A successful iGEM project most of all depends on good teamwork. To ensure a great team spirit we have continuously nurtured our relationships (and stomachs) by having lovely dinner parties, cabin trips, and a lot of fun. Investing just a little time in team building has payed itself off many times over by enabling fun and caring communication. Read on to see how we have bonded through our iGEM journey.

Office Warming

01.03.19
The actual birth of an iGEM team is, without a doubt, the Office Warming party. It is the moment when a group of strangers is forged into a single entity, dedicated to work, suffer, and celebrate together. After some rearranging and cleaning, our room was ready and so were we! The rest of the evening was spent with pasta, beer, and icebreaker games.

Cabin Trip

12.04.19-14.04.19
An iGEM season is not only about science, work and unhealthy amounts of sleep. Equally important is the creation and maintenance of a good team spirit. Our first group trip to the north of Zealand was just the right opportunity for this purpose. Wonderful landscape, wonderful ice cream, wonderful people, and a little bit of work nevertheless.

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Summer kick-off brunch

24.06.19
Exams in Copenhagen are over, thus nobody has as an excuse for not committing every waking moment and every last drop of energy to the project anymore! There exists certainly no better way to start these exhausting (yet fantastic) days with a brunch with the people who will become your colleagues, your friends, your family over the summer.

Indian evening at Ben’s

16.07.19
This iGEM project wouldn’t be possible without food! Not only does it serve us as a mean of nourishment but also a social component. Passionate chef Ben invited us to her apartment and our very own indian team member Hitesh honoured her with the predicate “just like we do it in India”.

Pasta Party Vol.1

01.08.19
Whilst all of us in Ovulaid are very passionate about life science too, we cannot avoid thinking how unfortunate it is that iGEM is not a cooking competition, as we would win outright with all the talented cooks in the team. That night, we combined the best of both worlds: While dining we watched successful presentations of past giant jamborees as inspiration.

Coding sessions

Several dates
We did not have any professional programmers on our team. In order to get the basics, some of us met to take online courses.

Cake Days

Several dates
“Wednesday is cake day!” Needless to say that such projects cannot run on good will, generous public funding and well through out scientific planning alone. No! There is another substantial ingredient: Cake. Huge amounts of palatable cake, enjoyed once per week, to be precise.

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Hitesh's Boat Fun

09.08.19
The team decided to leave the office and lab behind and go for a boating trip. Renting boats, we took turns to row each other along a lovely creak north of Copenhagen for an afternoon. It was a great chance to clear our minds and take a break from the project, while having a lot of fun together as a team. In the evening we played some games and ate pizza at team member Hitesh's dorm.

Nepali evening at Ojas'

18.09.19
Crunch time for team Ovulaid: The final results are collected, the wiki is updated at great pace and the final presentation is arranged. It is days like these one needs to slow down, take a deep breath and prepare some authentic Nepalese food. Because Dumplings, Soup and decent company have so far never failed to lift the notorious Ovulaid team spirit.

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Pasta Party Vol.2

08.10.19
The long-awaited sequel to our infamous first pasta party. This time we were invited by fellow team member Swenja. Due to her performance in the lab, we had known that she doesn’t do things by halves - But holy cow, were we surprised and excited when she served us a total of three different courses of handmade pasta. A delightful distraction from the exhausting final sprint in the competition.