Judging/Medals

The following is a list of Awards given by the iGEM Judges and some general information about how Award decisions are made. For examples of award-winning work, see the 2014 Jamboree Results.

iGEM Medals

All teams must convince the judges they have achieved each of the medal criteria. Simply ticking a box does not guarantee you will awarded a medal. For New Track teams, please see medal criteria specific to your track below for more details on what you need to accomplish to be awarded a medal.

All teams can earn a medal. Teams can only win at most one medal in a given iGEM year. Teams must nominate themselves using the Judging Form. Please see our Judging Form info page for more information. Please note the deadline for judging forms will be the same as the wiki freeze, the 18th of September. Please see the Calendar of events for more information on iGEM deadlines.

The three levels of medals, from lowest to highest are Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Requirements for each medal are:

Bronze.
Your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 6 goals:

  1. Register for iGEM, have a great summer, and attend the Giant Jamboree.
  2. Complete the Judging form.
  3. Create and share a Description of the team's project using the iGEM wiki, and document the team's parts using the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
  4. Present a poster and a talk at the iGEM Jamboree. See the 2015 poster guidelines for more information.
  5. Create a page on your team wiki with clear attribution of each aspect of your project. This page must clearly attribute work done by the students and distinguish it from work done by others, including host labs, advisors, instructors, sponsors, professional website designers, artists, and commercial services.
  6. Document at least one new standard BioBrick Part or Device central to your project and submit this part to the iGEM Registry (submissions must adhere to the iGEM Registry guidelines). You may also document a new application of a BioBrick part from a previous iGEM year, adding that documentation to the part's main page.

Silver:
In addition to the Bronze Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 3 goals:

  1. Experimentally validate that at least one new BioBrick Part or Device of your own design and construction works as expected. Document the characterization of this part in the Main Page section of the Registry entry for that Part/Device. This working part must be different from the part you documented in Bronze medal criterion #6.
  2. Submit this new part to the iGEM Parts Registry. This part must be different from the part you documented in Bronze medal criterion #6. (Submissions must adhere to the iGEM Registry guidelines.)
  3. iGEM projects involve important questions beyond the bench, for example relating to (but not limited to) ethics, sustainability, social justice, safety, security, and intellectual property rights. We refer to these activities as Human Practices in iGEM. Demonstrate how your team has identified, investigated and addressed one or more of these issues in the context of your project. (See the Human Practices Hub for more information.)

Gold:
In addition to the Bronze and Silver Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved at least two of the following goals:

  1. Choose one of these two options: (1) Expand on your silver medal Human Practices activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the design and/or execution of your project. OR (2) Demonstrate an innovative Human Practices activity that relates to your project (this typically involves educational, public engagement, and/or public perception activities; see the Human Practices Hub for information and examples of innovative activities from previous teams).
  2. Help any registered iGEM team from a high-school, different track, another university, or institution in a significant way by, for example, mentoring a new team, characterizing a part, debugging a construct, modeling/simulating their system or helping validate a software/hardware solution to a synbio problem.
  3. Improve the function OR characterization of a previously existing BioBrick Part or Device (created by another team, or by your own team in in a previous year of iGEM), and enter this information in the part's page on the Registry. Please see the Registry Contribution help page for help on documenting a contribution to an existing part. This part must not come from your team's 2015 range of part numbers.
  4. Demonstrate a functional prototype of your project. Your prototype can derive from a previous project (that was not demonstrated to work) by your team or by another team. Show this system working under real-world conditions that you simulate in the lab. (Remember, biological materials may not be taken outside the lab.)

New Tracks

The most significant difference between standard iGEM tracks and new tracks are the medal criteria. Each of the new tracks has it's own specific evaluation criteria, so please familiarize yourselves with them so you don't miss out on a medal. If you have questions, you can email your track committee (emails on the new track pages) or HQ [at] iGEM [dot] org.

Art and Design

Bronze.
Your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 6 goals:

  1. Register for iGEM, have a great summer, and attend the Giant Jamboree.
  2. Complete the Judging form.
  3. Create and share a Description of the team's project using the iGEM wiki, and document the team's parts using the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
  4. Present a poster and a talk at the iGEM Jamboree. See the 2015 poster guidelines for more information.
  5. Create a page on your team wiki with clear attribution of each aspect of your project. This page must clearly attribute work done by the students and distinguish it from work done by others, including host labs, advisors, instructors, sponsors, professional website designers, artists, and commercial services.
  6. Demonstrate the use of art and design for thoughtful, critical investigation of the current and future implications of synthetic biology. Provoke us to think about synthetic biology and its implications in a new and innovative way.

