Biomod Blog

This year represents the 10th anniversary of our nano-sized design competition, and we are planning some changes to enhance the sustainability and global reach of the competition.

Schedule changes

We are shifting the current schedule back by ~5 months from the normal schedule. Thus, we will host the next Jamboree in San Francisco in March 2021.

The majority of participating teams come from outside the United States, and we are shifting the BIOMOD schedule to better align with the academic calendars of participants worldwide. This change is also necessary for upcoming venue location changes.

We expect that the teams’ research calendars will also shift to reflect the new schedule - teams could still kick off the year with intense summer activity in the lab, and then use the fall and early spring semesters to wrap up the projects.

Venue changes

We will host the next event in San Francisco, but we are planning to host the 2022 Jamboree in Australia, and the 2023 Jamboree in Japan. Subsequent events may rotate back to the US and/or Europe, depending on interest and volunteer support (contact us if interested!)

Your Feedback

We have some flexibility in the specific Jamboree dates in 2021 (March 12–14 vs 19–21), and would like to hear your preferences! We would also like to gauge interest for future years.

Please fill out our survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/337TDVS

Additional comments can be submitted on our contact page.

Check out the 2019 BIOMOD Final Standings! Congratulations to all the teams who participated, as well as Team FilterPhytes for taking home the Grand Prize!

Photos from the event by JRUMANS PHOTOGRAPHY are hosted on this page.

The 2019 BIOMOD Jamboree is this weekend!

Here is the latest QuickGuide, which includes the full schedule:

BIOMOD2019-QuickGuide.pdf

Schedule only:

BIOMOD2019-Schedule.pdf

If we make any changes, the latest versions will be linked from this page.

Please RSVP for Sunday’s lunch

The BIOMOD 2019 Jamboree is nearly here!

While everyone is certainly busy putting the finishing touches on their projects and presentations, we’d like to ask that you join us for the post-Jamboree lunch social at the nearby Spark Social SF. We have booked the venue for our private event, and a free meal ticket will be provided.

Please RSVP using this link if you have not yet done so.

Call for Participation ~ BIOMOD JAPAN 2019

This is a one-day meeting for teams who want to practice their presentation ahead of BIOMOD Jamboree. Please use this opportunity to brush up your project by receiving feedback from other team mentors. Teams planning to participate in BIOMOD 2019 or teams in the waiting list for BIOMOD 2019 are all eligible. The participation fee is totally free.

• Date: August 31, 2019 (Saturday)
• Time: 14:30-17:40 (not fixed)
• Location: Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
• Room: Presentation room, S building

Sponsors

• Sponsorship : The SICE research committee for Intelligent Molecular Robotics
• Co-sponsorship : SIG Molecular Robotics Ethics, JST
• Co-sponsorship : Applied Microfluidic Systems Lab, The University of Tokyo

Important Deadlines

• 19th of July, Friday: Entry due
• 17th of August, Saturday, 23:59 : Abstract due
• 24th of August, Saturday, 23:59 : Webpage due

Participation Requirements

The following information must be sent to Kawamata before the deadline, at the mail address: kawamata[at]molbot.mech.tohoku.ac.jp

• Name of the team
• Name and mail address of the student leader
• Name and mail address of the faculty mentor
• Name and mail address of the graduate student mentor (if any)
• Special requests (for example, desired order of presentation, if you have some unavoidable reason such as travel restrictions)

Abstract information

Send an English-language abstract to Kawamata before the deadline of August 17th. The maximum length is 150 words.

Website

Send the URL of webpage to Kawamata before the deadline of August 24th, and do not make any edits after that.

Presentation

Each team will have 25 minute for their presentation, including question and answer (Q&A). The breakdown is 10 minutes of presentation, 14 minutes of question and answer, 1 minute for changing.

Judges send their scores of the webpage to Kawamata before 30th of August (Friday).

Judges send their scores of the oral presentation to Kawamata during the break after the presentation on 31st of August (Saturday).

Judges use the same point system of BIOMOD competition to evaluate the webpage and the oral presentation. See biomod.net/judging/

Awards

Japanese teams are eligible for travel award depending on their ranking.

• 1st place : flight cost of around three students
• 2nd place : flight cost of around two students
• 3rd place : flight cost of around one student
• 4th place : flight cost of around one student

Note that there is an upper limit and conditions.

Organization

• Program organizer: Ibuki Kawamata kawamata[at]molbot.mech.tohoku.ac.jp
• Local organizer: Shu Okumura, Anthony Genot
• Website: http://www.molecular-robotics.org/2019/07/biomod-japan-2019/