Motivation
Science influences society through its knowledge and world view. Technological progress is often accompanied by social, political, and economic changes that can be beneficial or detrimental to individuals and society. Social needs, attitudes, and values influence the direction of technological development. As a part of the iGEM community we espouse this view and we aspire to incorporate it in our project development.
At the very beginning of our work, as a team participating in the foundational advance track, we found ourselves limited on the opportunities to talk with the industry and possible users about our work. Due to the innovative nature of our project our team faced novel challenges. The main obstacle we faced was the degree of technicality and lack of expertise regarding the techniques that build our work. Considering the above we acknowledge the difficulties fellow foundational advance projects face to consider wider implications of their work. To incorporate our social concerns into our project decision making we used a customized PESTLE analysis to fit an iGEM team’s needs in decision making and problem-solving. Furthermore, we enriched this approach with a presentation guide depending on the audience and the cause of interaction.
We designed “DESMOS”, meaning bond in Greek, a multifunctional framework designed to serve as a bond from science to society.
At the very beginning of our journey in the competition we initiated the idea of interdisciplinary collaboration. We designed a project that depends on a variety of different scientific fields and at the early stages of its development we came across the need to contact researchers, professors, and specialists to provide us assistance. We aimed to ensure that in addition to meeting a current need in the industry, our product would contribute positively to the world and was safe to use. We were grateful to cooperate with many scientists from a variety of different scientific backgrounds. This was a great benefit to our work. The feedback gained from the scientists and partners improved our skills and influenced our work and the planning of our experiments in the lab as well as in our modeling work.
From PESTLE to DESMOS
The PESTLE analysis technique is usually used in a meeting or workshop where several ideas and opinions can be heard. Representatives from a variety of different backgrounds should be present so that they can provide information, regarding their specialty. For example, legal representatives would be able to provide information about changes in relevant laws and regulations. Likewise, we approached iGEM on our Integrated Human Practices methods. We were delighted to be welcomed by the scientific community and industry in our local area. Furthermore, we had the opportunity to travel around Greece to meet experts, providing us feedback on our work. Furthermore, we contacted experts worldwide in our field of research to help us with the troubleshooting process. Learn more about our integrated human practices timeline.
PESTLE Analysis: Introducing the framework
PESTLE analysis is a fundamental tool for business strategy and planning. It is a method of assessing your business's environment and it has possible impact on the performance of your company. We used the guideline of PESTLE to identify and categorize our problems and concerns. PESTLE is an acronym which stands for six external factors affecting your business and at our extent, our project in Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental ways. Each of these factors can have a profound effect on your project and varying implications. Our team implemented a PESTLE analysis and adapted the categories to identify iGEM teams' needs and concerns. Following, we present a full analysis of the framework.
Presentation Guidelines
Reaching to the world through the lens of an iGEM participant
Motivation
Desmos as a binding protocol from science to society would not be completed if not assisted with a precise guideline on how to ideally “reach” to the world for the world to reach back. From the very beginning of our journey to iGEM our team presented to various audiences. Το audiences with little scientific background to experts and professionals in the field of Synthetic Biology.
"How do we communicate our research in a comprehensive and visual way to the public?”
“How can we present our work to expertise researchers and gain feedback from this interaction?”
These are some of the questions iGEM Thessaloniki, faced to answer throughout the long journey to the competition. While working on our project, members of our team conducted numerous presentations in a variety of different audiences. A successful collaboration with a professor, a scientist or even a possible sponsor requires a well-prepared speaker and a great presentation. Given the diversity of audiences, occasions, and topics, establishing a set of rules for how to give a strong scientific presentation is difficult. After participating in various events, organizing public presentations, speaking to potential sponsors and contacting interdisciplinary audiences from the scientific community we recorded our experience in a short experimental guide. We propose a simple step by step presentation guide, specialized on an iGEM team’s needs.
Categorization
The first step for successful interaction in any way is to know your audience. Evaluating our presentation mechanism regarding the audience we addressed to, was the key for successful, vivid and interesting speeches. Whether you are presenting to a small group of 20 or a large group of 200, there are many things you can to do in advance to ensure that your presentation achieves the desired response.
According to iGEM, as a part of the Human Practices process, iGEM teams “go beyond the lab” and situate their projects in a social/environmental context, to better understand issues that might influence the design and use of their technologies”.
iGEM Thessaloniki embracing that approach, to unite science with society, categorized the “audience” into two dynamic groups. Following, we present a detailed guide with tips and tricks for each group. Our goal is to push the boundaries that trap science and society and present future iGEM teams with a framework to assist them to present their work most efficiently.
