Team:BostonU/HumanPractices

From 2014.igem.org

Revision as of 02:26, 14 October 2014 by KMLewis (Talk | contribs)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Policy and Practices

Working in the CIDAR lab space, our iGEM team quickly became interested in integrating technology with biology. Although we hadn't heard of bio-design automation, we wanted to learn how to use the computational tools developed in CIDAR to help us with our wetlab work. Fortunately, towards the beginning of summer, we were able to volunteer at a the sixth International Workshop on Bio-Design Automation (IWBDA).

	As volunteers, we signed in the workshop speakers and attendants, helped with the posters, and set up the event venue. We were also able to attend the talks and poster presentations. This workshop was an important influencing factor on our project design. It gave us an opportunity to learn about the current research and concerns in the field, which shaped the direction and goals of our project.

One of the keynote speakers, Orit Shaer from Wellesley College, spoke about Human-Computer Interaction. She focused on tools that use reality-based interfaces and the considerations necessary for developing these tools. After listening to her talk, we had the opportunity to talk with her. As a wetlab team interested in bio-design automation and experimental-computational integration, we thought it would be valuable to continue collaboration with Dr. Shaer’s lab at Wellesley. Her lab develops software tools for education and use in the wet lab.

Alan using The Glass in the Wellesley HCI Computer lab

Throughout the summer we met up with students from Wellesley to learn about their projects and to teach them about biological concepts and lab protocols. We tested out the Google Glass for several weeks and gave them feedback on the features they have been developing. For example, they were able to upload our protocols on the Google Glass, which allowed us to see the protocol step by step without carrying around our notebooks. We were also able to provide a “client prospective” for their projects. Since they are developing software for use in the lab, we helped them decide which features would be most useful and improvements that could make their products more appealing.

In addition to the talks and poster sessions, the IWBDA workshop included discussion sessions amongst all of the attendees. Topics focused on how to overcome the miscommunications between biologists and computer scientists as well as how to promote bio-design automation in our education systems. These discussions allowed us to talk more informally with the presenters and exchange our opinions and suggestions. We were also able to hear about current problems that exist between experimental and computational efforts, which gave us ideas about what needs to be improved.

From this conference, we learned the value of bringing together researchers from different labs to discuss, learn, and educate each other. Because of this, we decided to host the Third Annual NEGEM. Several other Northeast iGEM teams (MIT, Harvard, Tufts, WPI, Rutgers) and Wellesley came to Boston University twice over the summer to present their projects, discuss, and receive feedback. Each team had fifteen minutes to present their overall project idea, progress, timeline, and future goals to the other teams. After each presentation, there would be a Q&A session where other students could offer troubleshooting advice, ask for clarification, or offer critiques. During our lunch breaks, we held question led discussions about technological difficulties each team faced and how bio-design automation (BDA) could solve these obstacles. Our lunch was sponsored by BDAC. In October, we will have a final NEGEM meeting. Each team will give a formal presentation, representative of how they will present at the iGEM Giant Jamboree. This will be an opportunity to give final advice about the project and how to present it. We will also have time to show off our Wiki pages and make any last minute changes before the wiki freeze.

Our Sponsors