Difference between revisions of "Team:Imperial College/Human Practices"

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<h3>★ ALERT! </h3>
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<p>This page is used by the judges to evaluate your team for the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Judging/Medals">medal criterion</a> or <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Judging/Awards"> award listed below</a>. </p>
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<p> Delete this box in order to be evaluated for this medal criterion and/or award. See more information at <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Judging/Pages_for_Awards"> Instructions for Pages for awards</a>.</p>
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<h1>Human Practices</h1>
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At iGEM we believe societal considerations should be upfront and integrated throughout the design and execution of synthetic biology projects. “Human Practices” refers to iGEM teams’ efforts to actively consider how the world affects their work and the work affects the world. Through your Human Practices activities, your team should demonstrate how you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your project is responsible and good for the world. We invite you to explore issues relating (but not limited) to the ethics, safety, security, and sustainability of your project, and to show how this exploration feeds back into your project purpose, design and execution.
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<p>For more information, please see the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices">Human Practices Hub</a>. There you will find:</p>
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<li> an <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/Introduction">introduction</a> to Human Practices at iGEM </li>
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<li>tips on <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/How_to_Succeed">how to succeed</a> including explanations of judging criteria and advice about how to conduct and document your Human Practices work</li>
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<li>descriptions of <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/Examples">exemplary work</a> to inspire you</li>
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<li>links to helpful <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices/Resources">resources</a></li>
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<li>And more! </li>
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<p>On this page, your team should document all of your Human Practices work and activities. You should write about the Human Practices topics you considered in your project, document any activities you conducted to explore these topics (such as engaging with experts and stakeholders), describe why you took a particular approach (including referencing any work you built upon), and explain if and how you integrated takeaways from your Human Practices work back into your project purpose, design and/or execution. </p>
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<p>If your team has gone above and beyond in work related to safety, then you should document this work on your Safety wiki page and provide a description and link on this page. If your team has developed education and public engagement efforts that go beyond a focus on your particular project, and for which would like to nominate your team for the Best Education and Public Engagement Special Prize, you should document this work on your Education and Education wiki page and provide a description and link here. </p>
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<p>The iGEM judges will review this page to assess whether you have met the Silver and/or Gold medal requirements based on the Integrated Human Practices criteria listed below. If you nominate your team for the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Judging/Awards">Best Integrated Human Practices Special Prize</a> by filling out the corresponding field in the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Judging/Judging_Form">judging form</a>, the judges will also review this page to consider your team for that prize.
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<h3>Silver Medal Criterion #3</h3>
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<p>Convince the judges you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your work is responsible and good for the world. Document how you have investigated these issues and engaged with your relevant communities, why you chose this approach, and what you have learned. Please note that surveys will not fulfill this criteria unless you follow scientifically valid methods. </p>
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<h3>Gold Medal Criterion #1</h3>
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<p>Expand on your silver medal activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the purpose, design and/or execution of your project. Document how your project has changed based upon your human practices work.
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                <h1>Human Practices</h1>
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      <h3>Our approach to Human Practices</h3></br></br>
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      <p2> <div align="center"><b>“A society that permits biology to become an engineering discipline, that allows that science to slip into the role of changing the living world without trying to understand it, is a danger to itself ” -Carl Woese</b></div></br>
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Human Practices involves assessing our project in relation to society. As a foundational technology, PixCell has the potential to have wide-ranging impact. When computers were first connected in a network, it eventually led to the creation of the internet. Who could have predicted these 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. When pitching our idea as a means of unifying electronics and synthetic biology, we strived to think about not only the potential applications of the technology but also how our technology could be implemented. We quickly realized the need of communicating with people of different backgrounds as their unique perspectives could help shape potential applications and predict societal impact for our technology. </br></br>
  
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Our approach for Human Practices, therefore, revolves around the concept of communication. Our goal with Human Practices is to engage with all relevant stakeholders as early and efficiently as possible in order to integrate their feedback into PixCell. To maximize the effectiveness of our communications we have designed the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/scicomm"><b>Communications Strategy Guide</b></a> which we have used help integrate our Human Practice work into our project and outreach. Our reasons for developing this tool are explained in more detail in the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/Communication"><b>Communication tab</b></a>.
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</br></br><h3>Summary of our Human Practices</h3></br></br>
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Following the guidelines in our <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/scicomm"><b>Communications Strategy Guide</b></a> to better communicate with relevant stakeholders, we discussed the possibilities of PixCell with PIs, artists and the public. Through these interactions we developed ideas to apply our technology to develop alternative inducers, fabric printing and biocontainment, respectively. We adapted our project and successfully demonstrated a <b><a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/Demonstrate#expt8">proof-of-concept for biocontainment</a></b>; the results were submitted to satisfy one of the criteria for a bronze medal. 
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Dialogue with potential users of our technology made it clear that the use of toxic redox modulators in our system is a major hindrance for the adoption of PixCell in future applications. This led us to search for alternative redox modulators and resulted in the discovery of PMS. This major shift in our project is documented <b><a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/IHP#safety"> here</b></a>.
  
