PetroBowl Team Goes Undefeated
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May 10, 2023
The University of Texas at Austin’s PetroBowl Team has won the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) 2023 North American Regional Competition held in March.
The team is made up of Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering students Deena Elhossary (PhD PE 2026), Dany Hachem (PhD PE 2024), Blazej Ksiazek (MSPE 2023), Misael Morales (PhD PE 2025), Divya Shah (MSPE 2023), Isaac Aliwewe (BSPE 2025), Nadia Mouedden (PhD PE 2027), and Amber Nguyen (BSGEH 2024).
The UT PetroBowl team defeated teams from the University of Calgary, Louisiana State University, Texas Tech, the Memorial University of Newfoundland, UT–Permian Basin and Texas A&M University before besting the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in the final questions of the championship round. With the win, the UT Austin team earned a spot to compete at the PetroBowl world finals later this year in San Antonio.
“The day was a fairy-tale ending to the competition as well as to my PetroBowl career,” says Ksiazek. “I’m graduating with my master’s this May — what a way to end it! I’m looking forward to volunteering for future PetroBowl competitions and wish my Longhorn teammates the best of luck.”
“We hope that current and upcoming students follow in the tradition to participate in the PetroBowl competition and improve their knowledge and understanding of our industry,” agreed Shah. ''My PetroBowl experience was also helpful in landing me a job, so it's great for networking.”
This year’s regional victory was especially poignant for the team, after the death of longtime team member Ram Disabar Jr. (MSPE 2023) in December. They dedicated their win to Disabar, who was always supportive both in and out of the competition and had been in school with some of them for almost a decade.
“We want to honor Ram’s memory by continuing to practice the love and kindness that he showed to everyone, as well as the dedication he put into PetroBowl,” said Ksiazek.
