Difference between revisions of "Team:CSU CHINA/Education"

Even an excellent iGEM project is only helpful if it can be applied under real-world circumstances.

To enhance our algae's feasibility and make good for the real world, we carefully listened to stakeholders. With factual feedbacks, we figured out their expectations and integrated the opinions in further design.

To understand the existing wastewater treatment technology, evaluate the application and listen to others’ suggestions, we visited two Sewage Treatment Plants and asked some experts for advice.

We described our program carefully, and after listening to our introduction, experts all agreed that our project has a good application prospect, but also informed us:

• The most important factor influence application is the cost. Biosafety and Cadmium removal efficiency also counts!
• Think about continuously improving the process’s processing capacity through debugging and practice in operation at a low cost. If the survival and proliferation of engineering algae and its cadmium removal activity do not require high environmental factors, the cost will low.
• Consider operator training, infrastructure construction, other up-front investment, routine equipment maintenance, and waste recycling.
• Making a fair presentation of these careful considerations will make the project more compelling to relevant enterprises.

We realized that cadmium polluted-rice now is widespread, serious and harmful to human health through the interviews with our end users. Today, farmers do not have the means to detect and treat cadmium contaminated irrigation water equipment and methods. If they grow substandard rice, the only way they can do is to throw it away, causing substantial economic losses.

After introducing the device’s design, farmers were worried about the chemical reagents we used in the toxin-antitoxin suicide system. Will these chemicals directly put into the farm produce secondary pollution that will affect rice growth and poison the rice?

Then, we changed the toxin-antitoxin system to the second generation of the red and blue light control system. We could achieve the cadmium removal function of algae through the adjustment of the light, so there is no secondary pollution of the chemical reagent. Which you can find in our...

After that, we revisited farmers with our new design. This time they accept improved devices that use LED tubes. The portable rechargeable battery could charge directly and conveniently, which confirmed that the application of practical. Also, we calculated the rupture time of the glueball through modeling. We instructed the farmers to collect cycas within this time, making it more convenient and safer. Which you can find in our...（建模组补充链接）Besides, the farmers’ thought that the second-generation system is too complicated to operate for them, also has to pay more electricity bill.

How to reduce costs further? After research, the third generation of blue light regulation of the suicide system has been realized. Based on the red and blue light system’s tedious regulation and the low-cost performance of algae reuse, we simplified the system’s operation, saving energy and reducing costs. Which you can find in our...（实验组补充链接）