EVOLVE, a Halliburton academic initiative, offers an innovative, non-competitive learning opportunity in the cloud.  

The time to learn how to break down communication silos is before entering the workforce. EVOLVE, a Halliburton academic initiative, does just that. It offers an innovative, non-competitive learning opportunity in the cloud, whereby students are trained in various E&P disciplines so they can immediately and actively contribute in a collaborative team setting during internships, upon employment, and throughout their careers.

Dr. Zheng served as the EVOLVE student advisor for three cross-disciplinary teams of five students each from the University of Houston for EVOLVE’s inaugural launch in 2015. During an eight-week period, the teams tackled several interpretation challenges in a North Sea dataset. They studied tectonics, depositional sequences, structural geology, 3D seismic imaging, well logging, seismic-well tie, and reservoir attribute analyses to get a full view of the petroleum evolution in both depth and time domains. The teams identified future prospects and presented their findings to leading industry experts.

According to Dr. Zheng, “These highly motivated student teams had an excellent opportunity to benefit and grow from a cohesive teamwork environment, and to learn how their specialties can contribute to solving geoscience challenges.” Dr. Zheng added, “EVOLVE opened a whole new way to train the next generation of geoscientists. The experience taps into creativity not only in technical excellence, but also in key professional development areas, such as critical thinking and problem solving, as well as leadership skills both individually and in a team setting. I believe building strong bridges between academia and industry is crucial, and Halliburton has taken a leadership role in strengthening this connection.”