2021 Biodesign Sprint
To participate in the Biodesign Sprint (October 7 – November 4), please complete the following application. You do not need a fully-formed project to apply to participate. Each team may have 1-6 people. Application deadline: September 29, 11:59pm ET.
Please review the Participation Agreementbefore applying.
You will be notified via email of acceptance on or before Friday, October 1. Once accepted, individual team members must sign the Participation Agreement and pay the registration fee. Only registered invitees can attend the Kickoff Orientation (October 7) and participate in the Semifinals (November 3).
Student Registration Fee: $35
Nonstudent Registration Fee: $50
The world is in dire need of good design, design that considers not just immediate use of a product but how it is born, functions, and gets thrown away.
In the 21st century, people are coming to realize that no product exists as an island. Each has an origin of how it came to be and a future where it is heading. Everything we create is part of a complicated ecosystem that binds our designed objects to the natural world.
Because design and technology inexorably interact with life, and because we are facing a period where biology is driving massive change, from the environmental crisis to the pandemic to breakthroughs in biotech, we need creators who bridge disciplines and reach across cultures to face the challenges of our age.
The Biodesign Sprint is the brainchild of Biodesign Challenge. For the past six years, BDC has partnered students with professional artists, designers, and scientists to explore new uses for biotechnology. Teams create projects that help us reconsider humanity’s role among other species and explore how to harmonize with the natural world.
For the first-ever Biodesign Sprint, BDC has worked with Google to create design prompts that call for actionable ideas that can be turned into commercial realities. We invite students, scientists, engineers, artists, designers, hobbyists—everyone—to come together and show off your brightest concepts and visions. This is not just an opportunity for you to meet the team at Google, it’s also an opportunity for Google to meet creators like you.
Join us, and help shape a more sustainable future.
Organizers
Timeline
September 1
Biodesign Sprint application period opens
September 29 11:59 pm ET
Biodesign Sprint application period closes
October 1
Deadline for event registration
October 7 12:00 – 3:00 pm ET
Kickoff Orientation
Join us for a half-day workshop and learn about the future of biodesign, biomaterials, and hardware. Meet the Sprint organizers, speakers, and the team from Google. This is your opportunity to brainstorm ideas with your team and learn more about the design prompts.
Featuring talks from Nathan Allen, Jennifer Holmgren, Orkan Telhan, and Wayne Suiter Matamoros. Learn more about our speakers.
Mid-October (By appointment)
Team Check-ins
Meet with Sprint organizers for feedback and advice on your project.
November 3 9:00 am – 3:00 pm ET
Biodesign Sprint Semifinals
Join us for a day of idea exchange and fresh discussion. Teams will present their projects to panels of experts from Google and BDC. Each will have 15 minutes to show videos and answer questions from the judges.
November 4 12:00 – 3:00 pm ET
Biodesign Sprint Finals
The four highest-scored teams from each track will return to present their projects for a final round of evaluation before all the Sprint judges. The day will include a keynote speaker highlighting new areas in biodesign. Sprint winners will be announced at the end of the event. This event will be broadcast live online.
Rubric
Assessment
Each team is required to create a video or pre-recorded presentation (7-minute maximum) that explains their project and how it responds to the design prompt(s). All presentations will be shown during the Semifinals on November 3. Following a showing of their video, each team will engage in a live Q&A with the expert judging panel from Google and Biodesign Challenge. The top 4 teams from each track will present at the Finals on November 4 to all the judges.
Projects will be evaluated based on the below Judging Rubric, which emphasizes life cycles, the environment, and cultural impacts.
1. Concept
ORIGINALITY:
Is the project original and does it approach the prompts in an innovative way?
DESIGN:
How effectively and completely does the project respond to the prompts?
FEASIBILITY:
a) Scientific: How well has the team demonstrated that current science makes the project possible?
b) Cultural: Has the team considered how the project fits with or replaces current products?
2. Presentation
VIDEO PRESENTATION:
Each team is expected to submit a 5-7 minute video that will be played at the Sprint. The video should explain how the project functions, the subject it addresses, the science behind it, and how it can be adopted. Teams must create visual renderings that communicate the look, function, and uses of their project. Videos can be narrative, explanatory, or slideshow based. Have fun with it!
LIVE DIALOGUE:
Following the video presentation, teams will discuss and answer questions about their projects with the judges for 5-8 minutes.
3. Context
HUMAN IMPACT:
a) Users/Nonusers/Scalability: How deeply has the team considered the project’s impacts on the lives of those who have access and do not have access to it? Has the team considered the people who manufacture and dispose of the product? Has the team considered how widely the project might be used, including among different genders, races, and socioeconomic groups?
b)Ethics:How thoughtfully has the team considered the ethics imbued in the vision?
SUSTAINABILITY:
a) Environmental Impact: How deeply has the team considered the project’s interaction with living environments? How might the project change the living environment, both immediately and gradually, locally and globally?
b) Efficiency/Life Cycle:How well does the team consider the use of resources (e.g. water, feedstocks, energy, labor, etc.)? Has the team considered the product’s entire life cycle? How is it sourced? Can it be recycled or reused in other ways?
SAFETY/DUAL USE:
Has the team considered the potential negative effects of its project? Has the team accounted for possible harm to human health and the living environment associated with its product or process malfunctioning? Has the team considered how its design could be negatively exploited? Has it considered how to mitigate the risks?
4. Reflection
Has the team recognized all the voices—experts and otherwise—necessary to inform the project? Has the team recognized strengths and weaknesses of its vision? Has it suggested ways to address them? What might next steps be to progress toward the next iteration of the idea?