ADMISSIONS
- I do not have a Petroleum Engineering background. Am I still eligible to join FuRSST?
We
routinely admit candidates with an educational background in a
quantitative field such as Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science,
or other Engineering disciplines. Such candidates may be required to
take three deficiency undergraduate courses in their first semester;
Drilling, Production, and Reservoir Engineering. These three courses
are extra, and will not count towards graduate credit. A grade of at
least a 'B' must be attained in each of these courses.
- How hard is it to get an offer to work with FuRSST?
We typically review well over 300 applications. We look for evidence of academic achievement and
technical alignment with our objectives.
We will typically interview about 30 applicants in our first round. Of
those, we may interview a dozen in the second round. Our capacity to
admit talent depends on our openings. We anticipate admitting a handful
of students every year.
- Should I contact a Principle Investigator directly?
We are happy to hear from you regarding your unique experience or talent
as relevant to our core competencies. Let us know about special
projects or research ideas that you are interested in. General
inquiries with a CV or broad list of activities are discouraged.
- I am unsure of whether I want to join FuRSST. Should I keep my Statement of Purpose general?
Certainly! There are numerous exciting projects at TU that you should consider.
- I do not have a Masters degree, but I would like to pursue a Ph.D. Can I apply directly?
Yes. Candidates without a
graduate degree may be admitted directly to the Ph.D. program. Under
such circumstances, the candidate will be held to a higher GPA standard
(we generally place students with a GPA of less than 3.0 on probation
for a semester, and if the GPA is not subsequently higher than our
minimum, the student may be dismissed). Such candidates will have two
years before being required to pass our qualifying exam. If you feel
well prepared and academically qualified, you may apply.
MENTORSHIP STYLE
- How often will I meet with my advisor?
This will depend on your particular advisor(s). The following is Rami's answer:
We are a tight knit team. Are offices are in the brand new Stephenson
Hall building and faculty and students work within the same office
suite. My students have direct access to me anytime.
Rain or shine, we meet individually once a week for an hour. In your
first six to twelve months at FuRSST, I will do a lot of the talking
and teaching. Typically, after that, the student becomes the teacher.
Individual research meetings are not only about progress. More
importantly, they are about teaching and learning.
We also meet once a week as a group. Every week, one of us delivers a
technical presentation on any subject. The more senior students will
typically talk about their own research. These talks are aimed at three
things: giving you presentation experience, teaching you how to think
and answer questions on the spot, and provide you with a safe
environment to test out and pitch new ideas
Finally, if you are involved with our software focus, you will
participate in our biweekly software war-room sessions. We meet to
iterate on designs, do peer-review on software, and establish testing
harnesses.
- How are research topics assigned? Can I choose my own topic?
Incoming students are not
assigned topics. Rather, based on your competencies and interests, you
are initially assigned to one of our three core areas: inventing seed
ideas for new technologies using simulation, software, or solvers.
In your first few months, we will work with you on a crash course on
everything we think is puzzling, exciting, and/or new in your core
competency. With time, you may come up with oyu own compelling topic.
Alternatively, you may find yourself absorbed with one of the topics
introduced to you by your advisor. Either way, we expect that you can
contribute high value research that is original.
ACADEMICS AND RESOURCES
- Can I take courses from other departments? Can I enroll in multiple degrees?
Our students can enroll in
courses from Mathematics, Computer Science, and the Engineering
branches at TU. We are also open to supporting our students should they
choose to enroll in dual Masters degrees.
- Does the program offer coursework in relevant areas to Reservoir Simulation?
Our
graduate program offers two courses on simulation, as well as two
advanced programming courses, and one course on High Performance
Computing. Additionally, we offer Special Topics courses that will
focus on various advanced aspects of simulation. Recently offered
topics have included Linear and Nonlinear, Direct and Iterative Solvers.
- What facilties are available to FuRSST students?
We do much of our
brainstorming work on whiteboards that are available throughout our
office suite. Each student is assigned office space equipped with a
multicore Xeon workstation with 16 to 64GB RAM and access to GPUs.
Large scale computing is performed through our collaboration with the
Tandy Supercomputing Center.