During the summer, SUNY Oneonta invited our team to participate in a zoom meet-up to share our project ideas and offer feedback. Attending the meet-up with other upstate New York iGEM teams was a fantastic experience. Seeing what the teams were planning was inspiring, and it was a great opportunity to showcase our project idea for the first time. Answering questions on our work helped us improve our project and clarify our focus. The team was able to get inspiration for high school outreach when SUNY Oneonta presented their idea for engaging high school students with STEM activities. Later this year, our team hosted a variety of iGEM seminars for local and online high school students to foster a widened sense of scientific awareness. This meet-up was a great way to stay connected despite COVID-19 and engage the iGEM community.
During August we received an invitation to collaborate with the GTC Hong Kong iGEM team. This was a great opportunity to meet with another iGEM team and learn about their work. We organized a zoom meeting and presented our respective project ideas. The Hong Kong team advisor provided us with great feedback and advice for improving our methodology and meeting medal criteria. After the initial meeting, the GTC Human Practices subteam arranged a meeting schedule with our Policy & Practices subteam to offer weekly advice and mentorship. During this time our team created a brief video detailing how Cornell iGEM functions and what iGEM is. The Hong Kong team showed this meeting at their sharing sessions for high school students. Additionally, their team provided us with a video explaining what life is like as a high schooler in Hong Kong competing in iGEM. While we would have preferred to have attended these meetings in person, the 12-hour time difference between Ithaca, New York and Hong Kong, China prevented us. In addition to the video sharing, we also provided the Hong Kong GTC Human Practices team with professors at Cornell University they could interview for their recycling project. Overall we looked forward to meeting with the Hong Kong GTC iGEM team and enjoyed supporting each other over the course of the summer and into the fall