Nothing symbolizes the bayou more than a pot of boiling crawfish and an oil rig standing tall in the ocean.
Combine Cajun cuisine with a collection of North America’s greatest minds in petroleum engineering, and there is a remarkable result. University engineering students experience this combination every day, but now they have the chance to show the rest of the continent how Louisiana does petroleum engineering.
The University welcomed America’s aspiring petroleum engineers becoming the first University to host the annual Society of Petroleum Engineers North American Student Symposium on Feb. 21-24.
Four hundred students from 62 schools attended the event. The conference is organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers students throughout North America. The conference provides students the opportunity to network with industry professionals, learn about the petroleum engineering workplace and interact with other students from across the continent.
“To be able to be the first school to host this event, it’s pretty awesome,” said petroleum engenieering senior Kenny Lao. “I think it says a lot to how our department is doing.”
The events kicked off on Feb. 21 with the petroleum-engineering-style quiz bowl, PetroBowl. Top teams from the PetroBowl qualified for the International PetroBowl Competition in Dallas next September. The University’s PetroBowl team was among those who qualified for the international competition.
On Feb. 22, students visited various oil and gas companies and the Southwestern and Eastern North America Regional Student Paper Contest was held on campus. Students visited companies, such as Baker Hughes, Core Laboratories, Shell Robert Training Center and Workstrings International.
The North America Regional Student Paper Contest gave contestants the chance to submit an abstract paper explaining oil and gas exploration and the production industry. Winners from that contest will proceed to the International Student Paper Contest, potentially being published in OnePetro, an online library of petroleum engineering literature.
Petroleum engineering senior Connor Stang saw the symposium as an opportunity to show off the new Patrick F. Taylor engineering hall.
“This is the first time it has been held at a college campus,” Stang said. “It’s usually held at company headquarters or a convention center. That’s what makes this event unique for us this year. We are really proud to have it and to show off the new Patrick F. Taylor building.”
The symposium itself began on Feb. 23 with an opening address from LSU President F. King Alexander in the LSU Student Union Theater. After Alexander’s greetings, Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, and more than 30 other top professionals in the oil and natural gas field spoke. The day concluded with a career fair in Patrick F. Taylor Hall.
Petroleum engineering senior Farzad Sunavala saw the symposium as a great way to examine the job market in the petroleum industry.
“You really get a good insight on where the natural gas and petroleum industry is,” Sunavala said. “There’s a lot of leadership workshops, too, and the career fair was really helpful. With the whole downturn in the oil and gas industry, it helped a lot of people get motivated as jobs are slowly starting to pick back up.”
In addition to the academic aspects of the symposium, visiting students also got the chance to experience Baton Rouge culture through the symposium’s two social events.
“We want to make sure the participants have the education part but also get to experience Louisiana culture,” said LSU Society of Petroleum Engineers President Abdul Homran. “I’m sure some of the people from California and New York have never had a crawfish before.”
LSU becomes first university to host national petroleum engineering symposium
By Caleb Greene | @cgreene_24
March 1, 2018
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