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<h3>Best Integrated Human Practices Special Prize</h3>
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During iGEM we identified that internal friction in teams is a common issue.  We experienced this problem ourselves, and our experience was borne out by a survey that we conducted amongst 67 iGEM members from 14 other teams. To address this issue we developed our <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/ltat"><b>team communication app</a> </b>(LTAT) to help improve team communication. Using our team-communication app improved team dynamics and reduced conflict.
  
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<p>To compete for the Best Integrated Human Practices prize, please describe your work on this page and also fill out the description on the judging form. </p>
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<p>How does your project affect society and how does society influence the direction of your project? How might ethical considerations and stakeholder input guide your project purpose and design and the experiments you conduct in the lab? How does this feedback enter into the process of your work all through the iGEM competition? Document a thoughtful and creative approach to exploring these questions and how your project evolved in the process to compete for this award!</p>
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We followed the <a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/scicomm"><b>Communications Strategy Guide</b></a>, in designing and evaluating our outreach events. To appeal as broadly as possible, we commissioned artists to create an <b><a href="https://2018.igem.org/Team:Imperial_College/ArtGallery">exhibition</a></b> to better demonstrate our project visually. We also showed these pieces at the New Scientist Live! Fair as part of our public engagement. We also created a board game to demonstrate key concepts in synthetic biology in an intuitive way. We hosted a socio-ethics discussion on synthetic biology and gathered potential socio-ethical concerns on our project in the form of feedback.
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<p>You must also delete the message box on the top of this page to be eligible for this prize.</p>
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Latest revision as of 00:42, 18 October 2018


Human Practices



Our approach to Human Practices



“A society that permits biology to become an engineering discipline, that allows that science to slip into the role of changing the living world without trying to understand it, is a danger to itself ” -Carl Woese

Human Practices involves assessing our project in relation to society. As a foundational technology, PixCell has the potential to have wide-ranging impact. When computers were first connected in a network, it eventually led to the creation of the internet. Who could have predicted these 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. When pitching our idea as a means of unifying electronics and synthetic biology, we strived to think about not only the potential applications of the technology but also how our technology could be implemented. We quickly realized the need of communicating with people of different backgrounds as their unique perspectives could help shape potential applications and predict societal impact for our technology.

Our approach for Human Practices, therefore, revolves around the concept of communication. Our goal with Human Practices is to engage with all relevant stakeholders as early and efficiently as possible in order to integrate their feedback into PixCell. To maximize the effectiveness of our communications we have designed the Communications Strategy Guide which we have used help integrate our Human Practice work into our project and outreach. Our reasons for developing this tool are explained in more detail in the Communication tab.

Summary of our Human Practices



Following the guidelines in our Communications Strategy Guide to better communicate with relevant stakeholders, we discussed the possibilities of PixCell with PIs, artists and the public. Through these interactions we developed ideas to apply our technology to develop alternative inducers, fabric printing and biocontainment, respectively. We adapted our project and successfully demonstrated a proof-of-concept for biocontainment; the results were submitted to satisfy one of the criteria for a bronze medal.

Dialogue with potential users of our technology made it clear that the use of toxic redox modulators in our system is a major hindrance for the adoption of PixCell in future applications. This led us to search for alternative redox modulators and resulted in the discovery of PMS. This major shift in our project is documented here.

During iGEM we identified that internal friction in teams is a common issue. We experienced this problem ourselves, and our experience was borne out by a survey that we conducted amongst 67 iGEM members from 14 other teams. To address this issue we developed our team communication app (LTAT) to help improve team communication. Using our team-communication app improved team dynamics and reduced conflict.

We followed the Communications Strategy Guide, in designing and evaluating our outreach events. To appeal as broadly as possible, we commissioned artists to create an exhibition to better demonstrate our project visually. We also showed these pieces at the New Scientist Live! Fair as part of our public engagement. We also created a board game to demonstrate key concepts in synthetic biology in an intuitive way. We hosted a socio-ethics discussion on synthetic biology and gathered potential socio-ethical concerns on our project in the form of feedback.