BP named Team Maroon Fish the winner of the Texas A&M University Ultimate Field Trip (UFT) Competition Campus Finals, a contest that asked college students in technical fields from leading U.S. universities to solve real-world energy challenges.
The team of three engineering students from Texas A&M University will compete in April at BP’s Houston campus against other Campus Finals winners from U.S. universities.
“We were extremely impressed by the entries from Texas A&M University, but ultimately Team Maroon Fish was chosen because of its creativity and demonstrated knowledge of critical areas,” said Khymberly Booth, BP’s director of US university relations.
Team Maroon is composed of undergraduate students Rubio Storm (computer science and engineering), Coleman Fincher (mechanical engineering) and Daniel Jaeger (mechanical engineering).
BP hires more than 700 university students for full-time, intern and co-op positions annually in the United States. It developed the UFT to offer science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students the opportunity to gain experience working on real-world challenges in the energy sector.
“The UFT competition is just one example of BP’s commitment to higher education and to developing the next-generation of scientists and engineers to take on the world’s biggest energy challenges,” Booth said.
The 2014 challenge asked students to identify an innovative solution that would significantly reduce energy consumption and could be implemented by 2025, with the potential to be deployed at scale across the energy industry.
If chosen as the Grand Prize Winners for the U.S., the team will join winners from the four other participating countries -- Angola, Canada, United Kingdom and Trinidad and Tobago -- on a two-week field trip to BP locations in Alaska and Chicago.