Communication

Communication as our theme for Human Practices

As a foundational technology, PixCell has the potential to substantially impact our society. When computers were first connected in a network, it eventually led to the creation of the internet. Who could have predicted these events wide-reaching effects on society, both positive and negative? Analogously, predicting all possible effects of our technology is equally challenging, electrical-biological interfaces open up a totally new realm of possibilities.

Throughout our project, the goal was to engage with all stakeholders as early as possible and to integrate their feedback into PixCell. This upstream engagement is especially important for foundational projects such as PixCell - an overview of how the feedback from our stakeholders shifted the direction of our project is provided in our project flowchart.

Our project revolves around an interface between life and machines - we created a means for which machines can communicate with life. Communication also lays at the heart of our Human Practices strategy - effective communication is key in both Integrated Human Practices and Outreach and Public engagement. Hence the choice of communication as our Human Practices theme.

This year, we present two pieces of original work relating to commmunications that we have applied extensively for both Integrated Human Practices as well as for Outreach. First of all, we created a Communications Strategy Guide to streamline and optimize communication. Secondly, we created a team-communication app that allows us to better discuss sensitive issues that may affect our team.

Communications Strategy Guide

As previously mentioned, finding applications, outreach and potential implementation of our project was a huge problem. This problem with regard to outreach was two-fold. Firstly, we did not know what our technology could even do and as audiences tend to be interested in solid applications that could change their lives, as is the case with most foundational track projects, we could not advertise our technology as something that could immediately transform their lives; another hook was needed. Secondly, since our audience is inherently less interested in our project, this exacerbates our problem of finding applications by communicating with the public.

After discussing this issue with the Science Communication Unit at Imperial College, we found out that depending on how communication is framed, the issue of not having any blatant applications can be subverted. Hence in the early days of our project, we focused on framing our model as something interesting and novel with the key selling point being something with a potential the user decides. With this framing in mind, we approached our stakeholders who gave us feedback as well as potential applications that they themselves have defined. Hence why artists came up with ideas related to biopatterning and why a PI discussed potential cost and toxicity of our system. This user-driven approach has been very helpful in showing how our Human Practices is integrative and also allows us to better engage with all stakeholders. More information on how we implemented the guide for outreach can be found here.

Reflecting on this experience, we realized there are many things about science communication that we, as well as many other iGEM teams, do not realize or overlook when it comes to creating effective communication strategies optimized for their technology. In response to this need, we decided to create a science communication framework and created a custom guide that reflects the variety of tools and technology that different iGEM teams end up creating. Full details of our Communications Strategy Guide (CSG) can be seen here.

Let's Talk about that!

Working in a high-stakes and long-term project like iGEM is a highly stressful experience. First of all, to differing degrees, we had to sacrifice time from academics, personal relationships, leisure time as well as other commitments. Secondly, projects like these are collaborative in nature and thus each of us have to deal with the differing philosophies and attitudes of other members. These differences in philosophy and attitudes tend to lead to conflict which, compounded by the high-stress that we face in iGEM as well as personal issues we have, can lead bring the project to a halt and severely harm our well-being.

Reflecting on these conflicts, we learned three key lessons. Firstly, resolving personal or interpersonal issues has to be done as quickly and conclusively as possible before issues compound with each other into a quagmire and leave a negative impression of iGEM for everyone in the team. Conversely, with a bit of mindfulness and awareness of the issues everyone in the team is facing, we can avoid compounding our personal and interpersonal issues. Secondly, we realize that these personal and interpersonal issues are often hard to raise in conversation and thus do not get resolved quickly enough. Thirdly, we realized we were not the only teams dealing with these issues, everyone wants to do their best and it would be better for everyone if everyone got along. We surveyed 67 different people on 13 different teams on this issue and found that they were indeed dealing with similar issues with their iGEM teams as well.

We realized what was needed was a way to bring issues in conversation as fast as possible so that we are able to resolve them or be mindful of them. To that end we have developed the team-communication app, which streamlines the communication of these sensitive issues. More details on the team-communication app can be found here