PENG Students Qualify for International Competition
By: Serage Amatory
@AmatorySerage
Three students from the Department of Petroleum Engineering (PENG) were selected to compete in the 2017 Petrobowl competition after having won the regional qualifiers held as part of the Bahrain Oil & Gas Conference from March 6 to March 9.
The Petrobowl is an annual quiz competition organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), a multinational organization whose aim is to “collect, disseminate, and exchange technical knowledge concerning the exploration, development and production of oil and gas resources.”
AUC’s SPE chapter was responsible for training and sending the students to the competition.
The quiz tests contestants’ technical knowledge in the field of Petroleum Engineering.
Egyptian universities have previously participated but this year was AUC’s first attempt.
Abdel Aziz Mahmoud, Ola Hussein and Farah Fawzy were the three members of the AUC team.
Mahmoud, a petroleum engineering senior, is the external affairs director of AUC’s SPE Chapter.
“It was a surprise to many and showed that our university program is strong after all,” Mahmoud said.
The students were interviewed and tested multiple times to ensure their proficiency and technical knowledge the field.
Fawzy was the first AUC student and first Egyptian female to get first place at the Regional Student Paper Contest, another SPE organized event.
The team competed against numerous teams from top regional universities and were ranked among the top four university teams in the MENA Region and India.
“[We were] competing against teams of 4 or 5 students at Masters and PhD levels and we managed to qualify with only 3 team members,” Mahmoud told The Caravan.
Mahmoud referred to the results and the team’s performance as a “powerful presence” for the University and the members themselves.
“This achievement is definitely great for our PENG department because it counts as an accomplishment that shows the strength of our program and inspired students in an international extravaganza,” he added.
The students’ participation gave them the chance to learn further and meet professionals in the field.
“We were able to not only to test our knowledge among top regional universities, but also compete and win. The judges were impressed,” said Hussein.
“PENG students are known in the university for their great appetite to compete in major international events, and are indeed proving to be highly successful,” Chair of PENG Amr Serag-Eldin told The Caravan.
However, the PENG department has been seeking accreditation from the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) since Fall 2015.
Serag-Eldin previously told The Caravan that the accreditation process will be completed in the academic year 2018-2019.
He added that a plan is underway for developing a catalogue that will focus on petroleum-related courses, hiring new faculty members and adding a new advising board.
