Earth Resources Laboratory :: Sponsors

Founding Member

The Founding Membership Program of the Earth Resources Laboratory allows the Lab to collaborate with industrial partners on research topics of mutual interest. Founding Members provide ERL with a broad funding base to support graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and equipment related to our development of interdisciplinary research topics. Founding Membership also provides the seed funding to initiate research projects of interest to our members. This membership also leads to collaborative bilateral projects on specific topics. Annual membership costs for the consortium are $50,000 (US).

Deliverables to sponsors include the following:

Attendance at Annual Research Meetings and Workshops held at MIT.
Annual Report containing research results.
Use of all software programs and algorithms developed at ERL within the program (e.g., signal processing, acoustic log analysis and modeling, numerical modeling codes, inversion algorithms).
Interaction and consultation with ERL staff and students on topics of interest to the sponsor.
Sponsor is entitled to send scientists to ERL for extended periods of time to work on research and development topics with ERL staff and students.

Some of our current research interests:

Reservoir characterization and monitoring
- Fractured reservoirs: seismic scattering attributes for fracture orientation and density estimation
- Reservoir monitoring: passive seismics and GPS methods for reservoir compaction analysis; hydrofrac mapping and characterization

New imaging and inversion methods
- Seismic interferometry applications (subsalt; salt flank imaging)
- 3D/4D VSP applications
- Tomographic and passive seismic imaging methods
- Full waveform inversion
Borehole acoustics and rock physics
- Acoustic logging in anisotropic and heterogeneous formations
- Acoustic LWD theory and data analysis
- Seismoelectric phenomena for permeability estimation
- Pore-scale rock physics modeling
Elastic wave propagation
- Finite difference modeling with stretched grids, anisotropy, and attenuation
- Seismic scattering
Electrical Methods
- SP/IP imaging
- Resistivity inversion
- GPR
- Electrokinetic theory and applications
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