Team:WFLA YK PAO/Human Practices
Integrated Human Practice
1.Expert interview
1.1 Dr.Chen Yuxuan ( Environmental engineering )
PhD. in Soil Science, School of Environment and Nature in Zhejiang
University
To further know about microplastics in the environment, we had an interview with
Dr. Chen who has an in-depth understanding of environmental engineering, pollution, and fungus. She
explained how the microplastics in the soil enter and accumulate in the human body. She also mentioned the
special traits of the microplastics, which cause further damage to the environment, such as strong
adsorption. After answering our questions and introducing the basic channels by which microplastics enter
the physical body, she proposed several possible solutions such as membrane separation technique and
activated carbon absorption technique. This interview really gives us valuable and new insight about how to
address the issue of microplastics accumulation that we never thought of before. Meanwhile, we started
wondering whether the virus or bacteria will be attached to the microplastics or enter into the human body,
which provides a new dimension for our study.
1.2 Dr. Zhiqiang Wen ( Biological genetic engineering )
Associate Professor. in Bioengineering, Nanjing Normal University
Today we had our second interview with Prof. Wen, who is mainly in the field of
bioengineering, and he answered many questions about genetic engineering experiments, E. coli operation
process, and the promotion and application of GM products in the market. First, he mentioned that although
the probability of microplastics entering the nucleus was very small, once invaded, it could affect protein
synthesis and processing, leading to increased energy dissipation. Given that scientific studies are now in
the observation stage, there is no complete consensus on the harm of microplastics to the human body.
Meanwhile, Prof. Wen dismissed the potential harm of engineered probiotics in the preparation process. He
argued that E. coli, which is probiotic in nature, is hardly significantly harmful to humans during the
rigorous preparation process. His conclusion affirmed the safety of our research product. Finally, he gave a
scientific explanation on the public acceptance of genetically engineered products and the precautions for
promoting GM products, which is helpful for our PEToracity group to follow up with street research and
lecture science for the general public. All in all, the students of both the dry and wet teams benefited
from the forward-looking comments made by Prof. Wen in the second interview.
1.3 Yida (Jamie) Li ( Marketing )
An Experienced Marketing Counselor in L'Oreal Company
We had an interview with Jamie Li who has worked in the marketing field for decades
in order to better know how to publicize our products effectively. He introduced the basic and the most
essential principle of marketing, which is “regard the start as the end”. This idea notices us to keep our
marketing purpose in mind all the time and recognize the largest customers. Moreover, he emphasized that we
should not guess or blindly judge the thoughts of customers or predict the market trend. Instead, searching
for the past data and examples are the most important and indispensable step before we draw a conclusion. He
also gave us several useful marketing tactics. For example, by using own experience to convince others. We
could let one person use our probiotics product every day and after one month, we could invite he or she to
give some feedback and customer feelings. In addition, advertising on more platforms such as Tik Tok,
Instagram or Youtube will be more likely to attract huger customers. Finally, being aware of the pain points
of every kinds of customers helps us to sell our goods to specific groups. This interview enables us to know
more marketing knowledge and offers us novel publicity means such as developing a small game. We can take
what we have learned today into practice flexibly in the promotion phase.
2.Field research
On Aug. 14th, two members of the dry team (Yige Li, Yining Wu), and two
members of the wet team (Yina Li, Jingxiang Gao), interviewed Mr. Sun from the Environmental Inspection
Bureau. First, Mr. Sun introduced us to the three steps of environmental management. The first is the
environmental indicator, including the control of heavy metals and pesticides in soil and surface water. The
second is the ecological indicator, such as the diversity of species in the environment. And the third, is
the relevance of ecology to human health, but scientists are just beginning to implement this step. After
that, he pointed out to us that the fundamental purpose of environmental improvement is for human and
ecological health, which affirmed the significance of our genetic modification of E. coli to degrade
microplastics in humans. After communicating with the expert for more experiment details, Mr. Sun suggested
that we focus our lab report on the function and significance of enzymes for the degradation of
microplastics in the human body, and also think about how to present the experimental results and how to
show the functional effects of the probiotic bacteria of intestinal engineering. Mr. Sun suggested that we
market the product as a probiotic drink preserved at low temperature, as this facilitates the preservation
of microbial activity and ensures the efficacy of the product. Today's interview made us discover many of
our own shortcomings and strengthened the determination of dry team members and wet team members to
communicate with each other.
3.Publicizing ( Online questionnaire and street interview)
Based on the content of inspiration, we further collected information about microplastics, created an online
questionnaire, and did street interviews. We analyzed a total of 349 valid samples.
