Help the HUG Interns!

Well, it’s finally summer here in Minnesota, which means only one thing: thousands of college kids are mindlessly wandering the state, causing all kinds of shenanigans as they look for something to occupy their 4 month academic hiatus. For Hunt Utilities Group, it means intern season! This year, two of us have made the cut: Jordan Maiers, physics/math major at University of Minnesota Duluth; and Angela Savela, electrical engineering major at the University of Notre Dame. We’ve arrived here at HUG wide-eyed and ignorant as two students who likely have no idea what we’re getting into, and we couldn’t be more excited. Let’s get some intros out of the way.

Introducing Angie

Hi! My name is Angie Savela, originally from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. This fall I will be entering my senior year studying electrical engineering at the University of Notre Dame. At school I am an active member of the marching band and employ whatever free time I can find to photography. This summer I will be interning with HUG and assisting with their LENR research. I am extremely excited because I have always had a fascination with alternative energy; I believe it will be a vital component in creating a practical energy future. This past summer I interned for a nuclear power company in Michigan, in their design engineering department and got a taste for large scale production. Now I am looking forward being back in Minnesota for the summer, and seeing the other end of the spectrum while getting my hands dirty.

Being new to the LENR community, I’m hoping to bring a dose of creativity and new perspective to the field as I begin to explore all it has to offer. I would like to gain a basic understanding of the different types of research being done, as well as insight into the setups for experiments. I believe my background in engineering will provide the tools for learning these new ideas, and my knowledge of electrical systems will be useful in understanding and eventually designing these experiments. I’m looking forward to being a part of this obscure branch of research.

Introducing Jordan

Howdy there Quantum Heat community! My name is Jordan Maiers. I am a math and physics double major at the University of Minnesota Duluth, gearing up to enter my senior year. Just a little background on myself: I grew up in the small town of Becker, MN, about an hour away from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. It was there that I developed the tremendous nerdiness that I carry with me today. I was involved in MATHCOUNTS, Knowledge Bowl, band, musical theater, speech, student council, various academic groups, and baseball (though as one can gather from the latter activities, I’ve never been much of an athlete). Through all of this, aside from just doing smart kid stuff, I developed a true love for rock music, which manifests itself today through my excessive guitar playing and involvement in various bands. So if any of you in the community have suggestions for awesome rock bands, I’ll take those along with your LENR advice!

Enough about me, let’s get to LENR. As one can guess, I am a definite newcomer in the “cold fusion” community. I got involved with Hunt Utilities Group through a technology internship website, where I saw their posting for a “LENR Intern”. After doing some research on the phenomenon, the physics major side of me was absolutely intrigued. The idea of a new, almost mysterious, energy source blows my mind, and I am beyond excited to dive into the field and give my best attempt at understanding what’s actually going on. While I do not have the valuable chemistry background that many in the field have, as a physics major, it is ingrained in my brain to dig and dig in order to get the bottom, most basic understanding of how any system works, and I believe my background has given me the tools to dig into LENR, or at least do some significant damage to the surface. I know the road to understanding “cold fusion” is a long one that many smarter, more informed people than myself have undertook, but I look forward to joining the ranks of brave souls willing to dedicate their time and skill toward an understanding.

Our Mission

HUG has tasked us with surveying all the various LENR experiments that have been done and organizing them into families and groups by commonalities. Ryan says that it is partly to build our background in the subject and partly to keep MFMP and HUG thinking broadly about what experiments may serve as replicable, repeatable proof of the “new fire”.

Here is where you all, the Quantum Heat community come in. Both of us are total newbies to LENR, and we would love to hear your recommendations on where we should start our research in order to become acquainted with the field. We’re looking for whatever you can recommend that you think will help us further our understanding; journal articles, news articles, videos, websites, people, anything that you think will be beneficial. Any advice on how to rank the experiments may be useful, too. We’ll be posting status updates as we go to hopefully ignite some discussion with all of you experts out there as we attempt to wrap our heads around the monster that is LENR. Thanks in advance for your support!