In a major milestone for energy innovation education in the Caribbean region, a student team from Suriname’s Anton de Kom University (AdeKUS) has claimed first place at the 2026 Halliburton Energy Innovation Challenge Hackathon, capping off the annual Suriname Energy, Oil & Gas Summit (SEOGS) held in late June.
The final round of the competition, which brought together six student teams from Suriname, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, tasked participants with building novel, practical solutions to pressing challenges facing the global oil and gas sector. Competing using real-world field data and Halliburton’s proprietary specialized software, participants delivered a range of cutting-edge tech concepts that impressed the panel of industry judges. After two rounds of rigorous evaluation to narrow down the strong field of competitors, the top three spots all went to teams from Suriname, led by the AdeKUS team Lithologic.
Lithologic’s winning submission is a machine learning-powered digital system designed to dramatically speed up the identification and classification of rock formations, a core step in oil and gas exploration. By leveraging field samples and structured geological data, the tool can quickly determine rock type and key physical properties, supporting geologists in mapping subsurface structures and streamlining hydrocarbon exploration workflows. What once required days of time-consuming laboratory and field analysis can now be completed far faster, cutting project timelines for both onshore and offshore exploration projects.
Second place went to the team Rigardians, which developed an AI-powered remote monitoring platform for oil production equipment. The system is designed to detect early signs of technical failure, enabling operators to carry out preventive maintenance before issues cause costly downtime. Third place was awarded to Team Chief Power for their digital twin model of a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, the large floating facilities used to process and store offshore crude oil. The digital twin allows operators to track offshore production processes in real time and spot potential infrastructure faults before they escalate into major problems.
Following the conclusion of the hackathon, Halliburton and AdeKUS signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as part of Halliburton’s global University Software Grant Program, cementing a new partnership to grow local technical talent for Suriname’s fast-growing oil and gas sector. Under the agreement, Halliburton will donate industry-leading specialized software, provide specialized training, and offer ongoing technical support to AdeKUS students and faculty. The agreement grants geology and engineering students at the university access to the same advanced tools currently used by major global energy players including Petronas and TotalEnergies. It also creates a pathway for students to connect directly with Halliburton technical experts based at the company’s Houston, Texas headquarters, while AdeKUS will invest in the required on-campus digital infrastructure to support the program. This partnership is expected to strengthen Suriname’s domestic capacity to support its expanding energy industry, equipping the next generation of local engineers and geoscientists with hands-on experience using the technologies that define modern energy exploration and production.