How could you enable thousands and eventually millions of people to learn something new? What if the subject was poorly understood, wildly controversial yet profoundly important, and practically inaccessible to most? Stanford Professor Drew Endy reflects on a variety of experiences having to do with the emergence of a new engineering major (bioengineering) at both MIT and Stanford and the broader promulgation and advancement of these ideas globally via students everywhere through iGEM.

1. main( )
{
Learning by doing
Engineering + biology = ?
Now what?
}
# endy@stanford.edu
# Yale NUS STEM Innovation
# 27 April 2017
# fair use, public domain, have fun

4. Growing is Forever, a film by Jesse Rosten
#include <biology.h>

5. watermelon eggplant carrot
banana corn broccoli
#include <domestication.h>

6. #include <breeding.h>

7. #include <landuse.h>

8. #include <rDNA.h>

9. http://www.whatisbiotechnology.org/science/rdna
Engineering even a single
gene can be incredibly
important & valuable.

10. http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp/lessons/viruses/Pages/PapayaRingspotvirus.aspx
Dennis
Gonsalves

11. Graphic c/o "Synthetic Aesthetics,” MIT Press (2014)

12. http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v34/n3/abs/nbt.3491.html
#include <bioeconomy.h>

14. Third sentence:
“In the use of the term
bioengineering in this
book we exclude
genetic engineering;
that is, the systematic
design of phenotypes
by manipulation of
genotypes.”

15. http://www.depts.washington.edu/hhmibio/MIT05.pdf

16. http://www.depts.washington.edu/hhmibio/MIT05.pdf

17. http://www.depts.washington.edu/hhmibio/MIT05.pdf

18. Cure diseases.
Understand & “debug” natural
biological systems.
Teach me to…
Save environments.
Design & build organisms.
Make doing the above easier.

19. Could we make biology
easy to engineer?
Atomic-scale thermal noise
Self-mixing molecular
systems
Reproducing “machines”
High heterogeneity
Living ramifications

20. Free .PDF of full briefing via DOI 1721.1/38455

21. Graphic from "Synthetic Aesthetics" MIT Press (2014)

22. TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAGA
DNA synthesis = 4 key keyboard for genetic stuff
Raw chemicals,
not derived
from existing
DNA
Play however you
like to get the
DNA you want,
from scratch.

23. Systems = One or more devices encoding
a human defined function(s). Note that my
system your device, and so on.
Devices = One or more parts encoding a
human defined function(s).
Parts = Basic biological functions encoded
via molecules.
DNA = Material encoding moleculesCTATAGGGAGA
8-bit counter
Abstraction barrier! Do not cross!
Abstraction barrier! Do not cross!
Abstraction barrier! Do not cross!

24. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy_of_the_Oppressed
“(Friere) argues for pedagogy
to treat the learner as a co-
creator of knowledge.”

25. MIT 2003

26. St-Pierre & Endy
PNAS USA 2008
http://youtu.be/sLkZ9FPHJGM
George Boole, c.1854

27. George Boole, c.1854

28. MIT 2004

29. SBC 2004

30. iGEM 2005

31. iGEM 2006

32. Tianjin 2006

33. iGEM 2007

34. iGEM 2008

35. http://diyhpl.us/wiki/dna/projects/

36. iGEM 2009

37. Cambridge iGEM 2009

38. iGEM 2010
38

39. iGEM.org ~2015

41. http://partsregistry.org/wiki/index.php?title=Part:BBa_K590087

42. http://synbiobeta.com/news/igem-startup-pvp-biologics-closes-35-million-agreement-pharmaceutical-company-takeda/

44. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI5exP6iHWw

46. Overcoming Teaching Disorders
& Delusional Deliverables

58. What is more valuable,
the puzzle or the answer?
kiva.org

59. What capacities should be available to all citizens?
Jefferson to
Adams re:
“natural
aristocracy”
October 1813

60. How many people should be
able to read and write?
http://themindunleashed.com/2015/06/see-the-worlds-most-spoken-languages-in-one-eye-opening-infographic.html

61. http://githut.info/
https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/IDC-software-developers
How many people should be able to
read and write computer programs?

62. igem.org
How many people should be able to
read and write DNA?

63. What should be the price of using a language?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/18/tech/innovation/gettysburg-address-preservation/

65. www.sb7.info