By: Muhammad ‘Aqil Syahiran Izham and Dr. Muhammad Khairul Adib Muhammad Yusof

Kuala Lumpur, 18^th November 2024 – The Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) team was crowned the winner of the APGCE GeoHackathon 2024, held from 16^th to 18^th November 2024, in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. The competition tested participants' programming skills and creativity in solving geoscience problems. It was part of the Asia Pacific Geoscience Conference and Exhibition (APGCE) 2024, a conference bringing together leading experts and companies in the exploration and geosciences industries.

The team's innovation impressed the judging panel with an AI model based on U-Net architecture designed to detect fault lines in seismic data. The model offers a faster and more consistent method compared to manual techniques, with significant potential in the geoscience industry.

Despite the tight timeline of less than 48 hours, the team overcame various challenges, including issues of inconsistent data quality, lack of labeled data, and data imbalance. By employing techniques such as data augmentation and normalization, they created a suitable dataset for training the model.

The team leader, Dr. Muhammad Khairul Adib Muhammad Yusof, a senior lecturer at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, UPM, stated that this achievement showcases the capabilities of AI technology and Malaysia’s young talents in delivering world-class innovations. He also expressed his deepest appreciation to JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration for their expert guidance during the team's preparations.

The team included two PhD candidates from UPM's Faculty of Science, Muhammad ‘Aqil Syahiran Izham and Nur Syaiful Afrizal, as well as two PhD candidates from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia: Muhammad Kasyful Qaedi Maad Tazri (who is also a data engineer at JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration) and Nur Fatin Irdina Zulhamidi.

The team plans to enhance their model by incorporating more labeled datasets and testing its application on different geological structures. This success highlights the potential of UPM researchers to compete on par with major petroleum companies in Malaysia within the geophysics industry.

Date of Input: 28/11/2024 | Updated: 02/12/2024 | adib.yusof