Prospective students who have been accepted to graduate school in a relevant department (PGE, ChE or CAEE) are welcome to send their resume and statement of interest to Dr. Juenger or Dr. van Oort. If you have not yet applied for graduate school, please click here to learn more about (and apply to) graduate programs at UT.
Recruitment, Teaching & Education
One of the consortium’s main goals is to develop engineering researchers with the requisite background and experience to bring technical know-how on cementing materials and methodologies to the industry. To meet this objective, our program has several distinguishing factors:
- A customized interdisciplinary curriculum in the Petroleum and Geosystems (PGE) and Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CAEE) departments
- Engineering-based research projects co-supervised by PGE and CAEE faculty
- Continual collaboration with industry mentors where students complete supervised internships in relevant application areas.
- Actively recruit women and underrepresented minorities to participate in the program. Like many other industries, oil companies are looking to develop an internal demographic that better aligns with the community(s) they serve. By doing so, such companies are better positioned to improve their community relations, broaden their recruitment base, and increase their multicultural awareness. This in turn provides a competitive advantage as markets shift locally and expand globally. To deploy automation and make a positive difference in energy exploration and production, universities and industry must collaboratively develop the ability to deploy these technologies given the already challenging requirements faced by the oil industry. This program provides a unique opportunity to recruit top-tier students and give them the training necessary to bridge this gap. There are several advantages the proposed program has over traditional graduate degrees or on-the-job training.
- Improved cross-pollination of domain knowledge. Typically new engineers arrive with a standard template of skills from a single department. Relevant information from other domains is then learned ad hoc on the job. We offer a customized curriculum that ensures students have core capabilities in all relevant domains.
- Early coordination with industry leads to more relevant research topics and understanding student expectations.
- Students hit the ground running in the industry setting since preliminary milestones and training relative to specific projects is completed prior to full employment.
- Fundamental research and proof-of-concepts are done at the university supervised by individuals with a vested interest in its success.
- Detailed engineering is done by industry and NOT the university where certifications for use in critical processes cannot be fully addressed.
- University research is embedded in solutions and is not itself the sole deliverable. Industry personnel often acknowledge the value of the university research, but do not have the short-term resources to pursue it.
- Early opportunities to recruit and evaluate potential employees based on intimate and exclusive knowledge of their domain knowledge, engineering capabilities, and communication skills.
- The PGE Department has created multiple research consortiums that have been embraced by industry with other research topics.
Graduate Program
The graduate curriculum for consortium students will draw on courses from multiple departments. Individuals recruited will likely have varied levels of industrial experience and/or a PGE, CAEE or similar undergraduate degree. Thus some modifications or prerequisites to the typical course work will likely be necessary, but all students will graduate with the core competencies inferred from the course listing. UT Austin has broad range of courses in CAEE, ChE, ECE, ME, and PGE Departments so the curriculum is highly customizable. Relevant PGE coursework options include Advanced Drilling Engineering and Well Logging. CAEE coursework including Experimental Methods in Cement Chemistry, Advanced Concrete Materials, Concrete Durability, and Structural Health Monitoring/Non-destructive Testing are available for training in the concrete materials aspects of the research. More specialized courses in chemical engineering, mechanical (materials science) engineering, and electrical engineering are also available.
Undergraduate Program
The consortium’s Undergraduate Research Program will give undergraduate students an opportunity to learn research skills with hands-on involvement in our projects. Consortium management will hire and mentor outstanding undergraduate students to perform independent research topics with the guidance of industrial partners. Our goal here is to provide a link between graduate research and undergraduate accessibility. A critical component of this program will be outreach to outstanding women and underrepresented minority engineering students.