Student and Internal Manager at Biosensing Team Twente: Fernando on joining a student team

To summarise, we are working to build a biosensor for healthcare applications. Each year, the team’s focus is shaped by the SensUs competition in Eindhoven, where students are challenged to tackle a healthcare problem through biosensing. This year’s case revolves around levodopa, a drug used in Parkinson’s treatment. The rationale from SensUs is that if you can monitor the amount of levodopa in the body, you can adjust dosing more effectively.

They are all actually very different! While a biosensor’s main function is to detect a specific chemical substance, there are multiple ways of doing this. For example, one team in the competition uses specific DNA sequences that literally trap molecules to measure them. Another team uses enzymes that break down molecules into something that can be measured.

There are a lot of recognition techniques you can use. You can use electric signals, which is what we’re using now. But you can also use optical signals with light, and some other teams use a piezoelectric signal, recognising vibrations.

For me, Biosensing Team Twente stood out because it offered something few other student teams can: the chance to apply chemistry in a biomedical setting while working closely with students from other disciplines. I study Chemical Science & Engineering, so that’s something I’ve always found interesting. And now I’m actually able to use my knowledge to produce something quite specific, with visible outcomes in healthcare. That’s always cool.

Last year, when I was part of the technical team, I was in the chemistry division. I helped develop microfluidic chips for the biosensor, and I worked specifically on the biorecognition element that’s used to trap the molecules on the chips. But this year, I’ve passed the torch to the next generation of the team,  so now I’m working as the team’s internal manager, organising events for the team, and ensuring that communication is happening between the subteams.

The SensUs competition has a limit on the maximum number of people in a single team, being 15 members. With this limitation, we think about the workload every year and assess whether we need full-timers, as the team now consists entirely of part-timers. So, to answer your question, yes, part-timing the Biosensing Team is very doable. Obviously, you’d need good planning around it, because you need to be able to manage your classes and do the extra work for the team. But in theory, it can be very well adjusted because our team meetings are usually during lunch, we commit about eight hours every week, and we are very mindful about exam weeks.

That interdisciplinary side is a major part of the team’s appeal. Biosensing brings together students from chemistry, electronics, device design, business, and public outreach, all contributing to a single concept from different angles. And while the work is challenging, that is also part of the fun. It's challenging, but in a good way.

One of the most memorable parts of the experience was at the end of the year, when all those moving parts finally came together at the competition. All the work that you’ve done throughout the year, and you see it physically in front of you, and you think, okay, we made something.

That’s a short answer – yes!