Maya Aziz, a student of Texas A&M University-Qatar, giving her presentation on Uses of Sensors to Prevent Collapse of Bridges during the student paper contest held at Texas A&M yesterday. The event was sponsored by ExxonMobil. (Shaival Dalal)

doha • The Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq) organised the first Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) student paper contest at its premises yesterday. The event was sponsored by ExxonMobil.

SPE is a worldwide organisation serving managers, scientists and engineers in the exploration and production segments of oil and gas industry.

The students gave presentations on various topics ranging from Offshore Drilling to Hybrid v/s Gas Combustion Vehicles to Techniques for Oil Spill Clean-ups.

The idea was to use these new technologies in Qatar. The presentations were conducted in both mechanical and petroleum engineering fields.

Judges from various oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil evaluated the presentations.

"It's the first time an event like this is taking place in Qatar, and is a great way to find out the students' potential," said Haitham Al Meer of RasGas, who was one of the judges.

There were six QR1000 first place and four QR 500 second place prizes to be given out.

The Student Paper Contest is going to be an annual event at TAMUQ where they anticipate constructive interaction between the students and the industry professionals.