SEG Student Chapter of University of Oklahoma
About Us
SEG student chapters empower students to participate and spearhead projects that will address issues, challenges, and opportunities related to the SEG's mission of promoting the science of geophysics. Our student chapter was awarded the Summit Level by SEG and was deeply humbled to later be awarded the Best Student Chapter at the 2019 SEG Annual Meeting. We currently have approximately 50 students (from both geology and geophysics) within the School of Geosciences who are actively engaged in our SEG student chapter with active participation in most of our events. Our chapter is committed to helping our students while carrying this momentum into the coming semester.
Current Officers
Current Student Officers:
- David Fleenor, President [email protected]
- Luis Munoz, Vice President [email protected]
- Hilmi Putra, Secretary [email protected]
- Braeden Moreland, Treasurer [email protected]
Current Chapter Advisors:
- Dr. Heather Bedle, Assistant Professor
hbedle
ou.edu
Previous Officers
- 2023-2024: President: Natalie Kongable, Vice President - Emily Hencey, Treasurer and Social Media - Hy Tran, Secretary - Burke Jones, Special Events Coordinator - Gabriel Beltran Valero
- 2022-2023: President- Alex Cordero Rincon, Vice President - Jacob Maag, Treasurer -Jamie Bowie, Secretary - Pamela Blanco Dufau, Social Media - Evan Jowers, Special Events Coordinator - Ryne Andrews
- 2021-2022: President- Abidin Berk Caf, Vice President - Laura Ortiz Sanguino, Treasurer -John McKnight, Secretary - Ganiyat Shodunke, Social Media -Zach Williams
- 2020-2021: President - Clayton Silver, Vice President - Karelia La Marca, Treasurer - Zhuobo Wang, Secretary - Zach Williams, Social Media and Special events coordinator - Chris Ramos
- 2019-2020: President - Julian Chenin, Vice President - Karelia La Marca, Treasurer - Abidin Caf, Secretary - Roberto Clairmont, Special events coordinator - Clayton Silver, Social Media - Marta Anson
- 2018-2019: President - David Lubo-Robles, Vice President - Cyril Frazier, Treasurer - Tanner Shadoan, Secretary - Christina Hamilton, Social Media - Dalila de Jesus
Student Chapter Goals
Our aim is to foster both personal and professional development for the geology and geophysics students at the University of Oklahoma via :
- Hosting student mixers and social events.
- Networking events between students and professionals.
- Having Lunch and learn courses taught by faculty, visiting professors and industry professionals.
- Offering short courses from software companies, industry professionals or professors.
- Creating field trips to see real-life application of geophysical techniques.
- Participating in outreach events geared to the minds of tomorrow to show them the wonder of entering the field of geophysics and geology.
- Fostering the exchange of knowledge and experience with other student chapters, locally and globally.
Honors and Awards
A list of the awards and honors received since 2019:
- Laura Ortiz (OU SEG vice president, 2021-2022) presented a poster at IMAGE 2022 describing the previous year’s SEG activities and was awarded a certificate of excellence for completing the program.
