Tokyo Tech News

Tokyo Tech students take third place at BIOMOD competition

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Published: November 9, 2012

BIOMOD(International Bio-Molecular Design Competition)is an international competition of the design and construction of nano/micrometer-sized biomolecular robots for undergraduates students. In this competition, each team competes by presenting the results of their research in summer. This year's competition was held on November 3 and 4 at Harvard University. There are no restrictions on the object of design, and so presentations were categorized under various themes, such as nanometer scale three-dimensional structures, nanometer-sized artificial biomolecular motors, biomolecular computers, biomolecular robots using DNAs, RNAs and protein.

This year, 17 teams from 8 counties joined the competition, including Harvard University, Columbia University, The University of California, The Dresden University of Technology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, The University of Tokyo and Tohoku University.

The Team Titech Nano-Jugglers, which consisted of 6 undergraduate students from Tokyo Institute of Technology, proposed an extremely high-speed, controllable and rail-free molecular vehicle, "Biomolecular Rocket." As a result, the team won five prizes: 3rd place in both the "Grand Prize" and "Best Wiki", 2nd place in "Best YouTube video" and "2nd Annual MOLBOT Award" and a gold medal in "Project Awards". To receive 3rd place in the "Grand Prize", the team must excel in all elements, including computer molecular design, prediction with mathematical models, system construction based on experiments, logical project documentation and finally giving an attractive presentation. Following last year's 2nd place of Grand Prize, Titech team has been in the top 3 for two years in a row. This achievement is the result of appraisements of the high overall ability of Tokyo Tech students.

BIOMOD Official Homepage: http://biomod.net/
BIOMOD results: http://biomod.net/winners
Team Titech Nano-Jugglers, Project page: http://openwetware.org/wiki/Biomod/2012/Titech/Nano-Jugglers

After the awarding ceremony at Harvard University
After the awarding ceremony at Harvard University

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