MycoStack Micro Challenge

A Collaborative Program of Biodesign Challenge and Open Fung

SUBMIT HERE

Program Overview

Biodesign Challenge (BDC) and Open Fung are pleased to announce MycoStack Micro Challenge, the first in a planned series of summer micro competitions and hackathons dedicated to advancing practical biomaterials education. This collaborative program reflects a shared commitment to democratizing biotechnology by developing, collecting, and centralizing high-quality, open-access learning resources for students, educators, and makers working with mycelium-based materials.

The MycoStack Micro Challenge responds to a recognized and consequential gap in the current mycelium education landscape. While interest in mycomaterials continues to grow across design, research, and industry, the educational pathway connecting early classroom experimentation to advanced professional and academic practice remains underdeveloped. This program seeks to address that gap directly by mobilizing a global community of practitioners to contribute replicable, progressively complex educational exercises and protocols that meaningfully advance learner competency in mycelium technologies.

Program Rationale

Mycelium-based bioproducts hold significant promise as a foundation for sustainable material economies and as an expressive medium for design practice. Despite this potential, learners working with mycomaterials frequently encounter a shortage of engaging, accessible, and technically substantive educational resources beyond introductory-level activities. As a result, students are often compelled to repeat early-stage experimentation without the benefit of structured scaffolding toward more sophisticated craft or research outcomes.

BDC and Open Fung recognize that educators around the world have been producing valuable instructional resources and practical tutorials in this space. The present program seeks to connect, consolidate, and curate these contributions into a centralized, openly accessible database that supports learners at multiple levels of expertise — from K–12 students and undergraduate learners to independent makers and community lab participants.

Program Structure

  • Format: One-Month Open Competition

  • Competition Cycle: August 1–31, 2026

  • In-Person Events and Hackathons: To Be Announced

The MycoStack Micro Challenge is structured as a one-month asynchronous competition in which participants submit original educational exercises, protocols, and project materials designed to advance mycelium learning beyond foundational experimentation. In-person events will be announced at a future date and will complement the broader competition cycle.

Submission Criteria

Participants are invited to submit mycelium protocols, projects, and educational activities that demonstrate at least one (1) key technical or aesthetic competency that meaningfully bridges the gap between initial experimentation and professional or industry-level standards.

Submissions are solicited across three levels of complexity:

Beginner

Accessible activities suitable for learners with limited prior experience in mycomaterials

Intermediate

Projects that build upon foundational skills and introduce greater technical or design complexity

Advanced

Protocols and exercises that approach industry or research-level standards of rigor and sophistication

Submission Components

Submissions should include the following materials where applicable:

  • Photographs documenting the process and outcome

  • Video documentation

  • A short written description of the exercise, protocol, or project

  • 3D print files made available for public download

A submission template is available for download HERE.

The program's ultimate aim is to produce a robust, reproducible database of mycelium learning activities that can be implemented by educators and learners anywhere in the world.

Eligibility

The MycoStack Micro Challenge is open to anyone working with mycelium technologies, regardless of institutional affiliation, geographic location, or level of expertise. There is no cost to participate.

Program Commitments

Biodesign Challenge and Open Fung are committed to the following in support of all participants:

  • Open Access Publication: All accepted submissions will be made openly accessible and freely downloadable for use in classrooms and learning environments worldwide.

  • Public Recognition: Participants and their work will be featured across BDC and Open Fung's social media platforms, including Instagram, Discord, and LinkedIn.

  • Awards: Trophies will be awarded to recognize outstanding contributions to the MycoStack Micro Challenge.

The MycoStack Micro Challenge is the first Micro competition produced through a collaboration between Biodesign Challenge and Open Fung.

About the Organizers

About Open Fung

Open Fung is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing fungal technologies through open science and the arts - and builds cultural understanding of fungi. We centralize existing information and generate new open-source data, models and methods. We bring fungal innovation communities together to foster collaboration and build and validate shared infrastructure. But tools alone don't change the world. Our arts program creates the stories, spaces and experiences that invite people to the fungal future.

Fungi are among the most versatile and underutilized organisms on Earth. Their ecological roles are foundational, their material properties extraordinary, and their potential for technological innovation vast. Open Fung’s mission is to realize this potential by advancing rigorous scientific research, fostering creative exploration, and cultivating networks that connect labs, artists, and communities. By integrating Science, Arts, and Network programs, we aim to transform fungi from a niche interest into a widely recognized utility, with measurable impacts on ecology, technology, and culture.

About Biodesign Challenge

Biodesign Challenge (BDC) is a design education program that invites students to envision, create, and critique ways of using biotechnology to build a future where humans function in harmony with the planet. To support this vision, BDC empowers high school and college students from across diverse backgrounds to become thinkers who design with biology for humans, industry, and the living environment.