Named one of Maclean's future leaders under 25, Dominic Toselli from the University of Waterloo is set to graduate with a mechanical engineering degree and has jumpstarted his career with his start-up company PetroPredict. Toselli was inspired by his previous work term experiences within petroleum companies like Shell and Suncor that helped him gain skills and apply them to bigger problems in the industry.

Alongside his co-founder Andrew Andrade, their company PetroPredict brings advanced data mining and machine learning techniques to solve some of the toughest problems in the oil and gas industry. These issues include detecting well and pipeline integrity issues that cause great damage to the environment if not detected early on. Toselli believes that to be able to enter into this industry, there needs to be the technology that can improve processes and extraction by a substantial amount to get noticed. Thus, new technology must be thoroughly tested with the appropriate measures to mitigate risk.

"What the future holds for PetroPredict is exciting," Toselli says. "We are surfing a major technological wave and shift in the oil and gas industry. Equipment is becoming more intelligent. The digital oil field is no longer just a concept. Companies in oil and gas have to reinvent themselves like never before. For example, GE is converting its oil and gas field equipment to allow greater remote monitoring and data collection, lessening the time required from field operators. Extrapolating insights from this data is, in a sense, like searching for sunken treasure, though with a much higher probability of success - have the patience, develop the right tools, be persistent in looking, and the outcome of your efforts can save or earn a company millions."

Profile: Dominic Toselli

Partner(s): Andrew Andrade

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