Abstract. In order to make a conventional building more efficient or smarter, systems feedbacks are essential. Such feedbacks can include realtime or logged data from various systems, such as temperature, humidity, lighting and CO2 levels. This is only possible by the use of a network of sensors which report to the building management system. Conventional sensors are limited due to wiring and infrastructure requirements. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) however, eliminates the wiring limitations but still in certain cases require periodical battery changes and maintenance. A suitable solution for WSN limitations is to use different types of ambient energy harvesters to power battery-less sensors or alternatively to charge existing batteries so as to reduce their changing requirements. Such systems are already in place using various energy harvesting techniques. Thermoelectric Generators (TEG) are one of them where the temperature gradient is used to generate electricity which is conditioned and used for WSN powering applications. Researchers in this field often face difficulty in estimating the TEG output at the low-temperature difference as manufacturers' datasheets and performance data are not following the same standards and in most cases cover the high-temperature difference (more than 200C o ). This is sufficient for industrial applications but not for WSN systems in the built environment where the temperature difference is much smaller (1-20C o is covered in this study). This paper presents a TEG experimental test setup using a temperature controlled hotplate in order to provide accurate TEG performance data at the low-temperature difference range.

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The use of video notes, or lecture summaries is being used for a while now in higher education, either as a standalone assist to the students or as part of the Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) being widely used nowadays in both distance and on-campus learning, providing supporting tools and encourage independent learning which allow students to access learning materials, course work activities and submit assignments, however, when it comes to practical laboratories students still need to read the lab handout, follow the experimental procedure steps to carry out the experiments, and get results, these results in most of the cases will not be verified to be valid till the students start working on their lab report, and compare to references or published data. As an initiative to enhance the engineering students experience in Heriot Watt University Dubai Campus a short lab video clips were introduced which cover the experimental procedure to allow the students to see the experiment setup for real before they attend the lab, be familiar with the measurements', and where to get them while preparing for the lab., initial survey results indicates that students find these lab videos to be very useful for preparing for the lab as well as for their revision, and lab report preparation.

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