The Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE) was looking for creative and fearless undergraduate and post-graduate students who wanted to be part of the 2021 Biodesign Challenge.
Biodesign Challenge (BDC) is an education program and a student competition that is shaping a new generation of biodesigners. It is a global competition which has projects that range from speculative to actual implementations visualised through models and functional prototypes. The BDC partners students with scientists, artists, and designers and encourages them to envision future applications of biology in design.
Our BioDesign Challenge module runs between Newcastle University and Northumbria University as part of the HBBE. 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 the HBBE members across Architectural Design, Microbiology and Synthetic Biology. It's important to note that you do not have to have a background in biology or in design but we encourage creative-and open-minded students to apply.
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.
- Responsible Interaction: Developing responsible and integrated approaches to biotechnology.
The course is structured around weekly sessions mixing presentations, lab and workshop practical sessions (dependant on University guidelines) and design reviews with the development of teams. The course will run from January until June where one selected team from the HBBE will present their project (virtually or in-person in New York) at the international Biodesign Challenge Summit where finalists from each school showcase their designs at the summit bringing together artists, designers, scientists, and entrepreneurs to judge the finalists' designs.
This year we had three teams consisting of students from both Newcastle and Northumbria in a range of biology and design fields their sites can be found here:
