SUMMIT 2018
On June 21st and 22nd, 27 student teams from around the world gathered at the Biodesign Challenge Summit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
The teams, chosen from more than 400 participating students, showcased their projects and competed for prizes, including the Glass Microbe. Congrats to our 2018 participants!
2018 WINNERS
Overall Winner
University of British Columbia
MYCOMMUNITY TOILET: Valerine Chandrakesuma, Joe Ho, Kateryna Ievdokymenko, Jay Martiniuk, Patrick Lewis Wilkie
Runner-Up
University of California, Davis
SORBIT: Sergio Gonzalez, Annie Wang, Jolee Nieberding-Swanberg, Julie Xu
Outstanding Science
University of California, Davis
SORBIT: Sergio Gonzalez, Annie Wang, Jolee Nieberding-Swanberg, Julie Xu
Outstanding Presentation
Fashion Institute of Technology
WEREWOOL: Morgana Katterman, Chui-Lian Lee, Valentina Gomez, Louise Ford
Outstanding Field Research
APIGIENE HIVE: Domenic Pennetta, Lucya Keune, Madeline Tomczak, Jesse Grumelot
PETA Prize for Animal-Free Wool
WOOCOA: Moises Hernandez, Ivan Caballero, Manuel Ortiz, Ana Andrade
NATURE/POSTNATURE
Hundreds of visitors joined us for NATURE/POSTNATURE, an exhibition of student projects from the 2018 Biodesign Challenge. The 27 chosen projects portrayed futures where the lines between the natural and designed worlds have blurred, and where products and provocations are made from organisms that have been engineered on the cellular level.
Chosen from 100+ BDC projects developed throughout 2018 by collaborations between students, biologists, artists, and designers, the exhibited pieces explored the possible ways biotechnology may reshape our lives, environment, and very understanding of the natural world.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Claire Bergkamp
Claire Bergkamp joined Stella McCartney in 2012 and is the Worldwide Director of Sustainability and Innovation. During her tenure at Stella McCartney, Claire has helped establish the brand’s leadership and reputation in sustainability. She has developed its robust environmental and social improvement strategy and worked across the brand and its supply chain internationally to implement it. Claire has focused particularly on sustainable raw material development and procurement, as well as driving alternative materials and innovation. As such, she works closely with innovators, start-ups and universities to find new sustainable business models and solutions. A key element of her sustainability approach includes supplier engagement and the ongoing improvement in social welfare across the supply chain. Within this context, she also oversees Stella McCartney's ethical trade and community outreach programs.
Christina Agapakis
Christina Agapakis, Ph.D., is creative director of Ginkgo Bioworks, a biological design company based in Boston. Her work brings together biologists, engineers, designers, artists, and social scientists to explore the future of biotechnology, from perfume made from extinct flowers to engineered probiotics and GMO beer. During her PhD at Harvard, she worked on producing hydrogen fuel in bacteria and making photosynthetic animals. She has taught designers at the Art Center College of Design and biomolecular engineers at UCLA, and she once made cheese using bacteria from the human body.
Orkan Telhan
Orkan Telhan, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Fine Arts - Emerging Design Practices at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Design. He holds a Ph.D. in Design and Computation from MIT's Department of Architecture. He was part of the Sociable Media Group at the MIT Media Laboratory and a researcher at the MIT Design Laboratory. Telhan's individual and collaborative work has been exhibited internationally in venues including the Istanbul Biennial (2013), Istanbul Design Biennial (2012, 2016), Salone del Mobile Milano, Vienna Design Week, the Armory Show 2015 Special Projects, Ars Electronica (2007, 2017), ISEA, LABoral, Archilab, Architectural Association, the Architectural League of New York, MIT Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York.
Alondra Nelson
Alondra Nelson, Ph.D., is president of the Social Science Research Council and professor of sociology at Columbia University. An award-winning scholar of science, medicine, and social inequality, her recent books include The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome, Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, and History, and Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination. Alondra has contributed to national policy discussions on inequality, and about the social implications of new technologies, including artificial intelligence, big data, direct-to-consumer genetics, and human gene-editing. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Data & Society Research Institute. Alondra is chair of the American Sociological Association Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology and is an elected member of the Sociological Research Association.
SUMMIT JUDGES
Christina Agapakis
Ph.D., Creative Director, Ginkgo Bioworks
Suzanne Anker
Fine Arts Chair, School of Visual Arts
Amber Benezra
Ph.D., Director of Science and Technology Studies, NYU Tandon School of Engineering
Marnie Benney
Gallery Director at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design
Julia Buntaine
Founding Director and Editor-in-Chief, SciArt Center and Magazine
Carrie Cizauskas
DVM, Ph.D., Manager of Publishing and Academic Relations, Zymergen, Inc.
Alison Dell
P.h.D., Assistant Professor of Biology, St. Francis College
Michael J. Flanagan
Ph.D., Founder and CEO, FlanaGen LLC
Kirby Gookin
Professor, New York University and The School of Visual Arts
Christine Gould
Founder, Thought For Food (TFF) Foundation
Gigi Gronvall
Ph.D., Senior Scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Odile Hainaut
Co-Founder, WantedDesign
Karen Hogan
Ph.D., CEO and Cofounder, Biorealize, Inc.
Gillian Jarvis
Director of Design, Twist Bioscience
Nancy J Kelley
JD, MPP, President and CEO, Nancy J Kelley + Associates
David Sun Kong
Ph.D., Synthetic Biologist and Director, MIT Media Lab's Community Biotechnology Initiative
Todd Kuiken
Ph.D., Senior Research Scholar, North Carolina State University
Claire Pijoulat
Co-founder, WantedDesign
Margaret MacDonald
Ph.D., Freelance Curator, Maryland Institute College of Art
Matilda McQuaid
Deputy Director of Curatorial and Head of the Textiles Department, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
Elliott P. Montgomery
Assistant Professor of Strategic Design, Parsons School of Design and co-founder, The Extrapolation Factory
William Myers
Curator, Teacher, and Author of Biodesign
Jeanne Pfordresher
Adjunct Associate of Pratt Institute Industrial Design, Partner Hybrid Product Design
Hannah Star Rogers
Ph.D., Visiting Scholar, University of Edinburgh and Chief Curator of Art’s Work in the Age of Biotech
Laura Stankiewicz
Relationship Manager, Siegel Family Endowment (SFE)
Orkan Telhan
Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Design Officer, Biorealize, Inc. and Associate Professor of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania
Harris Wang
Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Systems Biology, Columbia University
Elizabeth Wissinger
Ph.D., Professor of Fashion Studies and Sociology, City University of New York
Sophie Zaaijer
Ph.D., Runway Startup Postdoc, Cornell Tech
ANIMAL-FREE WOOL JUDGES
Claire Bergkamp
Head of Sustainability and Ethical Trade, Stella McCartney
Stephanie Downs
Corporate Social Responsibility Consultant, PETA
Lisa Feria
CEO, Stray Dog Capital
Laura Shields
Corporate Liaison, PETA
PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
Arizona State University
California Institute of the Arts, School of Critical Studies
The City College of New York
Drexel University
École Boulle/CRI, Paris
Fashion Institute of Technology, NY
Georgetown University
Illinois Institute of Technology
Keio University, Japan
McGill University
Maryland Institute College of Art
New York University, IDM
New York University, ITP
Parsons School of Design, NY
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Rutgers University, NJ
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
University of California, Davis
Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia
Universidad del Istmo, Guatemala
University of British Columbia
University of Edinburgh, UK
Ghent University
University of Sydney
University of Toledo
Student Photos Credit: Valery Rizzo