WORKSHOPS

Engineering Challenge 1: Synthetic Biology Engineering Challenge

Thursday - Room 102 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Can you be the hero the world needs? Design and build a synthetic biology solution to an unusual problem. Come work with other iGEMers to use your creativity and syn bio engineering skills to solve a science fiction dilemma. Best solution wins a prize!

GenSmart Plasmid Design Workshop

Thursday - Room 302 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Discover how easy plasmid design can be with the FREE GenSmart Design tool, now available from GenScript & MolecularCloud.org. Our team will take you through our simple drag & drop platform and demonstrate how simple it is to build a construct using GenSmart Design. Coupled with the Molecular Cloud plasmid repository platform, you can design, manage, and share your plasmids using one easy platform. Join us and learn how!

High School Team Meet and Greet

Thursday - Room 203 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

High school team members and advisors, bring your box lunches to this facilitated discussion. Join students from around the world to network and relax. Let’s develop ideas to enrich the iGEM experience for the unique needs of high school teams. Bring your best ideas to share and any lab hacks that you’ve developed. Meet your new best iGEM friends from around the world and make contacts for your next year’s collaboration. High school iGEM let’s be anabolic and build a better world.

Human Practices in the Real World: Careers Outside of the Laboratory

Thursday - Room 103 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

This workshop will bring together a panel of experts and practitioners of human practices to discuss how human practices is conducted in the real world. It will feature a range of professionals (policy makers, NGOs, academics , etc.) to show the breadth of opportunities that science careers can take outside of the laboratory. All which utilize the human practices components that teams were asked to consider during their projects.

InterLab Study

Thursday - Room 304 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

The iGEM interlab study is the largest scientific replication project in all of synthetic biology. It is intended to be both a significant collective scientific project and a fun educational experience. In this workshop, we will discuss the goals and implementation of this year’s interlab study, with the aim of figuring out how to make it even better next year. We will also present the results from this year’s interlab and compare them to the previous studies. This workshop invites all teams who participated in the interlab study, are interested in participating in the future, or who are interested in issues around scientific replication to come and share your thoughts!

Mentorship Workshop

Thursday - Room 306 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Come learn about the iGEM Mentorship Program! This year, we paired 15 mentors with 21 teams. They shared exciting accomplishments and meaningful experiences throughout the season. During the workshop, they will discuss their vision about the program. We will use their comments and your insights to expand and improve upon our program for iGEM 2019. What teams would benefit more from applying to the program? Who should mentor other teams? What are the key points that a mentor should cover? How can we improve the mentorship program overall? We will start the session off with a short summary of what the program has accomplished, hear from those who participated this year and then host an open discussion of iGEM mentorship in general. If you are looking to start or continue a new team, share iGEM mentorship ideas, and give back to the iGEM community, then we highly encourage you to attend!

Networking Bingo

Thursday - Room 210 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Networking Bingo will return during the Friday evening special events session! If you are looking for an opportunity to meet many fellow iGEMers, team advisors and industry affiliates, you should plan to attend this session. Participants will be given Bingo sheets with questions about iGEM and it will be your mission to get answers for all of them from someone else in the room. You will need to find someone from another team that meets each requirement and get them to sign your sheet. Prizes will be awarded!

SynBio Solutions

Thursday - Room 311 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Solve real world Synthetic Biology research challenges while exploring Agilent solutions for CRISPR, Genome Engineering, Protein Engineering, NextGen cloning, and more. Prizes for creative solutions, enthusiasm, and teamwork? Of course!

Biorisk Management I: Risk and Planning

Friday - Room 204 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

This workshop will introduce the standard international approach to the identification of hazards, the calculation of risk, and the development of a risk management plan, referencing the International Standards Organisation’s future Biorisk Management Standard (ISO35001). It will further look at some of the problems of doing such risk planning in conditions of uncertainty, which is often the case in basic research, and explain in some detail what exactly ‘Dual-Use Research of Concern’ means.

DNA Assembly and Synthesis at iGEM

Friday - Room 302 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Being able to easily and reliably assemble DNA Parts into Devices is crucial in synthetic biology and particularly for iGEM teams. Over the years, teams have utilized numerous methods to construct their Devices, from BioBricks assembly to Gibson. Come join us for a discussion on DNA assembly in iGEM and learn about how iGEM is thinking about assembly for 2019 and beyond.

Engineering Challenge 2: Synthetic Biology Engineering Challenge

Friday - Room 102 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Can you be the hero the world needs? Design and build a synthetic biology solution to an unusual problem. Come work with other iGEMers to use your creativity and syn bio engineering skills to solve a science fiction dilemma. Best solution wins a prize!

Modeling Synthetic Biology Systems with MATLAB and SimBiology

Friday - Room 304 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Mathematical modelling guides rational design of genetic modifications and enables synthetic biologists to better analyze and predict system behavior prior to fabrication. Modeling is an important part of synthetic biology and the iGEM competition. This workshop will provide iGEM teams with an introduction to modeling, simulation, and analysis with MATLAB and SimBiology using an example from synthetic biology literature. This session will provide an opportunity to ask questions as well. Highlights include: ▪ Using graphical environment to build models of biological systems ▪ Simulating dynamics using ordinary differential equation (ODE) solvers ▪ Interactively exploring model sensitivity to parameters ▪ Streamlining model exploration via parameter sweeps and sensitivity analyses ▪ Extending modeling environment by running custom analyses.

Peers and Public: Science Communication within and beyond the iGEM Competition

Friday - Room 312 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Science Communication is core component of the iGEM Competition. Teams conduct a diverse range of engagement activities during the iGEM Competition in order to inform different population segments about Synthetic Biology and their project. From print to digital media, from workshops to lectures, scientists are utilizing different mediums to ensure that the research being conducted within the confines of the lab does not remain confined to the lab, and reaches the public. How do we make the scientific information understandable, how do we instill emotion within our content and how do we ensure that the our content cultivates an appreciation for Science rather than a fear of it.

