Greetings all!
Hope everyone enjoyed their experiences in the new cities (for most that traveled from their hometown) as much as their research. As the final 48 hours are whittling down, I wanted to express some sentiments in regards to the REU program, in general. After a week in, I had joked with another REU participant at MSOE (there were 9 REU participants total at MSOE: 2 CCEFP and 7 related with rapid prototyping) saying that this was like having won a game show: a paid trip, cash prizes (albeit having to work for it, but nonetheless), and the occasional free meals. However, the most invaluable part of "winning", being chosen for this program, is the experience. I had not given research much as an afterthought and the experienced convinced me and opened up new perspectives for the future. Ultimately, it also pushed my gears towards preparing for graduate school. The skills and techniques that were developed through these past 10 weeks cannot be taught anywhere else. I am truly grateful for being part of the 2012 CCEFP REU program.
A flurry of events occurred since my last post, mostly related with deadlines. We've had a final presentation last week, poster session yesterday, and I'm awaiting revisions and approval from my adviser on my final research paper. Without further ado, here are my final deliverables for the program:
Final presentation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r23jz8j18do3ir2/Young%20Presentation.pdf
I will refrain from talking about my project; the technicalities as well as basics are in the paper and poster, respectively, so please check it out! It was definitely exciting to learn about thermoelectric generators, much more than what I knew from Week 1 (absolutely nothing). While it wasn't inherently a fluid power focused project (no hydraulics or pneumatics involved), its impact in the increasingly expanding fluid power industry is immeasurable. One thing I should have prepared myself for was programming, MATLAB in general; the relevance would have incredibly helped with the system modeling and mapping out the characteristics for optimization.
It's been quite a festive time in Milwaukee. I'm not sure when I'll be back, but I made sure I got to squeeze as much of the experience that I could as time permitted. On a final note, here's a completely unrelated quote to keep in mind about my research journey: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill
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