[Bioundgrd] Fwd: 2004 synthetic biology competition announcement

[Kathleen Long]

>During the summer and early fall of 2004 students and instructors at 
>five universities will work to design, build, and characterize 
>genetically-encoded finite state machines.  These living machines 
>will try to program cells to count, decode signals, or produce 
>patterns according to human intention.  See here 
>[http://biobricks.mit.edu/htdocs/iap2004.htm] for examples of 
>pattern forming systems from the 2004 IAP course.
>
>The five schools participating in the 2004 competition are:
>
>Boston University
>California Institute of Technology
>Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>Princeton University
>University of Texas at Austin
>
>We are looking for up to 10 students to form the MIT team.
>
>Project work will include:
>(i) system design
>(ii) system specification
>(iii) system assembly
>(iv) system characterization
>(v) system debug.
>
>Note that (i) and (ii) are "dry" work whereas (iii), (iv), and (v) 
>will require "wet" work.
>Thus, we are hoping to assemble a group who, collectively, is 
>excited to learn and work on both computers and in the laboratory.
>
>All team members will receive a $4000 summer stipend.
>All team members will also be able to attend the First Annual 
>Conference on Synthetic Biology 
>(http://conference.syntheticbiology.org/)
>The MIT team will start work on Monday June 7th.  We will continue 
>work throughout the summer and into the fall (as schedule's allow).
>There will be a competition-wide jamboree on 11/5-7 at which all 
>students and instructors from each school will assemble to 
>present/judge their systems and to share their experiences.
>
>The MIT team will be advised by:
>Tom Knight
>Gerry Sussman
>Randy Rettberg
>Pamela Silver
>Drew Endy
>
>Send me (endy at mit.edu) an email if you would like to participate
>A brief mention re: why you are interested and what areas of the 
>project you'd most like to work on would be helpful.
>
>Please forward this message to anyone you think would be interested 
>in being on our team.
>
>We need to win!
>
>Drew
>
>_______
>
>Drew Endy
>MIT Biology & Biological Engineering
>http://mit.edu/endy/