- Summit level (2020)
- Best SEG Student Chapter (2019)
- Summit level (2019)
- SEG Evolve: Best Gulf of Mexico Prospect, Best Prospect Summary Slide, Most Engaged Professor (2019)
SEG Scholarships and Recipients
2022
● Aubra Tilley Scholarship: Karelia la Marca Molina (PhD Geophysics)
● Charles C. McBurney Memorial Scholarship: Segun Steven Bodunde (PhD Geophysics)
● Charlie and Jean Smith Scholarship: Laura Ortiz-Sanguino (MS Geophysics)
● Geophysical Society of Oklahoma City Scholarship: Laura Ortiz-Sanguino (MS Geophysics)
● SEG SLS Chevron Grant: Laura Ortiz-Sanguino (MS Geophysics)
Major Events
We have hosted a variety of different networking, outreach and professional development workshops for our geoscience student body:
- Soft Skills Workshop: How to Win the Interview Game
- SEG Annual Convention
- SEG Evolve
- Top Golf Networking Social
- SEG Week
- Schlumberger week
- OU Challenge Bowl
SEG Annual Convention
2022 Image Conference
Panelists:
● Karelia La Marca (our president) (“Shaping the Future Today: How Young Professionals are Advancing Sustainability”)
● David Lubo ("Imaging Acquisition and Interpretive Technologies: Surface and Subsurface")
Session Chairs:
● David Lubo, Post-Doctural Researcher, Technical Program Session Chair for the "MLDA P1: Seismic Interpretation 1" session
Abstract Reviewers:
● Karelia La Marca, Theme 6–Sustainable Energy Development and Environmental Geoscience
Technical Talks:
● Abidin Caf (CO2 injectivity and storage potential of the Arbuckle Group using supervised machine learning and seismic-constrained reservoir modeling and simulation, wellington Field, Kansas”)
● Emily Jackson (“Two statistical attributes for evaluating attenuation response due to gas hydrates”)
● Karelia La Marca (Quantifying uncertainty in unsupervised machine learning methods for seismic facies using outcrop-derived 3D models and synthetic seismic data”)
● Marcus Maas (Seismic identification of carbonate reservoir sweet spots using unsupervised clustering algorithms: A case study from pre-salt Mero Field at Santos Basin, offshore Brazil)
● Sina Saneiyan (“Accuracy of Archie’s law for clayey soils with high swelling capacity”)
● Brittany Stroud (“Regional variability of Caney Shale elemental composition, mineralogy, and petrophysical properties: Ardmore Basin, Oklahoma”)
Posters:
● Laura Ortiz (Lithology variability and channel geomorphology of the mixed carbonate-siliciclastic San Andres and Grayburg interval using frequency-based seismic attributes, southwestern Midland Basin)
● Zhuobo Wang (Novel forward seismic modeling using the integration of Schmidt Hammer and LiDAR: example – McKittrick Canyon Permian Reef Train outcrop, Guadalupe National Park, Texas)
2020 SEG 90th annual conference- first virtual conference
The University of Oklahoma was very thankful to have the opportunity to actively participate during the SEG-2020 Annual Meeting. Despite the unprecedented shift from in-person to completely virtual presentations, the OU SEG student chapter was proud to have nine graduate students and one undergraduate student be accepted to present their research to industry and academic experts. Our student members delivered three poster and five oral presentations throughout the conference. Some of them are named below:
● David Lubo-Robles (PhD Geophysics): “Machine learning model interpretability using SHAP values: Application to a seismic facies classification task” (oral presentation)
● Laura Ortiz-Sanguino (MSc Geophysics): “Application of unsupervised machine learning techniques in sequence stratigraphy and seismic geomorphology: A case study in the Cenozoic deep-water deposits in Northern Carnarvon Basin, Australia (oral presentation)
● Jie Qi (PhD Geophysics): “Comparing convolutional neural networking and image processing seismic fault detection methods” (oral presentation)
● Bin Lyu (PhD Geophysics): “Multispectral aberrancy” (oral presentation)
● Clayton Silver (MSc Geophysics): “Applications of machine learning techniques on angle stacks to enhance carbonate reservoir characterization” (oral presentation)
● Christ Ramos (Senior Geology): “Quantifying methods for analyzing submarine slope-gullies in the North Carnarvon Basin, offshore NW Australia” (poster presentation)
● Edimar Perico (MSc Geophysics): Seismic interpretation of structural features in the Kokako 3D seismic area, Taranaki Basin New Zealand” (poster presentation)
● Jose Pedro Mora Ortiz (MSc Geophysics): “Constructing fault-surface objects from fault-sensitive attributes” (poster presentation)
● Rui Zhai (PhD Geology): 3D seismic geomorphology of the abandoned channel for insight into a more complete fluvial reservoir characterization” (poster presentation)
● Our current President, Clayton Silver, was a team lead on the OU EVOLVE team, which placed third overall for best prospect.
● We also had our OU team of 20 students participate in the 2020 EVOLVE program where we placed third in overall best prospect.
