Difference between revisions of "Team:Duesseldorf/Team"

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<h2 id="Paris">European experience in Paris</h2>
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<h2 id="Paris">European experience in Paris</h2>
 
<h2 id="Paris">European experience in Paris</h2>
 
<p>On July the 2nd to July the 3rd 2016 we attended the European Experience iGEM meetup in Paris. Together with 29 other teams we listened to lectures of iGEM founder Randy Rettberg and other renowned scientists. </p>
 
<p>On July the 2nd to July the 3rd 2016 we attended the European Experience iGEM meetup in Paris. Together with 29 other teams we listened to lectures of iGEM founder Randy Rettberg and other renowned scientists. </p>

Revision as of 14:16, 17 October 2016

Our team

Click on the faces for some bonus entertainment!

European experience in Paris

On July the 2nd to July the 3rd 2016 we attended the European Experience iGEM meetup in Paris. Together with 29 other teams we listened to lectures of iGEM founder Randy Rettberg and other renowned scientists.

Randy Rettberg’s lecture was especially inspiring. He told us why iGEM was founded in the first place and what vision he had for the future. Every attending iGEM team had their own information stand and the opportunity to explain their projects to all other teams.

We learned new lab techniques and discussed problems and solutions of our and their projects. This was very helpful for making connections to other teams working in similar fields of synthetic biology as we do.

This initiated collaborations with other teams using optogenetics. We also got to know Victor Plet from iGEM-Team Ionis, who visited us for a few days in Germany too.

Our team had a lot of fun at parties and activities organized by the iGEM Teams from Paris.

Marburg Meetup

The first big iGEM meetup took place in Marburg on the fifth till seventh of august. All German and a Danish team were represented.

We arrived on early Friday afternoon at the campsite in Marburg where we stayed over the weekend. We were welcomed warmly by the local iGEM team and built up our tent while enjoying the marvelous weather. Naturally we brought a typical hospitality gift for a Düsseldorf team – top-fermented dark beer.

After being divided into colourful smaller groups we had to corporately master some tasks in the city, including drinking a “rusty nail” - a typical shot of the city and a hot tip for anyone visiting Marburg.

On Saturday, the projects were presented after a great breakfast and the teams could get to know the projects after getting to know each other the day before. After the presentations a grand bubble soccer tournament was held – the only competitive event on a very cooperative weekend. After a tasty barbecue we went to the city again to party the whole night.

It was a very nice weekend! Getting to know all the teams and their projects, socializing and making friends is a really great part of the iGEM experience.

Many thanks to the iGEM team Marburg for superbly organizing the weekend and for making it possible to get to know everyone!

MLP-Career- Day

After asking them for help with our project, we were kindly invited to attend a Career-Day as a team by MLP Düsseldorf. They wanted to help improve our skills in presenting ourselves, achieving results as a group, make decisions in a group in a fast and effective manner and generally help getting to know each other better and learn about the strengths of the other team members.

First, we invited them to come to one of our weekly meetings to learn about MLP and what they wanted to do for us. Two employees came to the meeting: Kenan Hadzihamzic and Dimitri Tzourmbakis. It was a very entertaining encounter and we immediately were very enthusiastic about their offer: To come visit them at the MLP-Branch in Düsseldorf to help us improve our soft skills.

Then, on a Saturday morning, we all arrived at our destination and were welcomed hearty at their office building by Kenan, Dimitri and an additional employee that we met: Branko Beljak. At first, they helped us improve our ways of presenting ourselves, then we carried out an exercise to find an outcome as a short group in a short time efficiently: A situation, where we should choose the ideal candidate for a certain business was simulated. After that, a similar exercise was carried out but with a bigger group.

Finally, we took our lunch break: They bought pizza for the whole team! We had a very relaxing and nice time chatting and playing table football against the employees.

After the break, we simulated a situation of a casino-trip, where we got to choose between an own big benefit or for the good of all: It was an exercise to test and improve our team spirit. We scored brilliant results, it was an important moment for all team members.

At the end, we evaluated the day and the benefit it has brought to us and our project; The feedback by us and the employees was highly positive and everyone profited from it.

Everyone that attended this Career-Day was given the chance to get some evaluation about their individual strengths and weaknesses and how to improve oneself based on that in a personal meeting with one of the three involved employees.

We are glad that they gave us the opportunity to attend to this highly effective career day and help us to improve our project!