Team:Tartu TUIT/Public Engagement
The topic of the forum: Estonia, the Digital Land. We are very thankful to Columbia University for the opportunity to attend the forum and participate in a discussion about Estonia’s latest achievements in technology and future plans. We were glad to hear that synthetic biology has great potential to become a strategic field in Estonia. The president told us that it could be real if society will be more aware of what synthetic biology can offer. So our young scientists’ aim is to enlighten the society and companies about the benefits that synthetic biology can bring by offering solutions to modern world problems which is something we have been doing and will definitely do in the future with maximum effort in human practices and public engagement all year round!
All participants of different ages (children, youths, adults) have not only learned about the purpose and application of gel electrophoresis in the laboratory but were also able to make their own gels, pipette the dye into both the authentic agarose self-made gel and then compare the two gels and make a conclusion. Since we used inexpensive materials that can be found in a local store, this experiment is a good example of DIY.
Also, we played an interesting “DNA puzzle” game where you have to find a word using the complementary rule of the nucleotides in the DNA strand (A=T, G=C).
All in all, we had a lot of fun and hopefully inspired many kids to one day become real scientists.
Article in Estonian:
https://novaator.err.ee/877208/tudengid-leidsid-kuidas-toota-vetikatest-loodusele-kahjutut-paikesekreemi
We had the honor to present our project, team, and achievements as well as share our everyday working environment on the local TV channel’s ETV+ program. It was great working with the ETV+ crew again!
We were happy to share with them the studying experience, we gave them a tour of the institute and explained the Science & Technology program, where all Tartu TUIT team members are from. We discussed the pros and cons of synthetic biology and the transition to bio-sustainable production methods. We also introduced them to iGEM and encouraged them to research more about these topics. Overall, we have inspired the younger generation to learn more about the fast developing field of synthetic biology but to never forget about potential risks that may come up.
Furthermore, our Secondary PI and S&T program director Dr. Ilona Faustova along with iGEM team members met a student who came from Malaysia. He visited Tartu to see our Institute, laboratories, meet students, learn more about the possibilities to study in Estonia and feel the scientific atmosphere of the Institute. He was very surprised to find out that the majority of our team members are just first-year undergraduate students.
Each iGEM season we give the opportunity to newly arrived students to join our team.
New people, new ideas, new approaches, mixed with the good old atmosphere of friendship.
Our meeting started with introducing iGEM to the new S&T students, we talked about the project from the last year, gave tips on the work process and, finally, shared our own experiences with all the stressful moments, failures, challenges and a lot of fun we had.
To show students and our team members the potential future job opportunities we have traditional career day in our institute. It is a great opportunity to get an overview of the opportunities students have in these fields. During the event students get the latest info about biotechnology сompanies in Estonia, meet their representatives and can apply for an internship. Over 14 companies presented keynote speeches and shared their own personal career stories.
On February 14, representatives of the Tartu TUIT team met the iGEM Ambassador Mr. Will Wright in Tartu!
Together with Mr. Wright, we not only talked about our experience in iGEM and the problems we faced during our last year’s project, but were also able to attend a seminar “Getting more value from biomass: Overcoming the toxicity of hydrolysates for more effective fermentation processes” by Solange I. Mussatto, group leader of DTU Biosustain from, Copenhagen. After that, we had a nice discussion with Mr. Wright, and he shared his experience and ideas, including on fundraising topic, how to get additional sponsorship to cover the costs of the project.
We were pleased to meet Mr. Wright that day and look forward to meeting him again soon.
During educational exhibition “Study in Estonia!” high school and university students had the opportunity to communicate with our representatives, and ask questions.
On the next day we visited two Pskov schools and discussed studying at the University of Tartu and participation in iGem.
We are very pleased to see so many interested people and we hope to see them among us.
On February 16, representatives of the University of Tartu, including our secondary PI Ilona Faustova together with other Tartu TUIT team members, traveled all the way to Istanbul and joined the three-week Estonian Universities’ Info Sessions and education fairs over 7 different cities, in 4 different countries: Istanbul => Ankara => Izmir => Tbilisi => Baku => Kiev.
During the info session tour, Ilona Faustova presented the Science and Technology faculty.
She highlighted its distinctive practical orientation and told future students about the iGEM competition and our team.
Ilona emphasized that the majority of Tartu TUIT team members are just first-year Bachelor students and this is a rare chance for young scientists to boost their skills in the very beginning of their studies.
She also focused on the role of synthetic biology in our lives and future career possibilities in this field.
Tartu TUIT team never misses the opportunity to engage more people in exploring natural sciences. That is why we were happy to participate in Narva information session day. Kids and their parents were fascinated with facts about synthetic biology and very glad to try to solve DNA puzzles and discuss the possible issues associated with synthetic biology, as well as to learn about iGEM.
