<p>Our Bioenergy project is being run by a small group of students at Jisan Research Institute. My name is Philip Shin and I'm here to ask some grad students who are science majors for occasional assistance. All I'm asking for is to be able to email you some questions once in a while to help our group.</p>
<p>What we trying to do is to be able to efficiently make biological energy out of wastes (food). Another part of this project is to be able to turn the remaining products into fertilizer and/or methane.</p>
<p>None of the group is an expert in this kind of research. In fact, we are all high school students (For instance, I am a sophomore). JRI is a place for the "next generation of scientists", meaning younger students like us.</p>
<p>Anyways, the director of JRI told me that grad students would be an excellent resource, so that's why I'm here.</p>
<p>If anyone's willing to help us, please leave some info here (like what school you go to/went to, email, name, etc.), or just email me: <a href="mailto:flipshin@gmail.com">flipshin@gmail.com</a> .</p>
<p>We don't have any questions at the moment, but I'm asking for some contact info if we get really stuck later on.</p>
<p>I myself am not a graduate student. In fact I am a high school student like yourself, but I am currently taking an Environmental Science course with a former professor at UCLA.</p>
<p>I am also interested in the Jisan Research Institute programs.</p>
<p>But that’s besides the point
for this type of project you may want to search the web or scientific archives for information on the processes your group wishes to utilize to “efficiently make biological energy out of wastes” and “turn the remaining products into fertilizer and/or methane.” </p>
<p>It seems like a very interesting project, but from what I have read about these types of processes, it takes a lot more energy to convert the wastes into biological energy without the use of some catalyst, making it kind of impractical. </p>
<p>nonetheless, what do i know, i’m just a high schooler. but i would be glad to help and ask my teacher if you so wish.</p>
<p>again i’m extremely interested in your topic, so would it be too nosy for me to ask what exactly you guys are doing?</p>
<p>I recommend that you look at the projects being funded by the National Science Foundation in your area that deal with this type of research. This will help you find graduate students who are knowledgeable about the subject. Also, community outreach is one of the criteria for receiving NSF funding–essentially, they would like to see graduate students working with younger scientists like yourself to encourage the next generation of to major in STEM fields. This would be a great opportunity for a graduate student to fulfill that piece of their funding requirements and help you at the same time. </p>