Open Projects

New vial cap design for secure sample collection

Our system currently uses a vial with a rubber top. This stems from the need of being able to contain the GMO reporter bacteria, while maintaining the ability to inject the water sample in the vial. In the current version, a syringe is used to pierce the rubber and inject the water in the vial that has been filled with the bio-reporter in the lab. The problem with this system is that the syringe itself can be hazardous if not disposed of properly.

We would like to design a new system that does not use a syringe. The idea is to create a cap that can hold two vials. One vial would be filled with the bio-reporter and sealed in the lab using this special cap. Then, while in the field, a second vial would be filled with the sample and screwed on the other en of the cap. The action of screwing the second vial would mechanically perforate a seal and allow the liquids in both vials to mix together, while keeping the content isolated from the environment.

Exploiting scattering in a fluorimeter

The current version of our DIY fluorimeter uses a light sensor that is sensitive to all the visible light spectrum. In addition, we would like to avoid using a high-quality filter to cut down on cost. This means that the excitation light scattered by the bacteria pollutes the light emitted by the EGFP. A possible solution is to exploit the properties of scattering to recover the clean EGFP signal in a post-processing stage.

The project would involve building a measurement rig and characterizing the scattering as a function of the angle of incidence of the light. The second step will be to attempt to validate the recovery algorithm.

Debugging a low-cost fluorimeter

Our current version of the DIY fluorimeter does not perform as expected. There is a need to thoroughly investigate and validate all steps in both the process of growing the reporter bacteria, and to find out which physical process in the fluorimeter contribute to the poor quality of the results.

• Intensity and wavelength of the excitation light

• • the plastic lenses – does it absorb the light?
  • test the spectra of the blue LED (not always what the technical sheet says)
  • modulate the power of the LED (too much light?). Find the least power that fully excites the GFP.

• Light Scatter
  • reduce scatter – lyse the bacteria to remove particles

• Detection
  • separation of the excitation and the emission wavelengths
  – use a new reporter protein LSS mOrange
  – use a filter (light gels, RGB filter, commercial filters for microscopy)
  • detector
  – is it sufficiently sensitive?
  – is the sensor saturated?

• Also, for the transmittance,
  • are we detecting transmittance? check

A low-cost open-source prototyping platform for DIY science instruments

Create an arduino compatible platform with a simple LED display and possiblity to connect different sensors.

• Simple microcontroller
• Display (LCD or LED segments)
• Connector for different sensors
• Software for generic experiments
• Analog/Digital sensors

Sonification of Arsenic detection

The goal of this project is to transform the measurement of Arsenic into a sound output. Ideally, it would be an audio representation of some underlying process happening during the detection. The sound should be pleasant to listen to, but also reflects the Arsenic content in some respect to be defined (e.g. dramatic intensity, frequency, etc).

The project will involve studying the physics and theory of the detection process. The sonification might involve the creation of several new components in order to allow the sonification. The output will be an art installation where the audience can listen to different levels of Arsenic in water.

Mobile Laboratory

We would like to explore the barriers between the machines that we have in the laboratory and the ones that can be portable.

Workshop Development

As we are aimed at citizen science, we have to ask why would people be interested in the quality of water in their neighborhood? How do we bring up arsenic (in Switzerland)? Why would the public want to measure and share the results? How do we want to engage the hands-on-device building? Is field water collection part of the workshop? How do we negotiate the use of the bioreporter, a GMO in the field? How do we involve local science institutions to properly use and dispose the GMOs? We have to also go through cycles of workshops and test what works in engagement, awareness, and knowledge sharing.

Characterization of LSS-mOrange Reporter

We now have a new fluorescent bioreporter, and we will need to characterize the strain, sensitivity to Arsenic, time for development, fluorescence intensity, etc.

Visualizing Water Quality Data

We are interested in mapping and crowd-source mapping of water quality data in biodesign for the real world. Water quality data can come in many flavors, and depending on the body of water, the nature of the measurements or observations, and the nature of the data. The links to local communities and history is also important. Comparisons to other crowd-sourced visualizations of environmental, or other big-data may be relevant. We look for background research and analytical proposals on visualization of an integrated water quality map that is interesting to various communities.