This past week was a bit slower than last. Neither me nor my partner have any experience with capacitive deionization techniques, so a majority of the week was spent reviewing capacitive deionization research. The lab has already done research with electrodialysis and there is a previously used electrodialysis system already in place, so we really just need to modify it to include carbon electrodes. Easy enough right? Not necessarily. Since we’re reusing a pre-existing stack, it requires a specific size of electrode in order to operate optimally. However, we’ve only been able to find about 3 distributors of carbon electrodes and none so far have been able to meet our specifications. So we’ll have to either figure out how to modify our stack or continue looking for an electrode distributor that can meet our specifications.

This weekend my lab group planned a trip to Carlsbad Caverns, which was pretty amazing. I knew it was something I wanted to do before arriving and was already disappointed when I realized how far it actually was from El Paso, since I don’t have a car here. Fortunately, everything worked out in my favor and we all had a great time.

I also went for a short hike with the other UTEP intern, Alex, at Billy Rogers Arroyo. It didn’t seem particularly well kept, but it was a fun experience all the same. About halfway down the trail, I stepped on a thorn, which went straight through my shoe and into my foot. It took about 5 minutes for me to work up the courage to pull it out (during which Alex captured that wonderful picture below).

Cheers to new friends and experiences.