Synthetic biology and social justice: how we avoid a 'techbro' catastrophe

Friday - Room 203 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

It is arguable that the field of synthetic biology is going all-in on a silicon valley model of operation at just the time when society is concluding that this model can result in dangerous attitudes to public risk and workforce culture. To what extent is this true? Come and debate at this workshop.

What kinds of industry jobs could I get with my degree?

Friday - Room 306 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Congratulations on completing your iGEM project! Throughout the competition, you’ve gotten a taste for what you like and dislike, and what you might want to do in the future. Did you love performing experiments, but hate sharing the data? Were you nearly inept in the lab but a champion of discussing the results? Or were you the one who organized things and kept the rest of the team on task? Your strengths and preferences are a great starting point when you look ahead and consider whether you should stay in academia or move into an industry job. The knowledge and skills you’ve developed could open a lot of opportunities in industry and lead to a career you love. In this session, let’s chat about what it’s like to work in industry, the various jobs you can find and the skills needed to get hired for those jobs. Join a panel of Promega employees who all share a scientific background but work in a variety of different areas. You’ll learn about their unique career paths and get your questions answered about careers in industry.

Ambassador Program Workshop : A tiny-huge world

Saturday - Room 312 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

From the mesmerizing Lake Saif ul Malook to the bustling streets of Ottawa in the blink of an eye. From majestic elephants roaming in the Mole National Park to magnificent mouflons bleating in Cyprus in a heartbeat. Smørrebrød for breakfast, Kung Pao Chicken for lunch and Tacos for dinner. All over the world, the iGEM Ambassadors are a team working together to support, expand and inspire the iGEM Community. Regional leaders connecting local dreamers (you!) to solve local problems. Would you like to learn more about their exciting progress across the seven seas? Are you interested in joining After iGEM and addressing your fellow iGEMers in your region as an iGEM Ambassador? Join the conversation at Ambassadors workshop and share your astonishing ideas for improving After iGEM all over the world.

Safeguarding Science and the Future

Saturday - Ballroom B - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Meet with the FBI and participate in a discussion on the shared responsibility to protect the life sciences as a member of law enforcement or the synthetic biology community (whether you’re an iGEM’er, scientist, biohacker, investor, business person, or all of the above). Find out what it means to be a guardian of science.

Biorisk Management II: Plan Implementation

Saturday - Room 204 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Even when we have an ostensibly clear plan, people know the plan and everyone has received the requisite technical training on how to implement it, frequently the plan fails because of ‘human error'. This course addresses why people do what they do, how systems all have competing priorities which result in trade-offs, and what both mean for how you go about implementing your biorisk management plan.

Career Fair

Saturday - Room 202 - 3:30 PM - 6:30 PM

As part of the iGEM 2018 Giant Jamboree weekend, iGEM is hosting a career fair event on Saturday, October 27 to foster relationships within the synthetic biology community. This unique opportunity offers top employers a chance to meet with iGEM participants and discuss career opportunities. Be sure to bring plenty of copies of your resume or CV. Exhibitors: - FBI - Ginkgo Bioworks - GenScript - University of Edinburgh

Engineering biology: identifying principles and establishing guidelines for iGEM and beyond

Saturday - Room 210 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Contribute your thoughts and experience about how biology can be engineered, and what the future of engineering biology could look like, within and beyond iGEM! Engineering has always been at the heart of synthetic biology and iGEM, but what engineering biology means hasn’t been clearly articulated to teams. We’re looking to get a wide range of views about how biology can be engineered, identify commonalities to refine guidance for future teams and judges. What principles form the core power of an engineering mentality and how do we apply them to biology? This will be a fully interactive workshop with a chance for everyone to contribute in smaller teams, and then feed back to the wider group. It will be a mix of everyone who is interested: students, supervisors, judges, guests - from newcomers to the field to those who have been shaping it from the start. All are welcome!

Inclusion in Synthetic Biology

Saturday - Room 203 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

This workshop will tackle issues and solutions for inclusion within iGEM as well as the larger scientific community, with a focus on inclusion of women, LGBTQ+, and diverse ethnicities and religions. The session will kick off with lightning talks about inclusion within the iGEM community. We will then break into small groups to brainstorm for solutions to issues of inclusion, followed by a joint discussion of the ideas from each group.

Let’s build the next version of Human Practices at iGEM!

Saturday - Room 102 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Share your HP experiences and help make HP better at iGEM! In this special session, the Human Practices committee invites you to share your adventures, successes, failures and ideas, and build these into recommendations for how to improve Human Practices within the iGEM competition. The session will also include a sneak peak of proposed changes for next year. Check the Human Practices Hub for details (https://2018.igem.org/Human_Practices).

Software Tools for Synthetic Biology Workflows

Saturday - Room 103 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Learn about recent developments in software tools and how they can be used to address common challenges in synthetic biology! We will start with a short introduction to SynBioHub, SBOLDesigner, and other tools. We'll then give a fun engineering problem to work on using the tools and in teams with fellow iGEMers. Best solution wins a prize! Participants are strongly encouraged to bring a laptop with network access.

Turning iGEM projects into real world products

Saturday - Room 110 - 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

What does it take to make a marketable product? What aspects ‘beyond the lab’ are relevant? In this workshop you will play the 'Safe-by-Design Serious Game', which challenges you to develop a market-ready product that is safe by its design. You will experience what kind of issues you will face and need to address in order to establish a marketable product, thereby deepening and broadening the understanding of your innovation’s context. After this game you are one step closer to marketing your iGEM product!