Team:Qdai/Collaborations
Collaboration
We had six collaborations
・iGEM Warriors: Rise of the Phoenix! (Comic Strip) Team: IISER_Berhampur・Rice Art Team: MIT_MAHE
・SDGs Video Team: Patras
・Postcard-project Team: Düsseldorf
・Gunma University
・Japan Summer Meetup
We participated in each of the collaborations with an awareness of the similarities among the project methods such as experiments, art, and social contribution with this year's project. The difficult days are going to continue, but creating art is one of the few ways to interact with team members. Also, online meetings are still recommended. That’s why we were able to exchange ideas with iGEM teams all over Japan to make the project better.
iGEM Warriors: Rise of the Phoenix! (Comic Strip) Team: IISER_Berhampur
We presented our project with the IISER_Berhampur team using a comic strip, which was shared with the world using the Instagram story feature of the IISER_Berhampur team. Introducing our project in a one-page manga story was much easier than explaining it in text, as we could focus on the main points and include pictures, which made it easier for people to understand our project. We were able to introduce our project in an easy-to-understand way. The time spent thinking about what words to use and what pictures to draw in a limited space was a good opportunity to think deeply about our team's project.
Rice Art Team: MIT_MAHE
The MIT_MAHE team and we presented our project with a drawing using rice. We used a new method of expressing ourselves by coloring and pasting the rice. Since our team is thinking of creating art using the light from E. coli, we felt the commonality of “art” and joined this collaboration. We represented the grains of rice as the feathers of a canary. We thought about what we should draw the largest to express our project without words. That’s why we drew a large canary in the center because we were using the canary, the creature behind the project, as a detector. Besides, in the upper right corner, we drew a person wearing a gas mask to convey something related to toxic gas. It was a lot of fun to create something while talking with our team members, and it was one of the few opportunities we had to interact with each other in person.
SDGs Video Team: Patras
We’ve participated in a collaboration with the Patras iGEM team to create a video on the SDGs that we are working on achieving. In 2015, the United Nations presented 17 Global Goals (also known as the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs). These goals aim to improve the world we live in by 2030 in 17 different ways – from ending poverty, taking action on climate change, reaching gender equality, ensuring clean water and sanitation for all, and more. As part of the iGEM competition, all the teams can also help by achieving these goals through our projects. In our project, we thought we could achieve three goals: “4. Quality Education,” “12. Responsible consumption, production,” and “17. Partnerships for the goals″. We were motivated to think that our activities would help the world, even if only a little bit.
Our video
Postcard-project Team: Düsseldorf
We participated in the Postcard-project organized by the Düsseldorf iGEM team. This collaboration consisted of using the small space of a postcard to communicate our project. On the front, we took a picture of the team members, and on the back, we portrayed the canary and the laboratory and wrote a short text explaining the background of our project. By sending out the postcard to the world, more people will know about this project. We believe it is a brilliant collaboration to use postcards in today’s society, as receiving postcards makes us happy, a feeling that is unchanged even among people living in an increasingly digital society.
Our Postcard
Other team’s postcards
Gunma University
About
Based on the content of this year's project between Kyushu University and Gunma University, we chose the theme of the collaboration as “How should we use Japan's resources sustainably?”
Why did we decide to do this collaboration?
This year, Kyushu University's project name is "Alternative to canary", which aims to create a device to detect toxic gases. Gunma University's "Making hot springs safer! E. coli decomposing biofilm containing Legionella bacteria." In circulating hot springs, Legionella bacteria may grow during the circulation process, and the project is to improve the sterilizing effect of chlorine chemicals to prevent this. We decided to collaborate with Gunma University because we thought we could take advantage of the good relationship we have built up so far and not only exchange ideas on how to proceed with each other's projects and experiments, but also have a deeper discussion on how we should use Japan's resources in a sustainable way.
How did we help each other?
Through chats and online meetings, we deepened our understanding of each other's projects and received new suggestions and advice. From the keywords "gas" and "hot spring", we discussed "how to design the establishment of safe geothermal utilization" from the perspective of future prospects and synthetic biology.
What did we learn from this collaboration?
Through this collaboration, we learned new approaches and felt closer to the social issues that Japan is facing. That made us realize that we, as the future leaders of society, should put all our effort to innovate and change the world we live in. It was a great experience to collaborate with Gunma University.
Japan Summer Meetup
We participated in the iGEM Japan Summer Meetup, an event where Japanese teams participating in this year’s iGEM presented their projects and progress. The seven participating teams were from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Waseda University, Gifu University, Gunma University, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, and Kyushu University.
After presentations on this year’s projects, we had a Q&A session and exchanged opinions. Through this meetup, we were able to interact with the other Japanese teams and learn from them. It was also a valuable opportunity for us to practice our presentation and answer potential questions. We had the impression that many of the teams were still not making as much progress in their experiments as they had hoped, but we were reminded that we want to do everything while fighting a global pandemic. That made us feel a little better and motivated us to contribute to the world in any possible way.
