The AAPG Student Chapter of the Department of Applied Geology, Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad, organized the third Annual Students Meet during 18-20 August 2017. The meet was attended by more than 125 participants from different Universities and colleges of India and also by the students of IIT(ISM) Dhanbad. The event was supported by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd., Cairn Oil and Gas, Vedanta Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., and Oil India Ltd, Ltd. The Inaugural ceremony was presided by Prof. D. C. Panigrahi, Director, IIT (ISM), Dhanbad, who extended a warm welcome to all the delegates and participants with his stimulating address and encouraged the students to come up with innovative ideas to confront challenges faced by the hydrocarbon industry. Mr Chakradhar Mahapatra, Executive Director, Basin Manager, Mahanadi-Bengal-Andaman basins, ONGC, Kolkata was the Chief Guest and Mr. Sujoy Mukherjee (Cairn Oil and Gas, Vedanta Ltd), was the Guest of Honor. Other dignitaries who were present were Prof. Deepankar Asthana (Head, Department of Applied Geology, IIT (ISM), Dr. Mrinal Kanti Mukherjee (Faculty Advisor of AAPG Student Chapter and Convener of the Annual Students Meet 2017) and Mr. Nirakara Mahanta (Student Vice President of AAPG Students Chapter IIT(ISM), Dhanbad.

The meet was aimed at developing strong platform for interaction and exchange of knowledge between industry and academia through many events like keynote addresses, workshops, competitive events and interactive sessions in which industrial professionals were directly involved with the students and Faculty Advisor. The event started with a stimulating keynote address by Mr. Chakradhar Mahapatra, from ONGC, where he spoke on the unique combinations of controlling factors leading to oil generation. The talk invited several questions from the students which he was happy to answer. It was followed by a brief talk by Mr. Sujoy Mukherjee from Cairn Oil and Gas on integrated Reservoir management. Post lunch, an intensive workshop was organized by Cairn India to mark the Cairn Day. The workshop involved exercises on case studies and presentations for the participating students that was coordinated and evaluated by Mr. Sujoy Mukherjee, Mr.Anant Jain and Ms. Moumita Banerjee from Cairn Oil and Gas. Winners were from IIT (ISM) Dhanbad. On 19th August, several competitive events like Geomodelling, Paper and poster presentation were organized. Vibrant cultural programs were organized in the evening of 18th and 19th August 2017. The final day of 20th August was packed with several competitive events like Poster and Photography presentations, Quizzes and Geo-Olympiad. Students from various universities participated in the events. The events were judged by Dr. M. K. Mukherjee, Dr. Anup Krishna Prasad, Dr. R. Anand from IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, Mr. Anant Jain and Ms. Moumita Banerjee from Cairn Oil and Gas. Winners of the events were felicitated by certificate of merit. The event benefited from the tireless efforts of the student members of the organizing committee including, Sourav Mukherjee, Sashank Bhushan, Fawz Naim, Vikas Rajak, Nirakar Mahanta, Trisha Das, Julie Dutta, Soumya Ghosh, and many others.

Article contributed by Dr. Mrinal Kanti Mukherjee Associate Professor Coordinator- M. Tech(Engineering Geology) Department of Applied Geology, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines; Dhanbad; India)