*Image accredited to Agile Geoscience

The premier geophysical programming event, AKA Geophysics Hackathon 2014 has concluded over an action packed weekend (Just prior to the 2014 SEG conference in Denver). First of all I would like to thank the team down at Agile Geoscience (Matt, Evan and Ben) for setting up such an awesome event, it's the first of its kind I have attended and if I can help it, not the last.

The weekend began bright an early at 8am on Saturday and after meeting with the rest of the "hackers" I realised I wasn't alone in the programming realm. There were OTHERS! It was amazing to see a diverse range of brilliant scientists in such a small place. I was privileged to be aligned with four other great individuals from NEOS and Colorado School of Mines, Josh Poirier, Colton Kohnke, Katerina Gonzales and Elijah Thomas. Our project was originally a "1D MT and Gravity Inversion Android App" however other ideas thrown around were,

  • The Web lazy LAS Viewer and Modeller
  • Online Geophysical Feasibility modeller
  • EM Cloud API

After a round of voting with a close 3-4-3-0 split, the MT App was our winner and even better our team "Geophys Wiz" was born. Like many young people we were very idealistic and ambitious. We had a plan.

  1. Build a 1D MT viewer in android
  2. Integrate 1D magnetotelluric forward modelling
  3. Build upon the forward modelling and enable users to invert their data (soooo close)
  4. Integrate gravity inversion to determine depth to basement

A simple 4 step plan. Yes. The problem. No experience with Android, two days to learn it and somehow produce a working 1D inversion mobile phone app behemoth. We were on track, after day one we essentially had an APK which could load in magnetotelluric xy and yx, apparent resistivity and phase data, not only that but display it on an actual android device. Awesome. Not only that the team managed to pull out a 1D forward modelling algorithm in JAVA. For those in the know maths in Java is painful, complex mathematics in Java is even worse, but with magical programming skills from Colton and the Mines JTK cool things can happen. We were on track. Filled with false confidence we entered day two.  About half way through the Sunday we realised that completing the Android app was looking doubtful and a change of tact was required to save face. JavaFX was the interface of choice to integrate the MT forward modelling into a useful package.

For those who would like to see the results you can either view the screenshots below or go visit our for the more adventurous visit the groups Git Hub project page aptly named MTBlackBox.

At some point I will convert this to a web start once I unlink the mines JTK from the application but in the meantime enjoy the (WINDOWS ONLY executable, if you have a mac and have free time please compile this for me.)


(This may still be uploading, my WIFI in Denver is not that great. If it doesn't work, try again in a few days)

Finally thanks to Matt and the rest of my "hackers" for the awesome time! I may not attend the next Hackathon 2015 at New Orleans in person, but I will in spirit and by spirit I mean high speed broadband connection.

BlackBox is a revolutionary paradigm-shifting forward modeling and inversion tool for synergistically-minded geophysicists. Imagine digitally remastering a cloud of client-tailored big-ish data for a globalized, e-learning experience. Are you ready to take your exploration to the next horizon? Is BlackBox leading edge? Or is it bleeding edge? Will it even run? Franklin's rule states, "Blessed is the end user who expects nothing, for they will not be dissapointed" Get ready to dive into an immersive, interactive and intelligent interface THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND. v.6.02r13

BlackBox is a revolutionary paradigm-shifting forward modeling and inversion tool for synergistically-minded geophysicists. Imagine digitally remastering a cloud of client-tailored big-ish data for a globalized, e-learning experience.
Are you ready to take your exploration to the next horizon?
Is BlackBox leading edge? Or is it bleeding edge?
Will it even run?
Franklin's rule states, "Blessed is the end user who expects nothing, for they will not be dissapointed"
Get ready to dive into an immersive, interactive and intelligent interface THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND.
v.6.02r13

The screen in which you load data. This is the loneliest screen in the whole program.

The screen in which you load data. This is the loneliest screen in the whole program.

After you load the data, the program doesn't feel as lonely any more.

After you load the data, the program doesn't feel as lonely any more.

A forward modelling program is not complete without interactive sliders allowing users to adjust their geo-electrical model ON DEMAND. Thanks to some black magic, updates can occur fast. In fact after some benchmark tests 1.4 million of these forward models can occur in 1 second. Awesome.

A forward modelling program is not complete without interactive sliders allowing users to adjust their geo-electrical model ON DEMAND. Thanks to some black magic, updates can occur fast. In fact after some benchmark tests 1.4 million of these forward models can occur in 1 second. Awesome. I can't believe this was all smashed up in 2 days. It was an amazing team effort. Of course you can see the rest of the other teams efforts at Agile* Geoscience