Biomaker Challenge 2021 Details

1. Eligibility

(i) Primary applicants can be students or staff at the University of Cambridge, John Innes Centre or the Earlham Institute.

(ii) Similarly, members of any laboratories affiliated with the NERC-NSF Signals in the Soil Programme are highly encouraged to join.

(iii) Any external affiliates of the institutions and laboratories mentioned above are welcome and encouraged to join.

(iv) If you are not from a participating institute but are interested in joining a team, please get in touch with us by emailing coordinator@synbio.cam.ac.uk.

(v) Teams can be any size, including individuals if all other eligibility criteria are met.

(vi) Interdisciplinarity within the team is a judging priority but teams or individuals from the same discipline are not excluded.

(vii) All proposals must lead to a publicly documented (on Hackster) and open hardware design and prototype which demonstrates interdisciplinary thinking.

2. Judging Criteria

Judges will evaluate the proposals based on Hackster project page. They will give a higher priority to proposals which:

(i) Promote and demonstrate interdisciplinary working and exchange, with members of the team being highly likely to learn from each other.

(ii) Have a clearly articulated use case in biology and are highly applicable to this year’s themes (see above).

(iii) Involve interesting ideas for low-cost sensors and instrumentation.

(iv) Include the generation and sharing of XOD no-code programming resources.

(v) Are feasible given the timing, costing and team proposed.

3. Application Process

(i) Put together a team interested in submitting a project under one this year’s themes.

(ii) Decide on your project and gather out the following information: project title, elevator pitch (max 140 characters), cover photo, story (max 500 words), attachments.

(iii) Sign up for a Hackster account.

(iv) Create a Hackster project and enter information.

(v) Submit your project to the Biomaker Hub by 15th November 2021.

(vi) More details on the application process can be found at: https://www.biomaker.org/submit-a-project.

4. What will participants receive?

Each team member will receive:

(i) A Biomaker Beginner’s Kit, including the Grove All-in-One Beginner’s Kit for Arduino (https://www.seeedstudio.com/Grove-Beginner-Kit-for-Arduino-p-4549.html) (while stocks are available) and a print copy of the OpenPlant Biomaker No-Code Programming for Biology Beginner’s Guide (https://www.biomaker.org/nocode-programming-for-biology-handbook).

(ii) Access to training sessions (22nd November, 29th November, 6th December and 13th December 2021) covering the basics of no-code programming, working with hardware and open-source documentation.

Each team will receive:

(iii) An additional hardware kit with a range of useful devices and environmental sensors.

(iv) Support and advice from the Biomaker team.

(v) Access to community support via the XOD Forum for Biomaker (https://forum.xod.io/c/biomaker/13).

(vi) At the end of the challenge, prizes will be awarded to teams who have preformed best in each category.

5. What is required from participants?

(i) Your team must adhere to the eligibility criteria and code of conduct.

(ii) Teams should be interdisciplinary and must be affiliated with one of our partners (University of Cambridge, John Innes Centre, Earlham Institute, Signals in the Soil).

(iii) Projects must align with this year’s themes of:

  • Sensors, field communication and machine learning for environmental survey and monitoring.

  • Measurement and control of plant growth in science, agriculture and gardening.

  • Electronic and biological sensors for management of soil health.

(iv) Your hardware and software should be accessible and reusable. This means that you need to think about open licensing, standard file formats and clear, detailed documentation.

(v) All projects should be documented on Hackster.io (software can be documented on Github and linked to Hackster).

(vi) Teams are expected to submit their final documentation by 15th March 2022, and attend and participate in the final presentation and prize giving on 22nd March 2022.

6. Timeline

(i) 19th October 2021: Briefing event (Biomaker 2020/21 Showcase)

(ii) 15th November 2021: Deadline for submission of events to Hackster

(iii) 19th November 2021: Successful teams notified

(iv) 9th December 2021: Training Event 1

(v) 10th December 2021: Training Event 2

(vi) 15th March 2022: Deadline for completion of project documentation

(vii) 22nd March 2022: Final Presentation Ceremony

7. Code of Conduct

What can teams expect from the Biomaker team?

(i) The Biomaker team will offer assistance and support in making the connections necessary for you to complete your project.

(ii) The Biomaker team will provide training for participants in how to use their hardware and how to properly document their open projects

(iii) The Biomaker team will provide opportunities for teams to interact, share skills and ideas.

(iv) The Biomaker team will investigate any reports of misconduct from participants.

What does the Biomaker Challenge expect from teams?

(iv) All resources should be accessible and reusable. This means that you need to think about open licensing, standard file formats and clear, detailed documentation.

(v) All projects should be documented on Hackster.io (software can be documented on Github and linked to Hackster).

(vi) All teams are expected to respond promptly to communication from the Biomaker team.

(vii) All teams are expected to submit their final documentation to Hackster by 15th March 2022

(viii) All participants are expected to attend and participate in the training events (November-December 2021) and the final presentation and prize giving (22nd March 2022).

(iix) All participants are expected to treat other participants and members of the Biomaker team with respect and dignity. Physical and verbal abuse or harassment will not be tolerated. Please report any such incidents to coordinator@synbio.cam.ac.uk.

(ix) All teams are expected to consider the ethical aspects of their projects and ensure that their projects comply with the legal and ethical frameworks of their local authorities and partner organisations.

(x) All teams are responsible for identifying and managing relevant health and safety risks.

By submitting a project to the Biomaker Hackster Hub, participants agree to abide by the call details and code of conduct. The Biomaker team retains the right to make changes to the call details at any time.