Team:KUAS Korea/Description

Project Description

Project motivation

There are many different situations where animals are held in captivity by people. From farms raising animals for food to zoos and circuses, the range of different situations where animals are captive is vast and shocking. However, the well-being of these animals are often overlooked because they can’t voice their discomfort. To address this issue, our team set out to improve the welfare of animals in captivity.

Defining the Problem

One of the major things that affects animal welfare in a negative way is undoubtedly, stress. Like humans, animals held in captivity experience stress from various factors such as extreme heat, noises, and bad hygiene. All of these factors can be easily improved by their human caretakers. However, the problem is that the caretakers can’t really tell if the animals are stressed since they can’t voice their discomfort. Therefore, to enhance communications between animals and their caretakers, we decided to come up with an objective way that can indicate that an animal’s stress level is elevated.

Solution

We developed an eukaryotic bioluminescent system that can detect stress in animals. To be more specific, if a target’s level of cortisol(a.k.a stress hormone) rises to a certain level, our system will get triggered, causing its skin to light up. This will enable human caretakers to visibly check if animals are under stress, which will help them identify and eliminate possible causes. To achieve this, we employed a newly discovered fungal bioluminescent system and mathematical modeling that helped us to reach a desired outcome.

Possible Project Development in the Future

Furthermore, we wanted to expand our project to targets other than animals. We consulted with experts about applying our system to people who have difficulty in identifying and expressing their feelings such as patients with chronic alexithymia. We hope to provide an effective stress–managing system for these people in the future as well.

modeling that helped us to reach a desired outcome.

Scenario

For Animals

For Humans