Team:Tartu TUIT/Collaborations

DUSSELDORF

Postcard challenge

Düsseldorf team's postcard collaboration has become a tradition. Since 2016, it challenges the teams from all over the world to explain complicated things to different groups of people creatively. This year we are happy to join them with our own colorful postcard design!

OUC-China

In iGEM, we dream big! Yet any scientist's ambition and success can be determined by the right equipment. The Ocean University of China asked us to sketch and describe our dream laboratory, comparing it to the (current!) real one. Our laboratories at Tartu University are well-equipped for many different projects, but there is always room for improvement and imagination. And while microplate readers and automated pipettes would surely make our work more efficient, we allowed our vision to go into the future. Aerogel screens, fancy compact equipment, and an adorable robot helper into our dream laboratory. Here's to hope that this future is a close one!

UA-Alberta

Creating a safe, trusting environment for all members of our scientific societies is an essential step in creating the perfect synergy of gifted minds. Team UAlberta is actively promoting this welcoming atmosphere in iGEM, and thus launched a "Demographics and Inclusivity" survey, collecting information and opinions about our team members. We were happy to include our part, and will be eagerly waiting for their conclusions!

uOttawa

As more teams from all around the world join iGEM with their unique projects, the approaches to the challenges of synthetic biology develop, branch out, and improve. The virtual Protocol Donation Box project is dedicated to making laboratory techniques, methods, and protocols easily accessible. We have uploaded our own protocols to the collection. We hope our humble effort will help other teams - or maybe even Tartu team.

US AFRL CarrollHS

The dread induced by creating an excellent Wiki page has become an inside joke for many iGEM teams. The sheer volume of work, as well as the lack of experience, sometimes makes this task seem intimidating at best. The team of AFRL-Carroll High School, after going through this struggle themselves, decided to help the other teams by creating a thorough guide to all aspects of creating our own iGEM Wiki page. We have shared our personal experience with the Wiki by reviewing their detailed text and video tutorials and giving the according to feedback in return.

Mike the Microbe

Our participation in scientific challenges has attracted unusual visitors: Mike the Microbe and Chia the Chitinase, Carroll High School team's mascots! Pictures of their stop in Tartu can be seen on social media, alongside with other photos of their journey across the iGEM world.

iGEM Marburg

At the end of July, a team from Marburg has organized an online seminar dedicated to Golden Gate assembly method, in which several of our members participated in. During the webinar, Marburg representative extensively covered the specifics of Golden Gate molecular cloning, the theory behind it, and the benefits it provides, answering questions and discussing ideas in the process.

Bilkent-UNAMBG

Isn't it wonderful when children turn the full power of their curiosity to science? Sparking that interest and enthusiasm now may turn into a life-changing breakthrough a few decades later! Synthetic biology is tough to explain to a young child, but three talented members of UNAMBG team faced the challenge. They created the comics story about a little girl who wants to help her grandfather with the help of science. UNAMBG team set the goal to translate the story into as many languages as possible. Our team is very proud to participate and translated the story to the Estonian language.

Viena iGEM

With 376 teams participating in iGEM in 2019, the sheer number of projects and information is undoubtedly overwhelming for most people. A team from Vienna wants to help others by compiling a booklet which delivers an introduction to various iGEM projects in a short yet exciting manner. Participating in the "Six Pics" challenge allows us to introduce our team, project, and university with just six illustrations and 150 words!

One minute

Team Technion-Israel

The "One Minute iGEM Challenge" pursues the goal of presenting the 2019 project to future iGEM participants in a quick manner. By filming our own video, we hope to inspire incoming teams of iGEM, or even reach more people outside of it, while explaining the purpose and importance of POP Culture.

Virginia

iGEM "Social Media" Hub

SDG challenge

TAS_Taipei (Taiwan), Costa Rica and Tuebingen (Germany)

A collaboration of three teams is working hard on raising awareness about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the iGEM community. These goals have been set by the UN as challenges humanity must face ensuring our sustainable development. The "iGEM x SDGs" challenge encourages participants to learn about SDGs, establish the goals which their projects focus on, and post their discoveries on social media to spread the information further. After narrowing down the list of seventeen development challenges, we concluded that the POP Culture project mainly focuses on four SDGs: good health and well-being, quality education, industry, innovation, and infrastructure, responsible consumption, and production. At the beginning of September, we have met with other dedicated iGEM members from five other teams in an online conference, where we discussed our projects, challenges we encountered along the way, SDGs role in synthetic biology and the goals our community must tackle to ensure a bright future for science. Look for #igemxsdgs on Instagram to see what iGEM does for the fate of humanity!

UNSW Australia

The "iGEM Contact Address Directory" is a great project compiling emails and social media links of as many teams as possible to ease the search of help, partners and collaborations, both in 2019 and future years. The creators of the list achieved an impressive feat, collecting contacts of over half of current iGEM teams. Hopefully, our contribution will help others to reach us when we are needed!

STONY Brook

One week challenge

Stony Brook team has spiced up our summer with two fun challenges, starting with a #2019iGEMInstagramChallenge in the middle of June. A week of fun daily tasks, including inside jokes, yeast art, and even a picnic – perfect for team bonding!

iGEM Moscow team

The Spartakiade challenge was launched, where team members had to do a plank in the lab (if possible). It involved point system where each team got a certain amount of points based on their achievements in the challenge like the amount of team members participating and their plank time. Our team had a great time testing our core endurance!