Silver:
In addition to the Bronze Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 3 goals:

  1. Create a short film about or as part of your project and make it available on your wiki. You must also send the video file to iGEM HQ (email hq AT igem DOT org).
  2. Design and execute a workshop or event for a group of people outside of your team. Chronicle the workshop and its impact on the participants of your workshop on your wiki.
  3. iGEM projects involve important questions beyond the bench, for example relating to (but not limited to) ethics, sustainability, social justice, safety, security, and intellectual property rights. We refer to these activities as Human Practices in iGEM. Demonstrate how your team has identified, investigated and addressed one or more of these issues in the context of your project. (See the Human Practices Hub for more information.)

Gold:
In addition to the Bronze and Silver Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved at least two of the following goals:

  1. Choose one of these two options: (1) Expand on your silver medal Human Practices activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the design and/or execution of your project. OR (2) Demonstrate an innovative Human Practices activity that relates to your project (this typically involves educational, public engagement, and/or public perception activities; see the Human Practices Hub for information and examples of innovative activities from previous teams).
  2. Collaborate directly with an iGEM team in another track on an art project. Document the nature of this collaboration on both team wikis (on the collaboration page) and include the results of this interaction in your installation at the Giant Jamboree.
  3. Design and document on the Registry of Standard Biological Parts at least one new standard BioBrick Part (teams working with biological materials must adhere to all laboratory safety requirements maintained by iGEM).
  4. Produce an installation or experiment (does not need to be biological) and document it or recreate it at the iGEM Jamboree (please contact artdesign [at] igem [dot] org to arrange for space at the Giant Jamboree). Note: you may not bring live biological materials to the Jamboree. Contact the Safety Committee (safety [at] igem [dot] org) with questions about non-live biological materials.

Community Labs

Bronze.
Your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 6 goals:

  1. Register for iGEM, have a great summer, and attend the Giant Jamboree.
  2. Complete the Judging form.
  3. Create and share a Description of the team's project using the iGEM wiki, and document the team's parts using the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
  4. Present a poster and a talk at the iGEM Jamboree. See the 2015 poster guidelines for more information.
  5. Create a page on your team wiki with clear attribution of each aspect of your project. This page must clearly attribute work done by the students and distinguish it from work done by others, including host labs, advisors, instructors, sponsors, professional website designers, artists, and commercial services.
  6. Interact with your community by creating an engaging activity that showcases iGEM, synthetic biology and community labs. This activity could involve teaching a class to your community, running a public forum to promote the discussion of synthetic biology, or another activity.

Silver:
In addition to the Bronze Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 3 goals:

  1. Help any registered iGEM team from a high-school, different track, another university, or institution in a significant way by, for example, mentoring a new team, characterizing a part, debugging a construct, modeling/simulating their system or helping validate a software/hardware solution to a synbio problem.
  2. Demonstrate a functional prototype of your project. Your prototype can derive from a previous project (that was not demonstrated to work) by your team or by another team. Show this system working under real-world conditions that you simulate in the lab. (Remember, biological materials may not be taken outside the lab.)
  3. iGEM projects involve important questions beyond the bench, for example relating to (but not limited to) ethics, sustainability, social justice, safety, security, and intellectual property rights. We refer to these activities as Human Practices in iGEM. Demonstrate how your team has identified, investigated and addressed one or more of these issues in the context of your project. (See the Human Practices Hub for more information.)

Gold:
In addition to the Bronze and Silver Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved at least two of the following goals:

  1. Choose one of these two options: (1) Expand on your silver medal Human Practices activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the design and/or execution of your project. OR (2) Demonstrate an innovative Human Practices activity that relates to your project (this typically involves educational, public engagement, and/or public perception activities; see the Human Practices Hub for information and examples of innovative activities from previous teams).
  2. Document at least one new standard BioBrick Part or Device central to your project and submit this part to the iGEM Registry (submissions must adhere to the iGEM Registry guidelines). You may also document a new application of a BioBrick part from a previous iGEM year, adding that documentation to the part's main page.
  3. Interact with your community by creating an engaging activity that showcases iGEM, synthetic biology and community labs. This activity could involve teaching a class to your community, running a public form to promote the discussion of synthetic biology, or another activity. Create a video about the community activity you did for your bronze medal, showing how you interacted with your community. Make the video available on your wiki, and send the file to iGEM HQ (email hq AT igem DOT org).
  4. Experimentally validate that at least one new BioBrick Part or Device of your own design and construction works as expected. Document the characterization of this part in the Main Page section of the Registry entry for that Part/Device. This working part must be different from the part you documented in Gold medal criterion #2.