SEG EVOLVE OU Team
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We had an OU team participate in 2020, and we plan on having a new team participating this following year. This is a great academic and professional enrichment program for students offered by SEG and we hope to continue participating in the future. This was the largest EVOLVE team fielded by OU, with a team of 20 students enrolled in the program. The team leaders are pictured below
2022 Team:
- Laura Ortiz (Captain and CEO)
- Emily Jackson (Co-captain and Geophysicist)
- Patience Ojoboh (Economist and Structure)
- Jarah Burdette (Petrophysicist)
- Joe Morrell (Basin Analysis)
- Zach Williams (Sedimentologist)
- Qais Al Maqbali (Res. Engineer)
- Dr. Heather Bedle (Advisor)
Our advisor, Dr. Heather Bedle, was one of only two EVOLVE advisors/professors to receive an “Engaged Faculty Advisor Award” for her work with our EVOLVE Team. We are very grateful for her guidance during our EVOLVE journey and for her role as our SEG Chapter Advisor and in our department at OU.
Our team was awarded the “Project Management Award” for “Successful Project Management Delivering Results with Business Impacts,” and we are honored to receive this award and that our efforts were noticed by the mentors and had a lasting business impact.
2022 SEG EVOLVE Carbon Capture Solutions Team
- Ganiyat Shodunke (Geophysics)
- Qais Al Maqbali (Petroleum Engineering)
- Olawale Alo (Geology)
2020 Team
- Dr. Heather Bedle (Assistant Professor): Team Advisor
- Hope Williams (MS Geophysics student): CEO and Financial Advisor
- Clayton Silver (MSc Geophysics student): Geologist (Lead)
- Edimar Perico (MSc Geophysics student): Geophysicist (Lead)
- Dallas Cook (MSc Geology student): Geologist
- Hannah Morgan (MSc Geology student): Petrophysicist
- David Lubo-Robles (PhD Geophysics student): Geophysicist
2019 Team:
- Dr. Heather Bedle (Assistant Professor): Team Advisor
- Jordan Renner (MS Geology student): CEO and Financial Advisor
- Julian Chenin (MSc Geophysics student): Geophysicist
- Ryan Forrest (MSc Geology student): Geologist
- Francis Oyebanji (MSc Geophysics student): Petrophysicist
- Alexandro Arroyo Vera (MSc Geophysics student): Rock Physicist
TopGolf Networking Social
Last year the AAPG and SEG student chapters at OU pioneered the first TopGolf networking event. This year, we built upon that foundation with over 15 students (both graduate and undergraduate) and 5 different companies in attendance. The companies who helped generously sponsor and attend this event were Continental Resources, Williams Oil Company, Citation Oil and Gas, Schlumberger and Hood River Resources. The generous donations from our sponsors allowed our OU AAPG and SEG sutdent chapters facilitate going on field trips, trips to conferences, and bringing in professionals from out of state to give technical presentations and short courses to students. The students, both graduate students and undergrads, and the professionals got to network in a relaxed, informal environment where everyone had a great time. The students were thankful for all the professionals who took time out of the busy schedules to mentor them.
OU SEG Week
2025
- Geoscience Trivia Hour (November 4th, 2025)
- SLB Petrel Short Course with Dr. Dessy Sapardina (Oklahoma Geological Survey), (November 5th, 2025)
- Tour of the Oklahoma Petroleum Information Center, Norman, OK (November 6th, 2025)
- Happy Hour Social at Volare (November 7th, 2025)
2024
- Geology movie night event (November 11, 2024).
- Dr. Heather Bedle (OU Geoscience), "Pitfalls and Epiphanies" (November 12, 2024).
- Bowling Social Event at Heyday (November 13, 2024).
- Dr. Hu (OU Geoscience), (November 14, 2024).
- Geo-Trivia event in preparation for Challenge Bowl 2025, (November 15, 2024).
2022
● Dr. Kurt Marfurt (OU Geoscience), “Seismic Attributes as the Framework for Data Integration throughout the Oilfield Life Cycle” (November 4th, 2022).
● Dr. Satinder Chopra (SamiGeo Consulting Ltd.), “Stepping towards more accurate Reservoir Characterization” (November 7th, 2022).
● Dr. Sougata Halder (TGS), “Adapting Energy Intelligence for Geological Carbon Sequestration” (November 8th, 2022).
