Team:VIT Vellore/Public Engagement
Where would you like to go?
NIOT-NWMB - 2018
Gravitas Stall
Talk with High School Students
What the Undergraduate Students think
Safety Conference
Fishermen Talk
NGO and Us
iGEM VIT on National Newspapers
iGEM VIT on the Community Radio
iGEM Under the School of Biosciences and Technology
NIOT-NWMB - 2018
The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) conducted a conference called National Workshop on Marine Biotechnology (NWMB) – 2018 on 26th June, 2018 in which we participated. The conference happened at the NIOT, Chennai where eminent scientists and professors from the field of Maine Biotechnology and interrelated fields, gave interesting talks on various marine biotechnological projects, facts and organisms and how the other engineering disciplines can be integrated sciences and help enhance each other. Since, our project is deeply involved with marine ecosystem, we got a lot of great input and insight during the conference. We also got a great opportunity to meet and interact with the scientists who attended and talk about iGEM, synthetic biology and our project to combat ocean acidification. It was during this conference, we met Dr. Joseph Selvin, who was gave us a lot of inputs for our project and also helped us with making the project for the better.
Gravitas Stall
Gravitas, the annual technical fest organized by Vellore Institute of Technology, was a great opportunity to present ourselves and connect with more people. We got permission and we put up a stall for all the 3 days of the fest.
Students, faculties, scholars and the general public who came to attend the fest, from all branches and disciplines were explained about International Genetic Engineered Machines (iGEM), what it was, about synthetic biology, genetic engineering and our project. We also explained about the disaster that is Ocean Acidification and asked their views on how ocean acidification affects people, food industry, etc., on how this major phenomenon can be tackled and how would our project help tackle this problem. We duly noted their considerable responses and also these inputs were promoted to improve our project to make it more effective. We also distributed pamphlets, which talked about iGEM, Ocean Acidification and a bit about our project, to all the people who visited our stall.
The biggest highlight of the event our venture was how the students who visited our stall were motivated to participate in iGEM, so that more ideas and innovations can make a difference.
Talk with High School Students
As a part of our outreach program, we visited the Maharishi International Residential School and gave a short talk on synthetic biology to the 11th and 12th graders. We started off by explaining about biotechnology and the various aspects and disciplines involved in it. Then we followed that up with a short lecture on genetics and synthetic biology after which we briefed them about our project and the iGEM competition. Finally, we had a small Q&A session. A few of the topics they enquired about were plasmids and what role they play in the transformation process. The students were extremely inquisitive and they bombarded us with so many questions that we couldn’t answer all of them due to lack of time. We concluded by giving them our official contact details for further queries.
What do the Undergraduate Students think
We conducted an awareness program on synthetic biology in one of the undergrad biotechnology classes in VIT University. We started off with a basic quiz. A few of the posed questions were on what they think is the major reason for ocean acidification and what according to them is the current pH of the ocean. Surprisingly, most of them assumed the pH of the ocean to be below 7. So to get our point across, we further explained about the exact cause of ocean acidification We clarified that the current pH of the ocean is around 8.1, supporting this statement with appropriate evidential data. Also, we gave a brief description on synthetic biology and how it has been used in various fields. Then we briefed them about the Igem competition and our project. Finally, we answered their queries and the response from the students was huge that we even came up with a plan to start a club for iGEM in our college!
Safety Conference
The safety conference is held every year by the School of Biosciences and Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology. Our team members attended the conference and tried to incorporate the various safety techniques that was taught into making our project as safe and ethical as possible.
Various professors from different fields of Biotechnology attended the conference and gave safety tips and talks pertaining to their field and how we can incorporate all of this in our lab work as students of Biotechnology.
Fishermen Talk
On 16th June,2018, we visited the Marina beach in Chennai, India and spoke to a few fishermen there. They mentioned that their family has been into fishing for the past 50-100 years. The men go fishing early morning at around 3:00 am and come back by 7:00 am and also go into the sea again in the evenings. The women stitch the nets and sell the fishes in the market. Their livelihood depends on the number of fishes they catch and the health of the fishes.
