Team:UESTC-software/Integrated Practices
Integrated Practices
We develop the project: BIO101: DNA information storage system this year. It is a software which will revolute the storage means. And almost every person uses storage tools every day. Since the nature of the project makes it closely related to the public, naturally, we must start from the project, fitting the needs of the public.
First experience
The idea of DNA information system, came from the case that the DNA of a tiny cell store the entire biological information. The ability of DNA to carry information, inspires us use it to store more type of information. In the Puyang lecture, we constructed plasmids together with students, and gave them different biological functions. This way, is to reflect the idea of DNA information storage. We want to continue to explore the content of DNA information storage, making it a real software product.
Suggestions collection
In order to make the software design more in line with public demand, we investigated the attitudes and expectations of people to DNA information storage from the user needs.
The beginning of the survey, we found that there is a fear of DNA. One interviewee said that he would not use any products that used genetic technology. When hearing that we were using DNA to store information, she misunderstood that we were going to change its genetic makeup and strongly opposed it. But after our patient explanation, she understood the pattern of our project and put down concerns to support it.
Slowly, we were getting better. Men's ideas are generally more than women's avant-garde. They almost put forward higher expectations on all storage capacity, device size, storage speed. When we briefly introduced the idea of DNA storage, they showed great interest. They believed that biological technology developed so fast, and these ideas would come true in the near future. At the same time, they also had some concerns about portability, readability, and information security. Thanks to the public to give us the inspiration of the project, we will design features, improve the product basing on users’ demand for software.
Performance improvements
In the process of project, we took part in the iGEM Southwest China Union meetup. The exchange meeting brought together four colleges in southwest of China, three experiment teams and a software team. We discussed iGEM competition situation, and displayed projects one by one. As the only software team, everybody was very curious about what software team did. Although they didn't know the contents related to technology. But the containing synthetic biology knowledge, is the focus of our discussion. Teachers and students cared about DNA storage capacity, also attached great importance to the process of binary to the transformation of the DNA sequence. We aimed at these problems. At that time, our project was still in improving. Through such discussion, we had a deeper understanding of DNA, found out the key point to solve.
Future imagination
Sometimes, we might have imprisoned in knowledge we had learned. But the natural curiosity of children could make them have new ideas. Dreaming about the future of our products, we wanted to add more functions to keep up with the pace of times. In "Tomorrow's scientists" activities, we discussed the problems of DNA information storage with children. Sometimes their ideas sound powerful and unconstrained style, but some novel ideas pointed the way for us. For example, carry-on, not easy to damage, which inspired us to design microfluidic chip to store DNA, leaving out organism preservation process.
Children are the future of the motherland and the development biological business also needs them. Let them contact with this knowledge from a young age and think about problems, which is also a good thing for them.
Display and communication
After the basical completion of the project, we took our achievements to Chongqing, participating the meetup held by the third military medical university(TMMU). This exchange was mainly to prepare for the final show in the United States. According to the competition procedure, we made presentation and poster presentation. We leaded the audience into the DNA storage world through our presentation. After the interpretation, many teachers gave credit for our project, but also put forward some suggestions to us. Project features presentation, DNA storage process were not clear, which should be paid attention to. We noticed that the introduction of software for audience should be clear and with emphasis.
Fortunately, we caught up with the 60th anniversary of our school. We availed ourselves of this opportunity of school innovation results display, to show our project in such a platform to the alumni from all over the world. Many alumni have been school teachers or staff. Their knowledge of information storage. We probed into the change from digital storage mode to DNA storage, imagined digital computers to biotech computers, and even the development of quantum computers. They said our project had a lot of prospects for development, encouraging us to make persistent efforts, bold to do it
Bio101 and Human Practices always promote each other, step by step forward. We spread to the public about the new knowledge, also get useful information from the public. Only the two together, can we make our project complete, more practical. Let our Human Practices, more profound and meaningful.
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