Week 8: Transitioning from Experiments to Writing

Welcome back to my senior project blog! This week, I finished running my trials while also beginning the process of turning my work into an actual formal research paper. As my data collection comes to an end, I’m starting to shift some of my focus toward organizing my findings and structuring my final product.

A large part of my week was still dedicated to running trials in the environmental chamber. I continued testing over different temperature and humidity ranges, making sure to follow a consistent procedure for each run. By this point, my workflow has become a lot more routine, and I’ve been able to focus more on maintaining consistency rather than troubleshooting major issues. I made sure to allow sufficient stabilization time before recording measurements and carefully monitored my voltage, current (new addition), temperature, and humidity data throughout each trial.

Along with my experimental work, I began organizing my data in a more structured way. As the amount of data I’ve collected continues to grow, keeping everything clearly labeled and easy to access will be helpful for analysis. I also reviewed my measurement process to make sure that my circuit setup and sensors are functioning properly, making that the data I am collecting is reliable.

In addition to experimentation, I started working on my research paper. I began outlining the overall structure, including sections including the introduction, background, and methodology. I also started drafting parts of the literature review, using some of the sources I explored earlier in the project. Writing these sections helped me better connect my experimental work back to the broader context of photovoltaic research.

Balancing both experimentation and writing was a new challenge this week, but it also made me realize how the different parts of the project are starting to come together. My data that I’ve collected is going past the experimental phase, becoming the foundation for my final analysis and conclusions.

Overall, Week 8 was an important transition in my project. While I still might try to run a few more extra trials, I am also beginning to turn my work into a complete research paper. Moving forward, I plan to continue analyzing data while expanding my writing so that I can fully integrate my results and analysis into my final product.