Preparing for the Tech Spec

Tuesday: I’m excited that our design for a plastic decomposition system is starting to come together! Breaking down the system into a device diagram and a parts diagram has really helped me to understand the thought process that goes into designing it. I never felt before that I could engineer something that hasn’t been made before, but this way of thinking has given me confidence that I can approach these problems in a systematic way. It is slow going; our group spent a long time coming up with a device diagram only to spend another long time re-doing it, and I suspect the parts diagram will be constructed the same way. We really have our work cut out for us before the tech spec.

Wednesday: We have moved on from the device diagram to the parts diagram, and now this project is starting to seem a little overwhelming. Where do we even start with finding promoters that work, or compounds that will bind to our plastics of interest? It looks like we may have to narrow down our sensing capabilities to just one plastic, and even that is complicated. The chances are next to none that we will find promoters specific to exactly the plastics we are looking for, but our task becomes more complicated with every step we add to the pathway in between. It’s a lot to think about, for sure, but I still think the project is worth taking forward. Even if our final design doesn’t work out, this experience has already been so valuable to me.

Moving forward, it looks like we will have to think more about our chassis and our sensing systems. E.coli can’t survive for very long in salt water, so we may have to switch organisms or focus on landfills instead of oceans. Sensors are difficult, because most plastics are too big to enter a cell, so we would need some sort of signaling pathway to get our promoters going. We’ll definitely need to address these questions before the Tech Spec next Wednesday, because I’m sure it will give us even more to think about!