iSCRM
The iGEM Southern China Regional Meeting (iSCRM) is a special event organized by SZU-China. Since 2017, our team has successfully held seven times of the meeting, bringing together iGEMers from South China. iSCRM provides a joyful and free platform for teams to present and share their insights, allowing minds to collide with each other, and providing better solutions to the project for all the teams involved. On May 19th of this year, we held the 8th iSCRM. A total of 16 teams from universities and high schools from all regions of South China, nearly 200 people went to the meeting for exchange and discussion. The number of people reached an all-time high.
Du Fu, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, once said, “A little stone in the lake of the heart makes ripples.” With the theme of “Get Ideas Ripple”, the 16 teams were divided into 8 villages according to the village of their project. Each team threw inspirational jade stones into different villages, making ripples and resonating with the tune of knowledge.
This year's event was innovative in its approach compared to previous years. We not only retained the dual parallel format of featured booths plus main stage speeches, but also planned a pin collection activity for everyone.
Featured Booth
This year, each team had a booth of its own. Teams attracted members of other teams with beautiful gifts and activities, and helped members of other teams to better understand their team's projects in an interesting way.
Main stage speeches
In addition to the diverse display of booths, the meeting also gave each team time to present on stage, after which each team offered their views and opinions.
Pin collection
We organized each team to prepare a small game and printed a pin collection pamphlet for everyone. We customized pin with each team's logo. Everyone can get a pin when they win a booth game, and when the stamps reach two-thirds they can get a beautiful gift prepared by us.
The iGEM Southern China Regional Meeting has always been one of the best stages for iGEMers' minds to collide. SZU-China promises to continue to improve this series to become our unique signature and to better benefit iGEMers, contributing to the development of synthetic biology!
CCiC
CCiC (Conference of China iGEMer Community) is a national conference initiated by the iGEM community in China since 2014, which provides a platform for young synthetic biology enthusiasts to share resources and promote learning and communication. This year, the 11th CCiC came to Suzhou, with the theme of “SynBio Nexus”, hosted by Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and the National Center for Biopharmaceutical Technology Innovation, and launched an unprecedented academic discussion.
Demonstration & Communication
In the food & nutrition village, we demostrated our projects and were greatly inspired by the judges who gave several useful suggestions. During the three days of exchange and learning, we listened to the presentations of almost all the teams, and further exchanged ideas with the interested teams after the presentations. We also listened to Prof. Zhang Weiwen and Dr. Bao Yuhan's research on “Biosafety in Synthetic Biology-Policy Theory and Industrialization”. Through the demonstration and communication, we found the breakthrough point of the Safety section of our program and promoted the development of human practice.
Gala & Experience
We actively participated in the welcome party organized by Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. In the “Starlight Welcome Party”, iGEM teams brought a lot of wonderful shows. Our team members performed a song “Good Night, iGEMer”, an adapted version of "Good Night, Miss High and Mighty", which won the cheers and screams of the audience.
At the conference, we also experienced the rich Chinese non-heritage culture, such as lacquer fans, incense making, as a way to explore the flavor of Suzhou. In addition, by collecting badges with other teams, we also redeemed beautiful Suzhou puzzles.
Plant Synbio Meetup
This year SZU-China uses tomato plant chassis on our project. We were glad to join a plant synthetic biology gathering which was held by the iGEM Plant Committee.
Plant synthetic biology can be a major challenge in an annual competition. Nevertheless, iGEM teams have been using plant chassis since 2010. These teams have created new collections and toolkits, introduced or advanced the development of plant chassis, or used plants to solve specific local or global problems. At this online gathering, we listened attentively to committee members, learned about other teams' plant projects, and had a heated discussion about plant synthetic biology.
iGBA
The 2nd iGBA aims to gather iGEM teams from the Greater Bay Area to discuss project technologies and application innovations, providing a platform for exchanges and cooperation between iGEM teams from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao and synthetic biology-related enterprises in Shenzhen.
HP workshop
The organizer specially linked up with Dr. Bao Yuhan, iGEM Liaison Officer and Human Practices Project Coordinator. Dr. Bao had an in-depth exchange with iGEMers around HP work. In addition, the organizer also invited Yang Yang, the ambassador of iGEM in Asia, to share with each team.
Visiting
Thanks to the careful planning of the iGBA Forum, The second day of the event was an unforgettable experience for the iGEM team. Our participating members had the privilege of visiting the Shenzhen Engineering Biotechnology Industry Innovation Center and the Guangming Science City located in Guangming District, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China, which are places where entrepreneurship, education and research converge. Afterwards, the team members visited two medium-sized companies that are influential in the industry: Bioscience Biotechnology and Biocare Biologics.
The visit was a rare opportunity for iGEM team members to learn and be inspired. The enterprise showcased their advanced technologies and innovative achievements in the field of synthetic biology, providing the iGEM team with valuable industry insights and inspiration. Through in-depth exchanges with experts from these companies, team members not only deepened their understanding of the translation between theoretical knowledge and practical applications, but also learned the latest experimental techniques and tools.
In addition, the actual projects being carried out by the companies have greatly stimulated the creativity and entrepreneurship of our iGEM team. The visit not only enhanced our understanding of synthetic biology applications, but also laid the foundation for our future research and entrepreneurial activities.
APAC Mini Jamboree
SZU-China team members went to the Hong Kong University to participate in the Asia Pacific Mini Jamboree organized by the Hong Kong University and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where we exchanged ideas with several teams and gained a lot of valuable advice from the judging session.
Workshop
First of all, there was a wiki workshop. The speaker started with the logical design of the wiki, the carefulness of the sentences in the document, etc., and gave us a lot of practical advice. As non-native English speakers, we do encounter some confusion in wiki writing, and we believe that the experience we gained from this wiki workshop will bring us a lot of help in our wiki writing.
The next workshop was a project sharing workshop, the round table discussion format allowed us to use the posters directly to explain the project, and the simple illustration of the tomato was well received by everyone. At the end of the sharing session, we shared our tomato hair cards and it were very well received. At the same time, we learned that the team from Hong Kong Polytechnic University sells their products and donates all the profits to the Cancer Fund. This approach inspired us that peripherals can have a real power to change the world beyond the function of popularizing science.
Mock Judging
The final and most important part was the mock judging session. We had to think about how to present our project clearly and how to give satisfactory answers to the questions posed by the judges.
A professor from the HKU gave us a lot of valuable advice. As a professor of microbiology, she suggested that we should explain more about plant-specific components so that non-botanical judges could understand. She also reminded us to pay attention to the production details of the PPT, such as the text placed at the bottom may be blocked by the equipment at the judging site.
Through the mock judging session, we paid attention to many easily overlooked issues and learned valuable lessons on how to polish our presentations.
Judging Committee Office Hours
The Judging Committee has offered Office Hours for teams who have questions. We attended session B and asked the judging committee questions about hardware and presentations. Through communication we received clear answers.
