Difference between revisions of "Team:NYU Abu Dhabi/HP/Gold Integrated"

Surveys

Over the summer break, the team returned to their respective home countries and conducted surveys and interviews with local food vendors to gauge interest and feedback on our project. Of all the participants, none of them know what Shiga Toxin was and how prevalent it is in uncontrolled environments where food is sold. Upon knowing the dangers of the toxin, they became interested in protecting their food from such a toxin and so we presented them our project idea to devise a cheap yet effective detection method.

The food vendors raised concerns that such a device should be very easy to use and understand, it should be lightweight and should not require electricity. The emphasized that a useful device should take less than an hour for the entire process. Based on their responses, we developed our project accordingly. In order to simplify the process to the least number of steps, the chip was designed with two main components; the inlet where the sample can be easily poured in and then the reaction chamber where the reaction and its result can be easily and safely viewed. The chip was also designed to be lightweight and so it was limited to a size less than 100x100mm. To reduce cost as low as possible, the heater and chip holder were 3D printed for rapid fabrication at low cost. The heater itself is a heat pack that requires no electricity yet it is able to sustain the reaction temperature at 65 Celcius for 6 hours, meaning that the same heating pack could be used for as many as 12 successive tests as each test takes a maximum of 30 minutes. These design elements combine to make our device incredibly cheap, compared to their professional laboratory counterparts.

After these design considerations were taken, we surveyed the general population and found that, similarly, few knew about Shiga Toxin specifically. Many individuals have had previous food poisoning experiences and were interested in learning more about our device. While most of their feedback was in agreement with the food vendors surveyed previously, they also voiced that they would only be willing to wait a maximum of 30 minutes for the results before consumption. In this regard, the biology team took steps to decrease the lysis process and found that using the LAMP technique, a heat lysis was not required. The reaction time was optimized and reduced to 20 minutes, with immediate visualization.

While the 94.9% of individuals surveyed believed that incorrect preparation of food could lead to food poisoning, only 23.1% of individuals had previously heard about Shiga Toxin. After explaining the effects of Shiga Toxin and our project, approximately half of those surveyed indicated that they would be interested in acquiring equipment to detect STEC in food samples. One hour was the maximum time 95% of individuals were willing to wait, although half of those surveyed indicated that they would prefer a maximum wait time of 10 minutes and a quarter of those surveyed were willing to wait up to 30 minutes. The average cost that individuals were willing to pay for this product was $63.72 USD, and answers ranged from $0 USD to $500 USD. In this regard, the biology team took steps to decrease the lysis process and found that using the LAMP technique, a heat lysis was not required which reduced the time needed by 10 minutes. The reaction time was optimized and reduced to 20 minutes, with immediate visualization.

Finally, 75% of individuals surveyed responded their they would prefer to learn how to use the device by watching an instructional video. To this end, we have created a short video demonstrating the product design and how to use it.