Judging/Transparency at iGEM

From 2013.igem.org

A note on transparency, the judging process, and judge affiliations

There have been some enquiries about judging in recent weeks that should be addressed.

Judges are recruited from amongst team instructors. iGEM has one of the largest communities of synthetic biology researchers in the world. Consequently, the instructors are ideally suited to assess iGEM projects. Instructors know how much work teams put into each project over the summer and have a good idea what is possible. This makes them the best people to assess other iGEM projects.

Judges are scheduled so that there are no conflicts of interest. A judge instructor will not assess the wiki, presentation, poster and in the majority of cases, the track for their team.

Within these parameters, the judges are assigned randomly using assignment software at iGEM Headquarters.

Last year, custom software was developed to implement judging based on voting rather than on “argumentation and acquiescence”. This system allows all judges to cast their votes independently, based on their own assessment of each team. All judges across all regions complete a ballot according to the same set of criteria and values as determined by the head judging committee. The custom voting system is based on work by Michel Balinski as described in his book: “Majority Judgment”.

There are several “categories” in the ballot, each broken down into individual “aspects”. These options were determined by the head judging committee to represent core values in iGEM for each award. There is a category for each of the special awards with an overall “project” category and an “advancement” section.

The Project category contains aspects that apply to all parts of your project; these represent the core values for an iGEM team from "Is this work based on standard parts?" to "What is the potential impact of this work?". The judges’ votes on these aspects are tallied and determine the special awards and finalists.

Additionally, this year we have created an Advancement category solely to allow judges to vote on whether s/he believes a team should advance to the World Championship Jamboree. These votes will be tallied and will determine the advancing teams.

It is important to understand that voting on special awards, finalists, and advancing teams are all independent of one another.

With an electronic vote tallying system, comes less visibility for each individual judge. Voting in iGEM is secret, but not anonymous. In this way all judges get an equal vote on the performance of the teams they have observed. After voting is complete and the ballots have closed, the Head Judging Committee will ratify the results.

Finally, in keeping with ideas on transparency of evaluation, the names of the judges and their team affiliations are posted below.

