The University of Tulsa competed in the international PetroBowl contest Sept. 26 at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Dubai. TU faced University of Louisiana-Lafayette in the first round. Team members included Ryan Erickson, Chandler Losing, Jayanth Nair, Shyam Sajeev and Ahgheelan Sellathurai.
TU petroleum engineering students defeated 27 other North American teams in March to win first place in the 2016 PetroBowl North American Regional competition in Austin, Texas.
The PetroBowl features four-member student teams challenging each other in a quiz style trivia game. Questions focus on technical aspects, history, current events, industry statistics and calculations. In April, TU’s SPE student chapter hosted an internal PetroBowl competition for the first time on campus.
“We wanted to spread the word about how the PetroBowl is a prestigious competition,” said Tomas Fernandez, petroleum engineering senior and SPE chapter president. “It’s a way to scout for new talent on the team.”
Led by captain Jayanth Nair (MS ’13), a petroleum engineering graduate student, TU’s team includes four members and an alternate.
“Some of the team has met for more than a year,” Nair said. “We meet three times a week over the summer and twice a week during the semester.”
The PetroBowl is an opportunity to strengthen industry knowledge and help students market themselves to potential employers. The team relies on the guidance of their coach Auzan Soedarmo (MS ’15), a petroleum engineering graduate student and member of TU’s 2014 International PetroBowl Champion team.
“We study and practice, but he puts a lot of work into researching and writing questions for us,” Nair said. “We like to give a lot of the credit to him.”