Biomod Blog

Hello BIOMODders! It’s time to kick off the 7th year of our nano-sized design competition.

Requirements updates

• Maximum team size is still 8 students. Faculty, graduate, and postdoc mentors do not count toward this tally.
• We will begin enforcing the 3-minute maximum length for Project YouTube videos.
• Intellectual Property: Teams must disclose technical details of their projects to be eligible for judging. Provisional patents, if necessary, should be filed in advance of the judging period.
• We have added an Code of Conduct. To our knowledge, past participants have adhered to this code, but we would like to make it explicit so expectations are clear.

Judging updates

We have simplified our ranking procedure for Gold, Silver, and Bronze project awards. Bronze awards go to teams that satisfy all project requirements. Silver awards go to teams with scores in the top 50%, and Gold awards go to teams with scores in the top 25%.

Registration & Fees

Watch the timer on the BIOMOD front page…this registration link will go live at the end of the countdown. A fee of $265 USD is due at the time of team registration, payable by credit card or wire transfer. This year’s individual Jamboree registration fee will be $195 USD per person, due in late September along with your project title and abstract. Registrations are only considered complete when payment is received and a confirmation email is sent.

Available Team Slots and Wait List

The BIOMOD Jamboree is a special event, and we want all participants to be able to present in the same room, and have a chance to interact. This format places constraints on our event size and duration. Therefore, we are limiting registration to a maximum of 25 teams this year. We will post regular updates on the BIOMOD website and social media accounts so everyone can track how many slots are left.

Venue

The Jamboree will take place October 27–28 in San Francisco, California and be hosted at the UCSF Mission Bay campus.

Congratulations to Capsid Constructors from UNSW Australia for earning the 2017 Grand Prize! Visit our winners page to see all final standings.

The 2017 BIOMOD Jamboree is this weekend! Here is the QuickGuide which includes the full schedule:

BIOMOD2017-QuickGuide-v4.pdf

Last year, we asked all teams to register a GitLab Pages site. This year we are simplifying the website requirements. Teams are welcome to use GitLab, GitHub Pages, or any other hosting service they wish.

All current information is available in the BIOMOD Handbook, which is free for all BIOMOD participants. The website instructions can be found in Chapter 1, and are reproduced below.

Once your site is set up, please remember to enter the URL on your team profile page on the BIOMOD 2017 portal site so judges can find it.

How to Setup A Website

There are many ways including GitLab Pages, GitHub Pages, OpenWetWare, Weebly, or Wordpress.

GitLab Pages is currently the preferred option for hosting BIOMOD websites. It allows the greatest flexibility in that any major static-site generator can be used. On the other hand, it may requiring learning some skills with HTML and git-based version control.

GitHub Pages was introduced as a website option for BIOMOD in 2014. Like GitLab, it supports simultaneous editing and allows you to easily restore previous versions because it retains the edit history. GitHub Desktop can be used to highlight changes to your files, so that it is convenient for simultaneous editing.

Early BIOMOD teams used OpenWetWare, which is a MediaWiki site. This is why many documents refer to the “Project Wiki”, which is now called the Project Website. OpenWetWare can be operated intuitively, and has been employed since the first competition so that it has a lot of scripts and other merits. It is also highly compatible with image and video files. However, it does not support simultaneous editing of a single page, which means you will have to work in a place where you can talk with other editors just before the deadline, for the sake of efficiency.

Weebly, and Wordpress are allowed. These are likely the most user-friendly options if your team does not have a technical lead, but they can be inconvenient to archive for viewing by future generations of BIOMOD students.

Call for Participation ~ BIOMOD JAPAN 2017

Osaka University and Molecular Robotics Research Group will hold BIOMOD JAPAN 2017. This is a one-day meeting for teams who want to practice presentations before the official BIOMOD Jamboree. Please use this opportunity to brush up your project with comments from mentors of other teams. Teams planning to participate in BIOMOD 2017 or teams in the waiting list for BIOMOD 2018 can participate. There is no fee. Participation is free.

Date: September 2, 2017 (Saturday) 1300-1700

Place: Sigma Hall, Toyonaka Campus, Osaka University

URL: http://www.es.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/access.html (The place is No. 27 “Hall”.)

Presentation time: 10 minutes with 3 minutes Q & A

Project abstract deadline: Friday, August 18, 2017 24:00

Website Freeze: Friday, August 25, 2017 24:00

Evaluations: Website 50 points, Presentation 25 points

Details of evaluation items are the same for BIOMOD. Contents of presentation and website (wiki) will be evaluated by mentors on the basis of the same criteria of BIOMOD. YouTube videos are not subject to evaluation. Evaluation results will be provided to participating teams.

To Apply: Applications to BIOMOD JAPAN 2017 should be sent to:

Prof. Kaoru Uesugi, Osaka University
Email: uesugi@live.mech.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp

Please specify the team name, contact name, and mentor name. (Teams that already applied do not need to apply again.)