UT PGE Hosts 5th Annual Energy AI Hackathon
January 30, 2025
Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (UT PGE) professors John Foster and Michael Pyrcz co-hosted The University of Texas at Austin’s fifth annual Energy AI Hackathon Jan. 24–26.
Nearly 200 students from schools and departments across UT Austin registered for the popular event, including participants from the Cockrell School of Engineering, the College of Natural Sciences, the Jackson School of Geosciences and the McCombs School of Business. Fifteen teams completed the hackathon, submitting solutions and presenting to a panel of expert judges on Sunday.
Participants were tasked with solving a challenging multivariate energy problem designed by UT PGE Hackathon architects Elnara Rustamzade (PhD PE 2025) and Ahmed Merzoug (PhD PE 2026) using data provided by event silver sponsor ExxonMobil and curated by completions engineer Amy Rueve (BSPE 2019). On Friday evening, students attended a refresher workshop on data analytics and machine learning led by Dr. Foster and Dr. Pyrcz, who revealed the hackathon problem at the end of the night. Teams then spent Saturday and Sunday using open source Python and R to code their proposed solutions and refining their work with guidance from expert mentors representing Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Coterra, Elk Range Royalties, EOG, Equinor, ExxonMobil and Schlumberger. Sunday afternoon, teams presented their solutions to a panel of data science experts from Aramco Americas, ConocoPhillips, Elk Range Royalties, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Subsurface Consultants and Associates.
Through the Energy AI Hackathon, students not only gain valuable skills that set them apart in the workforce, but they also get unparalleled access to experts and potential mentors. “Data science is a crucial part of success in today’s energy industry, and students who have experience analyzing big data sets automatically stand out among their peers,” says Rueve. “UT PGE’s hackathon is a tremendous opportunity for them to stretch their brains and challenge themselves, all while connecting with people who love doing this for a living every day. It’s a win for students and companies alike — these aspiring engineers and data scientists will one day be leading our industry.”
This year’s top 4 Energy AI Hackathon teams earned a total of $9,000 in prize money:
First Place
Zülküf Azizoglu (PGE)
Paawan Desai (ECE)
Ibrahim Gomaa (PGE
Fehmi Özbayrak (PGE)
Yevgeniy Samarkin (PGE)
Second Place
Rashed AlSuhabi (PGE)
Satvik Duddukuru (CS)
Parth Gupta (CS)
Akshat Kumar (CS)
Joshua Yue (CS)
Third Place
Robert Hua (PGE)
Andrew Li (CS/Business)
Zafir Nasim (CS/Business)
Warith Rahman (CS)
Michael Xiang (CS/Business)
Fourth Place
Alexander Bui (PGE)
Naoufal Ennadi (PGE)
Tony Le (CS)
Daniel Pang (PGE)
Oscar Roman (PGE)
Thank you to our 2025 Energy AI Hackathon sponsors:
Platinum
Chevron
Phillips66
Silver
Aramco Americas
ExxonMobil
Shell
Bronze
Elk Range Royalties
Dig Deeper
- See photos from the 2025 Energy AI Hackathon.
- Check out Professor Michael Pyrcz’s free data science resources, including lectures, textbooks and GitHub repositories.
- Sign up to be notified about the 2026 Energy AI Hackathon.
Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (UT PGE) professors John Foster and Michael Pyrcz co-hosted The University of Texas at Austin’s fifth annual Energy AI Hackathon Jan. 24–26.
Nearly 200 students from schools and departments across UT Austin registered for the popular event, including participants from the Cockrell School of Engineering, the College of Natural Sciences, the Jackson School of Geosciences and the McCombs School of Business. Fifteen teams completed the hackathon, submitting solutions and presenting to a panel of expert judges on Sunday.
Participants were tasked with solving a challenging multivariate energy problem designed by UT PGE Hackathon architects Elnara Rustamzade (PhD PE 2025) and Ahmed Merzoug (PhD PE 2026) using data provided by event silver sponsor ExxonMobil and curated by completions engineer Amy Rueve (BSPE 2019). On Friday evening, students attended a refresher workshop on data analytics and machine learning led by Dr. Foster and Dr. Pyrcz, who revealed the hackathon problem at the end of the night. Teams then spent Saturday and Sunday using open source Python and R to code their proposed solutions and refining their work with guidance from expert mentors representing Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Coterra, Elk Range Royalties, EOG, Equinor, ExxonMobil and Schlumberger. Sunday afternoon, teams presented their solutions to a panel of data science experts from Aramco Americas, ConocoPhillips, Elk Range Royalties, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Subsurface Consultants and Associates.
Through the Energy AI Hackathon, students not only gain valuable skills that set them apart in the workforce, but they also get unparalleled access to experts and potential mentors. “Data science is a crucial part of success in today’s energy industry, and students who have experience analyzing big data sets automatically stand out among their peers,” says Rueve. “UT PGE’s hackathon is a tremendous opportunity for them to stretch their brains and challenge themselves, all while connecting with people who love doing this for a living every day. It’s a win for students and companies alike — these aspiring engineers and data scientists will one day be leading our industry.”
This year’s top 4 Energy AI Hackathon teams earned a total of $9,000 in prize money:
First Place
Zülküf Azizoglu (PGE)
Paawan Desai (ECE)
Ibrahim Gomaa (PGE
Fehmi Özbayrak (PGE)
Yevgeniy Samarkin (PGE)
Second Place
Rashed AlSuhabi (PGE)
Satvik Duddukuru (CS)
Parth Gupta (CS)
Akshat Kumar (CS)
Joshua Yue (CS)
Third Place
Robert Hua (PGE)
Andrew Li (CS/Business)
Zafir Nasim (CS/Business)
Warith Rahman (CS)
Michael Xiang (CS/Business)
Fourth Place
Alexander Bui (PGE)
Naoufal Ennadi (PGE)
Tony Le (CS)
Daniel Pang (PGE)
Oscar Roman (PGE)
Thank you to our 2025 Energy AI Hackathon sponsors:
Platinum
Chevron
Phillips66
Silver
Aramco Americas
ExxonMobil
Shell
Bronze
Elk Range Royalties
Dig Deeper
- See photos from the 2025 Energy AI Hackathon.
- Check out Professor Michael Pyrcz’s free data science resources, including lectures, textbooks and GitHub repositories.
- Sign up to be notified about the 2026 Energy AI Hackathon.
