Gabriel See builds robot for MIT engineering competition
November 25, 2009
By Christopher Huber
By Christopher Huber
Sammamish resident Gabriel See, 11, is at it again. Now that he’s exhausted all the Advanced-Placement math and science course offerings at Eastlake High School, he’s turned to working with the University of Washington’s bioengineering department.
Although See still takes seventh-grade arts classes at Renaissance School of Arts and Reasoning, he spent much of his summer building, programming and modifying an automated robot that transfers DNA samples, according to the See family.
The project was meant to include a small team of undergraduate students, but Gabriel ended up doing the whole thing himself — with the guidance of seven advisors — said UW post-doctoral fellow and project advisor Sean Sleight. One student joined the team to market the project near the end, he said. Some teams consist of up to 20 people, Sleight said.
“Gabriel is so advanced with math he basically just took over the project and did everything,” Sleight said. “It really was like a one-man team.”
See presented his project via video demonstration — he had the flu — at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Championship Jamboree at MIT Nov. 1. He earned a silver medal in the software category for his modifications to the LEGO-brand robot’s programming.
“The most challenging aspect was to actually position the robot to move to a specific location,” Sleight said. “The other big challenge was the software. He was able to sort of improvise there.”
He said the $700 robot project is something the bioengineering department hopes to potentially sell to a lab that can’t afford more expensive robots.
“His math and robotics skills are at the same level of sophistication as somebody at the undergraduate or graduate level,” Sleight said. “There’s even some mathematics problems that are even beyond me.”
The iGEM competition began in 2003 as a month-long course during MIT’s Independent Activities Period, according to the organization’s Web site. Students designed biological systems to perform certain tasks, such as make a cell blink.
In 2004 the single course grew into a summer competition that involved five teams from around the United States. It grew to 13 teams — some from other countries — in 2005 and eventually 84 international teams participated in 2008.
Projects have entailed creating bacteria that smells like wintergreen to an arsenic biosensor. This year, more than 1,700 participants on 112 teams took part, according to the Web site.
To see Gabriel’s video demonstration visit http://2009.igem.org/Team:Washington-Software/Project.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.sammamsihreview.com.
Sammamish resident Gabriel See, 11, is at it again. Now that he’s exhausted all the Advanced-Placement math and science course offerings at Eastlake High School, he’s turned to working with the University of Washington’s bioengineering department.
Although See still takes seventh-grade arts classes at Renaissance School of Arts and Reasoning, he spent much of his summer building, programming and modifying an automated robot that transfers DNA samples, according to the See family.
The project was meant to include a small team of undergraduate students, but Gabriel ended up doing the whole thing himself — with the guidance of seven advisors — said UW post-doctoral fellow and project advisor Sean Sleight. One student joined the team to market the project near the end, he said. Some teams consist of up to 20 people, Sleight said.
“Gabriel is so advanced with math he basically just took over the project and did everything,” Sleight said. “It really was like a one-man team.”
See presented his project via video demonstration — he had the flu — at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Championship Jamboree at MIT Nov. 1. He earned a silver medal in the software category for his modifications to the LEGO-brand robot’s programming.
“The most challenging aspect was to actually position the robot to move to a specific location,” Sleight said. “The other big challenge was the software. He was able to sort of improvise there.”
He said the $700 robot project is something the bioengineering department hopes to potentially sell to a lab that can’t afford more expensive robots.
“His math and robotics skills are at the same level of sophistication as somebody at the undergraduate or graduate level,” Sleight said. “There’s even some mathematics problems that are even beyond me.”
The iGEM competition began in 2003 as a month-long course during MIT’s Independent Activities Period, according to the organization’s Web site. Students designed biological systems to perform certain tasks, such as make a cell blink.
In 2004 the single course grew into a summer competition that involved five teams from around the United States. It grew to 13 teams — some from other countries — in 2005 and eventually 84 international teams participated in 2008.
Projects have entailed creating bacteria that smells like wintergreen to an arsenic biosensor. This year, more than 1,700 participants on 112 teams took part, according to the Web site.
To see Gabriel’s video demonstration visit http://2009.igem.org/Team:Washington-Software/Project.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com.
Comments
Got something to say?