Instructions: We have separated our target audiences in two groups based on the different impact they will have on our project. In each group separately we answer the following questions:
Why it is important?
What should you expect?
How to succeed?
and finally we provide exemplary material of our work.
Public Audiences
“Science means Knowledge and knowledge is for everyone.”
-Organization “Science For All”.
-Why it is important-
We recognize that knowledge takes many forms. This includes people who are experts in specific areas, people with traditional, indigenous or local knowledge. We support the idea that everyone has the same right to be involved in the present status of scientific research. A base-level understanding is crucial for modern citizens to ground their engagement in the conversation about science-related issues. Being a part of the Synthetic Biology community, we feel that we have the right and also the obligation to assist that cause.
-What should you expect-
Through our engagement events, we encountered people’s natural curiosity for science. We were first asked “why” and then “how”. People with little or no expertise in the field of synthetic biology showed great interest in the applications that can arise from synthetic biology innovations. Depending on the group of people your team addresses to, it is important to consider the level of knowledge the audience has about the presented topic. To receive constructive feedback on your idea, it is crucial to engage the audience in the Synthetic Biology world.
Our team participating in the Foundational Advance Track had to face another difficulty while presenting to the public. Explaining our project and biological mechanisms to someone that knew little to nothing about synthetic biology was a challenge. Therefore, we included an additional goal, to familiarize the public with this scientific field and raise any prejudice against Synthetic Biology innovations.
-How to succeed-
A common mistake made from researchers and established scientists is that they try to deliver a message the same way to a scientific audience and a public group. The message delivery should vary depending on the audience. That is exactly what our team tried to establish on following the above “rules”, to achieve a qualitative interaction with the public.
Following, we analyze The Four Perspectives of Presentations, as described in The Craft of Scientific Presentations by Michael Alley.
The first perspective is speech, which encompasses the words that you say. The second perspective is structure, which is the organization, depth, emphasis, and transition between major points. Third is the perspective of visual aids.The final perspective is delivery, which is one’s interaction with the audience.
Speech
Simply put, speech, is what you say in the presentation. One's enthusiasm to elaborate on the project should not overcome the need of the audience to familiarize themselves with synthetic biology. It is highly important to deliver basic principles, before explaining the research. Plan your speech based on the audience's knowledge of the matter. Rather than just blandly addressing a speech to the audience, using flavors at a speech can charm the audience. Answering the above questions:
- What might the audience be interested in related to my topic?
- What commonalities do I have with the audience?
- What questions might the audience ask?
will provide insight into the audience's knowledge of the presented topic. When you want to make a segment of your presentation memorable, then consider using analogies, examples, or stories. Specifically, our team used the analogy of an electrical circuit to describe our DNA network. As the common outcome of the two "circuits" is “light”.
In addition to the different speech styles, presenters incorporate different types of evidence to support the assertions of the speech. According to Aristotle, this evidence falls into three categories:
- appeals to logic
- appeals to the emotion of the audience
- and appeals to your character
While most scientists and engineers would say that appeals to logic influence their decisions the most, the appeals to character and emotion play more important roles than most scientists and engineers realize. Relating emotionally with the audience will provide insight on the way they see research or technological innovation.
Structure
Most of us, as undergraduate students, are trained to describe a ton of details and background information before we give the final results. It is how scientists deliver presentations at conferences. For the public, this approach needs to be reversed. The key points or findings need to be delivered very early and they need to be concise.
The most commonly asked question about the structure of a presentation is:
- How much depth should the speaker go into?
Although the simple answer to the question is, whatever depth the audience needs or desires, determining this depth is not easy. One should first consider the purpose of the given presentation to identify the ideal depth.In cases where one has to persuade an audience, an important question to ask is:
- What will be the initial response of the audience toward the results?
The answer to this question can significantly affect both the strategy of the presentation and the amount of evidence needed to support the presentation’s assertions.
Perspective of Visual Aids
Using metaphors of everyday life to assist the audience to visualize the message is very effective. When designing visual aids, one should consider their effect on the audience. For instance, when presenting a slide on the screen, the audience breaks its eye contact with the speaker and looks at that screen. The audience tries to discern what is projected and how this projection fits into the scheme of the presentation. Consequently, a useful visual aid could assist the audience in deeply understanding the presented idea.
Delivery
Delivery is the interaction the speaker has with the audience around the room. Voice, gestures, eye contact, body posture, movement—all of these contribute to delivery. Some factors that affect the delivery are the sentiment of the audience as well as the size of the audience. Engaging the audience during a presentation is a bit risky with bigger audiences, but in smaller groups inviting the audience to interact vividly with the speaker could result in a more efficient presentation.
