Prizes
Overall Prize
The Overall Winner of the Biodesign Challenge will take home the Glass Microbe, which will be passed to each year’s winners. Created by artist Luke Jerram, the Glass Microbe is a unique artwork and symbol of the intersection of art, design, and biology.
Runner Up
The Runner-Up Prize goes to the team with the second highest score with regard to the judging criteria and a vote among the judges.
BDC Prize for Biodigital Excellence
The Biodesign Challenge Prize for Biodigital Excellence celebrates the team that best integrates biological and digital methods to push the boundaries of biodesign practice. This prize honors projects that thoughtfully merge computation, data, interfaces, simulation, or digital fabrication with living systems or biologically inspired processes to expand how we imagine, represent, or work with the materiality of life.
BDC Prize for DNA Futures
The Biodesign Challenge Prize for DNA Futures honors the team that best investigates and creatively imagines how DNA, genomics, and related biotechnologies could shape tomorrow’s world. This prize celebrates projects that thoughtfully engage with the possibilities and implications of genetic information and DNA-based design—whether by exploring speculative futures, proposing novel biological applications, or critically reflecting on the role of DNA in society and culture.
Outstanding Digital Submission
2025 Prize Sponsored by Terra HQ
Outstanding Digital Submission will be awarded to the participating team with the best audiovisual presentation of their biodesign project. Judges for the prize welcome submissions across several digital formats, from longer videos to interactive websites, augmented- and virtual-reality platforms, and even video games. The Outstanding Digital Submission Prize serves to recognize the fact that quality digital experiences play a pivotal role in encouraging global innovation in sustainability development. Please note that teams applying for this prize must still create a 1 to 5-minute video that best captures their project thesis and design journey in a creative way. This prize is open to all finalist teams, including those who are unable to join the Summit in-person. The winning project’s video will be shown during the Awards Ceremony on the final day of the BDC Summit.
Outstanding Social Critique
2025 Prize Supported by NEW INC
The Outstanding Social Critique Prize is awarded to the team that best explores and most clearly communicates a criticism of biotechnology or communicates a social critique through the creative use of biotech. The team’s project will address the positive and negative effects of a technology or system on users and nonusers, potential societal reactions to these effects, and ways to mitigate negative ones. Students should consider the types of communities affected and potential shifts in disparity or equity that could arise from their project.
Outstanding Narrative
2025 Prize Supported by Twist Bioscience
The Outstanding Narrative Prize is awarded to the team that best employs compelling visual renderings and creative storytelling techniques to communicate the science, context, and impact of their project. Students are expected to clearly outline the development of the process of their project and/or their personal growth through biodesign.
Outstanding Display
The Outstanding Display Prize is awarded to the team with the most engaging exhibit at the BDC Gallery Show. Judges assess the clarity with which teams present their projects, the interactivity of the display, and how well the students address questions during the Gallery Show. Gallery Show exhibits should convey the team’s process, learnings, and final results of their project.
Outstanding Art
2025 Prize Supported by BioBAT Art Space
The Outstanding Art Prize is awarded to the team that best provokes the audience into reimagining humans’ relationship with biotech, with other species, or with one another. Projects must be original work that challenge conventional assumptions and demonstrates mastery of a chosen medium.
Outstanding Science
2025 Prize Supported by Genspace
The Outstanding Science Prize is awarded to the team that designs and executes outstanding scientific experiments or exhibits mastery of scientific techniques. The experiments and their analysis must be performed by the students. Students must show how their experiments informed the design of their project.
Outstanding Field Research
2025 Prize Supported by Cambridge University Press
The Outstanding Field Research Prize goes to the team that takes the initiative to go out into the field and interview experts as well as potentially affected communities in order to find and understand the real social impacts of their project. Students should quantitatively and/or qualitatively incorporate the data of their findings into their presentation and discuss how these discoveries informed the development of their project.
Outstanding Institutional Collaboration
The Biodesign Challenge Prize for Outstanding Institutional Collaboration honors the team that exemplifies exceptional partnership across disciplines, departments, or institutions in the development of their biodesign project. This prize rewards projects where collaboration—whether between schools, research labs, community groups, or educational programs—played a fundamental role in shaping the research, concept, and outcome.
Outstanding High School Project
2025 Prize Supported by Siegel Family Endowment
The Outstanding High School Project Prize goes to the High School team that shows the most promise with their research, design, and presentation. These high schoolers strongly communicate their journey and intentions while acknowledging the personal and local contexts of their project. Please note that the Outstanding High School Project winner is also eligible for the Overall Prize or Runner-Up Prize.
Outstanding Instructor
The Outstanding Instructor Prize is awarded to an instructor who was chosen by their students for providing an exceptional learning experience during the semester.