2014 SPE Regional Paper Contest Winners
-
April 09, 2014
UT PGE students recently traveled to the oil and gas capital to compete in the 2014 SPE Gulf Coast Regional Paper Contest, held at the University of Houston. The paper contest is an annual event that brings together undergraduate and graduate students who each present on a topic of their choosing to a panel of industry judges.
During this year’s regional contest, PGE had two students competing in each division (B.S., M.S. and Ph.D.) and five of these students placed in the Top 3. The students, who placed in the contest, include:
B.S.:
- Jason Camacho—2nd place
- Kellyn Schmitz—3rd place
M.S.:
- Joseph Tansey—1st place
- Mahmood Shakiba—2nd place
Ph.D.:
- Yashar Mehmani—2nd place
“I'm very proud to have been able to represent our department at the SPE regional paper contest,” said Tansey, who placed first in the M.S. division. “Credit and thanks must go to Dr. Balhoff, Dr. DiCarlo, and all the others who invested their time and expertise, for helping me to prepare for the event.”
Tansey will also travel to the Netherlands this fall to compete at the international contest at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE), held in Amsterdam. He said he hopes to bring UT PGE another first place prize.
This is the second year in a row that UT PGE students have accounted for five of the nine awards. SPE Faculty Advisor David DiCarlo said he is thrilled about the students’ performance.
“The students all worked very hard, with three separate practice sessions in front of faculty members this spring over two months,” DiCarlo said. “We are also lucky to have a dedicated faculty who are interested in students’ performance outside of the classroom, and our staff in helping to organize all of our practices and events.”
