FIT Team Wins Biodesign Challenge Against Eight Major Colleges and Universities

NEW YORK, June 30, 2016 -- FIT has won the first Biodesign Challenge (BDC), a competition in which teams of students from nine leading U.S. colleges and universities created projects that envision future applications of biotechnology. Themes for the projects included architecture, water, food, materials, energy, medicine, and others areas where biological design could make a dramatic difference. The FIT team used novel growing techniques to develop a yarn out of bacteria and fungi, and used it to model an innovative production method for a sustainable alternative to conventional textiles. The prize was announced after the projects were presented at a June 23 event at the Museum of Modern Art and judged by 13 leaders in bio technology, design, and education. The FIT team is comprised of three students from the Fashion Design program's knitwear specialization—Tessa Callaghan '16, Gian Cui '17, and Aleksandra Gosiewski '17—and Aaron Nesser, who studies at Pratt Institute. Learn More.

Winning FIT team with their prize, the glass microbe.