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Latest Update
- We reinforced and optimized the search database server. So, now you can get search results faster.
- We added the currently available data of 2012 teams to the search database server. So you can get search results including 2012 teams.
Overview
Past project search is a search tool for past project wikis. It is a web based tool so there is no bother with platform. You merely input words that represent your interest and hit the search button. This tool searches all team wikis and abstracts throughout the years and displays the results with user-friendly UI.
Background
Until today we could not search for past projects across different years. This is unfortunate for all iGEM participants that they were not able to get knowledge about past teams easily. You had to reach team wikis using only tracks, regions, and team names from a list that does not contain any specific information about the project. Or you can search using the upper right search box on the iGEM official top page of each year. But this result depends on team projects at only one year. Using this Past Project Search, you can obtain these team information at once.
Methods
Past team wiki pages were retrieved using python scripts and Mediawiki API (http://20**.igem.org/wiki/api.php). Team information such as region, team track, abstract, and so on, was retrieved using python scripts (from https://igem.org/Team.cgi?id=***). These data were combined, converted to JSON format and stored in our own server. Regarding the search engine, we adopted open source software called "elasticsearch" (elasticsearch.org) as a backend search engine.
Result
Now, you can search for past projects across multiple years. You can narrow down search results according to track, medal, year, award and region. You can also get easy access to a team’s information from the search results page; for example their project title, project abstract, and school details. In addition, you can access past team presentation slides, video, and posters from this page, which in the past had to be accessed from the Jamboree results page.
Future
- apply the past project data older than 2008 to the search database
- apply the other division's data : High School Division and Entrepreneurship Division
- improve user interface for smartphone to improve user friendliness
