Difference between revisions of "Team:BostonU HW/HP/Silver"

Line 223: Line 223:
 
                   <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:BostonU_HW/Measurement">Measurement</a>
 
                   <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:BostonU_HW/Measurement">Measurement</a>
 
                   <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:BostonU_HW/Model">Model</a>
 
                   <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:BostonU_HW/Model">Model</a>
−
            </div>
 
−
        </li>
 
−
        <li class="sliding-middle-out dropdown">
 
−
            <a href="#" class="dropbtn">MEDAL CRITERIA </a>
 
−
            <div class="dropdown-content">
 
−
                  <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:BostonU_HW/Bronze">Bronze</a>
 
−
                  <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:BostonU_HW/Silver">Silver</a>
 
−
                  <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:BostonU_HW/Gold">Gold</a>
 
−
                  <a href="https://2016.igem.org/Team:BostonU_HW/AboveAndBeyond">Above And Beyond</a>
 
 
             </div>
 
             </div>
 
         </li>
 
         </li>
Line 321: Line 312:
 
<div class="row" style="padding-top:50px; padding-bottom:50px;">
 
<div class="row" style="padding-top:50px; padding-bottom:50px;">
 
   <div class="col-md-1"></div>
 
   <div class="col-md-1"></div>
−
   <div class="col-md-8" style="font-size: 4em; line-height: 130%">Accessibility enables synthetic biology.</div>
+
   <div class="col-md-8" style="font-size: 4em; line-height: 130%">We talk the talk and walk the walk.</div>
 
   <div class="col-md-3"></div>
 
   <div class="col-md-3"></div>
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 +
<br><br>
  
−
<div class="row" style="padding-top:50px; padding-bottom:50px;">
 
−
  <div class="col-md-1"></div>
 
−
  <div class="col-md-10" style="font-size: 1em;">
 
  
−
<p>As a hardware team, our vision is to enable synthetic biologists to do better research by providing powerful and easy to use tools that solve common synthetic biology problems. We want to provide tools that accelerate the pace of research, and tools that enable synthetic biologists to push the bounds of what we know is possible. </p>
 
  
−
<p>When we set out to develop Neptune, our goal was not to develop a software tool, nor to build microfluidics, nor to develop original hardware to control these devices. We did all of these things of course, and we are proud of it! But our original goal was much more important: </p>
 
  
−
<p>We set out with the goal of making microfluidics accessible to all researchers. In a way, our goal is to enable the entire synthetic biology to consider microfluidics as their next aproach to an experimental design. We set out to make the entire process of designing, fabricating, and controlling a microfluidic device as easy and intuitive as an Excel spreadsheet, and as low cost as any other piece of lab equipment. We set out to completly remove the barrier of entry for any researchers interested in experimenting with microfluidic devices.</p>
 
  
−
<p>Accessibility, and enabling synthetic biologists to use new and exciting tools, is our goal. </p>
 
  
−
<p>To that end, our approach to human practices in iGEM was very clear: we wanted to explore the role intellectual property practices had in the ecosystem of synthetic biology software and hardware. Software and hardware are invaluable assets to synthetic biologists, and we wanted to know: how do patent practices affect the interaction between these tools, and researchers who want to use these tools? What role do open source software and hardware solutions have in the synthetic biology ecosystem? </p>
+
<div class="row" style="padding-top:100px; padding-bottom:100px;">
 +
  <div class="col-md-1"></div>
 +
  <div class="col-md-10" style="background-color: white; padding-top:50px; padding-bottom:50px;">  
  
−
<p>As a team, we set out to study intellectual property and the affect it has on synthetic biology tools, and synthetic biology research. We also wanted to make sure that, as we developed Neptune, our workflow was integrated with intellectual property practices that would enable synthetic biologists to use microfluidics; we did not want to develop a workflow that was prohibitive to the communities use. </p>
 
  
−
<p>Now, our contributions toward meeting the silver medal criteria for human practices are threefold: </p>
 
