With the mass outpouring of support for the development and design of a hydrogen refueling station to submit to the DOE’s H2 refuel competition, we needed an effective design and work space large enough to support everyone. Luckily, we have around 5,000 square feet of space in the Thermal Fluids Research Building (TFRB) set aside for this project. Unfortunately, this space previously contained a wood shop and spare storage facilities, leaving much to be desired from a usability perspective. Several student volunteers have been coming in every day to help fix this project, and we have some bold plans to make the space a design utopia. Thanks to this volunteer effort, some very big strides have already been made to make the space more beautiful, useful, and user-friendly. We would like to thank these students’ hard work by helping to offset food and housing costs over the summer with a part time job (around $3600 for the summer), and would welcome any support to accomplish this.
TFRB Progress Photos
TFRB as we got it (with pieces of Genii UAS laid out), and then TFRB as it stands today. A lot of cleaning and organization has been done, but there is much left to do!
All of the things that have been moved out of TFRB, to be taken to surplus for a new home.
One of our first steps to improving this space was setting up a cleaning cart. This has been incredibly useful!
Our focus was to first establish a conference room and library where design meetings could take place. These cabinets are full of thermodynamics papers loaned to us by the University of Idaho (Thanks so much, Idaho!).
Right outside the conference room, we have what will one day be a lounge/study/design area with several workstations, a couch, a TV for presentations and CAD design meetings, and lunch supplies (engineers need their food, and don’t forget coffee!). This room has made a lot of progress, but we’re looking for help to finish the furnishing. We’d like to lay down Swisstrax flooring, add a couch, and create some more whiteboard space for design drawing and discussion.
On the other side, we have a little work room being set up. A workbench, vented soldering station, and chemical cabinet will all be in this room.