The Most Successful Doctoral Thesis of 2022 Award

Dr. Aydin Shaterpour Mamaghani’s Doctoral thesis entitled "Performance Prediction and Optimization of Raise Boring Machines (RBMs)" was honored by the Istanbul Technical University Board of Directors as “The Most Successful Doctoral Thesis of 2022” and received this award in June 2023.

Dr. Aydin Shaterpour Mamaghani was deemed worthy of the "The Most Successful Doctoral Thesis of 2022" award by the Istanbul Technical University Board of Directors with his doctoral thesis entitled "Performance Prediction and Optimization of Raise Boring Machines (RBMs)" and received this award in June 2023. The most successful doctoral thesis awards are selected every year by the university among many best theses by evaluating the theses according to criteria such as their contribution to the literature, method, and content. Dr. Aydin Shaterpour Mamaghani in his doctoral thesis proposed new empirical and deterministic models for proper selection, design, and prediction of operational-performance parameters of RBMs. The outcome of the thesis establishes a new database to assist on predicting the performance parameters of RBMs that can be used by the designer engineering companies, contractor companies, and project owner institutions in the feasibility and planning stages of the shaft excavation projects. Dr. Aydin Shaterpour Mamaghani has published 4 journal articles indexed by Science Citation Index (Q1 quartile journals) and 18 national / international proceedings papers related to his PhD thesis research till now.

Scholarship and Grant from the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) to our Geophysical Engineering Research Assistant  (+)

The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) promotes the study of geophysics and geosciences at universities around the world with merit scholarships.

A total of 424 applications were received for the 2023-2024 academic year, 240 of which were at the graduate level. Following the evaluation process, 104 students, including 64 graduate students, were awarded scholarships from among the applicants from all over the world.

Beril Karadöller, Ph.D. student and Research Assistant at ITU-Geophysical Engineering Department has been awarded a scholarship for the second time by SEG for her thesis studies on seismic reflection and shallow geophysical methods, and interdisciplinary projects in which she plays an active role.

R.A. Beril Karadöller was awarded the "James D. and Stella M. Robertson Scholarship" and "SEG Foundation Scholarships" for the 2022-2023 academic year and the "SEG/Landmark Scholarship" for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Our researcher was also awarded a ¨Travel Grant¨ for the ¨IMAGE23¨ symposium held in Houston/Texas/USA between August 28-September 1 in partnership with SEG and American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG).

Url: https://seg.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023-2024-Scholarship-Recipients-for-Website.pdf

R.A. Beril Karadöller at IMAGE23 Donors Meeting with granted students all over the world.

SPE-ITech Student Chapter

SPE I-Tech student chapter is one of SPE’s student chapters. It is a student organization established in 1992. Its members are highly motivated and hardworking students who have managed to become finalists for the SPE Outstanding chapter award for the years 2006, 2007 and 2009. SPE I-Tech aims at contributing to the professional and social development of students through organizing technical trips, seminars and social events. SPE I-Tech is still going on to make events in order to meet our students with different professional from the industry. In the following table, a detailed completed event schedule for the last semester is given (April – December, 2023).

In 2023, our I-TECH Talks events took place with 19 participants, 1 from outside the sector, 2 from academics, 16 from the industry. In addition, 5 company promotions, movie nights, breakfast meetings, coffee hours and technical trips were organized for our club members.

For further details: İTÜ Petrol ve Doğalgaz Mühendisliği Kulübü (@speitech) • Instagram photos and videos.

A Student Field Camp on “Geophysical Imaging of Groundwater in the Talysh Mountain area, Azerbaijan” 

Understanding hydrological systems is crucial since water resources are important for world sustainability. Since there is much research on this, a field camp on “Geophysical Imaging of Groundwater in the Talysh Mountain area, Azerbaijan” was organized by Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University (ASOIU) Society of Exploration of Geophysicists (SEG) Student Chapter. Two Master’s students, Deniz Orta and Nisa Akın, from the Department of Geophysical Engineering have been granted by the SEG to participate at this field camp.

In a world that is struggling with the difficulties of a changing climate and rising water demands, understanding the geological complexity and hydrological behavior of aquifers helps people to use this resource wisely, assuring water security, economic success, and ecological integrity. Hence, groundwater exploration plays a significant role on this situation. Using a multidisciplinary approach consisting of geophysical methods, geology/hydrogeology and remote sensing, one can characterize the subsurface aquifers and locate them. As part of this information, a field camp on "Geophysical Imaging of Groundwater in the Talysh Mountain area, Azerbaijan" was organised by the SEG student chapter of the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University (ASOIU) from 24 to 31 July. Deniz Orta and Nisa Akın, two graduate students from the Faculty of Mining, Geophysical Engineering, participated at the event on behalf of the ITU SEG Student Chapter. Main objectives of this field camp are to define the depth and physical properties of the confining layer using geophysical measurements and thus better determine the groundwater level beneath Talysh Mountains, Astara in Azerbaijan. To achieve this aim, several geophysical imaging methods that included seismic refraction, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and ground penetrating radar (GPR) methods were used. This multifaceted approach has provided a comprehensive exploration of subsurface hydrogeological attributes, contributing to a deeper understanding of the intricate groundwater dynamics within the studied region. 

Participation at the TPAO Long-Term Internship Program from the ITU

As in previous years, the ITU Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering has provided many internship opportunities for our local and foreign students in the national and international energy sector in 2023, within the framework of three main internship types: upstream, midstream and downstream. Within the framework of the cooperation protocol signed between ITU and TPAO, which has been one of our most important collaborations since August 2021, our students from the Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering at ITU Faculty of Mines have qualified to participate in the "TPAO Long-Term Internship Program" covering the dates 01.11.2023-14.06.2024. Our students, who have been accepted for long-term internship at TP-OTC company, make up 90% of the students from ITU within this internship and are currently successfully continuing their internship at the aforementioned company.

The aim of this programme is to contribute to the cooperation between university and industry, to ensure localization in the field of petroleum industry and to raise human resources to a higher level by supporting the theoretical knowledge of university students with practical knowledge. Especially in the last few years, with the increasing discoveries of hydrocarbons in our country, this type of internship has become more and more important and contributes greatly to the adaptation of our students to the sector after graduation.