University of California, Davis

PROJECTS 2023

SeaNails

Top 8 Finalist Team

Sarika Behara Kumar, Leslie Sophia Valdez, Yuwei Chang, Daniel Martinez

SeaNails is a biodegradable, waste-based press-on nail. It is composed of six layers: a glue made from sturgeon air bladders, a base made from fish scales, a dye derived from beet waste, shellac coating, and fish skin guanine crystals for shimmer. The project is a collaboration with Aquaborne, a fish skin leather startup in Sacramento.

EcoShield

Mikayla matriano, Allyn Suzuki, Dana Mayfield, Laura Daily

EcoShield is a sustainable and compostable textile for outdoor clothing and other waterproof applications. The middle layer consists of a Lignin-Containing NanoFibrils (LCNF) Membrane between specified dual use fabric layers and a durable water resistant finish coating.

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Instructors 2023

Christina Cogdell is Professor of Design at UC Davis. She is a historian of biodesign in 20th- and 21st-century architecture and design, and a current practitioner of biodesign for teaching and research. She has led UC Davis teams in the Biodesign Challenge since 2018 and considers it the most rewarding teaching experience of her career. She is author of Eugenic Design: Streamlining America in the 1930s (2004) and Toward a Living Architecture? Complexism and Biology in Generative Design (2019).

Andrew Yao is the manager of the BioInnovation Lab and a Research and Development Engineer at UC Davis. He is focused on development of accessible and meaningful laboratory experiences at scale. He has been an advisor for multiple iGEM and BioDesign Competition teams at UC Davis. The BioInnovation Lab at UC Davis allows undergraduates from all disciplines to learn, explore, and create with biology.