60-Day Innovation Sprint: Rapid Integration of Gas Emissions Technology
Define
After acquiring Scientific Aviation, ChampionX faced a dual challenge:
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Protect critical market share in emissions and water management
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Meet aggressive methane regulations with field-ready solutions
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Scientific Aviation’s airborne and drone-based methane detection systems were advanced but not ruggedized for harsh, ground-level deployment. Normally, adapting these technologies would take 6–18 months, but leadership demanded solutions in 60 days under intense pressure from competitors, customers, and regulators.
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Current State: Field-Ready Methane Detection & Water Management
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Existing technology was highly accurate but fragile and airborne-focused
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Ground deployment required ruggedization, integration, and workflow adaptation
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Cross-functional teams needed actionable concepts fast to inform executive decision-making
Goal
Support rapid exploration of technical pathways in three urgent domains:
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Methane leak detection
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Gas remediation
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Produced water optimization
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Mission: Deliver actionable, development-ready concepts fast enough for executive review while compressing a traditional multi-month development process into a 60-day sprint.
Approach
Empathize
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Engaged with cross-functional engineering, chemical, and operations teams
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Identified environmental, operational, and system-level constraints
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Mapped real-world challenges including vibration, thermal cycling, dust, and high-pressure production flows
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Define Core Engineering Problem
Rapidly translate advanced, airborne-grade sensing and chemical technologies into robust, ground-ready, and operationally feasible solutions under extreme time constraints.
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Investigation Goals / Design Requirements
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Generate multiple solution pathways for each technical domain
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Evaluate feasibility against environmental, operational, and regulatory constraints
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Integrate concepts into coherent, actionable systems that leadership could greenlight
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Compress 6–18 months of development into a 60-day cycle
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Ideate / Hypothesis Generation
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Applied Innovation Engineering framework for rapid, structured problem-solving
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Generated multiple solution approaches with a “fail-fast, fail-cheap” mindset
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Balanced creativity with practical engineering constraints and systems-level thinking
Methane Leak Detection (EmissionsIQ)
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Conceptualized ground-adapted sensor platforms with passive site scanning
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Proposed integration of edge-computing telemetry for real-time monitoring
Gas Remediation (Sealing Agent)
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Designed concepts for injectable sealants operating under full production flow
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Evaluated material approaches and system-level deployment strategies
Produced Water Optimization (Digital Water Advisor + Simplicity)
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Developed ideas for modular sensor fusion systems
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Proposed predictive AI dashboards and actionable operational KPIs
Impact
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$55M+ projected revenue potential validated across platforms
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Established internal innovation framework reducing risk 30–80% and compressing time-to-market up to 6x
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Leadership greenlit multiple concepts for development after 60 days
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Earned Blue Belt Certification in Innovation Engineering
Key Takeaways
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Demonstrates ability to translate complex, uncertain challenges into structured engineering solutions
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Shows skill in mechanical reasoning, systems thinking, and disciplined creativity under extreme time pressure
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Highlights capacity to compress months of development into weeks while delivering high-impact, actionable concepts
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Emphasizes cross-disciplinary collaboration to achieve measurable business and technical outcomes
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This project reflects my approach to engineering: think systemically, iterate rapidly, and deliver high-impact, operationally viable solutions under extreme constraints.