A team of Student Geoscientists that represented the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), during the 2023 Imperial Barrel Award (IBA) competition organized by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) in April 2023 and came 2nd in Africa with a $500 award has donated the awarded fund to purchase a Dell Workstation for the Department.
Team FUTA comprised five geosciences students: Ifanegan Ayomide, Adeniran Matthew, Olagboye Olasunkanmi, Oyeniyi Isaac, and Odewale Paul. The team's faculty advisor was Prof. John O. Amigun, and their mentor was Dr. David Anomneze, a senior geologist at Seplat Energy.
The workstation with a configuration of 64GB Intel Xeon HDD with a dedicated graphics card GTX1050 (4GB), a 2 TB hard disk storage and 32GB RAM memory including a 25" monitor display will be used for training and research and other associated endeavors.
According to the Faculty Advisor, Professor John Amigun, the team's decision to donate the Workstation was borne out of its experience during the three months preparations for the IBA competition.
He said the team faced several challenges related to technical issues and computer crashes which made the preparation more arduous than anticipated.
To prevent such challenges in the future, the team decided to convert the award to donating the workstation.
Receiving the workstation, the Dean of the School of Earth and Mineral Sciences (SEMS), Professor Biodun Anifowose appreciated the kind gesture of the team describing it as "sacrificial" and borne out of interest to alleviate technical difficulties, hoping that future participants in similar competitions will not encounter similar obstacles.
The Imperial Barrel Award, IBA, is an annual competition organized by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG).
It provides an opportunity for geosciences students from all over the world to showcase their knowledge, skills, and teamwork in evaluating a real-world exploration or production project.