HQ:Why

Pop why answers will be placed here.

Creating a pop why

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Answers for Deliverables

Team Wiki

Your Team Wiki page is the public face of your project and serves as a public record of your hard work. Since it is hosted on the iGEM servers, no content will ever get lost and you will be able to share the website with people after the competition has ended.

Wiki Freeze

The WikI Freeze refers to the deadline when iGEM Headquarters closes access to the editing tools on the team wiki pages. This prevents teams from editing the pages after the Wiki Freeze. This event is incredibly important because it gives our judges plenty of time to review your project and score your team wiki page prior to the Giant Jamboree. Since judges start reviewing iGEM teams once the Wiki's are frozen, this is a very real deadline and no edits will be allowed after the deadline has passed.

Poster

Each team is given one poster slot and the poster cannot exceed these dimensions: 4 ft. X 4 ft. (1.22 m X 1.22 m). Students must present the poster during the scheduled Poster Sessions at the Giant Jamboree.

Presentation

Each team is given one presentation slot and the presentation must not exceed 20 minutes. Judges will ask each team questions immediately following the presentation. Each team will be randomly assigned a presentation time during the Giant Jamboree. The presentation must be given by a student. There is no limit to how many students may present the talk, but only students are allowed to present.

Project Attribution

All of the work done in your project must be attributed correctly on your team's Attributions page. You must clearly state the work that was done by the students on your team and note any work that was done by people outside of your team.

If you are continuing the work of a previous iGEM team, you must state which team(s) have inspired your project, what part of their work you are using, and then clearly state the new work your team has contributed to the project.

Sample Submission

Teams are asked to submit samples of their new Parts to the Registry to help make the Registry better each year. Teams must follow our DNA Submission Guidelines to qualify for medals. Teams need to mail their samples by the Sample Submission Deadline and provide a tracking number as proof that they sent their DNA on time. Failure to follow our guidelines may result in a rejected shipment or sample, which may disqualify your team from winning a medal.

Safety Forms

All teams are expected to follow a high standard of safe and responsible biological engineering. As a result, all teams must submit these forms over the course of the competition. These forms are carefully reviewed by iGEM's Safety Committee and teams will be contacted if there are any questions about the information they provide on the forms.

Judging Form

Since iGEM is a competition, teams will be judged on their projects during the Giant Jamboree. Teams fill out their own Judging Form, which is then reviewed and submitted by the Primary Instructor for the team. The Judging Form will be sent to the judges so they can evaluate your team for prizes and awards.

Failure to submit the Judging Form on time may disqualify your team from winning any prizes or awards during the Giant Jamboree.

New Part Pages

While your Team Wiki exists to document your entire project, the Registry Part Page(s) exist to specifically document your new part(s). These pages should be very detailed and should include:

the origin of the part
why it's a useful part
how the part is expected to work
the data showing the part's function
clearly describe the experiment(s) conducted to collect that data

This will allow future teams and other Registry users to fully understand your team's part and use it properly.

InterLab Study

All teams are invited to participate in the 2016 InterLab Study. This is an optional activity. Teams who wish to participate are asked to sign up by TBD.

Answers for Rules of Conduct

Lab Safety Rules

The iGEM Safety Committee oversees and reviews all of the safety concerns throughout the competition. These rules were approved by the Safety Committee and all teams are expected to follow them carefully.

RCC Conduct Policy

Failure to follow the RCC Policy and other Rules of Conduct may result in serious consequences for your team, including disqualification from the competition. The Responsible Conduct Committee, who reviews all cases of iGEM participant misconduct, determines what punishment, if any, the team and/or participant will face for failing to follow these rules.

Intellectual Honesty

Teams are expected to conduct their research openly and honestly. The Project Attribution page is incredibly important - it allows each team to clearly state who conducted the work they are presenting.

We expect everyone associated with a team, including students, advisors, and faculty members, to act honorably throughout the competition. We treat any and all failure to uphold intellectual honesty as a form of cheating and all cases will be brought to the attention of the Responsible Conduct Committee for disciplinary action.

Courtesy

All iGEM participants are expected to treat everyone with respect. We have a zero tolerance policy for physical violence and verbal abuse. Any instance of violence or abuse during the competition and at the Giant Jamboree should be reported immediately to a member of iGEM Headquarters Staff. All reported problems will be brought to the attention of the Responsible Conduct Committee for disciplinary action.

Answers for Team

Age restrictions

Undergraduate
All student team members on an undergraduate team must be 23 or younger on March 31, 2016. Student team members are primarily undergraduate students, but can include high school students.

Overgraduate
Student team members on an overgraduate team include one or more members who are older than 23 on March 31, 2016. Student team members may be undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, or other post-graduate individuals.

PI role

Why must we have two Principal Investigators (PIs)?
All iGEM teams must have two PIs to participate in iGEM. Throughout years of running the competition, we have found that in general teams with at least two PIs:

Have a better iGEM experience
Learn more
Succeed even more than on their own

Teams with only one PI often find that they don't get adequate support throughout the season. While iGEM is a student driven competition, PIs are important for providing guidance, having funding connections, dealing with university bureaucracy and regulations, and more.
Also, often a PI goes away for a portion of the summer leaving the team without any PI guidance for part of the season.
Don't underestimate the value of your PIs!

Gender balance

The iGEM competition is welcoming and fun for all students regardless of gender or orientation, and a study from the 2013 Paris Bettencourt team found that prize-winning teams have gender ratios approaching 50%, while typical teams do not. Encouraging more women to participate as iGEM leaders and advisers may improve team gender balance, and improve the overall quality of iGEM science.

Answers for Registration

Team size

Why is a team of 8 to 15 best?
We recommend iGEM teams have between 8 and 15 student team members. We find this size is the most manageable for coordinating lab experiments, fundraising, travel, successful communication, and more. Teams smaller than 8 team members are certainly welcome to participate, just keep in mind it may limit how much the team can accomplish. Still want a small team? Go for it and show us how it works for you! Teams larger than 15 team members should keep in mind that you will likely generate more work than can be presented in a 20-minute presentation and one poster. Take advantage of the multiple team discount and have two teams! With that comes more time to present all that you have done.

Don't larger teams do better?
In looking at team score versus team size, we have found that team size does not affect team score.
See the graph below for a plot of team size versus team score generated using iGEM 2014 scores and team size.

Answers for Wiki Requirements

iGEM Login Bar

The iGEM Login Bar is a 20 pixel high, full-width menu bar that exists on all 2016.igem.org pages. It contains: iGEM related pages, wiki tools (edit, history, watch, etc.), search tools, team information (not released yet), login, and the site menu. It serves as a quick navigation tool for all users and must be maintained on all of your team wiki pages as a result.

Hosting Content

We preserve all iGEM content on our own servers so future teams can learn from what you have done. When you store content on your own sites or servers, after time, links might become broken, sites might go down, and information will be lost.

Additionally, hosting content outside of 2016.iGEM.org allows teams to change/add information to their wiki after the wiki freeze. Please note that altering content after the wiki freeze is a form of cheating.

Adobe Flash

Adobe flash is not permitted on team wikis. It's now considered to be an outdated video player and has had many security issues in the past. It's also not open source, which goes against iGEM's goal of making everything in the competition open source.

Answers for Standard Pages

Standard Pages

Since specific pages on your wiki can be hard to find, we created these standard pages with static links to help the judges find the information they need to evaluate specific awards. When you create your project wiki, you are not limited to using only these standard pages, however; you may organize additional project information as you wish.