MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University Geosciences Department structural geology students, including Dylan Carr of Lebanon, will be utilizing 2024 PE Limited MOVE software this fall that will improve underground exploration techniques they will learn in the classroom and boost their career opportunities.

MTSU undergraduate and graduate students will continue to benefit from a $2.76 million in-kind donation from Edinburgh, Scotland-based PE Limited, professor Mark Abolins said.

The MOVE suite is the most complete structural modeling and analysis toolkit available, according to the PE Limited website, https://www.petex.com/pe-geology/move-suite/. It provides a full digital environment for best practice structural modelling to reduce risk and uncertainty in geological models. 

“We’ve talked about it some, but I have not had the opportunity to get my hands on it yet, said Carr, 32, a junior geology major scheduled to graduate in August 2026. “I’m looking forward to it.”

As to how the MOVE software will help Carr and his fellow structural geology classmates, he said they will “get an understanding of how the layers move within the interior of earth. I hope it will get me set up for the future. Any sort of hands-on will be useful in professional development.”

Because there is water beneath the surface of Middle Tennessee, the MOVE suite can “model groundwater movements and general modeling,” added Carr, a student veteran who received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps after serving five years and is utilizing the G.I. Bill to attend MTSU.

“The donated Midland Valley MOVE software helps students prepare for careers not just in energy but in a variety of geoscience fields,” Abolins said. “It has actually been used by MTSU master’s students to analyze the subsurface geology of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chickamauga Lock construction site, for example.

“I will use the software to better-understand water-bearing bodies of rock underground. Swiss and Italian scientists have been using the software for water applications, and I want to do the same. One of my goals in this is to find better ways to site water wells.”

Tom Ballard of Beechgrove, a professional geologist in Tennessee and California who is known as “The Groundwater Guy,” said the MOVE software will have far-reaching implications for students’ careers.

“Having this capability is going to enhance their job prospects and make them employable,” Ballard said. “Training time getting them up to speed will be minimal if they have hands-on experience with these tools and give them a leg up (on other candidates). You can bring them on board and they will be productive right away.” 

Abolins said Ballard is chair of the Coffee County School Board “and enjoys sharing Earth science with Coffee County students, demonstrating that his commitment to service extends beyond his technical work as a consultant with Southeastern Hydrogeology.”

The MOVE suite provides a platform for integrating and interpreting data, cross-section construction, 3D model building, kinematic restoration and validation, geomechanical modelling, fracture modelling, fault response modellingand fault & stress analysis, according to the PE Limited Website.

Since 2008, PE Limited has been providing geologic modeling software for scientists.

Through software donations, PE Limited has had an ongoing relationship with MTSU since 2019.

As of spring 2025, MTSU’s Department of Geosciences featured 106 undergraduate majors in geoscience, environmental science and physical geography, 11 graduate students, 10 full-time faculty and two lecturers and one lab director. Todd Moore is the chair of the program.

For more on PE Limited visit http://www.petex.com.

MTSU has more than 300 combined undergraduate and graduate programs. Geosciences is one of 11 College of Basic and Applied Sciences departments.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)