Work this week

We've been working away at our first real smart surface.
The goal is to use water or air as a way to create an interactive surface that in- and deflates. The intent is to use this surface for many different things. It can serve as a device to store thermal energy. During the night, when there is no energy available from the sun, the pockets will be deflated. As solar energy available during the day increases, the bubbles will inflate and the fluid inside the bubbles will begin to collect energy. At this point, our intention becomes a bit blurred. There is disagreement on whether the bubbles should deflate periodically, releasing the heated up fluid to use as an energy source in a remote location, or whether the bubbles act only as a thermal mass or container to warm up a space, and deflate at night time to release heat into adjacent spaces. This disagreement spawned some arguing during a group meeting yesterday. My belief is that it doesn't really matter. The exact use of these smart surfaces should be flexible anyways and we shouldn't be commiting our projects to one specific and exact use. This may not apply to all the projects, but to me it makes a lot more sense to have a clear vision on how the surface will function, and not necessarily exactly where and when.
Tonight we will be pulling together the last pieces of the final project. There is a presentation Powerpoint that needs to be made, and final assembly has to occur.
This has been a hard week for all of us. We're tired, and I know I've been extremely cranky and unmotivated for some reason. I am hoping that finishing this project and having a long weekend to take a deep breath will refresh everyone and get us all excited about the final projects.