Two UQ Science students are part of a team aiming to prove you don't need to perform a rain dance to encourage the clouds to open.
The team, made up of UQ undergraduate students, have entered the International Genetically Engineered Machine (IGEM) competition, requiring them to design a research project and build a biological machine.
Bachelor of Biomedical Science student, Michael Milevskiy said the enthusiastic contingent had decided to undertake two projects, including producing a rainmaking bacterium suitable for use in Australia and a bacterium capable of sucking mercury from contaminated water samples.
Fellow team member and Bachelor of Science student Katelin Haynes said the opportunities undergraduate science students have to be at the coalface of research is on the reasons she chose UQ.
“My aspiration is to be a research scientist, and at UQ undergraduate students are encouraged to actively participate in the research community,” she said.
Ms Haynes, who through her program has been able to get a job as a Technical Assistant in a lab at the Queensland Brain Institute, says staff at UQ are really friendly and easy to approach.
“The student environment at UQ is challenging but fun at the same time. All of the teaching staff are working researchers in the field they lecture in and they encourage students to contact them for help by making themselves available for questioning.”
Bachelor of Science student Katelin Haynes