Dev/Medals
Medals
On this page you will find: Updates for 2020, New for 2020: Medals Guidance, Celebrating Your Work, Convincing the Judges, Documenting Your Work, Bronze Criteria, Silver Criteria, and Gold Criteria.
Medals allow us to celebrate the accomplishments of our iGEM teams. Through medals, we highlight the underlying principles of iGEM: respect, community, and honesty.
The three levels of medals, from lowest to highest are Bronze, Silver, and Gold, with each medal building upon the next. Through the bronze we appreciate the hard work and effort you have put into participating in iGEM, the silver celebrates your accomplishments, and with the gold we delight in your excellence.
We do not limit the numbers of each medal and all teams can earn a medal; teams are only competing with themselves to achieve the medal criteria.
Updates for 2020
Due to COVID-19, we understand that many campuses and laboratories are closed. We have updated the medal criteria to be open and flexible, and therefore more appropriate for this year. Teams can achieve a Bronze, Silver, or Gold medal without doing laboratory work. We have also added new ways for teams to show excellence in their work for the Gold medal.
What if we can access our laboratory?
If your team has access to the laboratory this year, you can still submit your laboratory work for medal criteria. In particular, you can: contribute new data to an existing Part (Bronze #4), design and build a new Part and show that it works as expected (Silver #1), or make a new Part that improves the function of an existing Part (Gold #2).
New for 2020: Medals Guidance
Many of the changes we’ve made to the criteria have opened up the way in which teams can achieve that criteria. With more open criteria, we wanted to provide teams with some guidance and suggestions for how to think about and approach each criteria.
We will continue to update this guidance as the season progresses based on feedback and/or questions we receive from teams.
Celebrating Your Work
A Bronze medal is awarded to those teams that have participated in iGEM 2020, presented their work, and made a contribution for future teams.
A Silver medal is awarded to those teams that have addressed these key pillars of an iGEM project: engineering success, collaboration, and human practices.
A Gold medal is awarded to those teams that have shown excellence in multiple areas beyond the Silver medal.
Convincing the Judges
Through your work and documentation, it is your responsibility to convince the judges that your team has achieved each of the medal criteria you are working towards.
Be clear and direct when you present your work. Your judges will review the information you provide on your wiki pages, poster, video presentations, and Judging Form (including any Part pages you may add there). Your judges will also interact with your team and ask your team questions during the Virtual Giant Jamboree. The judges will use all of this information to inform their evaluations and decisions.
Documenting Your Work on Required Wiki Pages
For the medal criteria, you must document your work on the Required URLs as shown in the table below. For your own pages, please replace "YourTeamName" with your team name to find the page on your wiki.
When working with Parts, you must also document your work on the relevant Part Pages on the Registry.
Bronze | All criteria must be met |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Name | Explanation | Guidance (New for 2020) |
| 1 | Competition Deliverables | Complete the following Competition Deliverables: • #1 Wiki • #2 Poster • #3 Presentation Video • #4 Project Promotion Video • #5 Judging Form |
For guidelines for each of the deliverable, please see the links below: • Wiki • Poster • Presentation Video • Project Promotion Video • Judging Form You can also directly navigate to these links from the Competition Deliverables page (https://2020.igem.org/Competition/Deliverables). |
| 2 | Attributions | Describe what work your team members did and what other people did for your project.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Attributions |
Some questions to help guide you: • What did each team member work on during your project? • Did you get help from outside sources, such as technicians or other faculty members? Notes: • This is not about literature citations (put these throughout your wiki!) |
| 3 | Project Description | Describe how and why you chose your iGEM project.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Description |
Some questions to help guide you: • Why do you believe your project is a useful application of synthetic biology? • What are your project goals and how will you achieve them? • What work outside or inside of iGEM inspired your project? Notes: • You can also describe how COVID-19 impacted your project |
| 4 | Contribution |
Make a useful contribution for future iGEM teams.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Contribution |
Some ways to achieve this include: • Add new documentation to an existing Part on that Part's Registry page: • This could be new information learned from literature • This could be new data collected from laboratory experiments • Build upon an existing software or hardware tool • Document troubleshooting that would be helpful to future teams • Create a 3D printed piece of hardware and document how to make it We invite you to also think outside of these areas for your contribution. Additional guidance coming soon. |
Silver | All Bronze criteria must be met, plus all Silver criteria must be met |
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| Number | Name | Explanation | Guidance (New for 2020) |
| 1 | Engineering Success |
Demonstrate engineering success in at least one aspect of your project. This achievement should be distinct from your Contribution for Bronze.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Engineering |
Notes: • For teams who can get into lab, you can design and build a new Part and show that it works as expected (documentation must be on the Main Part Pages on the Registry) Additional guidance coming soon. |
| 2 | Collaboration |
Collaborate with one (or more) 2020 iGEM team(s) in a meaningful way.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Collaboration |
Some ways to achieve this include: • Mentor a team (or be mentored by a team) • Troubleshoot a project • Host a (virtual) meetup • Model/simulate a system • Validate a software/hardware solution to a synthetic biology problem We invite you to also think outside of these areas for your collaboration. Visit the Collaborations page to post and find collaborations. Notes: • This can be a one-way collaboration where one team benefits from another team • Simply filling out a survey for a team is not enough to demonstrate a significant interaction. |
| 3 | Human Practices |
Explain how you have determined your work is responsible and good for the world.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Human_Practices |
Please visit the Human Practices Hub for more information on how to carry out Human Practices work.