● Mr. Allen Bertagne (BRT Energy Advisors), “Expanding your 21st century career toolkit through an active entrepreneurial mindset” (November 9th, 2022).
● Geology of Coffee Event co-hosted with OU AAPG Student Chapter (November 10th, 2022).
● Dr. Andres Chavarria (OptaSense), “Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing for CCUS Facility Monitoring” (November 11th, 2022).
2019
From November 18th through November 20th, 2019, our OU SEG student chapter pioneered and hosted an entire week which exposed our students to what geophysics is and showed them the great opportunities within the field. During this week, we hosted geoscience giants such as Dr. Henry Posamentier, Mr. Satinder Chopra as well as SEG Distinguished Lecturer, Dr. Heloise Lynn.
- Dr. Heloise Lynn (SEG Distinguished Lecturer) (November 18, 2019): “Azimuthal P-P seismic measurements: past, present and future”
- Dr. Henry Posamentier (November 19, 2019): “Applications of seismic stratigraphy and seismic geomorphology to process sedimentology”
- Satinder Chopra (November 20, 2019): “Effective reservoir characterization in shale resources plays: addressing some challenges and proposing new solutions”
Additionally, students had the opportunity to sit down with our speakers and gain valuable knowledge from them. The students, faculty and staff were able to meet and have dinner with our speakers. We hosted a live broadcast of these talks for other universities across Latin America. We provided the universities from Venezuela (Universidad de Los Andes, Universidad Central and Universidad Simón Bolívar) and Colombia (Universidad Industrial de Santander and Universidad Nacional Abierta) with a link where they were able to listen to these live talks while also interacting with the speakers and our SEG student members. Karelia La Marca translated the talks’ information in two different languages so that we were able to strengthen the relationship between our student chapters. This week is still remembered among our students and we remain hopeful that this technical week will continue to be held in the future.
OU Challenge Bowl
2025 David Fleenor and Hilmi Putra competed at the Gulf Coast Regional Challenge Bowl and place 3rd in Houston, TX during GSH Meeting.
2024
This year was the first year OU had a team complete in the finals for the SEG Challenge Bowl at Imagine in Houston, TX.
Emily (Milly) Hencey and Alex Cordero Rincon:
Placed 1st in the March 2024 at the Guld Coast Regional Challenge Bowl in Houston, TX during GSH Meeting.
Placed 15th in the August 2024 at the World Finals Challenge Bowl in Houston, TX during Image 2024.
Gabriel Beltran Valero and Akif Md Montasir Arafat:
Placed 2nd in the March 2024 at the Guld Coast Regional Challenge Bowl in Houston, TX during GSH Meeting.
Competed in the August 2024 at the World Finals Challenge Bowl in Houston, TX during Image 2024.
2022
Mario Ballinas and Emily Jackson, April 2022 at the Gulf Coast Challenge Bowl in Houston, TX, during the GSH meeting.
Placed 2nd.
2019
We had a total of 7 teams participate while our department cheered the teams on in the background. We created several earth science questions around a “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” format. It was a lot of fun and many of our students want to continue doing the event. We may begin offering a monthly trivia social. These top three teams would then participate in the Mid-Con Regional Challenge Bowl that we planned to host at the University of Oklahoma’s Spring Break Student Expo alongside Dr. Peter Duncan. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, we had to cancel the regional competition in the interest of safety for our students and have postponed it to a later date.
Short Courses
This year, our student chapter was able to offer three different short courses to help strengthen our student members professional skills.
Petrel Workflows: Well Ties, Rock Physics and Inversion Workflow
This course was taught by our very own SEG officer, Berk Caf, who shared his industry experience from his time at Turkish Petroleum. We had over 25 students in attendance throughout the course where we taught them how to do basic well ties, conduct rock physics modeling as well as the workflow for creating and quantitatively interpret post-stack seismic inversion. We also provided students with all of the data and a detailed, step-by-step manual so that they can repeat the course in their free time and use it in their future academic and professional endeavors.
