Innovation is central to everything we do at Ternan. We are proud to attract the best talent to our team and provide excellent service to our Clients.
We sat down with our newest team member, Dr Samarth Bachkheti, to discuss his role at Ternan and the advanced tools we are developing for machine learning and AI tools for geoscientific interpretation.
Hi Sam, tell us about your background
I started my career in oil and gas development. As a geophysicist, I worked on software support, FEED studies, seismic interpretation and geological modelling for large oil and gas companies, both on and off-site.
I then pursued a PhD in seismic geomechanics, looking at understanding how rocks deform when we extract hydrocarbons or when we try to inject fluid back into them. Afterwards, I joined Newcastle University in the business development team to bring industry projects into the institution and provide technical consultancy to engineering startups and SME’s based in Northeast England. During this time, I applied my PhD research in offshore wind site investigation, interpreting geophysical datasets for ground modelling.
From there, it was a natural progression into the renewable sector with the skills I had developed. At Ternan I can apply my technical expertise to offshore wind site investigation, data processing and data analysis.
Tell us more about the new AI tools and data services from Ternan
I am currently working on innovation projects where we are developing advanced tools for marine geophysical investigation. One of these projects is a collaboration with the data scientists from the National Innovation Centre for Data, or Hartree Centre, where we will develop an AI tool for seabed interpretation and object detection, enabling us to offer machine learning-based tools for marine geophysical data interpretation.
I am also working on reprocessing geophysical data for our Clients, and we are developing advanced methods to improve the integration of datasets.
As part of my role at Ternan, I oversee data management and evaluation, put together proposals, and input into the development of technical scopes for site investigations. I also manage offshore client representatives and conduct quality control assessments of contractor deliverables and reports for major offshore wind developers.
What are the benefits of these new services to our Clients?
The aim is to optimise the information that can be extracted from available geophysical data, improve the geological understanding and reduce uncertainty in order to support our clients get the most out of their sites data. With the machine learning approach, we aim to reduce human bias and error from manual interpretation while at the same time reducing the cost of such a time-consuming and resource-consuming task.
Can you tell us more about Ternan’s approach to transforming data into strategic insights?
For data-driven projects it is most important that we know the quality of the data beforehand. When we take on a project, we carry out a thorough analysis of the data quality and what we can extract out of it.
Any engineering investigation study will always have constraints, so we mitigate these while balancing our Client’s expectations against what can be delivered.
Using innovation, expertise and cutting-edge methodologies, Ternan can help companies derive the most value out of their data. Clients might understand the data but need to know what they can achieve with it.
Risks are also mitigated when the data is appropriately processed and analysed – this is what we do best at Ternan. Our new tools extract more information from the data, lowering operational risk. With initial design data risk assessed, Clients can develop a strategy to acquire more specialist data which we can then use to forecast and mitigate risk and come up with new solutions for their projects.
One of the best things about working with Ternan is our innovation and collaboration with different organisations. With Ternan you are not just getting one person, it’s a partnership with the best in the industry.
How do you work with the wider Ternan team?
At Ternan, our multidisciplinary approach is key to our success. We hold regular meetings where GIS analysts, geotechnical engineers and client representatives collaborate to examine projects from multiple angles. These meetings, coupled with frequent Client updates, ensure we’re always aligned with project needs and expectations.
Each project combines a team with diverse expertise, enabling thorough examination of all the data. This collaborative culture, blending various perspectives and skills, allows us to deliver innovative, comprehensive solutions to our clients.
If you would like to know more about our data services and innovation projects please email info@ternan-energy.com we’d love to tell you more about this. To find out more about our services please visit www.ternan-energy.com