact students from the whole world, and I find it amazing. Thanks to the Fund highly motivated students from different countries can come together, inspire and learn from each other during the conferences and activities organized by EAGE.
Being part of this global community is made possible thanks to the ESF contribution. Big thanks for everyone who supported ESF! Thanks for welcoming us, students into the geoscience community!
Driven by by both economics and innovation, the toolbox of earth scientists and engineers is ever changing. Although the core business and aims may remain the same, global economy, computational power and technologies differ quite drastically changed how geoscientists and engineers operate today.
As we see every week at the EAGE Student Fund, innovation never sleeps. With the many challenges in exploration, near surface geoscience and climate resiliency (to name but a few), students and companies alike are looking to stay on top of the game. The ESF is there to help you out.
Let us know where you see geoscience going!
Through our students projects such as student lecture tours, conference participation and international challenges we want to encourage students to both gain and hone the skills needed to be successful in their career. In order to keep our programme up to date, we would like to hear from you!
If you are a student, please participate in our annual survey on student activities and career development. We are looking forward hearing your thoughts on the future of geoscience.
Contact
Stichting EAGE Student Fund
Kosterijland 48
3981 AJ Bunnik
The Netherlands
Tel.: +31 88 995 5055