Hardware

Bronze.
Your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 6 goals:

  1. Register for iGEM, have a great summer, and attend the Giant Jamboree.
  2. Complete the Judging form.
  3. Create and share a Description of the team's project using the iGEM wiki, and document the team's parts (if any) using the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
  4. Present a poster and a talk at the iGEM Jamboree. See the 2015 poster guidelines for more information.
  5. Create a page on your team wiki with clear attribution of each aspect of your project. This page must clearly attribute work done by the students and distinguish it from work done by others, including host labs, advisors, instructors, sponsors, professional website designers, artists, and commercial services.
  6. Develop a working prototype of an open-source hardware tool that supports synthetic biologists working with BioBrick standard biological parts. Document your tool on the project page on your team wiki.

Silver:
In addition to the Bronze Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 3 goals:

  1. Provide a demonstration of your hardware using a video tutorial that explains all the features of the hardware operation. Make the video available on your wiki. You must also send the video file to iGEM HQ (email hq [at] igem [dot] org).
  2. Document your device on your wiki with information and associated files sufficient for a future iGEM team to reproduce your work. You should include relevant design schematics, 3d print files (or other), software and a Bill of Materials (BOM).
  3. iGEM projects involve important questions beyond the bench, for example relating to (but not limited to) ethics, sustainability, social justice, safety, security, and intellectual property rights. We refer to these activities as Human Practices in iGEM. Demonstrate how your team has identified, investigated and addressed one or more of these issues in the context of your project. (See the Human Practices Hub for more information.)

Gold:
In addition to the Bronze and Silver Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved at least two of the following goals:

  1. Choose one of these two options: (1) Expand on your silver medal Human Practices activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the design and/or execution of your project. OR (2) Demonstrate an innovative Human Practices activity that relates to your project (this typically involves educational, public engagement, and/or public perception activities; see the Human Practices Hub for information and examples of innovative activities from previous teams).
  2. Help any other iGEM team utilize the hardware developed by your team. You must clearly show how your hardware was used and the results that were obtained. Results should take the form of a written report from the team testing the hardware and be posted on both team's wikis.
  3. Select a previous iGEM Hardware project from any track and demonstrate how you have continued to work on the project by improving the functionality, ease of use, or documentation of another facet of the work/device.
  4. Demonstrate your hardware at the iGEM Giant Jamboree. If your equipment is too large to transport, create an installation to demonstrate functionality. Note: you may not bring live biological materials to the Jamboree.

High School

Bronze.
Your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 6 goals:

  1. Register for iGEM, have a great summer, and attend the Giant Jamboree.
  2. Complete the Judging form and all required consent forms.
  3. Create and share a Description of the team's project using the iGEM wiki, and document the team's parts using the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
  4. Present a poster and a talk at the iGEM Jamboree. See the 2015 poster guidelines for more information.
  5. Create a page on your team wiki with clear attribution of each aspect of your project. This page must clearly attribute work done by the students and distinguish it from work done by others, including host labs, advisors, instructors, sponsors, professional website designers, artists, and commercial services.
  6. Collaborate with another team or become a mentee for any iGEM team that has previously participated in the iGEM competition and is attending the 2015 Jamboree.

Silver:
In addition to the Bronze Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 3 goals:

  1. Document at least one new standard BioBrick Part or Device central to your project and submit this part to the iGEM Registry (submissions must adhere to the iGEM Registry guidelines). You may also document a new application of a BioBrick part from a previous iGEM year, adding that documentation to the part's main page.
  2. Document the characterization of an existing part in the 'Main Page' section of that Part's/Device's Registry entry. This part can come from the 2015 Distribution, or you can order a part from the Registry.
  3. iGEM projects involve important questions beyond the bench, for example relating to (but not limited to) ethics, sustainability, social justice, safety, security, and intellectual property rights. We refer to these activities as Human Practices in iGEM. Demonstrate how your team has identified, investigated and addressed one or more of these issues in the context of your project. (See the Human Practices Hub for more information.)

Gold:
In addition to the Bronze and Silver Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved at least two of the following goals:

  1. Choose one of these two options: (1) Expand on your silver medal Human Practices activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the design and/or execution of your project. OR (2) Demonstrate an innovative Human Practices activity that relates to your project (this typically involves educational, public engagement, and/or public perception activities; see the Human Practices Hub for information and examples of innovative activities from previous teams).
  2. Help an iGEM team from another school or institution to meet a specific experimental or modeling goal by, for example, characterizing their part, debugging their construct, or modeling or simulating their system.
  3. Experimentally validate that at least one new BioBrick Part or Device of your own design and construction works as expected. Document the characterization of this part in the Main Page section of the Registry entry for that Part/Device. This working part must be different from the part you documented in Silver medal criterion #1.
  4. Demonstrate a functional prototype of your project. Your prototype can derive from a previous project (that was not demonstrated to work) by your team or by another team. Show this system working under real-world conditions that you simulate in the lab. (Remember, biological materials may not be taken outside the lab.)

