Team:Aalto-Helsinki/Practices
Human practices
Combining modeling and experimentation in iGEM
Mathematical modeling is a key component of synthetic biology. However, efficient collaboration between modelers and experimentalists is not always easy. We launched a questionnaire to get some insight on how iGEM teams tackle this issue. We were interested in how the teams were able to integrate their wetlab and modeling efforts, what kind of problems they faced in this and how they approached these problems.
Outreach
On top of the Human Practices study, we also wanted to spread the word of synthetic biology. As the only iGEM team in Finland, we reached out to both high schools and universities across the country, giving presentations on synthetic biology and iGEM, in hopes of inspiring students to start teams of their own. To increase the layperson’s knowledge on synthetic biology, iGEM and our project, we held a talk and workshops on a Science picnic mainly aimed at families. We were also active on social media and featured on several media outlets. While looking for partners in the scientific community, business and industry in Finland, we also increased awareness of synthetic biology.