The collaborative series between TWA and SPE Student Chapters, “TWA Student Chapter Spotlight,” aims to feature award-winning SPE student chapters from around the world. Each article in the series will spotlight a student chapter and share some of the chapter’s main events and activities recently held.
Universidade Federal De Pelotas
· Pelotas, Brazil
· Presidential Award for Outstanding Student Chapter 2020
· Date Established: 01 Jun 2012
In 2019, the SPE Universidade Federal De Pelotas (UFPel) Student Chapter continued to engage in the dissemination and exchange of knowledge among professionals, academic, and those interested in the oil and gas industry. While chapter members engaged with the society in many ways and volunteered at nursing homes, orphanages, and foster homes, the programs that had the greatest impact were the “VII Petro-Sul,” which is an academic week of petroleum engineering, and “IV Meeting.”
Petro-Sul is the largest technical event in the southern region of the country, and is among the largest in Brazil. More than 120 participants, including students, teachers, and professionals from the industry participated in the event. The event aimed to disseminate technical knowledge, gave the students a glimpse into the industry, and emphasized the need for interdisciplinary training for a petroleum engineer. Several oil and gas companies participated and supported the event. We received positive reports from students who, after participating in the event, felt motivated to continue their studies, reducing the dropout rate of the courses. During the five days of the event, members enjoyed the lectures, short courses, and workshops and networked with oil and gas professionals.
Our second technical event in 2019 was the IV Meeting, which was held for 2 days. The organization of this event arose from the need to transmit knowledge and show all participants the new technologies and updates about the industry. The short courses offered many students their first opportunity to work with petroleum engineering software, and highlighted the importance of this skill in the job market. Despite its short duration, every effort was made so that at the end of the second day, our participants made the most of the knowledge disseminated during the lectures and courses given by renowned oil and gas professionals from all regions of Brazil. As we move forward, we believe that we will be hosting events encouraging increasingly greater relationship between professionals and students of petroleum engineering.