  
−
<p> 1) We developed a workflow that is completely open source, and accessible. The tools that we built are obviously open source, but the outside tools used to integrate with our workflow are also open source and accessible. </p>
 
  
−
<p> 2) We investigated intellectual property practices in synthetic biology. We found that there was a lot to discuss, and a lot of history to look at too! So we partnered with the BU Foundational Research iGEM team to publish a set of blogs that explore IP practices in synthetic biology. </p>
+
    <div class="row">
 +
      <div class="col-md-3">
 +
      </div>
 +
      <div class="col-md-9">
 +
        <div style="font-size: 2em; line-height: 150%;">Building with Biology | 29 June 2016</div>
 +
      </div>
 +
    </div>
 +
    <div class="row" style="padding-top:20px; padding-bottom:20px;">
 +
      <div class="col-md-3">
 +
        <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/2/2f/T--BostonU_HW--FluigiLogo_rcwolf.png" width="90%" style="padding-left:20px">
 +
      </div>
 +
      <div class="col-md-9">
 +
        We met the public alongside both Boston Museum of Science staff and other iGEM teams to educate about the basics of synthetic biology through entertaining activities. One such activity included solving problems using synthetic biology using various genetic “building blocks,” each labeled with a specific function, and stacking certain blocks together such that the entire “genetic device” had the ability to solve the chosen problem. Another was synthetic biology bingo, where questions about synthetic biology were asked and the contestants were to choose the picture on their bingo sheet which corresponded to the answer.
 +
        <br><br>
  
−
<p> 3) Recognizing the limitations of open source software and hardware, we wanted to ensure Neptune would always remain well documented, with a robust community of researchers who use our software, and developers who contribute to making it a great tool. Thus we put our software under the umbrella of Nona, a open source synthetic biology distributor. </p>
+
        After these activities, we met in small groups and performed an ethical seminar regarding the use of synthetic biology, specifically on ridding the malaria-carrying mosquitoes from regions of Africa. In this seminar, each group took on roles of various members of the local and scientific community, and each group was to come to a consensus on whether to release some variation of GM mosquitoes or not, and to what scale the release would be, to combat malaria.
 +
        <br><br>
  
−
<p> 4) Actually, fourfold! We didn’t just stop at exploring intellectual property practices! We wanted to reach out to the public, to educate about synthetic biology and also to expose people to microfluidics. To this end we participated as guest researchers in Building With Biology at the Boston Museum of Science, and we hosted activities for high school students at the Summer Pathways program.</p>
+
        We taught the public about microfluidics as well, making the analogy of scientists doing experiments to bakers trying to find the best cake. If the baker only needed a taste to test how the cake came out, why make a whole cake? We described microfluidics as “mini-ovens” in which scientists could make “mini-cakes,” to check if the “cake” came out good. This would save the baker/scientist lots of time and ingredients.
 +
      </div>
 +
    </div>
  
 +
    <div class="row">
 +
      <div class="col-md-1"></div>
 +
      <div class="col-md-10">
 +
        <div class="row">
 +
          <div calss="col-md-4">
 +
            <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/d/dd/T--BostonU_HW--BWBorientation_rcwolf.png" width="100%">
 +
          </div>
 +
          <div calss="col-md-4">
 +
            <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/8/8a/T--BostonU_HW--BWBcollabPic_rcwolf.png" width="100%">
 +
          </div>
 +
          <div calss="col-md-4">
 +
            <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/1/16/T--BostonU_HW--BWBoverviewPic_rcwolf.png" width="100%">
 +
          </div>
 +
        </div>
 +
      </div>
 +
      <div class="col-md-1"></div>
 +
    </div>
  
