Page 11 - 2020 GGE Newsletter

Page 11

A NOTE FROM THE GGE PROFESSIONAL MASTER PROGRAMS

(NON-THESIS) AND OUR NEW EARTH RESOURCE DATA SCIENCE GRADUATE CER-
TIFICATE

WRITTEN BY MARY DOHERTY AND ZANE JOBE

The Department of Geology and Geological Engineering currently offers a Professional Master’s Degree (non-thesis)
in three specialty areas: Mineral Exploration, Geological Engineering, Petroleum Reservoir Systems. The di-
rectors for these programs are Dr. Zhaoshan Chang, Dr, Paul Santi, and Dr. Steve Sonnenberg (with faulty collaborators in
Geophysical and Petroleum Engineering).
In addition, a one term Certificate is available in Economic Geology and Mineral Exploration (Dr. Chang), and in 2020 a
new graduate Certificate is offered in Earth Resource Data Science by Dr. Zane Jobe. These are certificates are tailored to
working professionals in the Mining Industry who wish to take a step increasing their education while remaining at work.
Credits for these Certificates can be applied to a Master’s Degree.

Current Undergraduate students at Colorado School of Mines may take advantage of a “4+1” program whereby they can
double count up to 6 credits from specific 400-level courses and need only an additional 24 credit hours to complete a Pro-
fessional Master’s Degree.
Mary Doherty is the manager for the Mineral Exploration and Economic Geology programs, working with Dr. Chang and
others in the department. The program has six students in the program for Fall term, and 10 scheduled for Spring term.
Many of these students are returning from time working in the industry, and bring a variety of their own experience to the
program. The current group represent students from the USA, Mexico, Canada, Kazakhstan, UAE, and Indonesia.
The Earth Resource Data Science graduate certificate is offered by Dr. Zane Jobe, new in 2020. Data science is a
vitally important skill, particularly when paired with deep domain knowledge, and Mines is uniquely positioned to provide
this training. This program will enable students to organize, analyze, and visualize earth-resource data as well as automate
repetitive tasks, making them more efficient and innovative scientists. The program covers fundamental data science (no
pre-requisites necessary!) and advanced topics including machine-learning and web-scraping. The program introduces
the fundamentals of python data science as it pertains to characterization, extraction, and sustainable development of sur-
face and subsurface Earth resources.
This graduate certificate consists of four courses (12 credit hours). All courses are fully online and 'asynchronous', meaning
there is no official time that the class meets. All the work is done at your own pace, and from anywhere in the world! How-
ever, there are structured times for students to be able to interact with faculty “live” via office hours and other means.
Fourteen elective choices offer flexibility, allowing students to customize the certificate towards their industry or interests.
The courses include DSCI403 Introduction to Data Science, GEOL557 Earth Resource Data Science I – Fundamentals,
GEOL558 Earth Resource Data Science II – Applications and Machine-Learning. Elective choices and information:
https://github.com/zanejobe/Mines-ERDS.

Figure: Core photo and derived ‘psuedo gamma ray’ log for automated facies
classification using python (photo courtesy Thomas Martin and Ross Meyer)