Our questionnaire and interview questions are divided into the following parts.
1. Understanding the background of society. The vast majority of respondents had little knowledge of microplastics and their hazards. Therefore, we determined the most important step is to draw the public's attention to microplastics issues. This set the direction for our subsequent propaganda and popularization of science.
2. Carrying out science popularization when users are filling out questionnaires or during street interviews. For example, after the respondents answered that they did not know about microplastics, we gave them science popularization about microplastics in life, the ways microplastics enter the human body, and its potential hazards to the human body.
Most of the respondents expressed their concern about the harm of microplastics to human health. Combined with the current situation of the society, we found that the pain point of the market is the contradiction between the public's concern about the hazards to the body and the lack of drugs on the market to solve the problem of microplastic residues. Thus, we further determined that the focus of the subsequent publicity is to first make the public pay attention to microplastics issues.
3. Asking the respondents about their acceptance of health products and probiotic drinks. We believe that engineering probiotics cannot be positioned as drugs or health products because it will give customers the idea that they are sick. Probiotic drinks are widely accepted as daily drinks also because of their better taste.
4. Introducing our program and asking respondents about their willingness to buy our products. 48.02% of the respondents gave a willingness score of 7 and above, with an average score of 6.21. We analyzed the consumer tendencies and personal information of the high willingness buyers (7 and above). It was determined that our future audience is 16-55-year-olds who drink probiotic drinks 1-2 times a week. Based on this, we identified data on user retention, finalized product positioning, and promotional direction, and used this data to analyze the commercial prospects of the product.
5. Asking the public their concerns about our program. Most of the respondents in the street interviews raised the concern of whether our product has side effects. We also addressed this issue after communicating with Professor Han. We improved the explanation of this issue in the public presentation to the our audience.
Our questionnaire and interview questions are divided into the following parts.
1. Understanding the background of society. The vast majority of respondents had little knowledge of microplastics and their hazards. Therefore, we determined the most important step is to draw the public's attention to microplastics issues. This set the direction for our subsequent propaganda and popularization of science.
2. Carrying out science popularization when users are filling out questionnaires or during street interviews. For example, after the respondents answered that they did not know about microplastics, we gave them science popularization about microplastics in life, the ways microplastics enter the human body, and its potential hazards to the human body.
Most of the respondents expressed their concern about the harm of microplastics to human health. Combined with the current situation of the society, we found that the pain point of the market is the contradiction between the public's concern about the hazards to the body and the lack of drugs on the market to solve the problem of microplastic residues. Thus, we further determined that the focus of the subsequent publicity is to first make the public pay attention to microplastics issues.
3. Asking the respondents about their acceptance of health products and probiotic drinks. We believe that engineering probiotics cannot be positioned as drugs or health products because it will give customers the idea that they are sick. Probiotic drinks are widely accepted as daily drinks also because of their better taste.
4. Introducing our program and asking respondents about their willingness to buy our products. 48.02% of the respondents gave a willingness score of 7 and above, with an average score of 6.21. We analyzed the consumer tendencies and personal information of the high willingness buyers (7 and above). It was determined that our future audience is 16-55-year-olds who drink probiotic drinks 1-2 times a week. Based on this, we identified data on user retention, finalized product positioning, and promotional direction, and used this data to analyze the commercial prospects of the product.
5. Asking the public their concerns about our program. Most of the respondents in the street interviews raised the concern of whether our product has side effects. We also addressed this issue after communicating with Professor Han. We improved the explanation of this issue in the public presentation to the our audience.
4.Conclusion
In order to understand the public's perception and acceptance of microplastic
products, we conducted street interviews and questionnaires. To further understand and promote our project,
we interviewed experts in environmental engineering, genetic engineering, and marketing respectively. Plus,
we visited the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Bureau in the form of VR maps, and we had a face-to-face
discussion with the staff.
All of these activities provided us with useful insight for moving forward with our project.
1) We have developed a better understanding of the safety concerns of gene-editing techniques, GM products, and probiotics;
2) We got to know the primary concerns and key procedures of environment monitoring, which are also consistent with our project goal;
3) We further identified our potential clients and a feasible product design.
1) We have developed a better understanding of the safety concerns of gene-editing techniques, GM products, and probiotics;
2) We got to know the primary concerns and key procedures of environment monitoring, which are also consistent with our project goal;
3) We further identified our potential clients and a feasible product design.
Meanwhile, during the whole project, we promoted our product concept to the public
by creating an official account, publishing interactive videos on Bilibili and online sales, with the
combination of public education, brochures distribution and offline sales. All these activities are of great
significance to the promotion and completion of our project.