Team:Rice/Outreach
OUTREACH
REU luncheon
On June 5, 2017, the Rice iGEM team collaborated with the Rice University Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB) to give a presentation for the participants of the BioNetworks NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. In the one hour presentation, our team gave an overview of synthetic biology, iGEM, our iGEM project last year, our brainstorming process, and our iGEM project this year.
The participants in the REU event were undergraduates enrolled in the NSF REU BioNetworks Program at Rice University. Participants were in their 1st week of the 10 week training program, and as a result still had little exposure to biological research projects.
SAST presentation
On June 22, 2017, we spoke with high school students from the Science Academy of South Texas (SAST) about the basics of synthetic biology and our experiences doing undergraduate research both through iGEM and in other research groups. We also spoke briefly about our iGEM project and last year’s iGEM project.
The participants in the SAST event were high school students and science teachers from the Science Academy of South Texas in Mercedes, Texas. Most of the students when asked indicated that they had an interest in pursuing STEM degrees/careers.
Rice University Summer Research Programs in Biosciences & Bioengineering 2017 Poster Symposium
On August 4, 2017, we presented at the Rice Summer Research Programs Poster Symposium where we shared our preliminary work alongside other students who had spent their summers conducting research at Rice University. The feedback we received helped us to refine where we focused our efforts as we went into the final stages of our project. We were honored to win Best Presentation.
University of Texas Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium
This was the Rice iGEM team’s second year to present at the University of Texas Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium (FURS). Not only was it an opportunity to share our research, but we were also able to meet with the UT and Texas Tech iGEM teams. This meeting led to an exciting modeling collaboration with the UT team. We were honored to be the Computational and Synthetic Biology session award winner.
Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium
The Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium (GCURS) on November 4, 2017 will be the final formally organized event at which we will present our research and spread awareness about CrVI before the Jamboree. We will be presenting in the Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology division to Rice students and professors and to visitors from other institutions alike. Through this event, we hope to spread information about CrVI to people from the regions surrounding Houston who might also find elevated CrVI levels in their water and to reflect on all the work we have done for iGEM this year.
Humans of SynBio
Humans of SynBio is an initiative modeled on the format of Humans of New York that is now in its second year. We interview synthetic biologists from all over the world and post a brief excerpt from the interview along with a picture of the scientist on our social media platforms. These posts show a more human side of a field that can seem austere and intimidating to outsiders.
