Ranging from geoscience to electrical engineering, students can expand their knowledge of data analysis skills, which are increasingly in demand across the globe.

The Data Analytics for Petroleum Industry, or DAPI, certificate is a new Texas A&M Institute of Data Science program which gives students from any majors an opportunity to get certified in data science. Though open to all majors, the certification curriculum is designed to make students more competitive candidates for the oil and gas industry in particular.

The DAPI program provides interdisciplinary coursework likely uncommon for undergraduate students, assistant instructional professor Dave Bapst said. Bapst said the program brings together students from a variety of educational backgrounds including geophysics, business, computer science, electrical engineering, geology and petroleum engineering.

“[DAPI] is built on leveraging that tripartite relationship with respect to our earth’s energy resources, bringing together students,” Bapst said.

As a faculty member of the Department of Geology and Geophysics, Bapst said he teaches GEOL 360, Analyzing Data in Geology, a requirement for undergraduate geology and geophysics students pursuing the DAPI certificate. 

“This class will introduce students to analyzing earth-systems data and learning to program in the open-source language R,” Bapst said. “Nothing in data science makes sense if you don’t know the basic details of how data in a particular field is generated.”

The petroleum industry has been evolving at a rapid pace for decades and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, petroleum engineering professor Siddharth Misra said. DAPI offers financial aid for those wanting to study the subject but being unable to due to the added costs of increased coursework, he said. 

“The petroleum industry is the key to ensuring our energy needs are met,” Misra said. “There are eight scholarships that have not been given out yet.”

Misra said the certificate program seamlessly blends into the degree plans of a variety of majors. With some courses being common across the board, the general syllabus structure begins with one- and three-credit hour courses and ends with a Capstone project class. 

“The final is a Capstone project course that allows students to develop their own solutions to global industry issues,” Misra said. “[The petroleum industry] needs engineers and scientists trained in data science application. The skills taught for this certificate help [students] find a job in the [Petroleum Engineering] industry.”