iGEM HQ and the Head Judging Committee

List of judges:
Arief WitartoSumbawagen Asia
Bin-Guang Ma (马彬广) HZAU-China Asia
Chong ZhangTsinghua-E Asia
Chuan-Hsiung ChangNYMU-TaipeiAsia
Chueh-Loo PohNot affiliatedAsia
Chun LiBIT-ChinaAsia
Craig HamiltonUT-TokyoAsia
Daisuke KigaTokyo_techAsia
Dechang Xu HIT-HarbinAsia
Gang MaSJTU-BioX-ShanghaiAsia
Jian HuangUESTCAsia
Jianhua YangSYSU-Software Asia
Jiankui HeSUSTC-Shenzen A&BAsia
Jinbo Yang LZU-ChinaAsia
Junbiao Dai TsinghuaAsia
Kang KangShenzhen_BGIC_0101Asia
Ken-ichi YamazakiHokkaidoU_Japan Asia
King ChowHong_Kong_HKUSTAsia
King Ming ChanHong_Kong_CUHKAsia
Krishna Ravi SrinivasNot affiliatedAsia
Lin HeSJTU-BioX-ShanghaiAsia
Masayuki YamamuraTokyo_TechAsia
Matthew ChangNot affiliatedAsia
Ming ChenZJU-ChinaAsia
Peng Yeong WoonTzuChiU_FormosaAsia
Preeti SrivastavaIIT_DelhiAsia
Samuel YuNot affiliatedAsia
Scott EdmundsNot affiliatedAsia
Stefano FerriTokyo-NoKoGenAsia
TingFung ChanHong_Kong_CUHKAsia
Xiangrong XuAHUT_ChinaAsia
Yagiz Alp AksoyMacquarie_AustraliaAsia
Yen-Rong ChenNTU_TaiwanAsia
Yoshisuke Nishi BIWAKO NagahamaAsia
Yu Chen (陈宇)WHU-ChinaAsia
Yue (Chantal) ShenShenzhen_BGIC_0101Asia
Alistair ElfickEdinburghEurope
Allen LinNot affiliatedEurope
Amit JathoulUCLEurope
Anil WipatNewcastleEurope
Anne S. MeyerTU-DelftEurope
Ariel LindnerParis_BettencourtEurope
Baojun (Larry) WangNot affiliatedEurope
Björn Robert HambergerUNIK_CopenhagenEurope
Chris WorkmanDTU-DenmarkEurope
Darren NesbethUCLEurope
Denis DupuyBordeaux Europe
Dick KitneyImperial_CollegeEurope
Dirk StemerdingNot affiliatedEurope
Dorett Odoni Wageningen_UREurope
Eivind AlmaasNTNU_TrondheimEurope
Eriko TakanoManchesterEurope
Esra GunduzATOMS-TurkiyeEurope
Francesca CeroniImperial_CollegeEurope
Frederik De BruynUGentEurope
Gert BangeMarburgEurope
Gert PetersUgentEurope
Gilles TruanINSA_ToulouseEurope
Gregory BattNot affiliatedEurope
Gunvor RøkkeNTNU TrondheimEurope
Heidi BohnertNot affiliatedEurope
Henrike Niederholtmeyer Not affiliatedEurope
Ingmar ClaesKU_LeuvenEurope
Jorg StulkeGoettingenEurope
Jake WintermuteParis BettencourtEurope
Jesús Andrés Picó MarcoValencia_BiocampusEurope
John LoveExeterEurope
Jörg StülkeGoettingenEurope
Kobi BenensonETH_ZurichEurope
Laura CogliUniSalento_LecceEurope
Laura Prochazka ETH_ZurichEurope
Laura SchmidtNot affiliatedEurope
Manuel PorcarValencia_BiocampusEurope
Nils-Christian LübkeBielefeld-GermanyEurope
Olga RadchukNot affiliatedEurope
Paolo ZulianiNewcastleEurope
Paul FreemontImperial_CollegeEurope
Pernette VerschureNot affiliatedEurope
Philippe OgerNot affiliatedEurope
Piers MilletNot affiliatedEurope
Pieter CoussementUGentEurope
Rahmi LaleNTNU-TrondheimEurope
Rainer BreitlingManchesterEurope
Robin SorgGroningenEurope
Roman JeralaNot affiliatedEurope
Ruben Van HeckWageningen_UREurope
Smadar CohenBGU_IsraelEurope
Stefan DübelBraunschweigEurope
Timo WolfBielefeld-GermanyEurope
Veerle De WeverKU LeuvenEurope
Carlos Gustavo Nunes da SilvaManaus_Amazonas-BrazilLatin America
Nicole Trefault Not affiliatedLatin America
Patricio ManqueNot affiliatedLatin America
Patrick NeeNot affiliatedLatin America
Sonia Vázquez FloresNot affiliatedLatin America
Alec NielsenNot affiliatedNorth America
Anders NygrenCalgaryNorth America
Avi Robinson-MosherNot affiliatedNorth America
Beth BeasonNot affiliatedNorth America
Brian IngallsWaterlooNorth America
Byrn Booth Quimby ("Boots")Not affiliatedNorth America
Cesar RodriguezCalgaryNorth America
Charles MillerUtah_StateNorth America
Chris AndersonBerkeleyNorth America
Curt FischerNot affiliatedNorth America
David Johnston MonjeNot affiliatedNorth America
David LloydCalgaryNorth America
Deepak MishraMITNorth America
Dennis DanielsNot affiliatedNorth America
Emily HicksCalgaryNorth America
Guevara NoubirNot affiliatedNorth America
Hans-Joachim WiedenLethbridgeNorth America
Iain GeorgeCalgaryNorth America
Janie BrennanPurdueNorth America
Jeffrey BarrickGreensboro-AustinNorth America
Joe RokickiCU-BoulderNorth America
John DueberBerkeleyNorth America
Jonathan GolerNot affiliatedNorth America
Julianne GroseBYU_ProvoNorth America
Karmella HaynesArizona_StateNorth America
Kelly DrinkwaterNot affiliatedNorth America
Mac CowellNot affiliatedNorth America
Mads KaernuOttawaNorth America
Mara InessNot affiliatedNorth America
Marc FacciottiUC_DavisNorth America
Martha EborallNot affiliatedNorth America
Mehmet BerkmenNot affiliatedNorth America
Michel CannieuxNot affiliatedNorth America
Min CaoClemsonNorth America
Nancy BurgessNot affiliatedNorth America
Patrick BoyleNot affiliatedNorth America
Patrick WuCalgaryNorth America
Peter WeigeleNot affiliatedNorth America
Renee WegrzynNot affiliatedNorth America
Robert MayallCalgaryNorth America
Robin DowellCU-BoulderNorth America
Terry JohnsonBerkeleyNorth America
Tito JankowskiNot affiliatedNorth America
Veronica ZepedaUCSFNorth America
Zach WiltshireConcordiaNorth America
Zachary Nicholas RussBerkeleyNorth America


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