This week with research, I am settling into the heat transfer lab. At the beginning of the week, we had two orientation days, which gave us the opportunity to meet our REU cohort and coordinators and get lab safety training. Although they were a bit of an information overload, I enjoyed those days. One highlight I got from orientation was how part of research is being in “the cloud,” which is a period of uncertainty and exploration because we do not know and can not expect what the end result of the research is. I keep seeing this theme of truly exploring the unknown near novelty, which is a pretty unfamiliar feeling for me. I felt this when I first met my mentor and saw our lab I. I am so impressed at how students and professors conduct research truly at a novel level and how I will be working alongside them. I’ve been hearing this theme multiple times from my PI, Dr. Wehmeyer, and my mentor Lorenzo Castelli, who have been very welcoming to me. My mentor and other lab students have been very nice to talk to and learn from as they are very open to questions and willing to teach me good methods for conducting research.
I have a pretty good sense of what my project is. This summer, I will be using an oscillating thermal diode, which has been studied by this lab quite extensively already. To add to this project, I will attempt to build a heat engine by adding piezoelectric and pyroelectric materials, which generate electricity from mechanical stress or temperature differences. I ordered these materials to be able to test them soon. Meanwhile, I have been learning more deeply about the physics behind these materials, the oscillating thermal diode, and how other studies use them together so that I can replicate and add a novel layer to the project. My initial goal is to output electricity from this device as a proof of concept. Then, I will try to optimize it and add a component to try something different with the device. As a quick note, I ended the week with the welcome reception event, where I got to meet some research students many of which were very friendly Rice students who helped me get a better sense of life on campus as a Rice student.