MARK MCKINNON, TEAM MEMBER, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:

We're honestly going in as underdogs. But I think we have a pretty good chance and I think we have to remain optimistic about it.

TAYLOR MYERS, TEAM CAPTAIN, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:

There's a design competition that was started by the Alliance for Green Heat. And the goal is to make a new, innovative, highly-efficient and low-emissions wood stove. We're the only university among the finalists in this competition.

It will probably be difficult to compete with the big companies that thrown a lot of money at existing models. We're just trying to make a better wood stove -- to make it more realistic for people to use wood stoves in the modern day.

ANITA ALEXANDER, TEAM MEMBER, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:

I think that the products that are out there right now are too expensive. I'm proud to be part of something like this where we're coming up with a product that helps people. But it also has a lot to do with my personal background in Environmental Sciences. I'm just excited to be on this team.

JASON PRAYDIS, TEAM MEMBER, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:

After taking a couple classes, I really had a strong interest in the research aspect. And I thought it would be really cool to understand actually how a fire works.

I worked full-time over the summer on running experiments and tests on our stove. I tried to come up with new ideas and how we can incorporate just more efficient technology towards our stove and how it is going to stack up against our competition.

TAYLOR MYERS, TEAM CAPTAIN, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:

The main thing is we blow air, we force air through the stove. Now, in a typical wood stove, air flow is driven by combustion. So the fire is what moves the air through the stove itself. By forcing air, we are able to control how much air gets into the stove at any given time.

We bring cool, outside air down around the outside of the stack and then the exhaust gases flow up the middle. As the outside air comes in. It's warmed by the exhaust gases, and the exhaust gases are in turn cooled by that incoming air. That mean a lot of heat that would normally just leave your house instead goes back into the stove, which helps improve emissions and efficiency in general.

MARK MCKINNON, TEAM MEMBER, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:

We're putting the thermal electric generators in the back panel to power the fans. Basically they are these components that will take a thermal gradient -- just a difference in temperature -- and generate electricity from it.

We're actually generating electricity from this heat that would normally just escape in the stack.

TAYLOR MYERS, TEAM CAPTAIN, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:

We can use this electricity to power our fans, to power our controller and to perhaps generate more energy than that.

STANISLAV STOLIAROV, FACULTY ADVISOR, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:

The best part was for the students to learn how to use the knowledge that they acquired during their years studying here, and to apply it to real world engineering problems. Over the years, they have studied fluid mechanics, mathematics and physics of fire growth process. And this is the first attempt essentially where they made a connection between what they learned and how it can be potentially used to develop a brand new system to do something new and important. Something that can actually change people's lives.

ANITA ALEXANDER, TEAM MEMBER, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:

We don't have any corporate kind of funds. Hopefully after this competition we can get more sponsorship to make this a real product. And people would actually want to buy this and put it in their homes.

STANISLAV STOLIAROV, FACULTY ADVISOR, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:

If you look at it from the point of view of potential and the overall accumulated power of technologists, then I think our wood stove is the winner.