Additional guidance coming soon. |
| 4 | Proposed Implementation |
Explain how you would implement your project in the real world.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Implementation |
Some questions to help guide you: • Who are your proposed end users? • How do you envision others using your project? • How would you implement your project in the real world? • What are the safety aspects you would need to consider? • What other challenges would you need to consider? Notes: • Teams already think about some of these issues for the Safety Form • This will encompass engineering, safety, impact, and implementation Additional guidance coming soon. |
Gold | All Bronze and Silver criteria must be met, plus at least two (2) Gold criteria must be met |
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| Number | Name | Explanation | Guidance (New for 2020) |
| 1 | Integrated Human Practices | Demonstrate how your team responded to your human practices reflections, research, and/or engagement. You should show how your activities impacted your project purpose, design and/or execution.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Human_Practices |
Please visit the Human Practices Hub for more information on how to carry out Human Practices work.
Additional guidance coming soon. |
| 2 | Improvement of an Existing Part | Make a new Part that improves the function of an existing Part. This improvement must be distinct from your work for Bronze and Silver medals.
Enter the Part numbers on your Judging Form. |
Notes: • This criteria was kept in as an option for teams who could get into the lab. Additional guidance coming soon. |
| 3 | Project Modeling | Use modeling to gain insight into how your project works or should be implemented. Explain your model's assumptions, data, parameters, and results in a way that anyone could understand.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Modeling |
Some ways to achieve this include: • Deterministic, exploratory, molecular dynamic, and/or stochastic models • Explore the physical modeling of a single component within a system • Utilize mathematical modeling for predicting function of a more complex device Notes: • This could be either a new model you develop or the implementation of a model from a previous team. Please see the Software Tools page for resources that may help with your modeling. Additional guidance coming soon. |
| 4 | Proof of Concept | Expand upon your Silver medal work for Proposed Implementation and develop a proof of concept for your project.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Proof_of_Concept |
Guidance coming soon. |
| 5 | Partnership | Collaborate throughout the year with at least one other 2020 iGEM team on a set of shared objectives related to both of your projects. This partnership should go beyond a Silver medal collaboration.
Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Partnership |
Some questions to help guide you: • How did your collaborative work inform and shape your project at different stages? • How did each team in the partnership benefit from the collaboration? • How did your teams work together throughout the season? Additional guidance coming soon. |
| 6 | Science Communication | Develop and implement science communication, education, and/or outreach materials related to synthetic biology.
All activities must follow Safety policies for Human Subjects Research. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Communication |
Guidance coming soon. |
| 7 | Excellence in Another Area | Demonstrate excellence in another area related to synthetic biology.
Team to provide a URL in Judging Form |
• Surprise us! • The work should be substantial Additional guidance coming soon. |
If you have questions, please email us at judging AT igem DOT org . We love hearing from teams. Best of luck with your projects!
iGEM Foundation
The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology, education and competition, and the development of an open community and collaboration. Visit us at igem.org
Contact
hq AT igem DOT org
45 Prospect Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
Due to COVID-19, iGEM staff are working remotely and cannot receive phone calls.
Please contact us by email.
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