Robots in Biotech

A collaboration involving UC Berkeley's Alpha Lab, the Interactive University Project, and San Francisco Unified School District. We are partially funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Who's involved...


We are currently developing a teaching module geared for high school biology students to learn about what biotechnology is, how new treatments are designed, what new technologies are being used, how robots work, and how robots are used in biotech.  One incentive for students is a live “remote field trip” to a biotech company using the Tele-Actor, a new distance learning technology.

More details...



 
Biotechnology at Argonne National Laboratory

This teaching module will address the following questions:

Biotechnology Overview
  • What is biotechnology?
  • What is the history of biotech?
  • How has the biotech field evolved?

Robotics Overview

  • What are robots?
  • How do robots work?
  • What are some robotic applications in research, manufacturing, and education?

Biotechnology Today

  • How is biotech cross-disciplinary?
  • How are robots used in biotech?
  • How does biotech affect our lives today?
  • What is biotech currently working on?

For example, robotics technology borrowed from the assembly lines of the automotive industry is used in biotech.  This machine is configured to automate repetitive tasks such as pipetting and changing the growth medium of cell cultures.

 

For example, proteomics - the cataloging of our bodies' proteins -  is one of biotech's next new challenges.

 

We realize that the research interests of biotech companies is very diverse.  We expect the emphasis of our teaching module to be closely linked to the research of our biotech company partner (to be determined).


Our goals for the summer include:

  • finding a biotech company partner
  • working with a San Francisco high school science teacher for development, review, and evaluation
  • developing a working prototype of the teaching module
  • testing the working prototype on high school teachers, summer school or summer camp students, or UC Berkeley students
  • implementing the teaching module in the fall or winter

For more information, please contact Annamarie Ho at annamarieho@yahoo.com or Ken Goldberg at goldberg@ieor.berkeley.edu

the tele-actor