Petrel Advanced Workflows Course
This course was taught by John Wagle from Schlumberger where he covered the following topics: Velocity Analysis, Shale Modeling, Fracture Modeling and Advanced Workflows Editor in Petrel. We had over 15 students in attendance and held a social after the course for students to learn more from our instructor’s professional career within Schlumberger. Mr. Wagle also shared some great advice on how to ace our next interviews and some tricks in Petrel.
ML and Geoscience: Recent Advances
This course was taught by Mrs. Sacrey online through Zoom. She will be showing our students various case studies using machine learning within the energy industry while giving students practical, hands-on machine learning experience with seismic data using a software called Paradise.
TechTalk Series:
2022
Each event offered students an opportunity to network with the speaker and grow their professional and/or technical repertoire.
● Dr. John Pigott (OU Geoscience), “Positive Mindset, Positive Outcome: Gaming the Interview” (Sept. 14th, 2022), in collaboration with the OU AAPG Student Chapter.
● Dr. Pierre Karam (Devon Energy), “3D-Earth Modeling for Subsurface Energy Initiatives” (November 15th, 2022), in collaboration with the OU AAPG Student Chapter.
● Dr. Ken Tubman (SEG President) talk on multiple aspects of geophysics, early career, and technical/professional societies (November 16th, 2022).
● Alfredo Fernandez (Eliis), “PaleoScan Workshop” (January 18th, 2023).
● Diane Doser, Nicole Gonzalez (ExxonMobil), and Kurang Mehta (Ecopetrol-America)rofessional Development Workshop (February 17th, 2023) ; partnered with OU AAPG P
● Dr. Steve Roche, University of Tulsa, TechTalk (March 7th, 2023), “Monitoring Seismicity in Guatemala–An SEG Geoscientists Without Borders Project”
Lunch and Learns
"How to Win the Interview Game"
Our faculty advisor, Dr. John Pigott, gave students tips on August 27th, 2019, on how to be successful during the interviews that we may have gotten during the recruiting season which ran from August through September during the fall semester. This event was very helpful to our students as many of them were able to successfully land internships.
"How to Quantify the Effects of Multiple Suppression"
We hosted Dr. Hilterman on campus on February 25th, 2020 to lecture about new techniques for suppressing multiples within seismic data while we provided food. He also met with many of students to learn about their ongoing research projects and we also cordially invited him to have dinner with our students and faculty. This was a great networking opportunity for our students as they were able to learn from Dr. Hilterman’s academic and professional experience while also learning more about geophysics
"It All Comes from the Ground: Opportunities for Subsurface Geoscientists in Geothermal, Critical Minerals, and Carbon Capture as the Energy Transition Unfolds"
On April 15th, 2020, our student chapter will be offering a lecture from Dr. Edith Wilson (AAPG President of Energy Minerials Division) online using Zoom. This event will be co-hosted with our AAPG student chapter to teach students about sustainable development and the earth sciences by hosting Dr. Wilson to lecture on the opportunities for geoscientists in geothermal, minerals, and CCUS. Dr. Wilson will be conference calling with her other colleagues around the globe to share their experiences and perspectives throughout her lecture.
"Automating Seismic Data Analysis and Interpretation"
Our student chapter is planning to participate in SEG’s virtual lecture by Distinguished Lecturer Sergey Fomel on May 12th, 2020. We are looking forward to hearing more about recent advanced in machine learning and how they can be applied to automatic picking. This is a great opportunity for our students as they will gain more knowledge about machine learning, the significant foothold it is gaining in our industry, and how they can apply it to their current projects.
Student Mixers and Social Events
2019
Last year, our student chapter hosted an off campus movie night for students where we showed Deep Water Horizon and provided popcorn and sodas. Also, from previous years, the AAPG and SEG chapters continue to host an after colloquium social on Thursdays at a nearby restaurant. In addition to our TopGolf Networking Social, we also increased our engagement with our local professional societies such as the Geophysical Society of Oklahoma (GSOC).
Our OU SEG student members attended one of the GSOC technical luncheons on October 21st, 2019 where guest lecturer, Chick Diggins from Down Under Geosolutions (DUG) delivered a lecture titled the “Seismic Acquisition and Processing in the SCOOP Play, OK”. For some of our student members who were still on-campus during the holidays, they also attended the GSOC’s annual Holiday Party on December 16th, 2019. This was a more festive and relaxing social where our students were able to have fun during the holidays with other geoscientists in Oklahoma City. This was also a great opportunity for our two students in attendance to learn more and become more involved with a professional geoscience society like the GSOC.
