Team:Berlin/Practices/Wastewater
Berliner Wasserbetriebe
We visited the “Berliner Wasserbetriebe” (wastewater treatment plant of the city of Berlin), in Ruhleben, at the beginning of our project. We wanted to see, learn and experience with our own eyes the processes that wastewater goes through once it reaches the treatment plant. For us this was a key step in our project because it provided insights about the possibility of including our research and solutions in already established facilities. We were extensively informed about the history, and the construction of this wastewater treatment plant. We were allowed to see every purification step and were enlightened about the technical structures. Also, we discussed about necessary changes for the future and about a changeover of the plant. Moreover, we acquired an overview about current problems and basic approaches for the optimization of the plant. We consulted with employees of the plant and talked about current research works about microplastics and others, including drug residues present in water. Another subject we brainstormed about was the form, the size, and the place of action of our project called Enzymatic Flagellulose, that aims to eliminate microplastics through degradation. It was a nice experience to see how the plant actually works and to see how complexly the whole plant is constructed. They kindly offered to test our prototypes in the future and to provide additional guidance about the possible logistics to implement a microplastics degradation unit in the system. Additionally, they offered us to link us to other research groups in the wastewater treatment field and some possible contacts for funding. We thank the “Berliner Wasserbetriebe” for the time they offered us and are very grateful for their help in our project. Here are some impressions of this awesome day at BWB:
Grants 4 Apps - Bayer
The iGEM Berlin 2015 team presented the Enzymatic Flagellulose project at a pitch night organized by Bayer's initiative "Grants4Apps". The event aimed to provide a startup-familiar solution platform to young innovators willing to eliminate healthcare threats. The project was very well accepted by an audience of healthcare practitioners, scientists and investors due to its multidisciplinary approach. We walked the extra mile and talked about a possible but accidental consumption of microplastics by humans or animals. We addressed this possible scenario by drawing attention to the fact that microplastics need to be correctly degraded or eliminated before or after they reach the water treatment plant. The head of the initiative provided us with contacts for further development of the idea in the business field. By doing this, we complemented the previous community-inclusive participation of iGEM Berlin, in the Science Cafe and the LNdW, by addressing the corporate world and the big names in the industry.Collaborations
UI-Indonesia iGEM team (Questionnaire about family planning)Team CGU_Taiwan (Questionnaire about every teams moral issues – I also translated the questionnaire into german)
iGEM Paris Saclay (Questionnaire per E-Mail über Chassis und Sicherheit)
iGEM Oxford (if Skype chat takes place)
iGEM TU Delft (text for WIKI)
IIT Kharagpur iGEM team (survey about food spoilage)
Kent iGEM team (questionnaire about nanowires)
Korea_U_Seoul (survey about synthetic biology and tools)
NEFU_China (couldn’t open questionnaire.. if we answer their questions we will have them as collaboration partners too)
2015 CU_Boulder team
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