Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout Summary

In the article, it is proposed that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 could be used as a possible learning tool for engineering students. The oil spill devastated the marine ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico, and caused great economic hardship for the people, particularly fisherman, of the Gulf coast. The article asks for a closer examination of the Deepwater incident to inspire students, expand their technological literacy, and provide students an opportunity to apply their skills to a real world engineering scenario. The article provides a summary of the blowout and discusses how the subject could be implemented as a learning tool for young engineering students.
The article begins by discussing the events of the Deepwater blowout. The Deepwater Horizon was a semisubmersible floating oil rig operating in the Gulf of Mexico during the late 2000’s. Built by
It highlights the key failures of the incident using information from both BP and the President’s Commission investigations. Students could analyse these issues and participate in an abundance of activities listed by the article. These activities range from brainstorming policy changes, to coming up with an effective process to clean the oil spill, to creating a model of the wellhead using 3D modeling to test methods regarding effectively avoiding the blowout. This provides students a great deal of opportunities to experience an engineering challenge from real life events.
I found this article rather interesting. I’m interested in becoming an environmental engineer, and this article provided a situation in real life where a person in my career field would be important. However, seeing as to how this event was such a daunting task for the engineers, I may want to start reassessing my career path. Working on a project such as this with five months of constant failure sounds like a complete