They complained that the number of fishes have reduced in the recent years compared to the numbers that their past generations used to get. Though they did not have any idea about ocean acidification, they knew that there was something wrong with the water in the seas. They said that they earn around 2000 rupees every time they go fishing. They also spoke about the breeding period in the months of April and May, when fishing is restricted by the government and how it’s affecting them since the fishes are their only source of income.
We informed them about our project in layman terms and they appreciated us for our efforts. They had immense faith in their goddess, Ganga (The water goddess) to protect them at all times. Their optimistic view of life, despite such difficulties, was enlightening and interacting with them was an amazing experience which we will always carry in our hearts.
NGO and Us
To understand the depth of the situation better and get a lot more insight into the how the world has changed, we talked to various Non-Governmental Organizations who work in the environmental sector and had a great experience interacting with them about Ocean Acidification and how it can be tackled using Synthetic biology as a too.
Moreover, this also gave us a great opportunity to interact directly with the public, including the volunteers and also the people who are affected.
The NGO Bhumi
Bhumi, who are heavily involved in the environmental sector as we all as education to the underprivileged children, organized a beach clean-up on 14th October, 2018 at 7am in the morning at the Pattinambakkam, fishermen area. After the clean -up was done, we got a great opportunity to interact with the volunteers who we were students and working people from various universities, cities and sectors, and talked about what Ocean Acidification was and how we are working on tackling this phenomenon using synthetic biology and synthetic biology in-general could be used as a way to tackle many problems.
Bhumi had a community centre nearby and they were kind enough to take us there where we interacted with fishermen families, including children who take classes under the care of Bhumi and their mothers and relatives who had a lot of input to give about the struggles the fishermen families face due to the decrease in the fish population and the quality of fishes over the decades.
One major point put across them that was very relevant to our project, was the use of diesel as a cheap source of fuel to run the motor boats since their use and how diesel in general has a lot more carbon dioxide exhaust being dumped directly at the sea. They also mentioned that the government and the associated agencies should take measures to introduce cheaper and eco-friendlier fuels to prevent this from happening.
It truly was a very enriching experience and talk, not just with the volunteers at the NGO but also the people the NGO is helping directly.
Earthling First NGO
Earthling First is a national Non-Governmental Organization operating in 18 cities in India. The organization primarily deals with waste management in ocean and coastal areas and work on bridging the gap between the energy and sustainability for the future.
We had a great opportunity to talk about our project to the Director of Earthling First, to whom we pitched the idea of genetic engineering and synthetic biology and lot more about Ocean Acidification and how we are tackling it.
iGEM VIT on National Newspapers
Our project was featured on two National Newspapers, the Millennium Post and The Indian Express and even on the website of VIT. The newspaper articles talked briefly about iGEM, the growing trend of synthetic biology, and about Ocean Acidification and how we plan to tackle it using our project, the Toggle pH. The Millenium Post also featured a picture of our team with the Vice President of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) Vellore, Dr. G V Selvam.
iGEM VIT on the Community Radio
Two members from the iGEM VIT team got a chance to premiere on the VIT Community radio! We reached out to a population of about 35,000 students and professors telling them about iGEM and our project! We started off with a brief introduction about iGEM and what the iGEM foundation does. Then we spoke about the project that we are working on and how we are genetically altering the make-up of E. coli to tackle ocean acidification. We followed this up with an elaboration on the other public engagement activities that we were a part of during the course of the project. As new and exciting as the experience was, it also gave us a chance to bring awareness to the community and isn’t that exactly what iGEM is all about?
iGEM Under the School of Biosciences and Technology
We talked to the School of Biosciences and Technology (SBST) of VIT talked about how iGEM as an event and competition will certainly give students a platform to innovate and put in their ideas to come up with solutions on various problems that are to be addressed. With around 340 teams participating from all around the world this year, we are getting an opportunity to not only compete with them but also aiding as a major platform for us to learn more.
With this competition being of great chance for us as students to explore and improve in the field, we as a team would be more than happy to extend this to the students of our college in the years to come.
We proposed that we start an iGEM Program as part of The School of Biosciences and Technology (SBST) that facilitates for the students a support team for the whole process from applying to the DBT for funds to the registration and participation in iGEM. We, as pioneers of the competition, will be more than willing to help the forthcoming teams with the whole procedure and also try to bring awareness about genetic engineering and synthetic biology by conducting workshops and talks from experts about the same.