BioBridge/Hackerspace Challenge proposal

From Noisebridge
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Proposal for the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge

Noisebridge is often publicly described as a 'flagship hackerspace', among many other things because the community here actively seek to hack in all areas of life...literally. However, the modern biohacking movement is still very much in it's infancy, and has perhaps been somewhat neglected at Noisebridge - but Biobridge is here to change that! By seeking entry in the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge, we mean to bring Noisebridge to the front of the DIYbio community with "The BioBoard", an Arduino-controlled sensor package that allows students, teachers, biohackers and home culturing enthusiasts alike to monitor a range of physiochemical factors related to microbiological processes (e.g. algae growing, youghurt production, kombucha fermentation, sourdough culturing, etc.) in liquid media/cultures, with real-time wireless data transmission and graphic data visualization designed to make key correlations between these factors easily graspable. Furthermore, the BioBoard makes it easier for 'students' to design experiments, collect and analyze data sets which can be used for building and validating mathematical models of practical microbiological processes, and gather knowledge required to manipulate these processes to achieve a given result.

Initially, the BioBoard will allow monitoring of the following factors:

By making the BioBoard available as a self-assembly kit, as well as a fully assembled product, we aim to make it more available to impoverished public schools and starving biohackers, while also providing the additional educational benefit of teaching ‘students’ how the sensors work, and how to build them using basic consumer electronics.

Overall, the Biobridge project aims to make serious (micro)biological/biochemical science available to a wide public by taking offset in simple, practical, DIY projects such as the above mentioned examples (algae growing, youghurt production, kombucha fermentation, sourdough culturing), and using these projects to demonstrate how scientific tools and rigour can be used not only to improve upon these techniques, but also to provide valuable insight into the underlying biological processes.