A Team of Pakistani students from the Earth & Environmental Sciences – Geophysics Department Bahria University Karachi (BUKC), won the 3rd position at the Imperial Barrel Award 2020 (Asia Pacific), an international competition of Postgraduate students, however, BUKC undergraduate students participated in this competition with special permission from the competition committee.
This project titled “Oil and Gas Exploration study of Carnarvon Basin, Australia” was supervised by Dr. Haris Ahmed Khan faculty of E&ES-Geophysics Department BUKC and industrial mentor Abid Baitu. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the participating team comprised of Arsalan Khan, Aqib Ahmed Sandhu, Khizar Askari, Muhammad Adnan, and Bassam Nasir, had to work from home and gave their 100% to present the findings & interpretations to the experienced international judges, to reach the victory stand.
Must Read: FLAGSHIP PHONES DON’T LEAD INNOVATION ANYMORE
Sharing his joy, the Team lead, Arsalan Khan said: “This participation has taught a lot in the last 2-months and it was a great journey throughout. It is for the first time that a team from Pakistan have won a position in top 3, which is an honor for all of us”.
The top ranked Indonesian Universities; Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), and Universitas Gadjah Mada, stood first and second respectively, passing aside many other top institutes from China, India, and Malaysia.
AAPG’s Imperial Barrel Award Program (IBA) is an annual prospective basin evaluation competition for geoscience graduate students from universities around the world. University teams compete to win scholarship funds for their geoscience department and the international recognition that comes from competing or winning in the competition. The program is rigorous and contributes to AAPG’s mission of promoting petroleum geoscience training and advancing the careers of geoscience students.
In this global competition, university teams analyze a dataset (geology, geophysics, land, production infrastructure, and other relevant materials) in the eight weeks prior to their local competition. Each team delivers their results in a 25-minute presentation to a panel of industry experts. Students have the chance to use state of the art technology on a real dataset, receive feedback from an industry panel of judges, network with potential employers in the audience, and win cash awards for their school. The judges will select the winning team on the basis of the technical quality, clarity and originality of presentation.
The IBA is a hands-on opportunity for students to experience the creative process and the high-tech science that is the foundation of the Energy Industry today.
