The UAF Petroleum Engineering Department accepted a membership to the American Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE) on Nov. 18.

The association is a professional organization based in Texas, into which only six other colleges have been admitted for membership. Its focus is on petroleum drilling technology, and according to the student sponsor of the association, Chris Stone, it will lead to opportunities for students including seminars, social events and field trips, including possibilities for UAF students to visit drilling sites in Alaska.

"In class you get fundamentals, but you don't necessarily learn the latest techniques," Stone said. "This is an industry that is changing by leaps and bounds."

The faculty adviser for the UAF chapter of AADE is Professor Godwin Chukwu. Chukwu said he hopes the association will draw membership from a broad spectrum of the student body. "It is a very good opportunity, not only for drilling engineers, but for any students who are interested in this industry, whatever their field of study may be," Chukwu said.

Chukwu said that he had been working to bring AADE to the campus for a year, and that it was the accomplishments of students at UAF that had made the membership in the association possible, noting that two petroleum engineering students had been asked to present abstracts at a conference in Houston.

The Alaska chapter of AADE, which is based in Anchorage, sent British Petroleum employee Mik Triolo as a representative for the induction ceremony and to sign the charter. Triolo is a UAF graduate and went to high school in Nenana. "There is a chapter of the SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) on campus already, but AADE will focus specifically on drilling," Triolo said.

Triolo hopes to find opportunities for students to work in the field with BP, but said that nothing is set yet. Drilling engineering students are already planning to acquire some real world experience with the ASRC company at an upcoming project in Nenana, however.