"It makes so much sense...you're already doing work!"

Doesn't it though? As soon as people hear what we're doing, the reaction more often than not resembles the above response. Our charge is to take the work that gym-goers exert in the form of mechanical energy and channel it into electrical output.

This is just one component of the burgeoning green fitness movement, in which enterprising minds are seeking ways to put our bodies to work for the planet. No one, to our knowledge, has successfully extended this concept to resistance-training apparatuses - so we're quite literally doing work to change that.

Our project has two subcomponents: one team is designing a way to outfit weight machines with a system to convert work into electricity, and another team is designing a retrofit suitable for erg-type rowing machines.

With some funding coming down the pike, we are beginning to purchase the materials required to begin our prototype(s). It should be a fun final few months of the semester!