−
  </div>
 
−
  <div class="col-md-1"></div>
 
−
</div>
 
  
−
<br><br>
+
    <br>
  
 +
        <div class="row">
 +
      <div class="col-md-3">
 +
      </div>
 +
      <div class="col-md-9">
 +
        <div style="font-size: 2em; line-height: 150%;">Summer Pathways | 12 July 2016</div>
 +
      </div>
 +
    </div>
 +
    <div class="row" style="padding-top:20px; padding-bottom:20px;">
 +
      <div class="col-md-3">
 +
        <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/4/4f/T--BostonU_HW--MINTlogo_rcwolf.png" width="90%" style="padding-left:20px">
 +
      </div>
 +
      <div class="col-md-9">
 +
        In order to reach out to young women interested in STEM fields of study, we teamed up with the BostonU iGEM wetlab team to speak at the Boston University-hosted event Summer Pathways. During this seminar, we were able to teach high school students from areas around New England about basic synthetic biology and electrical engineering principles through interactive activities operated in smaller groups. We then engaged all of these students in a discussion about synbio and engineering ethics using a mock debate over whether or not the proposed solution of terraforming Mars was reasonable and ethical. Each student first read a short article explaining more context and highlighting various options as possible paths of action. All of these options encouraged students to consider and discuss biologists’ responsibilities to human civilization, other life forms, and the environment.
 +
      </div>
 +
    </div>
  
  
 +
    <div class="row">
 +
      <div class="col-md-1"></div>
 +
      <div class="col-md-10">
 +
        <div class="row">
 +
          <div calss="col-md-4">
 +
            <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/3/3d/T--BostonU_HW--summerPathwaysPic1_rcwolf.png" width="100%">
 +
          </div>
 +
          <div calss="col-md-4">
 +
            <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/1/1a/T--BostonU_HW--summerPathwaysPic2_rcwolf.png" width="100%">
 +
          </div>
 +
          <div calss="col-md-4">
 +
            <img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/8/84/T--BostonU_HW--summerPathwaysPic3_rcwolf.png" width="100%">
 +
          </div>
 +
        </div>
 +
      </div>
 +
      <div class="col-md-1"></div>
 +
    </div>
  
 +
    <br>
 +
 +
  </div>
 +
  <div class="col-md-1"></div>
 +
</div>
  
  

Revision as of 13:34, 17 October 2016


HUMAN PRACTICES: SILVER





We talk the talk and walk the walk.


Building with Biology | 29 June 2016
We met the public alongside both Boston Museum of Science staff and other iGEM teams to educate about the basics of synthetic biology through entertaining activities. One such activity included solving problems using synthetic biology using various genetic “building blocks,” each labeled with a specific function, and stacking certain blocks together such that the entire “genetic device” had the ability to solve the chosen problem. Another was synthetic biology bingo, where questions about synthetic biology were asked and the contestants were to choose the picture on their bingo sheet which corresponded to the answer.

After these activities, we met in small groups and performed an ethical seminar regarding the use of synthetic biology, specifically on ridding the malaria-carrying mosquitoes from regions of Africa. In this seminar, each group took on roles of various members of the local and scientific community, and each group was to come to a consensus on whether to release some variation of GM mosquitoes or not, and to what scale the release would be, to combat malaria.

We taught the public about microfluidics as well, making the analogy of scientists doing experiments to bakers trying to find the best cake. If the baker only needed a taste to test how the cake came out, why make a whole cake? We described microfluidics as “mini-ovens” in which scientists could make “mini-cakes,” to check if the “cake” came out good. This would save the baker/scientist lots of time and ingredients.

Summer Pathways | 12 July 2016
In order to reach out to young women interested in STEM fields of study, we teamed up with the BostonU iGEM wetlab team to speak at the Boston University-hosted event Summer Pathways. During this seminar, we were able to teach high school students from areas around New England about basic synthetic biology and electrical engineering principles through interactive activities operated in smaller groups. We then engaged all of these students in a discussion about synbio and engineering ethics using a mock debate over whether or not the proposed solution of terraforming Mars was reasonable and ethical. Each student first read a short article explaining more context and highlighting various options as possible paths of action. All of these options encouraged students to consider and discuss biologists’ responsibilities to human civilization, other life forms, and the environment.