Our secondary PI Dr. Ilona Faustova shared her brightest ideas at TEDxLasnamae on how to combine the incongruous, conquer the fear of failure and try things that seem to be complicated at first glance.
Ilona explained that in order to solve those puzzles Science&Technology students, starting already from the first year, can join Tartu TUIT team and participate in the worldwide synthetic biology competition iGEM: “This is a unique opportunity for undergraduates to break out from their comfort zone and to look at complex things from many different perspectives! ”
今日は。from the Land of the Rising Sun, where ancient tradition meets modern technology and science
We took part in the 8th European Higher Education Fair in Japan!
During EHEF 2019 we visited two Japanese cities of Osaka and Tokyo. All visitors had a chance to talk to our secondary PI and ask all questions directly.
We are excited to see a growing number of talented students interested in Bioengineering.
9.08.19
In August, Tartu_TUIT went to Arvamus (“opinion”) Festival in Paide to share our opinions on synthetic biology and to talk about iGem competition with children and their parents! Through different interactive games and experiments, we showed how to use synbio in many inspiring ways: from cracking the genetic code to extracting DNA from kiwi!
On the 1st of September our team participated in Estonian Wisdom Day where iGEM Estonia held a scientific workshop for pupils and their parents.
We were happy to see a spark of interest in kids’ eyes when they first found out what DNA is and to hear a thrilled “Wooow” when they extracted it from kiwi. Also, we were just as happy to talk with their parents about synthetic biology and iGEM.
We hope that these moments of excitement will inspire the future generations of scientists!
On 13.09.19 our iGEM team visited a high school in Pskov, where our team members together with our secondary PI Ilona Faustova shared our iGEM experience and talked about Estonia iGEM 2019 project: POP CULTURE. We tried to make our visit memorable and fun by organising an interactive workshop with games and experiments.
We were happy to see so many talented students interested in iGEM and S&T!
This September we collaborated with Aalto-Helsinki iGEM team. We joined our forces at a science popularization event held in Heureka Center, Helsinki. Our team members held workshops and engaged young audience, showed how to extract DNA from kiwi, and challenged young minds with DNA puzzle games! It was incredible to see so many talented kids who came to Heureka to learn something new!
It has already become a good tradition for Tartu_TUIT and Aalto-Helsinki iGEM teams to meet in September in Heureka Center, Helsinki. Together we participate in the annual Science event, sharing our passion on synthetic biology and the competition, running workshops and playing games. We hope that together with our iGEM friends we will affect the way people see synthetic biology: make it more understandable, reachable and interesting.
On the 29th of September, our team had the last workshop for this iGEM season during Researchers’ night in AHHAA center, Tartu.
Although kiwi’s DNA extraction workshop was designed for kids, we had visitors of all ages! They were all excited to learn about synbio and how our project, POP culture, would help to overcome another challenge - yeast cell wall degradation.
Over so many workshops, we tried to inspire people of all generations to be curious about the world around them and shared information about both the competition and our work. And we can’t stop enjoying kids and their parents’ reactions when they discover something new!
Our team conducted a survey on synthetic biology awareness and it turned out that the knowledge about it is not widespread, so we decided to participate in one more public engagement event. Tartu_TUIT team member Irina Borovko participated in Tartu 15x4 conference with a speech about microorganisms and their role in our world, using iGEM as an example of an important international event promoting synbio. Of course, she also described our project idea, as it is tightly connected to the role of microorganisms in bioproduction!
The main speaker of the event was Tartu_TUIT Primary PI - professor Mart Loog. For the panel discussion, we also invited specialists from different fields in order to look at the topic from different angles:
-Mait Metspalu, director of the UT Institute of Genomics, professor of Evolutionary Genomics
-Kadri Simm, Professor of Practical Philosophy (Bioethics), a member of the clinical ethics committee of Tartu University Hospital
-Tõnis Org, Professor of Molecular Biotechnology, a member of the International Stem Cell Society.
The audience was nearly two times larger than we had expected! Despite the fact our team could hardly fit the audience into the hall, we were happy to see so many people interested in this topic. Professor Mart Loog has started the event with a speech about the fast development and the impact of synthetic biology in our life.
During the panel discussion, our guests touched all of the aspects of ethics in genetics: from the safety of genetic material collection to cloning and editing of humans. Audience had a great chance to see the way specialists from different fields are looking on the past, present and the future of synthetic biology and related ethics.
After the panel discussion, the audience had a chance to ask questions from our guests and we all were happy to see a lot of people being captivated by the topic, ready to continue the debate.
In the second part of the event, we showed the movie “Genesis 2.0” by the Oscar-nominated director Christian Frei. The movie explores the same topic (notably, the movie tells about iGEM competition as well)!
This event was of great importance for our team since it is crucial for every scientist to consider the ethical issues, as science needs to be understood and accepted by the general public. Also, the event gave us a chance to inform the audience about the iGem competition.
We have received great feedback from both our audience and guests, and hope to return to this format again in the closest future!