We dreamt of phenotyping microbes and running evolution experiments with antibiotics at much higher-throughput, using many more strains and conditions than before.
The solution had to be cheap, small, portable and accurate. So, with [**ERC**](https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/422425-a-low-cost-sensor-for-monitoring-drug-resistant-bacteria) funding, we set about leveraging low-cost robotics, adapting some LED lighting technology and using our own algorithm-building expertise to create the kind of device we wished we could buy.