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I’m a hardware designer and embedded systems programmer based outside Boston, MA, and I was an early independent contributor to the XOD project. I come from a background and education more rooted in art and design, sound engineering, and analog circuit design for audio equipment, than software development/code hacking and seem to be more of a “visual thinker,” so the idea of being able to rapidly prototype microprocessor systems with a metaphor like wiring modules together really appealed to me. And I was glad to see that Cambridge chose to use this environment as an educational aid. I think it will be a unique tool for science and engineering students, even with limited programming ability, to build fairly complex microprocessor-based hardware vital to the success of projects in their own fields, and simultaneously teach how to design and think like an engineer.

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports interdisciplinary activities that address problems of developing countries and aims to develop sustainable and innovative solutions. The SynBio SRI is excited to announce that, together with Dr Lara Allen and Dr Jenny Molloy, we have been successful in a bid to implement the Biomaker programme with key partners in African institutions to build local expertise and capacity through knowledge sharing and exchange of open-source materials.

Dr Jennifer Deegan has built a Focus Stacking system that enables her to take close up, high-definition photos of very small gametophyte ferns. The project was further developed through an OpenPlant Fund and the Biomaker Challenge, during which she collaborated with an interdisciplinary team to photograph new samples and build up teaching tools to enable others to replicate the system.