The basics for the charger are all there. A boost circuit with energy reservoir (battery), a device for mechanical to electrical conversion (motor), and a mechanism to translate available mechanical motion into the energy converter (gear train). Since I was using scrap parts I found laying around it is difficult to compile a complete step by step "how-to". As a 5th year engineering student you should be able to take that and adapt it to whatever parts and resources you have available. Give it a go, you might surprise yourself. Regarding your thesis. I was not aware that theses were team projects. Times change. How about a study of underwater basketweaving, or volcano worshipers, or the manufacture of free energy using homopolar generator technology squashed by the Illuminati? Seriously, I'm not in a position to pull a thesis project out of a hat for you. If you had some general ideas or areas of interest I might be able to come up with some real advice. That said, if I were back in grad school right now, I would focus on the use of biological cells as components in bio-hybrid systems, creating a life support system and electrical interface for cells and using their superb capabilities for such tasks as chemical sensing, micro-scale actuation, inertial navigation, etc. Good luck. -J