Ketto Fundraiser
In our first attempt to showcase how iFLOAT — and synthetic biology in general — can be used to address real-life problems, we created a YouTube video explaining our preliminary project idea and posted it on our Ketto page — an online crowdfunding platform. By reaching out to our institute alumni around the world, we spread our project idea through word-of-mouth and received 51 donations from multiple countries, totaling nearly INR 200,000 (USD 3000)!
By reaching out to our institute alumni around the world, we spread our project idea through word-of-mouth and received 51 donations from multiple countries, totaling nearly INR 200,000 (USD 3000)!
Social Media
Our social media accounts — Facebook and Twitter — were used effectively to reach out to interested followers and provide regular updates regarding our project. Our Twitter handle was also used to interact with other iGEM teams and share our progress.
High School Presentations
As students of Science, it is our moral responsibility to inculcate scientific temperament in the future generation. An initiative in this regard was taken by visiting schools in Bangalore and Chennai, and telling them about career in scientific research, followed by an introduction to synthetic biology, iGEM and our project.
Challenge
To further engage with school students, a student challenge was designed to promote problem solving in students and at the same time, get their input to help us with our project. Students were given a question to solve which required them to think of a solution of their own, and feedback was given to the students on their proposed solution.
Poster Presentation
The IISc campus has students and professors working in almost all fields of science, and we realized that their feedback had the potential to provide us with completely fresh perspectives on our project. We held a poster presentation session that was open to all the members of IISc. It led to some valuable discussions about iFLOAT, and also contributed to spreading awareness about synthetic biology among people working in other fields.