five UBA students qualified for the Petroleum Engineering World Cup

There are many stories of Argentines showing our talent internationally. This time, five studentsrepresentatives of the team from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), qualified for the World Cup of an important international question and answer competition on the oil industrybecoming the only Argentines to achieve this achievement this year.

Catalina Daniela Montes – team captain –, Stefano Saitta, Sofía Celeste Stratico, Melanie Iara Micheltorena Ibarra and Nicolás Gaspar Laborde are between 22 and 24 years old and are students studying Petroleum Engineering. As a team, they are part of one of 32 that will participate in the international competition of the PetroBowl.

At the national level, there are six universities that have Petroleum Engineering as an undergraduate degree. The last one to incorporate it into its offer was the UBA, approving its study plan in 2015 and beginning to receive students as students since 2017.

Each of these universities has a student chapter that allows them to participate in competitions organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), a technical association that brings together both students and already graduated engineers. One of these competencies is PetroBowla international quick quiz contest on knowledge of the energy industry.

The first edition of PetroBowl It was held in 2002 and, in 2015, went global with the introduction of six regional qualifying competitions. The five students participated in the Latin American and Caribbean region competition in Rio de Janeiro and achieved third place, thus qualifying for the World Cup that will take place in September in New Orleans, United States, with the most qualified teams from all over the world. .

The UBA began to participate in the PetroBowl in 2021, but without prior preparation and training, the University’s previous teams failed to even qualify for the Regional championship for two consecutive years.

“They participated with the knowledge of the race and not much else. Until 2023, with the return to in-person attendance after the pandemic, the goal was position the UBA in the international panorama of Petroleum Engineering, on par with the teams in the region, sharing friendly encounters and advice with other teams. We prepared and came second in the National, qualifying for the Regional of Trinidad and Tobago, in which we were among the best eight,” recalled Sofía Stratico, in dialogue with Clarionabout last year’s championship.

Despite not achieving their goal, they finally achieved their goal after much effort and, this year, qualified for the World Cup. “The day of the competition was very exciting. It was enormous pressure to be playing and knowing that you had to win no matter what. When we won the fourth game, which meant we were already assured among the top three, among 22 teams, we felt a strong relief because it was a lot of effort,” added Melanie Micheltorena Ibarra.

“We spent the whole year studying, constantly dedicating ourselves. With our captain Catalina, who guided us and told us how many questions to study per week, and doing group practices week by week,” she continued.

“We did friendlies, we collected questions from other teams, we took references from other competitions, we studied dictionaries and glossaries and all their key definitions. Professors from the course also help us with whom we set days to practice and they take questions from us.. We put together our banks of questions about the areas that have the most experience and knowledge and we learned them completely,” added Catalina Montes.

Furthermore, Sofía said: “Competition is experience, He who has experience wins. Many teams that appear for the first time lose because you have to grasp the hand of everything that is appealing, knowing how to respond, responding quickly. You learn it as you go, sitting down, losing and saying ‘well, that’s it, I’ll improve this for next time.’”

For students, it’s not just competition. Behind their prowess in the championship, there are five young people who gave everything to be able to represent an entire country in the highest category of their industry.

“It is something very exciting for all of us and for all the teachers at the University of Buenos Aires to have qualified for the World Cup. It is a huge pride because it is historical. It is a very important competition in the field of the oil industry and opens up a lot of opportunities for us. It is not just about going, competing and demonstrating that one has the knowledge and capabilities, but about getting to know different countries, different communities, strengthening ties. I am extremely grateful to be part of this team. It is a competition that is very worthwhile, it is an incredible experience,” said Melanie.

And he closed: “Having achieved it after a year of great dedication was really exciting and we feel very proud. And we were able to make the University of Buenos Aires, which is a highly prestigious study house, known within the PetroBowl field. So We hope in the World Cup we can give the same performance and to be able to leave the UBA standing at the top as we did now.”