University of Memphis - SEG student chapter (2015-2016)
I was the president of University of Memphis SEG student chapter in 2015-2016. Our team (Naeem Khoshnevis-President, Md Monsurul Huda-Vice President,Yang Yang-Secretary, Chloe Olivia Glover-Treasurer) conducted a good amount of activities in this period. Education and outreach activities are one of the most important pieces of any SEG Student Chapter. In this section we divided our efforts into three main categories.
- Educating the public about the geosciences
- Encouraging others to become geoscientist
- Educating local professionals to gain a higher level of skills and knowledge
With many different fields of study and outstanding findings, geoscience has always been of interest to the public. The community wants to know more about climate change, earthquakes, and natural resources for energy purposes. In recent decades, researchers worked on correlation between the fracking and an increase in the number of earthquakes in different parts of the United States. Even though many earthquakes are attributed to fracking and wastewater disposal, some of the seismicity is natural. The public often asks our specialists at the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) about this phenomenon. This public interest led us to ask Dr. Cliff Frohlich, who has authored over 100 research papers and two books, to come to Memphis and give a talk about induced seismicity. We submitted a proposal to the Student Event Allocation of the University of Memphis and received funding for travel and lodging for the speaker, and venue and food for 200 participants. The event was supposed to be held on September 18, 2014 with the title of "Human caused earthquakes in Texas and elsewhere: what we know and what we don't know." Unfortunately due to inclement weather, Dr. Frohlich was unable to come to Memphis and the event was cancelled. In 2015, we gave the event another try. We rescheduled the talk for March 5, 2015. Unfortunately, again because of inclement weather, Dr. Frohlich couldn't travel to Memphis and the talk was cancelled. We also try to invite college freshman and high school students to the Earthquake Center and talk to them about the opportunities in the field of geoscience. We try to make students aware of the different degrees available in the geosciences. We reach out to college-bound high school students and undergraduate students from related fields like engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics, or geology who want to study geoscience as a graduate degree.
In order to ensure a friendly and cooperative environment we have different activities at CERI during each semester. These activities include Pumpkin Carving, Ping- Pong Tournament, Bad Science Movie Night, and CERI Trivia. In 2015 we hosted a pumpkin carving event. The pumpkin carving event was a potluck where students from different fields of study brought cultural food to represent their heritage. This year marked the 3rd time that the University of Memphis Chapter of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists held the Pumpkin Carving event. The participants were from the Earth Science, CERI, Engineering, and Computer Science departments. Overall, it was a successful event and there was a considerable amount of discussion between students.
As long as scientists are educating the public about the geosciences, current geoscientists need to update their knowledge and gain new skills. As a part of the SEG Distinguished Lecturer Program, on October 5, 2015 we hosted Dr. Hansruedi Maurer from ETH Zurich as a 2015 distinguished lecturer. Dr. Maurer presented a lecture titled "The curse of dimensionality in exploring the subsurface". Many students from Center for Earthquake Research and Information, Engineering Department, and Earth Science Department attended the talk.
Having a more successful year in terms of educating public and professionals, we planned the activities of 2016 at the last internal meeting of the 2015. Many of the activities discussed in our end-of-the-year meeting have been hosted in 2016. A list of the events with brief explanations is available below.
Join in January, January 26, 2016.The purpose of this event is to advertise the SEG student chapter and look forward to some potential new members for the organization. We set up a three-component seismometer and use a scope to show the real time seismogram. Many students were interested in the event and registered to be a member of the SEG student chapter.
Bad Science Movie Night, February 23, 2016
The University of Memphis Chapter of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists hosted our first Bad Science Movie Night by showing San Andreas! This movie stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and highlights Hollywood's misunderstand of how the Earth moves and where and how earthquakes occur. SEG members gathered in CERI's seminar room, ate popcorn, and tore apart the bad science in the film. We look forward to many more Bad Science Movie Nights in the future!
Educating 5th grade students, March 2, 2016
5th grade students of Grace St Luke's Episcopal school came to the Center for Earthquake Research and Information. There were 45 students including three teachers/coordinators. SEG student chapter members (Naeem Khoshnevis and Chloe Glover) helped Dr. Kent Moran to setup the educational tools. Dr. Moran gave a presentation about the New Madrid seismic zone and historical earthquakes in the New Madrid seismic zone and Mississippi embayment. He demonstrated the seismic waves and how the seismic instruments record the data. He showed actual destruction through a shake table demonstration with a toy house and dolls set up inside, and tangible liquefaction through the liquefaction table. SEG student chapter members answered all questions of students during the meeting.
Herff Scholars Day , March 5, 2016
University of Memphis School of Engineering hosted a group of high school and college students. Professors and graduate students explained the different fields of study to visitors. University of Memphis SEG Student Chapter requested a desk one week in advance, and a student chapter member (Naeem Khoshnevis) presented the vast job and research opportunities in engineering seismology. In general there were 5 groups with approximately 10-15 students and parents per group. Students showed interest in engineering seismology and they asked several questions. We handed out the address of the website and Facebook page of the University of Memphis SEG Chapter in order to help them find more information about seismology and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.
SEG Ping Pong Tournament, March 18, 2016
We had 16 participants as players, plus an outstanding number of students and faculties as onlookers. Each year this tournament brings many students from different departments to the Center for Earthquake Research and Information.
How well do you know CERI? - SEG Trivia, April 8, 2016,
The University of Memphis Chapter of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists hosted a trivia night with questions centered on our department's history. The Center for Earthquake Research and Information has a 39-year history of world-class research, large seismic networks, and graduate students from all over the planet. We had 12 participants in CERI trivia divided up into four teams. Players were students, faculty, and staff members of all different backgrounds and experience levels.
Seismic Instrument Workshop, April 11-13, 2016
The Seismic Instrument Workshop organized by the SEG Student Chapter University of Memphis was a three hour long workshop spanned over three days. This workshop was conducted by Dr. Steve Horton, Research professor at CERI, with the help of technical experts Jim Bolowerk and Chris McGoldrick. The workshop began on April 11th with a lecture by Dr. Horton on an overview of the seismic instruments. He provided lectures on the types of seismometers, how they work, pros and cons of different types of seismometers, how a seismic stations work, and what the necessary components of a permanent station and a real-time seismic station are. He also covered different aspects of seismograms, the data, frequency range, difference between strong motion, weak motion and broad-band seismometers. The second day was a hands-on experience demonstrating how to install a seismic station; participants installed three different types of seismometers. The first two types were real-time stations, with a strong-motion and a broad-band seismometer, another two seismometers were the permanent type stations used for quick aftershock surveys. The third and conclusive day was to demobilize the stations and access the data. Dr. Horton showed participants how to access the real time data as well as data stored with the station. He also showed how to process the data and convert it to velocity and acceleration. This workshop was attended by students from different backgrounds such as geophysics, civil engineering, geology, and so on. The number of participants was an impressive 20 people per day. We are expecting to extend this workshop to a larger audience in the near future.
