Biodesign Challenge is an education program and a student competition that is shaping a new generation of biodesigners. The BDC partners students with scientists, artists, and designers and encourages them to envision future applications of biology in design. It is an international competition which has projects that range from speculative to actual implementations visualised through models and functional prototypes.
Our BioDesign Challenge module runs between Newcastle University and Northumbria university as part of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment. The programme is intended to be an extracurricular activity supported by and mentored by the HBBE in design and biology and is open to students from Design, Science and Engineering backgrounds supported by PhD students and Post-Doctoral researchers across Architectural Design, Microbiology and Synthetic Biology.
The curriculum is focused on biotechnology applications for the built environment and microorganisms posing particular challenges around the HBBE themes of:
- Living Construction: Engineered Living Materials for building construction.
- Building Metabolisms: Treating waste from buildings and generating energy and useful resources.
- The Microbial Environment: Cultivating healthily microbiomes in indoor and city environments.
The course is structured around weekly sessions mixing presentations, lab and workshop practical sessions and design reviews with the development of teams. The course runs from the end of January until June with the Biodesign Summit where one team will be flown to New York to present their project. Finalists from each school showcase their designs at a two-day summit that brings together artists, designers, scientists, and entrepreneurs to judge the finalists' designs.
We have had two teams in 2020 consisting of students from both Newcastle and Northumbria in a range of biology and design fields their sites can be found here:
