Team:TecCEM/Public Engagement
Public Engagement
Since the beginning of the human race, we have tried to communicate our feelings, thoughts, and achievements. That’s why having good skills in public engagement are needed then and now. Therefore, in the path of developing TecTissue, we have several activities in order to express the main objectives of our project, the need to solve the problem of burns and also encourage people in the field of science.
GOLD
Rino-Q.
On July, 5th, and 6th, we had the opportunity to visit Rino-Q, which stands for “Integral Rescue of the Burnt Child” in Spanish. It is a foundation in charge of the overall rehabilitation of kids and adults who have suffered burns. We had to book a hotel since we come from the State of Mexico and traveled to San Luis Potosi. We arrived and got a brief tour of the facilities. After that, we had a meaningful conversation with the director of the foundation, Gerardo Manuel García Lozano and his wife, Beatriz Eugenia Hernández Contreras. They explained to us the complications of treating with burned people as well as the costs it implied. One of the most important aspects to consider when addressing the problem is the amount of time patients remain hospitalized due to their burns. This represents one of the main opportunities for our project. The next day we taught a group of kids who were part of the foundation about synthetic biology and prepared some activities to reinforce what they learned through games and interactive dynamics. In the end, we approached the parents and families of the kids so that they could talk about their experiences and testimonies. After the visit, we realized that, in addition to the statistics and technical information regarding burned people and their treatment, we have a moral commitment with the kids and society in general because we have the possibility and therefore the duty to help.
UNIVERSUM
Day one: Mexico has a deficit in science, the government only invests 1% of the GDP in this sector, but the public has a keen interest for new technologies and the improvement of synthetic biology and this was an excellent opportunity for us to inspire the desire to learn and move towards action. On Saturday, July 21st we made a visit to the science museum “Universum” with the interest of approaching kids and the general public in order to teach them about the basics of synthetic biology with a little workshop that included fun activities and dynamics where everyone could participate. Most of the kids whose interest was peaked by our workshop. We welcomed with a brief explanation of molecular biology. The kids really showed enthusiasm and proceeded to do the activities we prepared for them. While the kids were playing and learning with the activities, we took a quick survey with the parents or relatives asking some questions regarding their take on burns, prevention, and treatment. The activities made in our workshop the first day consisted of teaching the kids about plasmids and bacterias with a brief introduction of how they work without making it too difficult for them. For the next day the activities that took place consisted in more didactic exercises to learn about biology and the structure of major skin cells.
Sebiotec 2018
The community of bioengineering students of SEBIOTEC carried out an event where representatives of all Tecnológico de Monterrey campuses attended. The main purpose of this event was to discuss topics of interest. Furthermore, these undergraduates wanted to improve an accurate communication between all the bioengineering students. TecCEM team took presence at this event showcasing the main goals of iGEM, as well as the primary objectives of the competition. A brief outline of the project showed our aim and aspirations for the project also we offered a work plan design indicating our ambitions for it. Furthermore, the value of hosting the Latin American Meet Up with all the other teams was highlighted. Contact information was provided to better the communication between the scientific mexican community that form part of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education student body: Tec-Chihuahua, Tec-Monterrey y TecMonterrey_GDL; we also explained to non-iGEMers how the competition worked and how to kickstart their teams so they can join next year.
Freshmen iGEM introduction
We had a conference with 1st semester students of Biotechnology Engineering of our school, Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Estado de México. Our goal was to explain them what is iGEM, so they would be even more interested in synthetic biology and that in some future decide to join this great iGEM community. We gave them the whole panorama of what is required to participate in the competition. Another thing we achieved by explaining the basis of our project "Tec Tissue" was to raise awareness about the problem we are facing through and with this they would be more interested in these lines of research. At the end of the conference the students were really interested IN participating in the next iGEM competitions and to learn more about our project.
Innovation week "Entrepreneur challenge"
The Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education promotes innovation among its students by challenging them to solve different issues from the real world. With this purpose, first semester students have to raise funds in one week and donate them to finance the development of projects born within the same institution. From September 24th to 28th we had the opportunity to present our project not only with students of the biological sector but all the careers offered in the Campus. However, we were not the only team participating for the donations, Tec Tissue was competing with several other projects for the funds and the recognition of the institution to participate in the most important event of The Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, the IncMonterrey, (Innovate-Network-Create), we're teams from all Monterrey Institute compete in one week to be the most innovative entrepreneur project of the year, were the first price is 1 million pesos to build up an entrepreneur. And we have the amazing surprise to be one of the project with most support and to be selected to go to this event in November.
Interview for "CONECTA"
The Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education publishes each month the best news and updates on its official website regarding the outstanding stories of academic achievements of students. For the May edition, we were interviewed by Mariana Perales, the communication specialist of the institution. She wrote a note based on the interview, in which both parts addressed several aspects of the competition and the performance of the team throughout the development of the project. Since we represent the only Mexican University that participates in the competition, the note was embraced with pride by the community and the lectors of the site. Thanks to this interview, we were able to share and spread our project with more than the 14,000 followers of the Facebook page.
The following note can be find in the next link: TecTissue CONECTA
Sol of Mexico Newsletter publication
The Sol of Mexico is one of the most popular newspaper in the country since 1965 and haves millions of lectors each year. And we have the amazing pleasure that they wanted to make a note about TecTissue, where we were interviewed by Alejandro Suarez, one of the principal journalist of the paper, in order to explain how our project could be the future in treatment in burns and how is going to compete in the international competition iGEM.
The notice can be read in the following link: Interview Sol de Mexico