Team:Michigan Software/Design

Michigan Software 2015

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Design

We used a Python package called Django as a web framework because it aids in the web development and management of backend database. Django creates and maintains our database using a Model - View - Controller (MVC) system. To create the database, in our models.py, we created a "class Protocol". This is the model of a protocol for our database. Attributes we put in our Protocol class are things associated with a protocol, such as name, reagents, steps, etc. We then migrate these models through Django which creates our database for us. Whenever we want to make changes to our models, all we have to do is migrate the changes through Django which will change our database accordingly. Django comes with its own user system, so there is no need for us to make a user model. We have two databases, one for protocols and one for users. When someone signs up for Protocat, their username, email, password, first, and last name are added to the user database. Likewise, when someone uploads a protocol, all attributes of the protocol are saved into the protocol database. When uploading a protocol, the author is automatically chosen to be the username name of the uploader, taken from the user database. Each uploaded protocol is also given an auto-incremented id number. This id is useful when making queries to the database to view a protocol. Uploading protocols and signing up for Protocat is the Controller in the MVC system because this is how we allow users to interact with the database. When people view protocols from the database is where the View comes in to play.

By talking about your design work on this page, there is one medal criterion that you can attempt to meet, and one award that you can apply for. If your team is going for a gold medal by building a functional prototype, you should tell us what you did on this page. If you are going for the Applied Design award, you should also complete this page and tell us what you did.

Note

In order to be considered for the Best Applied Design award and/or the functional prototype gold medal criterion, you must fill out this page.

This is a prize for the team that has developed a synthetic biology product to solve a real world problem in the most elegant way. The students will have considered how well the product addresses the problem versus other potential solutions, how the product integrates or disrupts other products and processes, and how its lifecycle can more broadly impact our lives and environments in positive and negative ways.

If you are working on art and design as your main project, please join the art and design track. If you are integrating art and design into the core of your main project, please apply for the award by completing this page.