-Exemplary Material-
Industry & Scientific Community
-Why it is important-
Collaboration among scientists from different fields or countries is essential for scientific progress. Especially in the field of Synthetic Biology, the need for interdisciplinary inquiry increases. iGEM Competition, as the biggest synthetic biology community, honors the value of interdisciplinary research and collaboration.
If we break up the benefits derived from the iGEM experience into a pie chart, one big slice would be collaborating with the industry and the scientific community. Early, in our journey in iGEM, we concluded that some problems can’t be solved in isolation in a lab. Industry feedback is key to taking an invention from conception to reality. Consequently, to receive quality and multifarious feedback on our work we came in contact with a variety of different experts.
-What should you expect-
Visiting a scientific center or a specialist should not be the same as presenting your work to your PI professors. Many researchers spend their days deeply engaged in a narrow area of inquiry. Some of them, teach courses at universities and do know how to explain their research engagingly. Additionally, with the high level of corporate involvement in science today, many reach the world through their science. Therefore, most scientists are familiar with speaking with people outside their field of expertise.
When reaching the scientific community, time and accuracy are important and one should expect a limited time frame to talk with a scientist. While presenting the project, it should be considered that it is hard in the first place to set an appointment with a busy researcher. Hence, it is important to be well prepared. Below we present a step by step plan to presenting you work. We also describe a functional way to implement valuable feedback on the final project.
-How to succeed-
Before" reaching to the world" we executed a customized PESTLE analysis to identify and categorize the possible effects the "environment" around our project might have on the design and development process. From that analysis, we were able to define the needs of our project and identify a suitable community to reach for feedback. The preferable outcome of scientific consulting is to change the direction of research towards more ‘applied’ topics.
While working on our project we addressed to our team the following question:
“How does the scientific community or industry will influence the goal, design, and execution of our project? “
The Presentation
Asking for feedback is one of the best ways to feel ‘in control’ of your work, get an accurate idea of the industry's needs and find out how you can improve your work even further. To begin with, through a formal email, you should describe the basic idea of the project and inform the receiver that you would value an expert's opinion on the matter. In this way, you provide him/her with enough time to prepare for the presentation, write comments and remarks. Sometimes, providing a detailed preview of your work might cause more people to join your presentation, as the initial receiver may share the message with colleagues.
Prepare a set of questions and let the audience see them while you present your work. Ask ‘open questions’, questions that often begin with the word ‘Why’ or ‘How’. Open questions are designed to get full and meaningful answers.
Another action one should take before conducting a presentation is investigating deeply in the scientific expertise of the audience. This will help you in the context of the presentation. Spending valuable time elaborating on principles that the audience already knows is a waste of time. The time limit is important as you want to use the most of it to receive feedback on your work.
Be precise with the technical words you use and be ready to answer any clarification questions.
Finally, having another team member to keep notes during and after the presentation, will facilitate the "After Plan" procedure.
After plan
Making a report after the meeting will help you remember every detail. After integrating the feedback on your work, through a clarification email provide the changes you made based on the instructions you received. It is important to remember you may or may not alter the technical direction of your project.
Regardless, you should thank everyone willing to help and evaluate your project.
Remember that engaging with the scientific community does not happen in just one event. You may need to go back to the respective communities with new discussion points, adaptations to your project, clarifications or additional insights.
Receive Feedback
The Right Way
- Be an active listener. Practice your effective listening skills. Encourage the person offering feedback to talk. You will learn more about your work, how others see your proposal, and how to evolve your research.
- Be respectful. Be aware of your body language, facial expression, and tone. Maintain eye contact and be careful not to get defensive. If you disagree give yourself time to calm down before responding. In the first place you are the one who requested the feedback. Receiving feedback the right way can improve your performance.
- Ask questions. Clarify doubts by asking questions. Be certain to ask questions that help you to understand the feedback. Ask for extra information and clarifications.
- Show appreciation. Express your appreciation regardless of the type of feedback you receive. You can expect that you will receive both positive and negative feedback. Saying thank you means that you acknowledge the effort that was taken to evaluate you and to provide feedback.
- Make a decision. Reflect on the feedback and decide your next steps, how are going to use the feedback to better the design and further the development.
-Exemplary material-
Self Assessment
To conclude the DESMOS protocol, we provide a self-assessment presentation checklist. A fun and interactive exercise to evaluate yourself before giving a presentation, inspired by the University of Leicester Academic Skills Program. Checking this list provides a self-evaluation method that will help minimize anxiety before conducting a presentation.