"

From 2013.igem.org

We have made some changes to the requirements this year. Here are a list of questions that have been asked about the new requirements (undergrad, overgrad and software) with answers from iGEM HQ:

1. Graduate students and postdocs, may also be on teams, is that a change from last year? this is significantly different then the collegiate division team composition which have an age limit (https://2013.igem.org/Requirements). If we want such a mix, then I would suggest to let just let anyone form a team. Right now its essentially all academics. I would like to hear other opinions on this. Personally, I expected this to be for undergrads iGEM is branded as an undergrad competition.
   
   Previously iGEM had an age limit. But because there is a large difference in educational systems across the world, the age span went from about 18 to about 26. There was a strong push to move towards a US-centric point of view - 5 years since high school. That would be bad for South Korea, for example, since they have 2-3 year military requirement. I could not stand to turn away happy iGEM students, so we tightened and clarified undergrad and added overgrad. However, we still are academic and don't have professional teams, for example.
2. What is the reason for 2 faculty advisors required? - adding this would clarify the requirement.
   
3. Registration fee is the same as Wet bench teams, but no Parts distribution is needed. Could we state a reason?
   We do not charge for the kit of parts. Period. The Team Registration fee is the cost to participate in iGEM. At $2750, this is a super bargain. Note also that we take part of the individual attendance fee so that the team fee for small teams can be smaller.
4. Why is only an instructor required to get a Github account? Github is a great community and a resource. Students would benefit from joining this open source community and learning about its decentralized contribution model from the beginning I would prefer to see team members' individual contributions to the code base for a project and maybe helping other teams. I'm not suggesting that it be required for all team members to contribute code. I just feel the current instructions discourage open contribution from the team throughout the timeline of competition.
   
5. "Track Submissions: If your team is also participating in the wetlab tracks, all presentations and if possible, data sources, must be made available for public use." This requirement makes it sound like Software teams do not need to make their materials available for public use. I think materials generated for the competition should be required to be made publicly available and licensed for free. That reflects the iGEM spirit.