Team:UCSC/Outreach

Outreach

Our team focused on more than the research this summer. One of our main goals was to spread the word of our research to other students, and make connections with the green community. Members of our team gave talks to classes at Hartnell college, one of the local community colleges. We also welcomed incoming engineering freshman into our lab for tours and to find out more about engineering and our project.


Twice, we participated in an agricultural technology meetup in Watsonville, CA to share our research and find out about potential future partnerships in converting the cellulose from plants to biofuel. The Santa Cruz Sentinel and City on a Hill press wrote pieces on our work and our experience with iGEM as well.


Our team started off with no money to send anyone to Boston, and no money for pipette tips! We ended up raising around $25,000 in ten weeks. We raised money by acquiring some corporate sponsorship with VWR. Then, we approached the deans and chairs of different departments within physical sciences and engineering at UCSC. We raised almost $12k this way. Finally, we ran a crowdfunding page that required actively sharing the page with friends, family, alumni of UCSC and the scientific community. From these efforts, we were able to develop skills required when starting and running a business, and the ability to accept financial setbacks and learn to prosper. We thank all our supporters on the Attributions page.