BP’s Ultimate Field Trip 2014 – the competition for up and coming STEM students – has just been launched.
UFT is the UK’s flagship student competition. International too, it challenges teams of graduates to solve a real-world global energy challenge.
A grand tally of 2,700 students from UK universities have entered the Ultimate Field Trip since 2010.
Following on from last year’s successful expansion from just the UK to include three countries, this year’s UFT is expanding to five countries. Teams from the US and Trinidad & Tobago will now be joined by teams from universities in Angola and Canada.
Paul McIntyre, group head of resourcing at BP, said: “The Ultimate Field Trip competition offers STEM students the opportunity to explore how their degrees apply in a real-world situation.
“Year on year we are looking at ways to develop the competition to ensure that the students have the opportunity to gain a truly meaningful experience from taking part in the UFT.
“I am really excited by this year’s competition, with five countries now involved and a fantastic challenge; it will be great to see what ideas the teams come up with.”
This time, the winning teams, from each of the five countries, will come together for what can fairly be described as a “unique” two-week field trip at BP locations in Alaska and Chicago where they can explore the career prospects the oil and gas industry has to offer, as well as having the opportunity to collaborate as global working teams.”
This will be genuinely challenging . . . split as it will be between the tough environment of the arctic and the differently tough environment of the US’s Windy City.
The UFT competition is designed to encourage university science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) students to use their skills to gain first-hand experience of the challenges facing the energy sector, specifically in the oil and gas industry, and to discover what a potential career may entail.
This year’s challenge is one that not only BP, but the entire international energy industry is facing and continuously trying to address . . . energy efficiency.
Now for some details:
The problem: Energy companies consume large amounts of energy in running their operations.
The challenge: How to make more efficient use of energy.
The solution: Identify an innovative way to significantly reduce energy consumption and for it to be implemented by 2025, with the potential to scale across the energy industry. This could apply anywhere from point of capture to point of sale of energy products, and potentially even create a new product stream.
The prize: As stated above, next year the winning team of three students from UK universities, together with winners from each of the four other national competitions, will take part in a two-week field trip, to BP locations in Alaska and Chicago.
Each winning team member will also receive a prize worth £500.
Students from UK universities are asked to register a team of three to take part via www.bp.com/UFT/UK and are required to complete a short technical quiz by November 22.
A short-list of teams will be selected and asked to send in their competition entry to address this year’s Challenge.
Successful teams will progress to a semi-final in early February 2014. The UK National Final, where teams will go head-to-head, will take place on March 10, 2014, at The Royal Institution of Great Britain, London.
The UK National Final also sees the return of Professor Brian Cox who will act as host and compere at The Royal Institution of Great Britain.
The message from Hugh McQueen of Team Hydra, the Strathclyde University trio who won the Ultimate Field Trip 2013, to anyone considering entering the 2014 challenge is: “If you are thinking about entering the competition I would encourage all STEM students to have a go.
“It is a fantastic opportunity to get a real insight into the energy industry and to see how your academic skills apply in the oil and gas sector. We found both the competition and the field trip itself to be great experiences.”
Full details of Ultimate Challenge 2014 can be found on BP’s website under the graduates section.
Recommended for you
