Biomod Blog

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.)

We are publishing a BIOMOD Handbook this year!

It is an English translation of the Japanese BIOMOD textbook, generously contributed by the authors of the Molecular Robotics Study Group (Murata, Tadakuma, Fujiwara, Hamada, Nomura, et al.). Sales proceeds will go to BIOMOD Foundation to cover translation costs.

Chapter 1 is now available, additional chapters will be released in the coming weeks. All BIOMOD students will receive a free copy with registration. Everyone else can get the book via this link:

https://leanpub.com/biomod

For the past 5 months, we have been planning for BIOMOD 2017 to take place on October 28–29. However, that date may no longer work because a UCSF campus-wide event was just announced that takes priority over all existing auditorium bookings.

After exploring many alternatives, we have concluded that the best option is to reschedule the event for the following weekend: November 4–5th, 2017. Please see the Jamboree page for the latest information about this year’s deadlines and schedule

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and hope this change will not cause any problems for your team. However, if you wish to cancel your registration for a full refund, please let Shawn or Rebecca know by April 30th.

We also appreciate feedback about the dates — if this weekend turns out to work better than the prior weekend, we can keep a similar schedule next year.

Congratulations to Team Tiny Trap from UNSW Australia for earning the 2016 Grand Prize! Visit our winners page to see all final standings.