Mentor Visit #4

Mentor: Dr. Tim Barckholtz 

Profession: Senior Scientific Advisor at ExxonMobil

Location: Zoom Meeting

Date: 2/18/21

Time: 3:30 pm- 4:30 pm

 

Assessment:

        Throughout the past week I focused on progress on my final product, more specifically on the program that I am utilizing for data analysis. I was happy to share this progress with my mentor during this visit. I believe my mentor was quite happy to see my progress and impressed with my program that did significant data analysis with complete accuracy and efficiency. From this, we discussed the next steps in my data analysis. I had only completed this process for the downloaded data for Texas so we discussed expanding my program to include other states in the Gulf Coast Region including Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. 
        Another interesting thing that we discussed regarding my current data analysis was something that my mentor uses on a daily basis called a whale curve. This curve is created by plotting the CO2 emissions on the y- axis and the total pipeline distance on the x- axis. My mentor showed me how this curve is in the shape of a whale where the slope is very steep to start with and then levels off as the pipeline distance increases. The goal of creating new pipelines is to increase the slope of this curve and eliminate the portion where the curve levels off. In simpler terms, my mentor explained that our goal was to decrease the amount of pipelines while continuing to capture and transport the max amount of carbon dioxide. My mentor continues to show me numerous techniques regarding data analysis using the excel spreadsheet. I am extremely grateful that my mentor is sharing his knowledge regarding data analysis with me because I think it really broadens my abilities to analyze data in a complete manner. 
        I feel like I have made so much progress on my final product, most of which would not be possible without the help and knowledge of my mentor. My mentor has continuously pushed me throughout these past weeks  and really pushed my abilities. This is by far the one of the most rewarding parts of this experience considering that my mentor continues to not only share his extensive knowledge with me. He also pushes me to complete my work in a timely manner so that my final product can be as complete and thorough as possible. 
        My mentor also suggested that every time I complete a major part of my project I write a short paragraph of the process that I follow for future reference. He explained that since this project is so long, the best way to remember everything about the process is to catalog everything as I go. I thought this was great advice as this was definitely a struggle regarding my original work and I really appreciated my mentor sharing this bit of professional advice with me. 
        Overall, I am truly enjoying and learning from my mentor experience. I feel like my professional skills have grown exponentially over the course of this mentorship and I look forward to the knowledge that I will gain over the remainder of this mentorship.