Difference between revisions of "Team:SSTi-SZGD/Collaborations"

Collaboration among iGEM teams is one of the essential requirements for this competition. This year is the first time we ever participate in iGEM. Given the little experience we had and the confusions on rules and guidelines, it was extremely lucky for us to have ShenZhen University iGEM team as a mentor throughout the competition. Right from the beginning on team build-up, member selection, project formulation, to later stage of technical troubleshooting, project progress control, and eventually Wiki and poster formulation, etc. It is fair to say that our project would not even exist without the generous and timeless help from the whole SZU team. You guys are the stars!! In return, we helped them with some experimental procedures, such as enzymatic activity testing, and freeze-dried samples. It was a great learning experience for us this year, and hope we will be able to pass on these invaluable experience to someone else in need in the future.

Besides SZU team, we also received great help and advice from other iGEM teams in the local region. For instance, by participating in Southern China Regional Meeting that was held in May this year, we shared our project idea with the participated teams, including SYSU-China, SUSTC-China, SCUT-iGEM, SZU-China, SCAU-China and SSTi-China, and received constructive suggestions on project formulation and technical approaches. Through the discussion, we came up with fresh ideas and were able to locate solutions for problems encountered. Altogether it helped enormously for the followed progress of our project. Furthermore, iGEM Organizing committee organized an Asian team leaders’ workshop that focused on team building, laboratory safety and secure practices. We have learned quite a lot about what’s about iGEM, and how to make a meaningful and beneficial project. Organizer also invited experts from biotechnology industry to present us with current developments in the industry, which really opened up our mind.

What’s more? This November will be the first time ever for us to present a project in English in front of a large number of professional audience. We spent almost equal amount of time improving English as working on the project. In early August this year, we participated in the Pan-Pearl team meeting in HongKong. This meeting offered us an exceptional opportunity to talk about our project in English, as we were really brave enough to open our mouths! Other teams such as HKUST-HongKong, HKU-HongKong, and CUHK-HongKong, also presented their projects. We eventually formed an round-table-like discussion session to discuss each individual project. It gave us a good sense of what it will be like in the Gamboree, and made us realize where our weak points were. We are truly grateful to all the opportunities we received throughout the year. With endless efforts and great determination, hope we will be able to surprise everyone in the Gamboree!!