OSU to harness the power of its students – literally

"Every day, thousands of college students determinedly hit the cardio machines, lowering their stress after a tough exam, getting in shape for spring, or working off those chocolate chip cookies that showed up in a care package from home. But now Oregon State University and a private firm are teaming up to harness the fruits of this student labor by capturing the energy from their workouts - literally. OSU will become one of the first universities in the country to tap the kinetic energy generated by people involved in daily workout routines and turn it into a form of renewable energy. Using a new technology developed by a company in St. Petersburg, Fla., called ReRev.com, LLC, OSU has retrofitted 22 elliptical exercise machines in its student fee-funded Dixon Recreation Center and already is collecting the power produced by students and feeding it back into the power grid"