Our chapter was also active on campus during many of the University of Oklahoma's semesterly welcome back and fundraising events. We co-hosted a table with our AAPG student chapter and helped students learn more about the great events and opportunities our student organizations offer but also the importance of joining professional societies. This was a great chance for us to recruit more student and faculty members while also reconnecting with our alumni.
Outreach
2022
GeoSeminar:
Seismic Facies characterization using Machine Learning techniques,” (March 10, 2022)
○ Presented by Karelia La Marca and hosted by GeoLatinas–Latinas in Earth and Planetary Sciences.
○ Karelia gave an hour-long virtual talk to the GeoLatinas community covering her work on seismic attributes and machine learning.
○ (Recorded presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRtUudWJEQ).
ARAC (Latin America Regional Advisory Committee) SEG
Seismic Attribute Series (December 15th, 2022):
This was a virtual event that covered a wide range of seismic attributes and is hosted by SEG in Spanish.
○ “Introduction to Seismic Attributes” by Karelia La Marca
○ “Geometric Attributes” by David Lubo
SEG Near-Surface Geophysics
“SEG Near-Surface Geophysics Open Source software Webinar Series - ResIPY” (February 9th, 2023):
○ Presented by Dr. Sina Saniyan and hosted by SEG.
○ Dr. Sina talked about the ResIPY program he helped developed to aid in geophysical monitoring.
2019
Science Outreach at Norman High School
This event was co-hosted with Pick & Hammer Club and with the OU Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) student chapters on November 9th, 2019. The OU SEG student chapter spoke during an AP Environmental Science class at Norman High (local high school) about the importance of geology and geophysics as well as the great opportunities in those fields. Our SEG student chapter as well as the OU SPE and P&H Club exposed students to the many other opportunities within the field such as becoming a foundation geologist for sturdily constructing buildings or as a geophysicist analyzing earthquakes to studying the rocks on other planets.
Science Olympiad
The Science Olympiad is an American team competition in which students compete in 23 events pertaining to various scientific disciplines, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 7,800 middle school and high school teams from 50 U.S. states compete each year. Co-volunteering with the OU Pick & Hammer Club, we created and proctored three different earth science exams for both middle school and high school students. This was another great opportunity for us to expose students to geosciences. We did this twice during the Spring semester (at Putnam High School on January 18,2020 and at Southeastern Oklahoma State University on February 22, 2020) and plan to continue volunteering with the Science Olympiad organization in the future.
Volunteering for SEG
2022
SEG conference and chapter volunteering
● Diana Salazar Florez, our vice president, was a member of the SEG Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Committee and participated in D&I at the IMAGE 2022 conference and worked collecting feedback related to D&I from student participants after the conference.
● John McKnight, OU SEG secretary, is a student volunteer with the Geophysical Society of Oklahoma.
● Several students volunteered at the OU booth at the IMAGE conference to recruit for the OU geoscience programs and SEG.
SEG Journal Reviewers, Positions, and SEG Wiki Collaborators:
● Interpretation
- Karelia La Marca (PhD. Geophysics, SEG-OU president)
- Dr. Thang Ha (Post-Doc in Geophysics)
- Dr. David Lubo-Robles (Post-Doc in Geophysics)
- Dr. Heather Bedle (Assistant Professor)
- Dr. Kurt Marfurt (Research professor)
● Geophysics
- Dr. Thang Ha (Post-Doc in Geophysics)
- Dr. Kurt Marfurt (Research professor)
- Dr. Sina Saniyan (Near Surface Section)
● The Leading Edge
- Dr. Thang Ha (Post-Doc in Geophysics)
- Karelia La Marca (PhD. Geophysics, SEG-OU president)
- Emily Jackson (MSc. in Geophysics, SEG-OU treasurer)
- Dr. David Lubo-Robles (Post-Doc in Geophysics)
- Dr. Heather Bedle (Assistant Professor)
- Dr. Kurt Marfurt (Research professor)
● SEG Board of Directors: Dr. Kurt. Marfurt (2019-2022)
● SEG Deputy Editor: Dr. Kurt Marfurt
● SEG TLE Journal Board of Editors: Dr. Heather Bedle
● SEG Near Surface Section Committee: Dr. Sina Saniyan (2022-2023)
● SEG Geophysics Near Surface Publication Lead: Dr. Sina Saniyan
● SEG wiki collaborators: Alexandro Vera-Arroyo (Rock Physics topic)
● Our student members reviewed more than 20 manuscripts for SEG journals this year
2019
Throughout this year, our OU SEG student chapter volunteered at several SEG events. Many of our SEG student chapter members (roughly 20 students) volunteered at the OU booth during the SEG-2019 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas from September 16th to the 18th, 2019. We helped various professionals and prospective students learn more about the University of Oklahoma’s geophysics program, faculty and current students and ongoing research projects. This was a great opportunity for us to reconnect with our alumni while exposing our students to the energy industry.
