Fanfest Fall 2009
The Wang Lab lights up Fanfest!
Two of BC’s stellar programs – Chemistry and football – met up last fall at the Boston College Fanfest, a pre-game event in Conte Forum. Researchers from Professor Dunwei Wang
’s laboratory reached out to Eagle football fans and their families with hands-on green energy experiments proving that learning science can be great fun. In the photograph above, Andrew Levine, a second-year graduate student in the Wang Lab, is shown demonstrating the H2GO, a hydrogen-powered remote controlled car to two interested children. A fuel station on the table behind Andrew split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and the hydrogen was used to fill the car’s gas tank. The electricity necessary for splitting the water at the fuel station can be supplied using a solar energy source. When the car’s gas tank - a small balloon – is filled with the hydrogen, the car is raring to go. The two young Eagle fans took turns racing the car around a track trying to set a record for the best time, while learning how clean energy works. H2GO was produced by Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies
, whose mission is to introduce commercially viable, clean hydrogen fuel cell power. Also featured in this photo are Professor Wang - partially hidden by balloons - and Guangbi Yuan, a third year graduate student in the Wang Lab.
Also on the table in the background are several small solar toys - each containing a small solar cell that converts light into electricity to run a small motor. The toy components are packaged in a "6 in 1 Educational Solar Kit" that allows one to create a solar windmill, solar revolving plane, solar airboat, solar stationary plane, solar car, and a solar puppy that wags its tail. For the Fanfest demos, the Wang group used a desk lamp to emulate sunlight.
Members of the Wang Lab are shown with the young winners of the solar car race and their prizes - the "6 in 1 Educational Solar Kit." Wang Lab members - from left to right - are: Rui Liu, Yongjin Lin, Andrew Levine, Stafford Sheehan, and Sa Zhou.