Izzy is a side-product of my PhD project. Initially, I set out to write code for myself that allows me to automate the experiments that I needed to do, most of which code will be available through Github. However, I wanted the software tools to be easily accessible, and that is why I built the web interface. It would not have been possible without the brilliant Code First: Girls instructors at Twitter who taught me all about apps. Check out the video from when I pitched Izzy for the Programm/able competition organised by Imperial Innovations.

We formed a team at Imperial College London for the International Genetically Engineered Machines Competition in 2013 with Sisi Fan, Jemma Pilcher, Iain Bower, James Strutt, Matt Chin and Bobby Chi, with the supervision of Richard Kelwick. Then, we spent an entire summer finding ways to transform Trash to Treasure, aka waste materials to bioplastic. The work involved genetic engineering, metabolic modelling, distributed manufacturing as well as looking into the social challenges and industrial implementation.

Making this repository was given as a challenge at the hackathon preceding the International Workshop on Biodesign Automation in Pittsburgh in 2017 where we teamed up with James Scott Brown and Iulia Gherman. Users can download, upload, rate and comment on glyps (images) of genetic elements illustrated with compliance to the SBOL standard. The goal is to help the development of a standardised representation of genetic elements across the synthetic biology community.

Over the years, I have crossed paths with some pretty funny bugs: fluorescent, luminescent, bioplastic-making, maze-solving... Some of them I used for teaching, some for art, some for science. Check out the gallery.

This is the first ever website that we built with Rivkah Brown, Rosie Sallis, Faye Rodgers and Ruth Wood at the Code First: Girls beginners course in 2016. The CF:G community are a bunch of brilliant people, being a continuous source of inspiration. On the website, you can drag cheeses that you might have in your fridge, onto the board and you get recipes back accordingly. We had a lot of fun building it. I hope you have fun trying it.

As a prize for winning the Code First: Girls course competition with the Cheese website, we each got a Raspberry Pi. It was the best prize ever, and my first project was the curtain alarm. The initial aim was to wake up to natural sunshine, but the screeching sound of the electric motor ruined that a bit. Nevertheless, I still find it much more fun than the alarm from my phone. After the curtain came the plant watering system and the lights flashing to music. Next up is to adapt the latter for the Christmas tree.