Our student chapter also contributed a significant number of pages for the SEG Wiki through our co-faculty advisor’s seismic interpretation class. Dr. Bedle created a class project where 21 SEG Wiki pages were authored by students. Some of these student authors were also SEG student members. Karelia La Marca Molina participated in the SEG Wiki Spanish translation project. We also have several of our student members (roughly 14) that volunteer as reviewers for SEG publications such as Geophysics and Interpretation.
Collaboration with other Chapters or universities
2022
Collaboration with the following student chapters
● OU American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Student Chapter
● OU Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Student Chapter
● OU Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts (SPWLA) Student Chapter
● OU Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) Student Chapter
The SEG Student Chapter at OU makes a pronounced effort to collaborate with other student chapters in our department, recognizing that this promotes both diversity of thought and community among the different student groups and specialties. When we collaborate with other student chapters, we are able to share costs (such as a special meal for our speaker or food at our technical talks/workshops) and reach more students than we could as one single chapter. Some of our most well-attended events are those that are in collaboration with other student chapters
The Geology of Coffee was a collaboration event during our SEG Week and hosted by Laura Ortiz from the OU AAPG Student Chapter. AAPG provided coffee from three different countries (Columbia, El Salvador, Kenya) and officers from AAPG and SEG brewed the coffee and provided light refreshments for attendees. Before the tasting began, we all participated in a “get to know you” bingo where everyone interacted with each other, met new people, and learned more about each other! It was good fun. Then, Laura led the participants through the coffee tasting, explaining how to smell and taste it to recognize the different flavors, and showed an instructional video about how geology impacts the flavors in coffee! Attendees were provided a “flavor wheel” with many flavors listed to help them identify the unique flavors in each coffee. Students from geology, geophysics, and petroleum engineering attended, and it was a great event for lovers of coffee and geology alike!
Co-curricular Activities
2022
Friendsgiving Dinner (November 17th, 2022):
In collaboration with the OU AAPG and SPE Student Chapters, and the Mewbourne School of Earth and Energy (MCEE) Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) council, for the first time in the SEG-OU history.
In order to acknowledge and honor not only the true history of the Thanksgiving holiday but also the Native Americans that once and currently inhabited Oklahoma (and the Native land that the University of Oklahoma is built on), as well as promote diversity and friendship among ALL people groups represented in the chapter, School of Geosciences, and the MCEE, several chapters co-organized a Friendsgiving event with lots of delicious food from different cultures (Nigeria, India, Iran, the US, Colombia, Native American and Hawaii, China, and Mexico, to name a few), native dress, and several speakers to represent their Oklahoman and Native roots.
There were also activities promoted by DEI to help all the students, faculty, and staff to get to know each other more (such as, find someone that shares a similar interest as you, and then you two find two more people to get to know). This event was very well-received and attended, and it offered a chance for students (many of whom could not travel to see their family over the Thanksgiving holiday) to share a meal with friends and colleagues. We are thankful for our department and community!
Community Involvement and Volunteering Activities
● Habitat for Humanity (September 24th, 2022)
Volunteer and Outreach at the local ReStore location in Norman, Oklahoma, through Habitat for Humanity
● The Little Event (October 22nd, 2022)
Volunteering in collaboration with the OU AAPG Student Chapter. Students painted outdoor playground equipment for a local school and had a lot of fun on a beautiful fall day!
