Team:Austin UTexas/Inclusion
Diversity and Inclusion
As a part of the University of Texas at Austin, with a staggeringly high student population of 52,000 from all across Texas, America, and beyond, we have a great diversity of people and perspectives that contributed to our project. Our project included university students of a variety of classes (ranging from sophomores to seniors) as well as majors (from biology and biochemistry to physics). Our students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and communities, and we are glad to have this diversity in our team. Additionally, in our collaborations with international teams such as TU Delft and KU Istanbul, we were able to consider international perspectives on our project and incorporate these ideas into our design and modeling.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a multitude of options for members of the research teams to participate in. The weekly meetings were held at times when all of the team members were available. If there were members who could not attend - due to various reasons- i.e. personal or family emergencies - they were not penalized. Additionally, online Zoom meetings were held to allow all members to get an equal opportunity to participate in the project, especially since many of the team members were not able to work on campus due to COVID-19.
For more information about Diversity and Inclusion in iGEM, please visit the Diversity and Inclusion Hub.