We want to raise £4,000 to support sending a team to the European final of the American Association of Petroleum Geophysicists Imperial Barrel Award. This is an annual competition that attracts around 20 teams from all over Europe. It involves teams of students applying their scientific and team-working skills to a real-world exploration scenario. In previous years the participation of all teams has been funded by corporate sponsorship, but this year, such sponsorship has been more difficult to secure, so to guarantee participation, teams are being asked to raise some sponsorship of their own.
We are a group of fourth-year undergraduate students in Ocean and Earth Science at the University of Southampton, taking degrees in geology or geophysics. Ocean and Earth Science will hold an internal competition between four teams of five students per team, and if sponsorship is found, the winning team will participate in the European competition.
The competition is judged by a panel of senior industry specialists. The competition is therefore a fantastic opportunity for us to meet people that we would never normally have the opportunity to meet, to show them what we can do, and to make connections that might lead to exciting jobs after we graduate. Your donations will therefore have a big impact on our lives. Teams from Southampton have participated in the competition every year since 2009 and have normally been ranked in the top five. In 2011 a team from Southampton won the European final (see picture) and had the opportunity to attend the global final in the United States.
Donations will be used to fund a team of five students and their advisor to travel to and participate in the European final, which will take place in Prague in March, and their accommodation during the competition, which is normally run over two full days.
And, every donation to the project made by our generous supporters (up to £2,000) will be matched by alumni gifts from the University’s Student Experience Fund.