● Bedlam Blood Drive (November 16th, 2022)
In collaboration with the OU AAPG Student Chapter. Many students and our very own chapter special events coordinator Mario (plus some faculty!) stopped by to donate blood during the annual Bedlam Blood Drive run by the Oklahoma Blood Institute. There were many snacks and beverages for those who donated, AND everyone received a free pecan pie! We appreciate the opportunity to help the local community by donating a life-giving healthcare resource.
● Gift Donation Drive (December, 2022)
In collaboration with the OU AAPG, SPE, and SPWLA Student Chapters. The SEG student chapter helped organize a gift drive to “be Santa to a child” around the winter holidays. The toys and gifts were given to the Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children and the Mary Abbott Children’s Home. The Mary Abbott Children’s Home promotes the care of children that have suffered abuse, and the Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children supports Oklahoma families and children.
● Dean’s Advisory Committee (2022-2023)
Karelia La Marca and Diana Salazar Flores are on the Dean’s Advisory Committee (DAC) and have regular meetings with the dean of the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy to advocate for and promote our SEG student chapter. The dean is gracious to support the student chapter with yearly funding that helps our students attend the IMAGE conference in Houston.
● The Big Event Volunteering (April 1st, 2023)
Publications by members of SEG at OU
Many members of the SEG community have published within the last year in SEG publications (such as Interpretation) and we foster publications as this not only promotes research in the department but also helps students professionally.
IMAGE 2022 Expanded Abstract:
○ Laura Ortiz-Sanguino et al., 2022, “Lithology variability and channel geomorphology of the mixed carbonate-siliciclastic San Andres and Grayburg interval using frequency-based seismic attributes, southwestern Midland Basin,” IMAGE 2022 Expanded Abstract.
○ Emily Jackson et al., 2022, “Two statistical attributes for evaluating attenuation response due to gas hydrates,” IMAGE 2022 Expanded Abstract.
○ Karelia La Marca et al, 2022, “Quantifying uncertainty in unsupervised machine learning methods for seismic facies using outcrop-derived 3D models and synthetic seismic data, ”IMAGE 2022 Expanded Abstract.
○ Marcus Maas et al, 2022, “Seismic identification of carbonate reservoir sweet spots using unsupervised clustering algorithms: A case study from Pre-Salt Mero Field at Santos Basin, offshore Brazil,” IMAGE 2022 Expanded Abstract
○ Abidin Caf et al, 2022, “CO2 injectivity and storage potential assessment of the Arbuckle Group using supervised machine learning and seismic-constrained reservoir modeling and simulation, Wellington Field, Kansas,” IMAGE 2022 Expanded Abstract
Interpretation:
○ David Lubo et al., 2022, “Quantifying the sensitivity of seismic facies classification to seismic attribute selection: An explainable machine-learning study,” Interpretation
○ Diana Salazar Florez and Heather Bedle, 2022, “Study on the parameterization response of probabilistic neural networks for seismic facies classification in the Gulf of Mexico,” Interpretation
○ Alexandro Vera-Arroyo and Heather Bedle, 2022, “When the levee breaks; Visualization of a deepwater crevasse splay in Late Cretaceous in Exmouth Basin offshore Western Australia,” Interpretation
○ Brittany Stroud, Grace Barber, and Heather Bedle, 2022, “Multiattribute Analysis of Channel Architectural Elements within the Deepwater Taranaki Basin, 3-D Romney Data,” Interpretation
The Leading Edge:
○ Heather Bedle, Diana Salazar Florez. and Christopher Garneau, 2022, Recognizing societal influences in earthquake geohazard risk perception with explainable AI while mitigating risks through improved seismic interpretation: The Leading Edge.
External links
- Link to our SEG student chapter on our college's website.
- Current ongoing OU geoscience research topics within our department.
- A list of the ongoing contributions from the University of Oklahoma to the SEG Wiki, thanks to our co-faculty advisor, Dr. Heather Bedle, can be found on her SEG Wiki page.