Tokyo Tech News
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Tokyo Tech News
Published: December 16, 2016
The 12th Tokyo Tech BioCon, or bio-creativity contest, was held at Suzukakedai Campus on November 12, 2016.
Preparing for the final presentations
Bio-Creative Design 1 and 2, which form the basis of the Tokyo Tech BioCon, are courses offered to first-year students.
During these courses, students work in small groups to plan and design easy tools that can be utilized to teach bioscience and biotechnology to the public, or are otherwise useful to society. While boosting creativity, the courses also aim to provide students with the fundamentals of bioscience.
This year, 20 groups made up of a total of 150 students carried out investigations, experiments, and surveys to gather data for their bio-creative design project.
The Tokyo Tech BioCon is a public contest, which also functions as the final assessment for the Bio-Creative Design courses. Students regularly received advice from professors and teaching assistants until the big day when each group had 11 minutes to present their project aims, methods, and data to the audience.
Presentations - colorful and amusing
After the presentations, elementary and middle school students were invited to test out the groups' creations during the "Bio-play with Tokyo Tech students" session. Groups set up booths to further explain their projects and encouraged children to get more involved. With the younger generations getting a chance to experience bioscience and biotechnology through interesting and challenging games, feedback was again excellent.
Children trying out groups' creations
Booths set up to explain the students' projects
In addition to the seven judges selected from within and outside the Institute, fellow students and other participants at the event evaluated the projects and had a say in the selection of the winners. Group E claimed victory with their project on "Cabbage – The edible paper."
Winning group receiving certificate and commenting on their victory
Winners |
Group E: Cabbage – The edible paper |
---|---|
2nd place |
Group N: Three-minute cooking |
3rd place |
Group T: Bio-soap |
Industry Collaboration Award |
Group S: Cotton-de-pon |
Judges' Award |
Group H: Bac-ter the Agar game |
Group J: A packed ant theater |
|
Collaboration Center for Design and Manufacturing Award |
Group L: Find the yeast!! |
Yokohama City Board of Education Award |
Group P: From DNA to protein |
Congratulations to the winners and all the groups who worked hard for the past six months to design creative, original projects.
School of Life Science and Technology
—Unravel the Complex and Diverse Phenomena of Life—
Information on School of Life Science and Technology inaugurated in April 2016