iGEM genius

Things are gearing up for iGEM 2010, and in looking through some of the incredible work of the 2009 teams, I remembered the University of Washington Software team, who made an awesome lego robot that can move small volumes of liquid around in 96-well plates, a crucial and typically very expensive task in high-throughput biology. What makes the team especially remarkable is that the only member is an 11 year old kid, Gabriel See, who designed and built the robot on his own. Gabriel had the flu during the jamboree, so he unfortunately couldn't fly to MIT to share his work, but he did get his parents to videotape him describing his robot. Here's the video, adorable and very very impressive:

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Wow! This was great! The coincidence of posting it just on the opening day of the Lab Automation 2010 show in Palm Springs was uncanny - especially if it was unintentional. I wish I had seen it while at the show. I could have even shown it in our booth!