Research
FoodHI's SAI.DAO, or SAI Decentralized Autonomous Opportunity, is build upon core principles of Decentralized Society (DeSoc) and Web 3.0. SAI.DAO in mandarin means "pathway"—SAI.DAO, in essence, serves as a pathway for young passionate individuals to pursue their interests in biology and beyond.
SAI.DAO's founder, Conrad Wang, currently studies life science at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Currently, SAI.DAO is run under FoodHI and its team based around the world.
SAI.DAO is a vibrant and transparent food science and biotechnology research ecosystem between driven high schoolers and welcoming mentors. The institute's mentorship team comprises ISEF Awardees, Undergraduate Mentors, and University Professors. As you signup for the R&D Program, we will match you with the corresponding mentors.
Problem
Research in food science and biotechnology is increasingly attractive for high schoolers, yet passionate students often find themselves lacking experience, methodologies, and tools. Mentors like professors are difficult to find, and the research process is slow.
Popular premium research organizations offer research guidance, but with high academic and economic prerequisites. These centralized networks also lack transparency and meaningful regulation, mentors often doing too little or too much work.
Our Soution
Blockchain DAOs are the perfect fit to ensure equality and transparency in this research ecosystem. Running on trust-based transactions and collaboration, SAIDAO promotes integrity and equal opportunity.
Various blockchain mechanisms like token airdrops or the transparent peer review ensure that students are treated equally and research is made accessible for all, leaving a visible social impact.
Currently, the complete Blockchain ecosystem is in test phase, and we look forward to more efficiently empowering students to engage with research opportunities in our community.
Research Peer Review
Mentor Outreach
Progress Peer Review
SAI.DAO is divided into three main channels, each of which utilizes a core token called $SAI. Tokens are earned through meaningful contribution to the community: valuable feedback on a peer’s work, or actively participation in a progress peer review check. In the hands of mentors, $SAI can be used not only to organize community activities as an incentivizing currency, but also as an objective metric of their research guidance expertise and quality.
Research Program Mentors (Summer)
Aslı Ece Yılmaz
2023 Regeneron ISEF
3rd Place Award in Biochemistry
Eva Chen
2023 Regeneron ISEF
4th Place Award in Biochemistry
Mark Opiyo Ngwena
Student of Egerton University,
Pursuing BSc in Agriculture
David Guo
Research Intern at Infinitum Bio-Med,
Published Researcher on American Physical Society Far West conference
Abbie Heimowitz
Evergreen State College BS in Biology and Zoology. USGS currently as a Biological Field Technician at Badlands National Park.
Winnie Ou
University at Albany BS in Biology. Aspiring Biomedical Research Scientist.
Our latest R&D Series
How to Research: Series 1
How to Research: Series 1
STEP 1 TO RESEARCH: Identify YOUR topic through literature reviews
STEP 2 TO RESEARCH: Coming down to a scope
STEP 3 TO RESEARCH: Choosing databases and papers for review
For Mentors
Premise
So first of all, SAI.DAO is a student-led research ecosystem, running on blockchain principles like DeSoc. The whole premise of our project is to democratize high school research to all students, so social impact and equality are at the core of our values. More details about our mission are available on the home page and in the DeSoc widget.
Your Role: Research Guidance
If I may, I’ll start with your roles in the ecosystem. So the research guidance aspect of SAI.DAO isn’t much different from other available platforms like Lumiere. Students will launch their biology research projects (flaired with specific subdivisions like genetics), and mentors can sign up for ‘bid’ for these research projects. Students will then communicate privately with you to determine if you are their best fit. Once you engage in a research project, keeps in mind that your guidance is meant to be fully transparent, so materials you provide and conversations with the pupil could be made public. Payments of money and $SAI will be made along certain research checkpoints instead as a one-time deposit, which ensures consistent and high-quality guidance. And that’s basically it for the research guidance component!
Your Role: Progress Reviewing
Another crucial part of SAI.DAO is the progress peer review channel, where pupils receiving guidance can consult the community for evaluation on the quality of the guidance they receive. Essentially, they can post their guidance materials and history for mentors and highly qualified students to evaluate, in order to receive objective measurements for the guidance they received. All mentors are encouraged and incentivized by $SAI to evaluate in this channel.
Tokens and Credentials
Now you may be wondering, apart from this transparency stuff, what’s the difference between SAI.DAO and other research guidance communities? Here is where our shiny currency $SAI makes its appearance.
In the hands of pupils, $SAI is used as an incentive, unlocking channels and posting privileges. However, recall that mentors can gain $SAI only from being gifted from pupils, or through evaluation in the progress peer review channel. In other words, $SAI is earned with skill and research expertise.
Therefore, $SAI can be used as credentials for mentors. They can be taken out of circulation and transferred into your account as credentials, almost like “social credit points” in our community. Together with objective resume material like education and research experience, $SAI and qualitative evaluations from your pupils can function as extremely strong credentials. If you decide not to take them out of circulation, you can also gift or ‘airdrop’ them to specific demographics in the student population, a wonderful opportunity to support underprivileged students to help them climb up the research vine.
Premise
For us students, SAI.DAO is a wonderful place to kickstart your path in research. From my own struggles, I know how hard it is to get started on research. The countless hours spent wandering from paper to paper, looking for a suitable topic or direction is AGONIZING. Searching for a mentor is also agonizing and awkward.
Here at SAI.DAO, we propose a buffer region before you step into research. The peer review channel is a fantastic place to quickly cultivate a scientific mindset and build a fundamental repertoire of research basics and info. We recommend that new ambitious researchers start out by reading and interacting with mature-ish research proposals. Learn from the experience of your peers, and absorb the logic of how they organize their research and approach their topic. After providing feedback or improvements to these projects, you should have a pretty handy stack of $SAI at your disposal.
When you feel ready to formulate your own research proposal, feel free to post it in the forum to seek advice and comments. We also encourage looking for collaborations; simply tagging your post “COLLAB” can enlist the brainpower of your peers!
Once you feel confident enough with your research project (at least with a clear direction and well thought-out plan of upcoming steps and procedures), you can reach out to a mentor in the mentor outreach channel. Keep in mind that these guidance projects will come with a fee, to be determined between you and a mentor. Make sure to post your project with fully relevant details, as well as the amount and type of guidance you expect to receive!
Students who are in the middle of a research guidance contract with a mentor can choose to have their progress reviewed by the public. If you feel the mentor is doing too little or too much work, the progress peer review channel will have your work evaluated by other mentors and highly qualified students. Make sure to just include the guidance materials and chat history received from your mentor for optimal evaluation.
Happy researching! Always remember, interact with your peers – it’s much more effective than seeking advice from ChatGPT.
For Students
