Interdisciplinary Students' Expertise Propels Summer Research
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July 15, 2014
Now in its sixth year, the 10-week SURI program continues to draw some of the brightest students from around the country to work with faculty on significant areas of research related to petroleum engineering.
This year’s Summer Undergraduate Research Internship (SURI) cohort is comprised of 12 students hailing from Stanford University, Yale University, The Ohio State University, Carnegie Melon, Louisiana State University, Trinity University, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), and UT Austin, with varying backgrounds in chemical engineering, civil engineering, petroleum engineering, biomolecular engineering, and geology.
2014 SURI student Raymond Turner is from UTEP, and will complete his B.S. in geology in the spring of 2015. Turner has long had his sights set on petroleum engineering as a career, ever since his sophomore year of high school when he was hired as an intern working in geology. This internship was part of the Pathways Internship Program, and Turner went on to complete three internships with Pathways, including one sponsored by ExxonMobil.
“I love rocks and minerals," says Turner. “I chose geology to eventually go into petroleum engineering, which I always knew I wanted to do.”
Turner first heard about the SURI program from his advisor at UTEP, and was thrilled when he got accepted into the program. Growing up in El Paso, Turner had always planned on attending UT Austin for his undergraduate degree. However, after his father passed away, he made the decision to attend UTEP so that he could be close to his mother.
This summer, Turner is logging long hours in the lab conducting experiments with Assistant Professor Hugh Daigle. His project is looking at the application of nitrogen gas-adsorption technique for characterization of pore structures in mud, shale and other rocks. On average, Turner conducts three experiments a week. These experiments include drying rocks in a degassing chamber, then freezing them using liquid nitrogen. From there, he is able to use the nitrogen to find out how small or big the pores are in the rock.
(Turner conducting an experiment involving liquid nitrogen with Daigle)
“This lab experience is much more complicated than anything I’ve ever experienced, but also a lot more fun," says Turner. “It’s really hands on, and you definitely have to know what you’re doing. I like that I get to be taught one-on-one by a faculty member, but also have the chance to work on my own unsupervised. It’s given me a little taste of the big leagues.”
Turner hopes to return to UT Austin next fall as a graduate student, continuing his work with Dr. Daigle in the lab.
“This summer has been an eye opener for me, and has helped me want to continue to pursue a job in the oil industry,” says Turner. “This is definitely what I want to be doing the rest of my life.”
2014 SURI student Xi Chen is a chemical engineer preparing to enter her junior year at Carnegie Melon. With limited lab experience and knowledge of the petroleum engineering profession, Chen attended a SURI info session led by UT PGE Recruitment Support Specialist Jessica Jimenez last fall.
“I absolutely loved what Jessica had to offer us; I would be able to take my background as a chemical engineer and apply it to petroleum engineering,” says Chen. “Also, I loved the idea of getting paid to do research over the summer and being able to commit to it full-time.”
A Boston native, Chen had never been to Texas, and was intrigued by the idea of getting to spend a summer in sunny Austin. Equally enticing was the financial package SURI offer; SURI students are not only paid a stipend to conduct their research, but are provided on campus housing in the dorms in addition to a daily meal plan.
Chen is working alongside Professor Kishore Mohanty this summer, under the supervision of one of his post-docs. Together, they are applying CO2 alternating polymer flood as an EOR method to reduce viscous fingering and improve sweep efficiency, and then comparing this process with CO2 alternating water flood to determine which method will recover more oil.
“No one in a lab has ever done this before, and that’s the really exciting part for me,” says Chen. “I didn’t know anything about petroleum engineering or conducting research coming into the program, so I feel like I am learning a lot everyday not just about petroleum engineering, and how EOR works, but also the process of conducting experiments.”
Though Chen has two years left on her degree, she is already considering continuing her studies in graduate school.
“Since I’ve been here, graduate school has been on my mind, and UT Austin is absolutely on the top of that list," says Chen. "I feel like petroleum engineering is something I could see myself doing research in long term.”
Like many SURI students before them, Turner and Chen jokingly list Austin’s diverse food scene as their favorite part of the experience (the Salt Lick and Torchy’s are frequent haunts), with getting to know their fellow SURI’s a close second. Living and working in close proximity every day, the SURI’s become fast friends, filling their free time with game nights, live music, pool visits, and camping trips.
At the end of the summer, each SURI student has the opportunity to present their summer project to faculty, staff, and graduate students at a poster session hosted by the department. Impressively arrayed with charts and graphs, the SURI’s field questions concerning their area of research and discuss the implications of their findings for industry.
As the 2014 SURI program draws to a close, Chen reflects on her time at UT Austin. “It’s really an amazing program that gives you a lot of freedom. The research that you get to do, being able to work so closely with faculty and post-docs, it’s so different than what I think I could get at school, and I’m really grateful for that opportunity.”
The SURI program is made possible by the S.P. Yates Memorial Endowment for Student Projects in Petroleum Engineering, 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, Vasicek Endowed Excellence Fund, Ben H. Caudle Excellence Fund, PGE Annual Excellence Fund
