A national exploration geophysics competition for college students, aiming to provide a platform for participants to innovate, practice and cooperate in the field of exploration geophysics, wrapped up at China University of Petroleum on Tuesday.

About 430 teams from 22 universities and institutes, including Peking University, the University of Science and Technology of China and Jilin University, had signed up for the competition since it was launched in September. The preliminary contests required participants to analyze and process mineral-resource-exploration-related data online. Ninety-six participants from 48 teams made their way to the finals, which required them to complete writing tests and presentations. Two contestants from Southwest Petroleum University were the outstanding winners this year.

The annual event, initiated in 2013, is sponsored by BGP, a geophysical service company affiliated with China National Petroleum Corporation and supported by Zhu Rixiang, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is playing an important role in promoting university-industry research cooperation in the geophysics exploration.

Zhang Laibin, China University of Petroleum's president, said he hopes the competition will draw public attention and be developed into a well-rounded event that attracts more foreign participants, so that more companies would come to give offers to the competition winners