A Project at Last, and Some Thoughts on Research

         My third week here at the U of M was probably the most exciting yet. Jose and I finally have definite research projects! I will be modelling and simulating a hydromechanical transmission, specifically in a wind turbine gearbox (although such a transmission could be used in other applications as well.) While reading and learning about wind turbines, hydraulics, and MatLab/Simulink has been interesting, I'm really glad that I now have a project to apply this knowledge to. Of course the learning will continue as well (bond graphs to represent any kind of system - hydraulic, mechanical, electrical, etc. - are up next), but now I can keep the specific goal of my project in mind.
        Looking back at my time so far, I've been a little surprised by how unstructured the work environment is. I do enjoy the freedom and appreciate the trust implied by that freedom, but I'm still getting used to figuring out what I should work on next. Since being assigned my project, though, this aspect has definitely improved and now I have a healthy list of tasks to tackle. I'm also in closer contact with my post-doc mentor now, which has helped a lot since he is very experienced. My research experience seems to be improving by the week, and I hope the trend continues!

I went home for a family event last weekend, and while driving to the airport we passed several wind farms, like this one. I realized I look at the turbines very differently, now that I've learned about how they work, what's inside them, and why they're designed the way they are.