We collaborated with other iGEM teams in two primary ways: providing data through surveys and receiving assistance in dealing with a growing team from Cornell iGEM. We provided data to the IIT Kanpur iGEM Team for their project that worked with other aspects of water pollution, namely detergent degradation, which is one area we are interested in as a team.

Perhaps most significantly, we also collaborated with the Cornell iGEM team after a member of our lab met with, and was able to tour the Cornell iGEM Lab spaces over the summer! This initial interaction and discussion of how the Cornell iGEM team is organized led to future collaboration between our two teams looking at how as a team we can practically implement some of the strategies Cornell iGEM has used to manage their large team size. We have been excited to have a large influx of members this fall, but have struggled to effectively communicate and delegate assignments for the team. As a result, the methods for team member evaluation, establishment of sub-team leads, and meeting schedules with the various sub-team leads that we received from Cornell iGEM have aided us greatly in setting more concrete standards for communication and team operation. Additionally, we have been trying to find a way to better ingrain our iGEM team into our institutions research program and with some help from the Cornell team we have made significant progress in setting standards of evaluation and a more defined structure for our team. This necessary structure and method of evaluation were previously lacking in our team, but with the suggested revisions suggested we will now be able to be more formally recognized by our home institution and receive official acknowledgement for our work.

Finally, we have also been immensely grateful to collaborate with a team of software developers at our home institution, W.A.S.D., to construct and implement our Wiki! They have done amazing work taking our ideas and turning them into a well-structured and beautiful Wiki that allows us to display our work in a clear and organized format. We couldn’t have completed our Wiki without the help of Elijah Tesch, John Sell, and Tyler Kemnitz, and we feel that this collaboration, although not with an outside iGEM team, has improved our project presentation immeasurably.