Visitation of Professors
First, We visited Prof. Huang, who is an expert in the field of municipal water engineering and industrial wastewater treatment. Through this visitation, we wanted to consult with Prof. Huang about the potential of our CoPlat in industrial wastewater treatment. Prof. Huang suggested a possible application, which is the absorption of copper ions. This could increase the concentration of copper ions, making it feasible to use electroplating methods for recovery. This would allow for the recycling of the recovered copper, achieving the purpose of cleaning industrial wastewater and recycling ions.
After we visited Prof. Huang and gained the suggestion of management of heavy metal waste water. Then, we visited Prof. Lan, an expert in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. Through this visitation, we aimed to introduce our project to Prof. Lan and inquire about the potential of our project and the challenges we currently face. Prof. Lan provided us with several suggestions. One of them was to enable CoPlat to integrate cellulase enzymes. This integration could enhance the stability and efficiency of cellulase enzymes, allowing them to more effectively break down cellulose.
At the end of visitation with Prof. Lan, he advised us to find Prof. Lin. As soon as possible, we had a meeting with Prof. Lin, an expert in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. Prof. Lan had recommended that we meet with Prof. Lin, so we scheduled a meeting with Prof. Lin on this day. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce our project to Prof. Lin. During the meeting, Prof. Lin provided us with valuable suggestions regarding project packaging and highlighted the advantages of biomanufacturing. He mentioned that our project's strengths lie in reducing the cost of enzyme purification and stabilization.
Visitation of Wastewater Treatment Facility
Besides these meetings with professors, we also visited the wastewater treatment facility managed by the National Science Council at the Hsinchu Science Park.
Through the visitation of the wastewater treatment facility managed by the National Science Council at the Hsinchu Science Park. We gained insights into their wastewater treatment process, conducted experiments with coagulants, and observed their equipment. This allowed us to better understand the internal structure of the wastewater treatment plant and inspired us to explore more information about heavy metal so we further did a collaboration with team Aachen.
Conclusion
Because of those important discussions and visitation, we found out if we want to utilize CoPlat in those applications which are advised by professors. Not only do we need to develop the device and technique, but we also need to enhance the public's acceptance and familiarity of synthetic biology. So we organized a brainstorming meeting, discussing and thinking how to let people realize synthetic biology. We came up with an idea that regarded Education as the main part of Human Practice to promote synthetic biology and iGEM.
