A team of students from ANPERC represented KAUST in the EVOLVE exploration program, organized by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG). 

EVOLVE is a mentor-guided virtual internship program that involves teams working together to build foundational knowledge by integrating technical and commercial data for business decisions. The program includes exploration workflows; subsurface characterization; economics and business management training that can be used in oil & gas exploration; carbon storage projects; and geothermal energy and other applications that require integrating geology, geophysics, petrophysics, engineering, business, and communication skills.

Now celebrating its fourth year, SEG's EVOLVE experiential learning program has engaged more than 400 participants from 60 universities based in more than 40 countries.

The KAUSTERS team consisted of Aytaj Khodayeva (Team Leader and Carbon Mitigation Leader), Maria Camila Lopez (Geologist), Nicolas Boehm (Geophysicist) and Daniela Arias Ortiz (Reservoir Engineer). Their faculty advisor was Professor Abdulkader Al-Afifi.

The KAUSTERS explored the North Taranaki Basin in New Zealand using real seismic and well data.

They delivered their final investment presentation last August at the 2023 SEG IMAGE Conference in Houston to a panel of judges from major international companies that sponsor the EVOLVE program.