Team:Korea-SIS/Collaborations
Collaboration
Other iGEM Teams
KUAS Korea
In late June, our iGEM team met with the KUAS collegiate team, seeking guidance from their previous years of participation in the iGEM competition. In particular, by asking questions on specific criteria for the medals in IGEM, we were able to choose which criteria we should focus on considering our topic. They introduced us to their ideas last year and we were able to gain insight into how the competition really worked. After the meeting, we decided to meet the modeling criteria and started coming up with innovative ways to model our project. Furthermore, the KUAS team challenged our idea of using an E.coli and a biosensor to detect contaminated wheat, raising the concern of whether our purpose of detection would apply to saving wheat. Through an interactive session, we discussed both of our projects, diagnosing both weaknesses and strengths in the project.
Korea-HS
In August, our team collaborated with the Korea-HS team. We discussed specific details for the inspiration, approach to solving the problem using synthetic biology, and plans on satisfying the metal criteria. Through the 15 minutes of freely asking questions, the Korea-HS members challenged the real-life applicability of our project while we raised some concerns on their feasibility. We tried to work together and come up with solutions to combat such concerns. Clarifying questions regarding the wiki judging criteria, modeling, and website coding helped both teams develop their respective projects.
(Korea-HS and KSA Korea)
KSA Korea
In August, we collaborated with the KSA Korea team through an interactive session in which each of the team gave a thorough presentation. For about 50 minutes, all teams took part in a free-flowing conversation, asking questions ranging from biological to logistical concepts. We were able to identify weaknesses and possible areas for change to more realistically fulfill the project goal. A concern that came up for both teams was the applicability of our projects to our potential users. We collaborated to resolve such problems and found general areas for improvement.
UPCH_Peru
In September, our team was able to contact UPCH_Peru, a Peru collegiate team. UPCH_Peru had a similar goal as our team which was to reduce post-harvest losses in crops. After presenting our topics and ideas, our teams first advised each other. For example, the Peru team made us ponder about how to better utilize spectrophotometers in developing countries. We decided to create infographics regarding the general topic of food security and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to raise further awareness of this issue. We used social media and online platforms for our primary campaign tool due to COVID-19. Furthermore, our teams interviewed the local farmers in Peru to ask about their feelings regarding foreign help. Through our collaboration, both of our teams gained comprehensive knowledge on the issue and were able to garner interest from the public.
BITS Goa Team (India)
In August and September, we were able to reach out to various different iGEM teams, as we sought new collaboration meetings. We recognized the similarity in our topics and decided to meet through multiple Online Zoom calls. BITS Goa Team’s goal was to target the problem of the post-harvest decrease in sucrose content in sugarcane due to invertase activity. They focused on synthesizing an anti-invertase system that would inhibit the invertase enzyme from breaking the sucrose in glucose and fructose. After presenting both our ideas briefly, we advised each other on certain parts of the project and decided what we could do for each other as a collaboration. Since a spectrophotometer, which we planned to use to measure the intensity of the light to calculate the amount of aflatoxin B1, may not be economically affordable in developing countries, they offered us help in the economic aspects of our project and told us they could give templates for what they were using on their economic part. Additionally, they told us that they could try coming up with a rudimentary model of our reaction and help us in the field of modeling as well. What we decided to help them with was the Language Project they were working on, in which we could translate text into multiple different languages to increase the accessibility of science communication.
Meetups
Korea Teams Meetup (Korea-HS and KSA Korea)
Our team extensively collaborated with two high school teams in Korea, Korea-HS and KSA Korea. By sharing the processes of each team’s project and efforts in satisfying the medal criterias as well as resources, the three teams were successfully able to overcome limitations in accessing labs and forming partnerships with other teams. Additionally, by giving constructive criticism, our meetups led to the continual improvement in the quality of our projects.