Each year, thousands of people benefit from programs supported by the AAPG Foundation – but this year, thanks to its involvement with the Venture Lab initiative, that number may soar to incalculable numbers.
Venture Lab is a program started last year with AAPG Foundation support by the AAPG Sustainable Development Committee to specifically assist and manage its annual Sustainable Development in Energy Competition.
The top 10 teams in this year’s SDEC are currently in the final phases of competition, with the finals set for June 12. (Finalists listed below.)
The SDEC is a global contest in which students and young professionals conceive and then create energy projects that promote sustainable development within social, environmental and economic impacts.
Proposals, which are judged by members of the SDEC Committee, focus on using energy and geosciences to help improve life (and lives) around the world – a global impact via practical, tangible uses of geosciences.
Once the finalists have been determined, those teams get to participate in the Venture Lab program, where they receive expert advice, training and guidance in how to develop and turn their proposals into reality.
The 2025 Venture Lab program is sponsored by the Foundation.
“This Venture Lab addition to the SDEC is something new and exciting and makes the Foundation Trustees very happy to support, because we believe the geosciences can and should be used in ways that improves the quality of life for people who really need some help, and this opportunity should allow these top proposals to be put into action,” said Foundation Chair Jim McGhay.
Part of the Foundation’s mission, McGhay reminded, is specifically to fund programs that provide opportunities for younger geoscientists “to improve the quality of life for people around the world through humanitarian relief efforts using geoscience technology.”
“We’ve heard from many of our supporters who applaud our involvement with programs that are delivering geoscience expertise and benefits to our planet,” McGhay added.
“And in addition to helping people around the world, we’re also able to assist some young geoscientists in doing good things for their communities at the very starts of their careers,” he added. “These amazing and hard-working young geoscientists could one day transform not only their local areas, but the world.
“Who knows how many people may eventually be impacted by this?”
The SDEC itself, started in 2019 “to harness the creativity of young people in developing innovative and sustainable development projects across the energy spectrum,” involved teams from AAPG’s Latin America and Caribbean Region for its first two years, then expanded to a global contest.
Sponsors for the SDEC have included, in addition to the Foundation and Chevron, BP, Aramco and SLB.
Key players in the program’s creation and development have been SDC co-chairs Elvira Gomez and Julian Chenin. This year’s competition is the fourth to be held with global involvement.
“The goal is to encourage sustainable development in energy industries and generate practical ideas that can be implemented to promoted science and technology relevant to energy issues,” Gomez said, “with a positive social, environmental and economic impact.”
Venture Lab Expertise
This year’s competition opened in late January, with 39 teams entering the contest. Those original proposals were judged and narrowed down to the top 10, with those teams entering the Venture Lab process for the final competition.
The AAPG Venture Lab, again with AAPG Foundation support, is a cohort-based program that helps the finalists develop their proposals into commercially scalable projects.
The finalists have Venture Lab sessions on Thursdays as they develop their proposals.
The Venture Lab is operated by PRO ALLY, an energy-focused communications and stakeholder management company which focusses on “deepening entrepreneurial knowledge across sustainable solutions in the energy sector.”
It also provides faculty-led coaching, industry collaboration and investment readiness programs alongside an open demo day event for participants.
Final project video presentations will be held June 12, with “seed money” awards presented to the top three projects:
- First place – $5,000.
- Second place – $3,000.
- Third place – $2,000.
This year’s finalists are:
- M.J. Rivera (group), “CH4Gen1: Design and Development of a Modular Mobile Digester for Biomethane and Biofertilizer Generation” (Philippines)
- Maria Alaimo (group), “Bioenergy from Cacao and Coffee Waste: Advancing Rural Sustainability in Colombia” (Colombia)
- Khumbo Mindiera, “Sustainable Energy and Clean Cooking: Harnessing Methane Gas from Animal Waste for Combustion and Thermoelectric Power Generation” (Malawi)
- Mohammad Yasar (group), “Energon – Biomass Valorization” (India)
- Juan David Palma Montealegre, “Eggshells for Sustainable Mining: REEs and Hydroxyapatite as Byproducts of Geothermal Energy Systems” (Colombia)
- Erika Humanez Jimenez (group), “Autonomous Precision Irrigation with Bimetallic Motion Solar Collector Panels in Avocado Crops” (Colombia)
- Safry Sitorus (group), “Hydrolite: Portable Mini-Hydro Solution for Off-Grid Geotourism Areas” (Indonesia)
- M.D. Arhaan Ahmad (group), “Solar-Hydrokinetic Recharge and Resurgence Hub (SHRRH) Project” (India)
- Rudradip Khanra (group), “BERS: A Sustainable Approach to Waste-to-Energy Conversion” (India)
- Angie Roldan (group), “Sustainable Energy and Clean Mining for Territorial Development” (Colombia)