The American Association of Petroleum Geologists hosts the annual prospective basin evaluation competition for geoscience graduate students from universities around the world.
Texas Tech University's Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) team, part of the Department of Geosciences, took home second place in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' (AAPG) Southwest Section this week.
The IBA Program, a joint endeavor of AAPG and the AAPG Foundation, 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.
Texas Tech's team members were Justin Roeder, Jesse Hensley, Angela Fiorito and Owen Smith, all master's students in the department.
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 select the winning team based on the technical quality, clarity and originality of its presentation.
“The IBA competition was developed to provide students experience working with a real-world industry data set,” said team adviser Dustin Sweet, an associate professor of sedimentology and stratigraphy in the Department of Geosciences. “Company recruitment values the experience immensely and participation is a great resume bolster. We have competed for around seven years now and typically have a strong showing in the section. This year, the students finished only one point away from going to the finals.”
Texas Tech's IBA team took third place in 2019 and 2020.
