Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Mentor Log 3

I haven't gotten together face to face again with Jason Locklin but we have communicated greatly through emails about my product. I also tried to go to one of his classes. He has a class called "Soft Materials" and he was giving a lecture on Polymers and Photovoltaics but I got lost on my first attempt through mis-information on where it was and got confused and frustrated walking in circles around the Driftmier engineering building on the University Campus (The lights were off when I went to the classroom primarily, on when I went back on a different day, the door was open. I was puzzled and confused, demanding myself endlessly if I just did not know how UGA classes worked, that maybe they were in a lab...). When I emailed Jason afterwards he thought that they effort to get they could count as hours spent towards my project too -- but he could have been kidding. The next time his class occured I was in the middle of a hazy grog after getting my wisdom teeth taken out, and in no able position to audit a class.
Despite our lack of physical meetings, we've discussed the product many times over email. There is one solar cell kit made from blackberry dye and a chemical called Titanium Oxide, that Jason said I probably wouldn't be able to get anywhere else, but it costs $40 and I'm both cheap and poor. I found, and shared with Jason, a website on how to make a solar cell with pieces of Copper, on burned enough to produce a cuprous oxide layer, and another project for a sterling engine that demonstrates the sun's ability, or the ability really of heat in general to produce energy. I remember all the things about solar energy that Jason has taught me throughout my solo research on the web.

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