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

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.

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. 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 approach 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 completely remove the barrier of entry for any researchers interested in experimenting with microfluidic devices.

Accessibility, and enabling synthetic biologists to use new and exciting tools, is our goal. 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?

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.

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.