Measurement

Bronze.
Your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 6 goals:

  1. Register for iGEM, have a great summer, and attend the Giant Jamboree.
  2. Complete the Judging form.
  3. Create and share a Description of the team's project using the iGEM wiki, and document the team's parts using the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
  4. Present a poster and a talk at the iGEM Jamboree. See the 2015 poster guidelines for more information.
  5. Create a page on your team wiki with clear attribution of each aspect of your project. This page must clearly attribute work done by the students and distinguish it from work done by others, including host labs, advisors, instructors, sponsors, professional website designers, artists, and commercial services.
  6. Document at least one new standard BioBrick Part or Device central to your project and submit this part to the iGEM Registry (submissions must adhere to the iGEM Registry guidelines). You may also document a new application of a BioBrick part from a previous iGEM year, adding that documentation to the part's main page.

Silver:
In addition to the Bronze Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 3 goals:

  1. Experimentally validate that at least one new BioBrick Part or Device of your own design and construction works as expected. Document the characterization of this part in the Main Page section of the Registry entry for that Part/Device. This working part must be different from the part you documented in Bronze medal criterion #6.
  2. Participate in the Measurement Interlab Study. Submit measurement data to the committee by the study deadline (see iGEM 2015 calendar of events for details).
  3. iGEM projects involve important questions beyond the bench, for example relating to (but not limited to) ethics, sustainability, social justice, safety, security, and intellectual property rights. We refer to these activities as Human Practices in iGEM. Demonstrate how your team has identified, investigated and addressed one or more of these issues in the context of your project. (See the Human Practices Hub for more information.)

Gold:
In addition to the Bronze and Silver Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved at least two of the following goals:

  1. Choose one of these two options: (1) Expand on your silver medal Human Practices activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the design and/or execution of your project. OR (2) Demonstrate an innovative Human Practices activity that relates to your project (this typically involves educational, public engagement, and/or public perception activities; see the Human Practices Hub for information and examples of innovative activities from previous teams).
  2. Help any registered iGEM team from a high-school, different track, another university, or institution in a significant way by, for example, mentoring a new team, characterizing a part, debugging a construct, modeling/simulating their system or helping validate a software/hardware solution to a synbio problem.
  3. Demonstrate a substantial improvement over the state of the art in cost, efficiency, precision, resolution, and/or other relevant capabilities of your measurement technique or a previous iGEM team measurement project.
  4. Demonstrate the ease of accessibility and/or portability of a new or existing measurement technique of your choosing. Document the use of the measurement technique in a lab other than your own on your team wiki.

Software

Bronze.
Your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 6 goals:

  1. Register for iGEM, have a great summer, and attend the Giant Jamboree.
  2. Complete the Judging form.
  3. Create and share a Description of the team's project using the iGEM wiki, and document the team's parts (if any) using the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.
  4. Present a poster and a talk at the iGEM Jamboree. See the 2015 poster guidelines for more information.
  5. Create a page on your team wiki with clear attribution of each aspect of your project. This page must clearly attribute work done by the students and distinguish it from work done by others, including host labs, advisors, instructors, sponsors, professional website designers, artists, and commercial services.
  6. Develop and make available, via the iGEM GitHub page, an open source software that supports Synthetic Biology based on Standard Parts or interacts with the Registry. (For questions about the iGEM Github page, contact software [at] igem [dot] org.)

Silver:
In addition to the Bronze Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved the following 3 goals:

  1. Provide a comprehensive, well-designed User Guide for your software and upload it to your wiki. Be creative! (An instructional video may work as well.)
  2. Develop a well documented library or API for other developers (rather than "only" a stand-alone app for end users.)
  3. Demonstrate that you followed best practices in software development so that other developers can modify, use, and reuse your code. Provide more than one realistic test case. Examples of best practices are automated unit testing and documentation of test coverage, bug tracking facilities, and documentation of releases and changes between releases.

Gold:
In addition to the Bronze and Silver Medal requirements, your team must convince the judges you have achieved at least two of the following goals:

  1. iGEM projects involve important questions beyond the bench, for example relating to (but not limited to) ethics, sustainability, social justice, safety, security, and intellectual property rights. We refer to these activities as Human Practices in iGEM. Demonstrate how your team has identified, investigated and addressed one or more of these issues in the context of your project. (See the Human Practices Hub for more information.)
  2. Address a problem that you would like to co-develop with a wetlab team. This should be a collaboration where the wetlab team posts a problem they are having and your team addresses the issue by creating an online software solution.
  3. Re-use and further develop a previous iGEM software project (or parts thereof) and demonstrate how future teams can continue this trend through good code documentation, use of open source materials and creation of great instructional materials.
  4. Demonstrate your software at the iGEM Giant Jamboree in the software demo suite. You should show a functional prototype that teams can use in following years. (Contact software AT igem DOT org for information about the software demo suite.)

Please send us any comments or suggestions for awards and judging by email to the judging committee at judging AT igem DOT org.