Not knowing the answer - this is precisely what “research” is about. Team Sendai: Continuing their challenge to compete in international competitions.
“Team Sendai” that participated in the 4th BIOMOD
Team Sendai
Tohoku University’s “Team Sendai” with volunteer members, Competing with young, intelligent minds from around the world.
On November 1, 2014, Massachusetts, USA, young, intelligent engineering minds from around the world gathered for BIOMOD at the Allston Campus of Harvard University, renowned as the top university. Teams comprised of undergraduate students competed in the design and in the completeness of the development of molecules in the International Biomolecular Design Competition (BIOMOD). With molecular robotics being a new academic field, this competition aims to train researchers from an early stage in order to broaden this field for the future. At BIOMOD, technological competence and the ability for conceiving ideas are not the only skills that are evaluated. Teams are comprehensively scored based on a 12-minute presentation on the day of the contest, the production of a 3-minute YouTube video which includes a summary of the results, and a web page describing the project’s purpose, data and detailed experiment results. Moreover, everything has to be in English. Teams from countries that do not have English as their first language have to first overcome this huge language barrier.
At the 2014 competition, “Team Sendai” from Tohoku University won prizes in several categories, and was impressively ranked at third place overall.
BIOMOD held despite challenges, Utilizing Japanese know-how in “ROBOCON”
BIOMOD originated from a suggestion by a researcher in Harvard University’s Wyss Institute. Upon suggestion by Dr. Shawn Douglas, who was affiliated with the Wyss Institute at the time, on holding an interesting and fair molecular design competition, Japanese researchers on molecular robotics including Prof. Satoshi Murata and others from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering, Tohoku University shared their opinions and created the framework for the contest. Prof. Murata and the others used Japan’s robot contest, “ROBOCON.” As a contest for youths unlike any other in the world that incorporated a wide variety of viewpoints, the philosophy of ROBOCON well met the standard of Harvard University. In fact, Japan’s ROBOCON know-how was incorporated as the competition’s actual evaluation standards.
Prof. Murata recalls, “The first BIOMOD competition was held in 2011. It was the year of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, so we were having a hard time simply to clean up the lab. But we couldn’t halt the contest’s preparations that were already underway. We worked so hard.” Mainly with members who were undergraduate students belonging to Prof. Murata’s lab, “Team Sendai” was formed, and was somehow able to participate but the results were not good. “Even so, the competition had a big impact on the students. It was their first trip overseas, and the whole contest was in English. I think it was an invaluable experience for them,” adds Prof. Murata.
Real value of projects with volunteer members Where knowledge and experience accumulate and evolve
Only a year later, the Tohoku University team won first place overall in BIOMOD’s second competition. Prof. Murata says, “Actually, the team had dismal results in a domestic competition held two months prior to BIOMOD. I think that experience fueled the team, each member found their own role, and they polished up their project by BIOMOD. They had not forgotten the lessons they learned from the first year and this was a big factor. This contest is an opportunity where they can transmit their own, unique ideas out to the world. Through repeated discussions among themselves, they accumulate knowledge and experience, and they are evolving year after year. Isn’t this precisely the real value of a project that is not part of an obligatory seminar or a class but is made up of volunteer members?” Reading cutting-edge papers in English, compiling the main points and gathering the knowledge that they need, this opportunity to have direct contact with the “elite” boosts their desire for learning and increases their motivation as young researchers. Prof. Murata also commented that they can’t compete well in the competition by haphazardly going forward and that acknowledging each of their own roles while keeping in mind the goal and being conscious of competing with the world is precisely the way to win the prize.
Tales of the Order
-Universal Strand Generator-
Wiki YouTube video
“Team Sendai” that participated in the 4th BIOMOD
Team Sendai
| Third-year students | |
|---|---|
| Eiki Ishihara | Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering Leader |
| Shunsuke Imai | Department of Applied Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biomolecular Engineering, School of Engineering Sub-leader |
| Hayato Otaka | Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering Design / experiments / presentation |
| Yuto Otaki | Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering Wiki / presentation |
| Kenta Suzuki | Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering YouTube video / presentation / accounting |
| Taiki Watanabe | Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering Simulation / presentation |
| Second-year student | |
| Takuto Takahashi | Department of Applied Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biomolecular Engineering, School of Engineering YouTube video / presentation |
| First-year students | |
| Sho Aradachi | Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering Video production |
| Shota Kawakami | Department of Applied Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biomolecular Engineering, School of Engineering Design / experiments |
| Daisuke Tamatsuki | Department of Medicine, School of Medicine Wiki |
| Yu-chin Chen | Department of Physics, Faculty of Science Writing the scenario for the YouTube video |
| Shogo Hiratsuka | Faculty of Agriculture Wiki / experiments |
| Hayato Yuuki | Department of Medicine, School of Medicine Wiki / experiments |
