Once again, It pays to be a student member of the SEG!

Rice wins Challenge Bowl

Dean Clark, TLE Editor, SEG

2009 SEG Challenge Bowl winners Maximiliano Bezada and Amy Lasseigne of Rice University bolted from behind in both the semifinals and finals to win the fourth SEG Challenge Bowl and US$1000, Monday, 26 October 2009.

The finals were sponsored by bp, Chevron, EnCana, Total, MicroSeismic, and Noble Energy.

The event concluded a year-long competition that featured regional challenge bowls held around the world. Regional winners represented, the United States, Italy, Canada, China, Bulgaria, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates.

The presence of nine teams in Monday’s showdown “overloaded” the equipment and forced the first round to be divided into two competitions with five and four teams, respectively.

The final match against Indrajit Das and Nicholas Van Buer of Stanford was a virtuoso display of geoscience knowledge. Only seven of the 30 questions, sometimes circuitously phrased by ebullient emcee Peter Duncan, were answered incorrectly, and four of those were then correctly answered by the other team, even though the questions were deliberately made harder than in previous rounds.

Success in the first two rounds depends upon speed, the ability to “buzz in” before the other competitors. The two-team final round, however, has a different format and the key is gaining the “lead” which allows picking the category (Seismic, Geology, Unseismic, and My SEG) and answering first—with no pressure to buzz in quickly.


Stanford opened the finals with correct answers to nine straight questions, including one missed by Rice, which caused Duncan to quip, “Do you think they’re going to run the table.”

Visit the SEG website for more exciting news from our Annual Meeting

Join the SEG today and you can learn about Geophysics while having fun (and possibly winning some ca$h too!!)

Attention Students! -- It pays to belong to SEG...

Calgary rolls in challenge bowl finals

by Dean Clark, Editor, The Leading Edge

10 November—The team of Maria Quijada and Jason McCrank, representing the University of Calgary, reeled off an impressive string of correct answers midway through the final head-to-head showdown with the team from Rice University en route to the championship of the Third SEG Challenge Bowl Monday, 10 November, during SEG’s Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, USA.

This year’s finals were truly the culmination of a worldwide competition—12 teams, twice as many as in previous years, compete in the finals as a result of winning a regional competition. Those preliminary events were held on almost every continent. Venues for the regional competitions included Russia, China, South America (where an enthusiastic audience, enlivened by an on-stage band, made this event quite unique), Italy, Canada, and several sites in the United States.

View Photos of Contest

The explosion of interest in this event prompted a change in format since the available equipment could handle only six teams at a time. That caused the finalists to be divided by lot into two groups, each with six teams, for a pair of preliminary rounds. Three teams from each group advanced to the semifinals, from where Calgary and Rice earned their roles in the championship round.

Those teams were separated by only 10 points in the semifinals but Calgary took command quickly in the finals. The Canadian team built a 40-10 lead after the first round and then ended all suspense by collecting points on six of the first seven questions in the second round. They ended that round with what was, for all intents and purposes, an insurmountable 170-point lead, 220-50. That meant that it was virtually impossible for Geoffrey Chambers and Hobart Young of Rice to catch up. They would have had to get all 100 points available in the final round and hope that Calgary lost at least 80 points via incorrect answers. However, Canada flatlined the final round with one right answer and one wrong answer. Rice could pick up only 10 points for a final score of 220-60.

It should be noted that the victory was worth considerably more than prestige. The winning team divided US$1000 and the runners-up split $600. This caused quizmaster Peter Duncan to comment, “You will probably discover, before the day is out, that you have a lot more friends than you thought.”

Duncan, former SEG president and the driving force behind the creation of the Challenge Bowl, again emceed in his trademark white coat and kept the proceedings.

An all-but-overflow and very enthusiastic crowd attended the finals, hinting that next year’s event might require a larger venue. The exponential growth of the Challenge Bowl in just three years is an encouraging signal about the strength of SEG’s student membership. Those student sections planning to sponsor teams in regional challenge bowls next year are advised to begin preparations immediately as the field is expected to be much more difficult next year. Information about the 2009 Challenge Bowl can be obtained from SEG’s Student Affairs Department.

Geophysics IS Happening! -- See what you're missing in VEGAS...

The successful completion of the SEG Foundation’s US$15 million campaign was cheered at the SEG Foundation luncheon Monday, 10 November as the final amount raised, $17 115 908, flashed on large screens as confetti burst on the room filled with donors. Many were present to celebrate the conclusion of this campaign and to celebrate its enormous success.

The luncheon’s most spectacular moment came at the end when Dick Baile, who has been involved in building the Foundation for over 20 years, and SEG Director, Mary Fleming, along with Geophysics Director Peter Pangman and Bill Barkhouse, put on hard hats, and Baile pulled a lever on what appeared to be a Doodlebugger blaster. With the room full of excited donors, all standing and waiting to know the total amount raised, the blaster boomed, confetti filled the air, and members cheered as the number was revealed.

Keep up-to-date with the Excitement here

"What happens in Vegas..." doesn't always stay there--If you can't be there, check this out for the latest happening

Geophysics is Happening! -- 2008 SEG (78th Annual) Annual Meeting & International Exposition

2008 Annual Meeting coverage

The SEG Annual Meeting and International Exposition is always an unforgettable experience, and this year is no different. Check this page regularly to keep up with all the events, meetings, and workshops happening 9–14 November in Las Vegas, USA.

Sunday, 9 November
Monday, 10 November

Sunday

Student Education Program (photo gallery)

President's Address

Monday

SEG Forum: Managing Groundwater Resources

SEG Foundation lunch
Geoscientists Without Borders honors donors and announces grant recipients
SEG Foundation surpasses it's US$15 million goal
Shell gives large donation