For Graduate Students
Prospective students who are interested in working for/with RAPID as a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) on their MS and/or PhD degrees can send their resume and statement of purpose/interest to Dr. van Oort and will need to apply to – and be admitted to – UT graduate school. Students are highly encouraged to study prior work published by RAPID (see here) and indicate which area(s) they are interested in and where they feel they can make comprehensive contributions in their statement of purpose/interest. Other tips for writing a good GRA application can be found here. RAPID’s selection process is rigorous, and we will only consider the very best and most motivated students to ensure the high quality of our R&D work. Note that UT’s PGE department is ranked No.1 in the USA for its undergraduate and graduate programs by US News, and we fully intend to keep that top ranking!
One of RAPID’s main goals is to develop future engineering researchers with the requisite background and experience to bring advanced, flexible well construction technologies to the oil and gas, geothermal and carbon sequestration industries. To meet this objective, our program addresses with four key elements:
- A customized interdisciplinary curriculum in the Petroleum and Geosystems (PGE), Mechanical Engineering (ME) and other UT Engineering Departments. Thus, students develop a solid foundation in domain fundamentals as well as an expertise to address relevant industry challenges.
- Engineering-based research projects co-supervised by PGE, ME and other faculty that address the fundamental technological challenges associated with advanced well construction.
- Continual collaboration with industry mentors where students complete supervised project assignments internships in relevant application areas.
- Actively recruit women and under-represented minorities to participate in the program. Like many other industries, RAPID sponsor 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 make a positive difference in subsurface energy exploration and production, universities and industry must collaboratively develop the ability to deploy sustainable technologies given the already challenging requirements faced by e.g. the oil & gas 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 knowledgeable individuals with industry experience, 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 employers based on intimate and exclusive knowledge of their domain knowledge, engineering capabilities, and communication skills.
RAPID’s management team has a proven record of success with interdisciplinary programs to train graduates, and provide them with a highly marketable set of skills. Our graduates are not limited to subsurface energy companies as employers, but have branched out to companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Tesla, etc.
For Undergraduate Students
The RAPID management team recognizes the importance of including undergraduate engineering talent in its efforts as they will make up a large majority of the workforce in the subsurface energy industries. Examples of undergraduate programs which RAPID will sponsor and facilitate are given here, and prospective students can reach out to Dr. Ashok for further details. Undergraduate engineers from multiple departments and backgrounds can become involved and will be exposed to advanced concepts in well construction in one of the following initiatives:
- Senior design projects
- Undergraduate staff for RAPID’s data analytics studies
- Undergraduate Research Programs
Senior Design Projects. RAPID will sponsor and mentor senior level design projects in multiple departments. UT Austin has many nationally recognized senior design programs that we will leverage to attract large numbers of outstanding undergraduate students bringing fresh eyes and minds to bear on our most challenging problems. The very first undergraduate design effort led by the RAPID management resulted in a team of 4 mechanical engineers seniors developing an automation concept for pipe doping and experimentally validating some of their key design features. All 4 members of the design team accepted jobs in the oil & gas industry. RAPID aims to sponsor at least one senior design project every year at UT Austin, and all design presentations will be open to consortium members.
Undergraduate staff for RAPID’s Data Analytics Studies. RAPID has unique and unparalleled access to industry datasets, on which a variety of data analytics studies are performed. Such studies are led by RAPID’s senior research scientists and GRA’s, but typically also employ larger groups of undergraduate students as well. Not only do these students get exposure to real field data, they also learn critical skills, such as expertise in coding machine learning (ML) and artificial Intelligence (AI) routines. An absolute requirement is an interest and some proficiency / prior experience in computer programming (preferably Python, C++ and Matlab) to be considered for this work. We unfortunately will not consider students without any programming experience ( we suggest that you start taking some online programming courses first). That said, since RAPID’s start in 2015, we have employed 100+ undergraduate students in data analytics studies.
RAPID Undergraduate Research Program. In addition to the efforts above, RAPID management will hire and mentor outstanding undergraduate students to perform independent research topics with the guidance of industrial partners, possibly resulting in an undergraduate research thesis. Our goal here is to provide a link between graduate research and undergraduate accessibility, encouraging undergraduates to consider attending graduate school and a potential future career in R&D. A critical component of this program will be outreach to outstanding female and under-represented minority engineering students.
