As an interdisciplinary project, we focus on the communication between synthetic biology and other fields, such as behavioristics psychology, optogenetics and brain imaging science. The aim of our interdisciplinary project is to promote the integrations of disciplines in different fields and spark new ideas. Meanwhile, thisthese different integrations could also provide somea high level viewpoints on synthetic biology for undergraduates. Moreover, our engagement in public awareness successfully spreaded the knowledge of C. elegans and synthetic biology in neighboring communities.

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Promoting interdisciplinary communication and synthetic biology

To promote communication between different fields and spread ideas in synthetic biology, we co-hosted atwo synthetic biology lecture sessions with Prof. Zhihao Li in Shenzhen University.

In the lecture, we mainly focused on fundamental research and clinical application. In the first session, we gave the audience an introduction about the latest advancement of brain imaging method and the importance of combinationjoining force between multiple disciplines.

In the second session, we focused on the ideas, methodologies and applications of synthetic biology. This is also our effort to promote the idea of applying engineering principles in our daily life and research.

We sincerely hope that thisese lectures could give our audiences a new perspective and provide open up new choices for them in the future.----------------

Educating junior high school students on synthetic biology

Also to spread the idea of synthetic biology, we gave a introduction about the basic knowledge of synthetic biology by opening our lab to the junior school students from Sichuan province. About 30 students visited our lab and showed great interest in synthetic biology.

We delivered a lecture about the history and applications of synthetic biology. In the lecture, we mainly talked about some knowledge ofabout optogenetics and several interesting studies including the dragonfly cyborg Draper DragonflEye and the Havard hybrid stingray. Besides, we also introduced some classical ethological and psychological experiments including Pavlov's dog and Skinner box whichthat inspired our experiments. We also gave them a chance to use the microscope to observe living C. elegans.

This activity not only gave these junior students some new knowledge about synthetic biology and iGEM, but also expanded their horizon to spark them interest in synthetic biology.

We had an opportunity to show these young kids our research and the optic and microfluidic devices we builtd for the devices. Most students had never heard of these knowledge we mentioned, but we were still able to show them that these have manyare practical uses in our research and life.

Cohosting iGEM Southern China Regional Meeting

2017 Southern China Regional Meeting was hold in Shenzhen at April 29. As a old friend and new neighbor to Shenzhen University iGEM team, our team helped to organize and host the meet-up.

This meet-up brought to the teams from Southern China a great opportunity to show our inspiration and verify the accessibility of the idea, also a precious chance for us to know each other, which paved a way for the further cooperation. Another main purpose of the meeting is to provide an approach to the high school teams seeking assistance, as there are at least 4 teams in Shenzhen consisting of younger teenagers and they need guide from more experienced members.