Chandrika won the Vanadium Zone in June 2011, here’s how she spent her winnings:
Since competing in I’m a Scientist, I’ve been inspired to continue involving myself in outreach activities. I used some of the prize to fund travel expenses to science festivals, fairs and events, where I volunteered at outreach stands and engaged with audiences of all ages:
- £50 – Transport to Big Bang Science and Engineering Fair 2012 at the NEC Birmingham. I volunteered for one day at a microbiology interactive outreach stand of the Society for General Microbiology, primarily interacting with school children and families.
- £10- Transport to Big Bang Science and Engineering Fair 2013 at the London ExCeL exhibition centre. I volunteered two days at a microbiology interactive outreach stand of the Society for General Microbiology, primarily interacting with families.
- £5 – Transport to Science Uncovered 2012, a Europe wide science outreach event including a night of science and entertainment at the Natural History Museum. I took part in Soapbox Science and my role was to engage interested adults on a range of scientific issues.
The bulk of the prize money has been put towards a microbiology outreach project I started call SuperDuperBugs.
Superduperbugs is essentially a website whose primary role is to host two interactive science communication games about bacteria and the immune system. I hope to convey a range of complex topics such as innate immunity, antibiotic resistance and phage therapy, using fun and interactive games (‘Play’) as well as additional educational content pages (‘Learn’).
The two games are called Quorum bubble and Macrophage Chase. I enlisted the help of a colleague from the Systems Biology Division at Imperial who specialises in cell shape and motility to program these games with accurate cell biology features. We currently have two playable beta versions however I’m hiring the services of a professional games designer to improve the graphics and playability.
While it is unlikely that there will be a lot left of the prize money, once the game is finished I will use the remainder to promote the website.
