Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering

University of Texas at Austin | August 23 at the POB Avaya Auditorium | 4:00 pm

Lynn Orr, Stanford University - First Robert S. Schechter Award Recipient

Lecture Title: The Global Energy Transition

Energy is the lifeblood of modern societies. Energy services are woven throughout the fabric of modern life, rural or urban, in the developed world. Inhabitants of developing countries who do not yet have full access to abundant, clean, and low cost energy have every reason to expect and will benefit dramatically from full access to energy services that the developed world takes for granted. A successful nation’s future energy system will provide energy security, economic security, and health and environmental security. Economies based on diversified, secure, efficient, abundant, cost-effective, and clean energy supplies will lead international economic competition.

The key challenge is to meet those broad goals with energy technologies that are clean, deployable at large scale, and fully cost competitive. Technology improvements in production of oil and gas, and a resulting transition away from coal as the primary fuel for electric power generation, deep reductions in the cost of technologies like solar and wind, increasing energy efficiency, and efforts to modernize the transmission and distribution of electric power, including deployment of energy storage, are reshaping the energy landscape for the United States and the world. Recent progress has been impressive, but there is much more to be done.

This presentation reviews examines options for meeting those challenges, outlines the need for additional energy innovation, and explores research and development pathways that offer important opportunities for continued progress toward those goals. The important roles of engineers and scientists who understand the opportunities and complexities of the Earth’s subsurface and it’s contributions to clean energy systems will be highlighted.

Click here to download the flyer

CPGE Establishes the R.S. Schechter Research Award for Contributions to the Science and Technology of Energy Production

The Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering has decided to honor the late Bob Schechter for his lifetime commitment to higher education and research by establishing a research award in his name. Bob Schechter was the intellectual soul of both the petroleum and chemical engineering departments at The University of Texas at Austin. He was one of the great professors of our lifetime. Bob was a professor at UT for more than 30 years. During this time he was the chairman of both the chemical and petroleum engineering departments. He was also one of the first National Academy of Engineers elected at UT. Along with Bill Wade, he established the first industrial consortia at UT to support oil recovery research. Above all, Bob was a mentor, friend and inspiration to many petroleum and chemical engineering students and faculty.

CPGE has created an endowed annual research award in his name. The R.S. Schechter Research Award will go to anyone who has made substantial contributions to science and technology of energy production. Read more>>

Big Data Analytics for Petroleum Engineering: Hype or Panacea? Little Data + Simple Model = Big Data?

  

There is a tidal wave of technical transformation driven by recent innovation in artificial intelligence fueled by widely available massive computational resources coupled with a rising flood of big datasets.  Computers are guessing our buying habits, detecting obstacles on the roads, winning the most complicated games against grandmasters, and determining our emotions through our images and prose.  The opportunities are endless. Read more >>

CPGE 2017

The Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (CPGE) at the University of Texas at Austin hosted a day-long meeting showcasing the current research being performed within CPGE. 

Photos from the event, the poster presentation list and poster abstracts are all available here.

Research presentations and posters spanned a wide range of topics in subsurface resource characterization and engineering. Graduate students, post-doctoral research fellows, research associates and faculty members shared exciting new discoveries in all aspects of subsurface engineering and characterization.

 

Our very own Masa Prodanovic (Associate Professor, Chevron Centennial Teaching Fellow, Petroleum Engineering)has been named to the Texas Ten list: nominated and voted on by UT alumni, the Texas Ten are professors who have made a difference in the lives and careers of those fortunate enough to have attended their classes.

Congratulations Masa!

From lengthy, heartwarming diatribes about life-changing lectures to all-caps declarations of a professor’s awesomeness, each year, the Texas 10 nominations elicit a feeling of pride for Longhorns. And why not? Alumni finally have the chance to give their favorite professor an A+. It’s recognition for those who have made a lasting impact on our lives. From the more than 75 nominated educators, past and present, across disciplines, we’ve culled the list down to the 10 most deserving professors of 2017. Read more>>

The President's Student Employee of the Year Award is given annually to an outstanding student employee who has made a positive impact on the university and has demonstrated exceptional reliability, quality of work, initiative, and professionalism.

CPGE is proud to congratulate Silin "Leo" Huang for being named as a finalist for the 2016/2017 academic year.

The winner receives a certificate and an award of $500, funded by the Office of the President. Each finalist receives an award of $100, funded by Texas Performing Arts, and a gift from Intercollegiate Athletics. In addition, the UT Austin winner is entered in the regional competition sponsored by the Southern Association of Student Employment Administrators. The winner of that competition receives a $500 award and is entered in the National Student Employment Association competition, which offers a $1,000 award. In 2015, a UT Austin student was named the National Student Employee of the Year!

Above: Leo Huang (left) with University of Texas President Gregory Fenves and CPGE Research Associate Chammi Miller.