Team:Virginia/Description
Description
(Tell us about your project, describe what moves you and why this is something important for your team)
Motivation
In developed and developing countries alike, more than 40% of the population live in industrialized urban areas. This number probably includes many iGEMers. Yet we seem to be living in a paradox that we often don't think about. How come we always consume pure, drinkable water, all the while sending non-usable water down the drain? Shouldn't we eventually run out of clean water? Perhaps even more importantly, what happens to the toxic water that we continuously expel? As it turns out, modern wastewater treatment techniques are sophisticated enough to purify water to a level where it can be reused for almost all purposes besides drinking: irrigation of crops and public parks, car washing, mixing concrete, and many other applications[ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclaimed_water]1. Much of this reclaimed water gets discharged into the environment (rivers; artificial or real lakes). Our team decided to delve a little deeper into the sewage treatment process to search for potential issues or improvements amenable to synthetic biology. And we spotted a big one.
Before we plunge into the details of our project, we must explore the murky waters of the secondary treatment process.
What should this page contain?
- A clear and concise description of your project.
- A detailed explanation of why your team chose to work on this particular project.
- References and sources to document your research.
- Use illustrations and other visual resources to explain your project.
Advice on writing your Project Description
We encourage you to put up a lot of information and content on your wiki, but we also encourage you to include summaries as much as possible. If you think of the sections in your project description as the sections in a publication, you should try to be consist, accurate and unambiguous in your achievements.
Judges like to read your wiki and know exactly what you have achieved. This is how you should think about these sections; from the point of view of the judge evaluating you at the end of the year.
References
iGEM teams are encouraged to record references you use during the course of your research. They should be posted somewhere on your wiki so that judges and other visitors can see how you thought about your project and what works inspired you.
Inspiration
See how other teams have described and presented their projects:
