I was asked to run a on-line practical session for the University of Cambridge’s Davidson Inventors Challenge in March. I think watching someone else run an experiment on-line in real-time would be dull as dishwater, so I politely declined.
But, it may be different if we could figure out a way for school pupils to remote control bioreactors. Cambridge are also quite excited about this idea.
It’s certainly possible to remotely access the Pioreactor interface but think we’d need to figure out some sort of web interface that didn’t require anything much more than a log-in for most schools to cope. It would be lovely if we could include a webcam feed as well as the Pioreactor interface.
Then with three peristaltics (or for dramatic effect one remotely actuated syringe & two peristaltics) plus CO2 sparging & electrolysis control, etc. each school could get a week to run an experiment. They send in their inoculum (or we collect it for them), then they do everything to control the experiment for a week.
That way we remove all perceived biohazard risks, hardware requirements, etc. and open up fermentation to a much wider group of prospective scientists.
Any suggestions how we could make the web-interface work?