Spring Expo Gets Better and Better

Thanks to everyone who attended the fifth annual AAPG/SEG Spring Student Expo held in Norman, Oklahoma at the Sarkeys Energy Center, March 10-12. What an Expo we had! Hosted by the School of Geology and Geophysics, we had record participation by companies and students, and a record number of posters presented.

Company and organization participation:

Attending	24
Interviewing	14
Student participants	166
from 42 colleges and universities and 22 states

Posters presented:

Geology	41
Geophysics	27

Expo is designed to bring energy oriented geology and geophysics students from around the country together with energy companies in both formal interview and informal venues. Companies are looking for graduates and undergraduates for internships and graduates for full-time employment.

The Friday evening Icebreaker was a great hit, with entertainment by OU students who performed Latin music and a traditional dance. Music continued for dancing, and company representatives and students were able to meet and mingle while enjoying plenty of food.

Company Participation

The formal interviews began Saturday morning for most of the companies and went throughout the day. At the same time other company representatives were visiting with students at company exhibit booths. A large message center gave companies and students the opportunity to leave each other messages of their interest and contact information. We will expand on this idea next year. The Saturday Luncheon was another opportunity for students and company representatives to meet and visit. Some representatives hardly took time for lunch as they tried to get as many students into their schedules as possible.

The companies who took the opportunity to conduct formal interviews this year were:

Chesapeake Energy Corporation	28 interviews
ChevronTexaco	20 interviews
ConocoPhillips	5 interviews
Core Laboratories	10 interviews
Crawley Petroleum	14 interviews
geoPLUS	15 interviews
Kerr-McGee Corporation	22 interviews
Mewbourne Oil Company	15 interviews
Omnilabs	9 interviews
Pioneer Natural Resources	10 interviews
Questar Corporation	9 interviews
Samson	16 interviews
Schlumberger Technology Corporation	6 interviews
Vintage Petroleum Incorporated	15 interviews

Many more interviews were conducted as company representatives met with students at their exhibits.

Other companies who attended and visited informally with students were:

• Devon Energy Corporation
• Dominion Exploration and Production
• EOG Resources
• Indian Exploration
• M.A.P. Exploration
• Minerals Management Services
• Panhandle Royalty

Poster Contest

Students took the opportunity to present their work in poster form in record numbers. The posters were separated by discipline in an effort to increase traffic at the posters and for convenience in judging. This year’s posters were exceptional and the judges had a difficult time coming to a concensus.

Poster Contest winners were as follows:

Geology:

• 1st Place:  Kathleen Baker, Colorado School of Mines.
  “Influence of deep-water lithologies and geometries on seismic Indication of fluid saturation.”
• 2nd Place: Nicholas Terech, University at Buffalo.
  “Fracture Patterns, Lineaments and Seismic Reflection Data: Integration for Fault Mapping in the Appalachian Basin of East-Central New York State.”
• 3rd Place: Sophia Rodriguez, University of Tulsa.
  “Natural Brine Pump in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.”

Geophysics:

• 1st Place: Aaron Rothfolk, University of Oklahoma.
  “Geophysical Exploration: It’s not just seismic you know? Investigation of a Central Minnesota Mafic Dike Swarm.”
• 2nd Place: Tomieka Searcy, University of Oklahoma.
  “Imaging Fractures Created from Micro-earthquakes in the Barnett Shale, Newark East Field; West County, Texas.”
• 3rd Place: Upendra Kumar Tiwari, University of Texas at Dallas.
  “Estimation of effective pressure and water saturation by viscoelastic inversion of synthetic time-lapse seismic data for a gas sandstone reservoir.”

The energy industry exhibits were set up around the two atria, where most of the Expo activities were centered, for maximum exposure. They were attractive and informative and well attended by students.

Special Events

Each year the School tries to provide educational opportunities for students and company representatives as part of the Expo. This year Dr. Roger Slatt presented his “Petroleum Geology of Deepwater (Turbidite) Depositional Systems” class, and Jamie Rich (doctoral student of Dr. Alan Witten-recently deceased) presented Dr. Witten’s “Computer Graphics for Geophysics” class. These classes were held Thursday afternoon and all day Friday. Dr. M. Charles Gilbert took participants on a field trip to the Wichita Mountains Friday. Responses by participants after the fact were very favorable.

In addition the School provided three shorter activities.

• Tours were provided to the Oklahoma Petroleum Information Center (OPIC) in Norman, where Mr. Gene Kullman led participants through the center, showed them the more than 100 miles of core, the well data library, core-services facilities and described the Center’s future plans.
• Demonstrations were given of the School’s 3D Visualization Theatre by John Grismore and Ozzie Ilaboya.
• Sara Kaplan, an OU geology graduate student, prepared a self-tour brochure so participants could tour the many interesting displays and sites at the Sarkeys Energy Center, beginning with the 24 mineral and paleo galleries prepared by Dr. David London, School of Geology and Geophysics mineralogist.

Once again, thanks to everyone who came and contributed to Expo’s success. Plans are underway to make it even better next year.

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