Brownwood High School (BHS) Senior, Cole Fowler, recently completed a summer internship at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), working alongside researchers in the area of petroleum engineering.
The internship program at UTIG is offered every summer, and brings in groups of students to help UTIG research scientists with on-going projects.
An article posted to the UTIG website notes that internship students “…gain valuable exposure and insights into the world of academia and research, working with state-of-the-art equipment and the best minds in geophysics.”
The story, highlighting Fowler and the internship program, further explains the work he completed through the summer:
Cole Fowler from Brownwood High School has been working with UTIG senior research scientist John W. Snedden for the past month. Cole aspires to be a petroleum engineer and has been analyzing sub-surface pressure data from wells in the Gulf of Mexico made available by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). Cole spent the summer compiling this data into spreadsheets, synthesizing it into plots and interpreting it to identify wells that are compartmentalized. This analysis could potentially assist and optimize drilling operations.
A photo of Fowler and Snedden (see below) accompanied the article and it was noted that Snedden was impressed by Fowler’s work over the summer.
“Cole is doing really well. He has been an asset to our group and has vastly exceeded my expectations. He has all the traits for a career in engineering – he is a hard worker and pays attention to detail,” says Snedden.
Cole has enjoyed his time at UTIG, saying “It’s been an awesome summer. I’ve learned a lot and everyone has welcomed me here. I definitely would like to return next year.”
The experience will surely benefit Fowler as he returns to BHS this year focused on graduation in May.
Pictured above: UTIG senior research scientist John Snedden (right) has been impressed by Cole Fowler’s work this summer. (Photo by Sriranjan Thirumalai)