Alexander Kuvichko is not your average Russian geoscientist. Born in Pyatigorsk, southern Russia in 1987, he showed remarkable computer aptitude at an early age. In a starred student career he followed a bachelor’s degree in computer science, with a master’s in reservoir engineering and a PhD in mathematics (his real love), all at Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas. He is currently RCA DELFI Product Manager for Schlumberger in Moscow covering seven countries. Learning Chinese, parachute jumping, hackathons and losing weight are some of his varied interests.
Tell us about your early introduction to computers?
I wrote my first computer program at the age of five. My mother took me to her work and showed me a PC. I think it was an IBM PC 80286. She opened a database system where I could type ‘?’ and ask it to solve simple equations, like ‘20-10+7’. When I was eight years old, my mother enrolled me to a programming class. We learned the BASIC language, and I was able to create simple programs. At the age of 11 my father gave me my first C/C++ book. After that, I really got it into coding. Later I was very proud to win a North-Caucasian school programming competition. The prize was a rather powerful PC, an exciting result for a 17 year-old student.
Were you always top of the class!?
Usually but not always! At university, I once scored 104 and 117 out of 100 points possible on an exam: just by doing all the extra assignments.
What does your current work at Schlumberger involve?
Currently I’m a product manager for digital solutions in Schlumberger Moscow Research Centre. The portfolio of our digital products includes active commercial products, internal products, prototypes, concepts and draft ideas. So far we have 60 different projects, and the number is growing. Our digital team enables Schlumberger to offer its global digital solutions in Russian including ‘Fit-for-basin’ cloud technology, as well as convert research and digital initiatives to digital products.
Are there any frustrations to data science research in Russia?
No. In Russia, as in many other regions, data residency regulations are in place, so foreign data centres and cloud providers cannot be used to handle Russian oil and gas data without a specific permission from governmental authorities. But if we use local cloud providers, there are no issues. Furthermore, many oil and gas companies have started to transform into energy and digital companies, and this is impossible without doing data science.
You helped organize Russia’s first EAGE data science hackathon. How did it go?
Schlumberger co-organized a hackathon at the 2nd local EAGE conference ‘Intellectual data analysis in the oil and gas industry’. We did it together with our cloud partner in Russia, using an AI/ML solution from our data science partner. The hackathon assignments were designed with an industry partner. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and desire to reduce the carbon footprint, using the cloud was the only option to conduct the hackathon. It was a first try, and overall it went great. We also demonstrated that we can launch our global solutions in the ‘Fit-for-basin’ clouds.
Tell us about your fitness regime
Before Covid-19 pandemic times I was doing a technical sales support job, thus did 60-70 flights per year. When my trips were paused, and I started to gain weight. In April 2020 I decided to do something about it, so got up and ran 700 m. It was really difficult, but it was the starting point. Now I run around 150 km per month, ride a bike, and burning 1000+ kcal each day. I have already lost 13 kg, run several half-marathons and made a presentation logging my progress.
What’s the appeal of parachute jumping for you and your wife?
We don’t have special licences to jump alone, but we have done several jumps with instructors. It is safe and we have good jumping sites in the Moscow area, so why not to try? I always wanted to jump since my school days, but there was always a reason to postpone, either bad weather, a busy weekend, or friends who couldn’t not come. So, I decided to go it alone – and jumped! After that my wife also decided to join me.
Are you really learning Chinese?
I started learning at the end of my PhD studies, just before the thesis defence. Why? Just because I wanted to learn it. After studying it for three and a half years I passed some Chinese language exams and could have gone to China for one year to practice. However, by that time, I was the father of two children so had to pass. Currently I’m a bit rusty with Chinese, but I will return to it.
