Seismic Interpolation Workshop at the U of C sponsored by CSEG-F and CGGVeritas
On 25th and 26th of April, 2012, the Graduate Association of Geology and Geophysics Students (GAGGS) at the University of Calgary organized a two-day workshop on Seismic Interpolation instructed by Dr. Mostafa Naghizadeh, from the University of Alberta. The CSEG Foundation and CGGVeritas sponsored this workshop at the University of Calgary. The goal of the workshop was to introduce and explain the theoretical basis of seismic interpolation methods from the beginner to the advanced level. Topics covered ranged from being able to identify the main challenges of seismic interpolation methods to interpolating irregularly sampled data, spatially aliased data, curved and nonlinear events, and multidimensional interpolation. The workshop also included interactive MATLAB coding for Fourier seismic interpolation techniques. This is the first time GAGGS has hosted an industry sponsored workshop, and 23 graduate students and 4 guests from industry attended.
CSEG-F sponsored some students from the Seismic Laboratory for Imaging and Modeling at the University of British Columbia to attend GeoConvention 2012: Vision. Following are their reports.
My experience at GeoConvention 2012 was an eye opener. There I actually came to know how diverse our field is and what are the new developments. Since I did volunteer work, it gave me an added advantage of meeting with new people, sharing ideas with them and building the network for my future. All in all, I am very much satisfied after attending the GeoConvention, and looking forward to attending the GeoConvention in 2013.
Rajiv Kumar
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We sat in the room allocated as the Earth Science for Society headquarters, sipping coffee and awaiting the arrival of the school buses that would come bearing their precious cargo of thirsty young minds. A heterogeneous group of university students and industry professionals, we were all volunteers ready to act as guides to the public outreach portion of the GeoConvention. Annette Milbradt manned the walkie-talkie, listening for Helen, a fellow volunteer who was waiting outside by the entrance to the convention centre, to give us the green light that the buses had arrived. At last we were given the signal to head upstairs and meet the kids. The next two hours would go by in a flash.
Earth Science for Society (ESfS) was a convention within a convention. Four meeting rooms were set aside for junior high-school students to learn about geology and geophysics. Educators and outreach staff from more than 15 companies, universities and organizations had exhibits covering everything from well drilling to fossils from the Burgess Shale to a table-top hydrology demonstration. The kids were given a scavenger-hunt-style booklet of questions to fill out, and let loose inside the pavilions.
I had a blast encouraging the students in their questions for the exhibitors and making sure they were staying engaged. The fact that the exhibits were geared toward a younger demographic notwithstanding, I enjoyed them just as much as the kids did! I even got my first up-close-and-personal look at crude oil: a viscous liquid in a little glass jar.
By the end of the morning, as everyone was safely herded back on the buses, I knew that for me, the most memorable part of GeoConvention 2012 would be volunteering for ESfS.
Between volunteering (in addition to ESfS, I helped with registration bright and early on Monday morning) and the tight schedule imposed by our group's Wednesday afternoon departure time, I had a chance to take in three of the technical sessions on Seismic Processing. I am a graduate student at the Seismic Laboratory for Imaging and Modeling at UBC, so these presentations were the ones of greatest interest to me. The one that stands out the most is a talk by Stewart Trickett of Fugro Seismic Imaging entitled "Robust Rank-Reduction Filters for Erratic Noise". Mr. Trickett was an enthusiastic, clear and engaging speaker, and since signal reconstruction (for example by one-norm minimization) was a prominent part of my coursework over the past term, the exposure to the Cadzow filter method for noise suppression was quite interesting.
As our group drove back over the Rockies to Vancouver, I looked back on the past three days. To future attendees of the GeoConvention, my advice is: get involved. Visiting exhibition booths and listening to talks is definitely a part of the conference, but the best way to meet people and get the most out of the experience is by working together to turn the cogs of the machine.
Art Petrenko
The CSEG/CSPG GeoConvention was a great learning experience. As a technical room volunteer I had access to some of the key presentations. The presentations gave an insight into the latest advances in the industry and some of the topics included: Simple ways of estimating fracture parameters, resource estimation with geostatistics, seismic reservoir characterization, etc. Perhaps my best talk was Eye openers from re-processing of oil sands seismic data by David Gray of Nexen. David expanded on the advantages of using Azimuthal NMO as well as the velocity and static issues that are associated with it.
The convention was not all about presentations but also networking and company exhibition events. At different networking events you get the opportunity to interact with key players in the industry and learn about the different challenges in the oil and gas industry. The exhibition floor was occupied by different companies who had visual demos of the different roles they play in the industry.
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In conclusion, I have to say that GeoConvention 2012 was the biggest party and learning experience of the year. I am more informed now than I was a year ago after meeting so many Geoscientists. A very big thank you to the CSEG Foundation for granting me a travel bursary to attend this event.
Ubong Udoumanah
Having been back in Vancouver for weeks, my experience in Calgary at GeoConvention 2012 convention is still quite fresh and impressive. Thanks to CSEG-F and GeoConvention student travelgrants, I was able to attend the geoconvention along with 5 other people as a group. The trip is not easy; we spent four days on driving only. But the experience on the 3 days of participating made everything worthwhile.
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As a student volunteer, I enjoyed working with other students from all across Canada, especially when I was working for the poster section. I got chances to communicate with professional geophysical workers from all over the world. It is really good to know that people in industry are actually interested in research carried out in universities.
At the exhibition I got chances to talk with various company representatives, through which I got to know what kind of technology is needed and currently developed, and what kind of employees are more welcomed. Most appreciated is the connections I got with several companies. I should say this experience at GeoConvention 2012 provides a huge benefit to my further professional development in geophysics.
Thanks again for the great program provided by CSEG-F and GeoConvention. I hope for more opportunities like this.
Lina Miao
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