Summer in the Labs: SURI Students Tackle Complex Research Issues
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July 31, 2013
Since its inception five summers ago, the rigorous 10-week Summer Undergraduate Research Internship (SURI) Program has brought together some of the brightest minds from universities across the country.
The students come to The University of Texas at Austin (UT) to work alongside the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (PGE) faculty and graduate students on pivotal research areas in petroleum engineering.
SURI participant Alexis Steger, a sophomore chemical engineering student at Carnegie Mellon
UT PGE Associate Professor Dr. Sanjay Srinivasan, who oversees the program, describes SURI as “a melting pot of students from various engineering disciplines, who have an innate desire to overcome research challenges to deliver energy efficiently and in an environmentally responsible manner to billions of people all over the world.”
This year’s diverse group consists of 14 interns from 10 universities including Cornell, Vanderbilt, Ohio State and Texas A&M. Carefully selected from a pool of nearly 200 applicants, the 2013 SURI students hail from backgrounds in petroleum, aerospace, environmental, mechanical, and chemical engineering, and have varying degrees of research experience. Their summer projects tackle some of the industry’s most complex research issues, such as safe geologic sequestration of CO2, development of novel nanoparticles for improved hydrocarbon production, and improved techniques for hydraulic fracturing.
For 2013 SURI student Alexis Steger, spending her summer in the lab is not new territory. When Steger was in sixth grade, her father was diagnosed with stage IV head and neck cancer. It was not until his cancer cells were grown in a lab that an effective treatment was found to stop the cancer cells from multiplying. Inspired by the science that saved her father’s life, Steger secured an internship during summer 2010 with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, the same care facility where her father underwent treatment.
“This intensive lab work sparked my interest in research and was the beginning of my desire to become an engineer,” said Steger.
Now a chemical engineering major in her second year at Carnegie Mellon, Steger wanted the chance to explore her interest in petroleum engineering, as her university does not have a petroleum engineering undergraduate degree.
Under the direction of UT PGE faculty Dr. Matt Balhoff, Steger is performing a reservoir engineering study for a new, unconventional method to produce depleted reservoirs. Her work includes reservoir simulation, developing new models, optimizing reservoir production, and performing economics.
“Our discipline is very new to her,” said Balhoff, “but she is an extremely fast learner and performed graduate-level research in just the first few weeks of work.”
Steger hopes to come back to graduate school at UT PGE so she can continue her research.
“Through my summer experiences working in a lab, I have learned what an engineer can do to improve people’s quality of life, and I am excited at the prospect of how my research will shape the future.”
In addition to spending 40 hours a week researching in the labs with UT PGE faculty and graduate students, SURI students participate in weekly “Lunch and Learns” devoted to various topics in petroleum engineering, attend workshops steered by the UT PGE faculty, and have the chance to explore geological sites around Austin and Pedernales Falls State Park on a field trip led by Drs. Hilary and Jon Olson.
In their free time, SURI students can be found soaking up the sun at Hamilton Pool, sampling food trailers on South Congress, and lounging hillside at Zilker Park.
Steger’s advice to future SURI students is: “Be ready to work—it’s a steep learning curve, but don’t let that scare you away. You’ll never regret spending your summer in Austin.”
The SURI program is made possible by the S.P. Yates Memorial Endowment for Student Projects in Petroleum Engineering, Chevron, the Bob and Betty Agnew Endowed Excellence Fund in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, the George H. Sawyer Memorial Endowed Excellence Fund in Petroleum Engineering, the Aaron Cawley Endowed Excellence Fund in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, the Stephens Family Endowed Excellence Fund in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, and Friends of Alec Various Donors.
