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Qingdao

as a key coastal city in eastern China, its marine industries contribute significant economic and scientific value to the nation.

However, at the end of June every year, a large-scale green wave strikes. It will cause the ropes at sea to tangle, decompose and produce a foul smell, as well as billions of dollars in cleaning costs - with a direct loss of about 0 RMB

Studies have shown that Ulva prolifera is the only dominant species of green tide. The cause of the current outbreak is still controversial. One of them is that the cultivation of laver in the shallow areas of northern Jiangsu has led to the growth of green algae on raft racks through spores, which has become the source of flooding. Later, due to the influence of ocean currents in the Yellow Sea, a large amount of green algae moved northward and reached Qingdao, causing a second flood.

The swimming Ulva zoospores will colonize within approximately two hours. Most of the existing methods only target adult green algae or design agents to prevent the spores from attaching to certain objects. But all these methods only address the symptoms but not the root cause. What if we could "catch" all the spores before they settled?

This is why we introduced ——

‘O! Super Carpet’

Our 'Carpet'

Our “Carpet” is a modified Escherichia coli biofilm. It is divided into three parts in total:

  1. Survival Module: We want Escherichia coli to survive in seawater.

  2. Functional Module: It has a strong adhesion ability and a specific sedimentation capacity for green algae spores.

  3. Suicide Module: It can die upon exposure to light in case of leakage.

To put the carpet into use, we created a 3D printed filter: Compact Biological Abyss, to assist the application.

Fortunately, we have successfully achieved efficient spore capture and created a green and safe repair solution.

The origin of our project's name


“O! Super Carpet” is a rearrangement of “Capture Spore”, retaining core concepts while adding creative and visual appeal.

  • “O!” represents wonder and visually resembles spores.
  • “Super” refers to the superior adhesiveness of our engineered bacterial biofilm, which enables effective capture and sedimentation of Ulva spores.
  • “Carpet” describes the carpet-like, stable capture layer formed by the biofilm, which intercepts floating spores and is a central element of our mascot.

Through our project, you can fully control the spores!

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