Summit 2023 Winners

MICA Overall Winner team. Photo credits: Valery Rizzo.

OVERALL WINNER MOTHER NACRE

Maryland Institute College of the Arts – Maddie Olsen, Finn Yencken, Sarah Becker, Lily Xiao, Orin Noel, Riley Cox, Starling Wolfrum

RUNNER-UP ORBWEAVER

The University of Texas at Austin – Brad Hakes

OUTSTANDING SOCIAL CRITIQUE COLORES DEL RIO

California College of the Arts, Design – Melissa Ortiz

OUTSTANDING SCIENCE BACTERRA: DESIGNING ACROSS SCALES

California College of the Arts, Architecture – Conrad Scheepers, Claire Leffler, Kimia Farahnak, Elizabeth Bond, Fredrick Leon

OUTSTANDING NARRATIVE DREAMYARD BIODESIGN

Runner-Up Brad Hakes and Outstanding Instructor winner Jiabao Li of UT Austin. Photo credits: Valery Rizzo.

DreamYard – Aaron Amofa, Yaretsi Mendoza, Fatima Djeponogni, Gabrielle Hargrove, Tyla Dowery, Carolina Lopez

OUTSTANDING FIELD RESEARCH MYDECO: MYCOLOGICAL DECOMPOSITION

Borough of Manhattan Community College – Irina Nissen, Elim Soto

OUTSTANDING INSTRUCTOR JIABAO LI, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

COMMUNITY CHOICE STRONGUM

Universidad del Desarrollo – Mariajosé Mendoza, Bernardita Jiménez, Emilia Moure

SCIENCE SANDBOX PRIZE FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT THRIVE

New York University Integrated Design & Media – Sheila Atieno, Diedre Brown, Tori Coleman, Andi Sanchez, Anshika Srivastava

Top 8 Finalist Teams

Letter From BDC’s Executive Director

Dear Friends,
As we begin Biodesign Challenge Summit 2023, I want to thank you all for being on this adventure with us.  Read More

Summit Speakers

Shana Agid is an artist/designer, teacher, and activist whose work focuses on relationships of power and difference in visual, social, and political cultures. They are currently serving as the Dean of the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons and a codeveloper of Working with People, a keyword-based curriculum for developing pedagogical frameworks for collaborative practices.

Amber Benezra is a sociocultural anthropologist researching how studies of the human microbiome intersect with ethics, public health/technological infrastructures, and care. In partnership with human microbial ecologists, she is developing an “anthropology of microbes” to address global health problems across disciplines.

Mitchell Joachim is an architect and urban designer. He is the Co-Founder of Terreform ONE and an Associate Professor of Practice at NYU. Previously he was the Frank Gehry Chair at University of Toronto and a faculty member at Pratt, Columbia, Syracuse, Washington, The New School, and the European Graduate School.

Suzanne Lee is a designer turned pioneer of biotechnology for fashion. She started growing materials from microbes for the fashion industry in 2002, coining the term “Biocouture.” Today Suzanne is the founder of Biofabricate, a global network serving the needs of biomaterial innovators, consumer brands and investors through events, advisory and learning resources.

Kim Stanley Robinson is an acclaimed science fiction author and has published more than twenty books, including The Ministry for the Future (2020) and the bestselling Mars trilogy. In 2008, he was named “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine and is a winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards.

Harris Wang is a synthetic biologist and associate professor of systems biology at Columbia University. He received BS degrees in mathematics and physics from MIT and a PhD in biophysics from Harvard. His research group develops technologies to program cells to tackle pressing challenges in global health, personalized medicine, and climate change.

Panel Discussion: Art & Design as Critique

Modern Metamorphoses Gallery Show

Modern Metamorphoses is an exhibition that highlights the unstable realities catalyzed by new biotechnologies. The show borrows its name from the chimeric world of myth conjured by Ovid 2,000 years ago. In his epic poem, beings—natural and divine—metamorphosed from one form into another. Today, biotechnology makes Ovid’s Metamorphoses imminently possible. It replaces magic with science and substitutes nature with human design.

When: Thursday June 22, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Where: Arnhold Hall - Theresa Lang Center, 55 W 13th St, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10011

 
 

Summit Judges

BDC 2023 Sponsors

 
 

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