Drillbotics student competition developing drilling industry’s future talent

The SPE Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section (DSATS) is giving university students a chance to test their engineering skills through the Drillbotics competition. Students establish their own multidisciplinary teams to build a miniature robotic drilling rig inside a lab, and when finished, they will use the rig to drill a test formation provided by DSATS. The four teams participating this year hail from The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, The University of Oklahoma and Norway’s University of Agder. In this video from the DSATS Symposium in London on 16 March, Fred Florence, Director, Advanced Drilling Technologies with National Oilwell Varco, speaks with DC Editorial Coordinator Alex Endress about the competition’s benefit to students and the drilling industry. Sponsorship opportunities to support this competition are still available. Click to email DSATS for more information.