This week we prepared for the Quarterly Peer Review. It was very nice to have our advisor attend and support us as we presented. Mike did a great job putting together everyone’s presentation materials and leading the presentation.

We sent out the purchase orders for some parts we needed to fix the cooling system, and we received them this week. We are still waiting for the pump, but once we receive it, we will assemble the system. We predict that once the cooling system of the fuel cell is complete, we will be able to start it up. Currently, various safeguards inside the fuel cell prevent any operation without sufficient cooling, so unfortunately we cannot even see if the repairs we made to the fuel cell worked.

MATLAB: We have begun to add the dynamics of fuel cell operation to our model. This is difficult due to the complex mechanics of fuel cells, we expect this may take a long time. Unlike the batteries we have in our model, the energy output of a fuel cell varies with multiple factors, including voltage, amperage, fuel saturation, stack temperature and fuel utilization.

This last week we interviewed a new member and took onboard an aerospace engineering major. His name is Bismarck Chiang.

Solar Panel Mounting: This week we made a final decision about what to do for our solar panels. Given the restrictions imposed by campus safety, and our own budget and lack of space, we have decided to make a single adjustable solar panel mount in order to get data from a single panel about solar concentration in Irvine. The down side to this is we have 39 solar panels unutilized.