First update, for science

Hello all, hope you have all survived since the CCEFP meetup and have quickly assimilated to the REU sites.

I initially thought that I would be dealing with some direct involvement with Test Bed 6 (Human Assisted Ankle Foot Orthosis); my project title from the CCEFP website was as vague as they come, "Novel Fluid-Power Components through Additive Manufacturing". When I finally met with my advisor, he drew up some suggested routes to take the research project to, which I deduced to thermoelectric generators (TEGs)/energy harvesting or meso-scale steam turbines and actuators. I chose to continue the work on waste heat recovery from a previous REU participant from 2011 (Toni Borel) in seeing the impact that a TEG could have if implemented to any of the test beds, as they convert thermal energy and heat into electrical energy. Considering the project is listed under the compactness thrust, portability and size is definitely a consideration, as TEGs are mobile due to lack of moving parts. Additionally, the ability to extract excess heat from engines and convert it to useful energy would help improve efficiencies in most fluid power systems. I expect to fabricate my own miniature TEG and fully testing its capabilities for future use. Currently, we are using a demonstration kit from last year until a better commercial manufacturer is found; awaiting a soldering iron from McMaster to solder small contacts. 

The following short video demonstrates one of three effects (Peltier effect) that comprise of thermoelectricity theory.