SGD Lab Spring Cleaning & Construction

The SGD group spent Monday 'spring cleaning' the lab. Actually, we spend most of our time building stuff; and we had a blast! We built a mock wall section so that students can experiment with different types of insulation with different R-values. We'll use the IR camera to measure the heat transfer through the walls. Students can also experiment in designing different types of insulation.

Monica and Kristen built the wall section; it's three studs wide with drywall on the interior side and siding on the exterior side. In this pic they're cutting insulation samples for students to experiment with.

We built frames for experimenting with different types of aggregate for sustainable concrete (Scott and Aziz are putting the frames together at right). We also built mini-shake tables for students to compete in building the tallest jenga-structure possible. (Jacob and Alex are putting the shake tables together at left).

And of course, there was massive organization of all of our supplies in the lab. Xi, Kullapa, Xiaobo are working hard labeling, organizing, and building shelves, and cleaning (below)!

We have three grants that support the development of our educational activities; Pitt's Innovation in Educational Excellence Award, a grant from NCIIA for course innovation, and a course improvement grant from NSF.