A “Spritzerstandl” is kind of a traditional thing at universities in Austria - here we call a glass of wine with mineral water a “Spritzer”. It is an event, where people come together to talk, drink and socialize while having fun after a long and hard day of classes. We decided to use these kind of events to call attention of the students from the Technical University and Karl-Franzens University of Graz for the iGEM competition.

Since our team consists of students from many different fields like biotechnology, biochemistry, philosophy or computer science, the event attracted a very diverse audience of upcoming future scientists. Because of the broad range of different fields, it was very interesting discussing scientific topics from various perspectives. We took the chance to explain what iGEM is about as well as how to become part of it and what we are doing.

Besides the social advantages and informational transfer, those so called “Spritzerstandln” also offered the opportunity to raise a little bit of money for the iGEM competition. All in all,  the “Spriterstandln” we hosted were a big success, since we were able to promote our team among the students and start a discussion about iGEM and science while having some drinks and relax.

Under this motto, the Technical University of Graz is hosting the Welcome Days in cooperation with alumniTUGraz. During the Welcome Days, first-year students receive the most important information for a successful start to the TU Graz and at the same time, a first insight into the working world of engineers. At this yearly event, the university offers an overview of the university´s services and the wide range of possibilities for support in different aspects in and around the study program for the freshmans.

We took the opportunity to present iGEM in general as well as our project idea. Besides to this, we have also offered our support for the first-year students and swamped them with tips for the new phase of their lives.

At the event, the university allocated us a stand with which we could present our poster and iGEM brochures. To get the attention of the students, we had the idea to serve pudding in petri dishes.

The first course for all the freshmen in Austria is the “introduction into the field of study”. There, the students get the most important information about their certain branch of study as well as the main critical steps at the beginning. By the way - “Erstis” stands for freshmen in german.

At this lecture, representatives of university held a presentation about everything concerning the study: how the systems works, how one can apply for classes and sign in for labs, the general handling of the online-system, the best order to take courses and other study related things. They also offered us, and other study organizations, the chance to present our project idea and what the iGEM competition is about.