Team:Chalmers-Gothenburg/iGEMCommunity
iGEM community
A fundamental idea in the iGEM society is to increase knowledge within the field of synthetic biology as well as sharing this knowledge with other students and scientists internationally. The participants of iGEM will in the future end up as scientist or in the industry, and hopefully retain the sportsmanship that exist within the iGEM community and spread it even further. By focusing on iGEM community in our Human Practices, we hope to raise awareness of the importance of sharing one's knowledge, both for solidarity reasons as well as making the research more accessible. One example of how we reached out to the iGEM community is our ongoing collaboration with team Czech Republic. We also participated in the Nordic iGEM Conference, and shared thoughts and ideas with other nordic iGEM teams.
Our friends in Team Czech Republic
During the course of the summer we have been in contact with first time iGEM participants, team Czech Republic. They initially contacted us because they were interested in our previous project (iGEM 2014 Team Gothenburg), which brought to our attention the fact that their project was similar to the detection part we had designed. Due to those similarities we believed that it would be beneficial for everyone if we could help each other out through the duration of the summer. Our contact has mainly been through e-mail and Skype and the collaboration encompassed different parts of our projects. We helped them out by giving some general advice concerning the competition for instance where to find the free parts we get from the competition and also providing them with our survey so they received something for their Human Practices. In return, they have been helping us with some simulations of the detection system and the modeling people from both teams have been talking to each other during the summer as well. We are very pleased that we got this opportunity to get in contact with another team! It has been really nice and we are all looking forward to meet the Czech Republic team in Boston!
The Nordic iGEM Conference
An important aspect of the iGEM competition is getting to know new people with whom you can discuss ideas and collaborate as well as make new friends. As a step towards this, the Chalmers-Gothenburg team has participated in the Nordic iGEM Conference, NiC. This was an initiative by the Uppsala and Stockholm iGEM teams who collaborated in the hosting of this event. The conference took place between the 24th and the 26th of July at the Uppsala University, and all ten iGEM teams of the Nordic countries were invited. It was a great weekend with very constructive discussions as well as a lot of fun.
On the day of arrival, a welcoming BBQ was arranged in the evening, allowing all the teams to socialise and get to know each other. The evening offered amazing food and a range of fun games, making for a great start of the conference. The next day was when the main event of the NiC took place, namely the presentations of the projects. All the teams had selected one member who would be part of a NiC jury, which in the end would determine which project and presentation would be crowned the winner of the NiC, and be awarded with the highly sought-after Golden Pipette. However, the main intention behind the presentations was to give the teams some practice for the upcoming presentations in Boston.
All the teams, including the jury, were then allowed to ask questions on each project which also was meant to be as preparation for the Q&A which follows the presentations at the iGEM Giant Jamboree. This part of the NiC was very useful and provided a lot of interesting feedback on our project, and also letting us understand the struggles and successes the other teams faced in a very constructive way.
Later that same day, the next part of the NiC was held, which encompassed different workshops that allowed the teams to compare and reflect on various iGEM experiences. The workshop topics included:
1. Awesome solutions for the lab. This workshop aimed to address solutions to technical problems in the lab, and let the teams share their experiences in this area.
2. The future of iGEM technology. This workshop allowed the participants to speculate on current and future technologies which could be used in the iGEM competition.
3. Unsolved ethics: Is your project suitable for supervillains? In this workshop the participants could discuss the ethical impacts of their projects and reflect on additional steps which could be taken to make their ideas more acceptable by the general public.
4. Funding the fun: The road to Boston In this workshop the participants could discuss how they went about to making the journey to Boston possible. Some important questions that were discussed included the amount of money required, the type of sponsorship obtained from companies and how to approach them in the best way.
5. After iGEM: Unexpected applications In this workshop the discussion focused on how to make the projects available to the community and also if they could have any additional applications other that what the teams had already thought of.
The workshops were divided into two sessions of 1 hour each, and the participants got to sign up for the two workshops that they found to be the most interesting. This part of the NiC was very well thought out and provided many interesting ideas on improvements that can be made, both for the teams and on the iGEM management’s side of things.
Following the workshops, the prestigious prize ceremony was held, announcing the winner of the all-time first Nordic iGEM Conference. Our congratulations go to the Stockholm iGEM team who managed to claim the Golden Pipette. After an amazing dinner, it was time for the Bar Crawl. This was a really fun opportunity to get to forge deeper connections in a relaxed setting and at the same time discover the beauty of the Uppsala University nations. The Bar Crawl was a great ending to an amazing day, which had been full of new experiences and meetings with really wonderful people.
The last day all of the participants could take it easy and enjoy a sightseeing tour of the town of Uppsala. The NiC ended at midday and it was time to say goodbye to all the people and new friends we had met during the weekend. We want to thank Uppsala and Stockholm for a really great event as well as all the other teams who attended for being awesome. We hope that NiC go on to become an annual event and we look forward to seeing you all in Boston.
NIC Galllery
