Overview

Design is a journey of discovery. Our design process began with the idea of building a microfluidics device. We tested different designs to optimize desired characteristics such as mixing time and flow rate. We even investigated the use of freeze-drying to safely store our engineered bacteria in our device. After much design iteration, the final device consists of a capsule-and-chamber that is better able to meet these requirements overall. It houses the electronics used to detect fluorescence as well as the capsule containing the bacterial solution. Taking inspiration from glow sticks (yes, glow sticks!), you bend and twist the tube which releases the bacterial solution into the reaction chamber within the device. The blueprints and 3D models of this can be found in the sections below. We plan to have these parts laser cut and ready for the Giant Jamboree!