Team:HIT-Harbin/Human practices

Founding and communicating, in this year’s project, set the tone of our human practices. And that is what we would clarify through three aspects, as follows.

At the beginning of the project, a milestone for iGEM in Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) was settled, that is, an official student club, or the “iGEM club”, was founded. It serves as a stronghold of all iGEMers in HIT as well as a place to develop reserves. Recruitment of new iGEMers is organized and lectures for beginner training and workshop for project are held regularly. Meanwhile, it also organized academic visits and help with some team trivia during this year.

Furthermore, we manage to spread the idea of iGEM across Harbin. We delivered a lecture for the team of Northeast Agricultural University (NEAU) to help them prepare for iGEM next year. We also invite representatives of team NEAU to our termly meeting and share our ideas with them.

Also, in order to exchange ideas and extend eyesight, groups of iGEMers went to summer schools and conferences in Peking University and Tongji University in China as well as King Mongkut's Institute of Technology in Thailand. And those activities are sure to benefit our project in many ways.

Human practice, on the whole, offers us quite a lot besides knowledge and project. It makes us get aware that we are not only a group of people gathered to fight for a competition, but a big family for sharing sorrow and joy.

iGEM Club as a Stronghold

Founded in March 15, 2012, the iGEM club serves as the stronghold of all iGEMers in HIT. It takes charge of most of the administrative work of the team, including team establishment, meeting arrangement, member training, process monitoring and so on.

The aim of this club is to systematize the whole structure of the project, and also to spread the idea of iGEM to more people of HIT. Our project is divided into several parts, and they all advance in parallel. We also planned for a series of activities, ranging from lectures to demonstrative experiments, to get students aware of the existence of iGEM, and, what is more, the importance of synthetic biology. Also, we do communications with professors and students outside the team and that has proved to benefit us a lot.

Early the spring semester, several lectures were delivered for recruitment in HIT, during which our team supervisor and a few old members came to share their stories with iGEM. They narrated by own experience how iGEM has made a difference in their lives, and they also explain the basic idea of iGEM as well as our project this year. More than 50 students were attracted to the lecture and five of them were finally admitted as new members of our team.

After recruitment, a new series of lectures are well prepared for training. All new members are required to come for a better understanding of iGEM and synthetic biology. Renowned professors as well as experienced team members are invited it.

Prof. Xing as a Consultant

Accidently, we got the information that there are other professors in HIT who also think highly of the iGEM competition, which excited us a lot. By great efforts, we successfully get through with one of them. Professor Xing Defeng, Cheung Kong Scholar of China, had an impressing talk with our team. He shared with us his own understanding for iGEM and synthetic biology. And he also clarified to us how the idea of iGEM could be applied in his own field. He agreed to join us as a consultant, and two of his students come to our team as members.

NEAU as a New Friend

During the recruitment lecture in spring semester, we met with several students coming from the iGEM club of Northeast Agriculture University (NEAU). They had never participated in the iGEM competition before but were preparing for a long time. The lack of practical experiences stays as a barrier in their way to iGEM. Aware of the situation, we decided to give a hand to them.

We invited representatives from this team to attend our weekly meetings and participate in the training courses for new members. Also, a few students from NEAU joined our experiments for project in the summer vacation and took an active part in it. We have been sharing knowledge, ideas and passion throughout the project. And we would all feel proud and glad to see their project in the iGEM competition next year. Furthermore, there is even one person from NEAU coming with us to the competition this year. So we could wait for the first-hand information about our corporation during the trip later in Hong Kong.

When it comes to the fall semester, representatives of the HIT team went to NEAU to deliver a speech, spreading the idea of iGEM. The lecture lasted for about 2 hours and about 100 students and teachers came to it. It was such a success that many people came to ask for details or later communication afterwards. The university also decided to augment their support of this project.

Communications as a source of inspiration

In summer vacation this year, members of our team went to summer schools and conferences in Peking University and Tongji University in China as well as King Mongkut's Institute of Technology in Thailand. They exchanged their ideas with iGEMers across China and also to people working on synthetic biology around the world. A broader vision would be a precondition for a better work, and we prove it during the project this year.

Postcards as a symbol for friendship

For enjoying our trip to Hong Kong and share our pleasure during iGEM competition, we have designed a series of lovely postcards about iGEM and Escherichia coli for other iGEMers around the world. Access to our E-album for downloading shall be placed later. We also plan to share these lovely gifts during our jamboree this year, and we are waiting for your coming!