iGEM Rotterdam HR 2019

Human Practices

RIVM The Hague

13 and 14 June 2019

Our very first meet-up was at the RIVM-National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, in The Hague. It was a two-day event; the first was all about information and the second day was all about networking and questions.

On day one, we started out with a seminar by Megan Palmer; the Human Practice specialist of iGEM, followed by a Q&A with some professors. (Fun fact: our very own Professor Jos Veldscholte was one of the professors to interrogate in the Q&A). After that, we could select some workshops that we liked and could attend those. For us, the most interesting one was the 'Speed Solving' workshop, where we learned a lot and other students who also followed it, were left feeling enthusiastic.

The second day was an expertise day; all the students could help each other with their problems. This was also the moment we initiated our friendship with the members of iGEM Maastricht. We obtained some extra information on sponsoring and in return, shared our approach on project-management, finance, and marketing.

Dutch meet-up (Leiden/Groningen)

17 August 2019

The Dutch meet-up was one we couldn’t miss! We were welcomed by the iGEM teams Leiden and Groningen, who put together the meet-up with an informational morning and a crazy afternoon activity in Leiden’s city center. Each team had the opportunity to share their presentations, deliberate over their project ideas and obtain feedback from a jury which included a former iGEM member. Then, the organizers took the games outside where meeting and getting to know our fellow iGEM’ers, was extended through a game of Crazy88 (a list of 88 crazy things to do - see the pictures of a few embarrassing moments). Having participated for the second year in a row, we hope to begin a tradition here and who knows, eventually a national meet-up might be organized by one of Rotterdam’s succeeding teams.

Maastricht meet-up

30 August 2019

The meet-up in Maastricht was all about bonding with each other. Anass and Danny, from our team, drove to Maastricht and had the chance to discuss our project with other teams while having a nice dinner together. The Maastricht meet-up wasn’t about giving presentations and to learning from seminars at all; just a nice day out which worked really well in creating a bond between teams!

Leuven meet-up

21 September 2019

Our first meet-up abroad! Leuven was a big meet-up with multiple teams from Europe. It was spread over two days, but unfortunately, we were only able attend one day. The time was spent presenting and getting ideas for our presentation, and also secretly killing each other. No, not actually killing each other, but the Leuven team came up with a game where we drew a name, and that name became your target. The person with the most names won the game.

World Cleanup Day 2019

21 September 2019

The environment is an important subject to us, which is why we designed a prototype that is biodegradable. But, we wanted to do more to manifest our responsibility towards our ecosystem, so we contributed to the World Cleanup Day. On this day, people from all around the world help to clean their neighborhood, village, public site or city and lessen their carbon. From the team, our members joined a public group set to clean-up the 4.5km-long Scheveningen Beach, in The Hague, Netherlands. Approximately 77,681 pieces of trash were collected, of which 61% were plastics.

RIVM Safety by Design

30 September 2019

Safety is one of the most important things at the lab, that’s why we were very lucky to receive ample advice from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). We completed the Safe-by-Design Assignment created by RIVM, from which the RIVM hopes to stimulate the iGEM teams to reflect about; how their project can have an impact in the world and most importantly, how can it contribute to a safe world.

BeNeLux Mini Jamboree (Eindhoven)

25 October 2019

The Dutch Mini Jamboree was hosted by iGEM Eindhoven, giving us a last chance to squash our nerves before the real Jamboree in Boston.

Team:Rotterdam HR/Human Practices