The S.M.A.R.T competition. It is an international Sustainable Mission with Art, Responsibility and Technology Competition, with the goal of recognizing the problems we face and presenting and spreading visions and plans to create a sustainable future by solving them. By participating in this, we wanted to interact with researchers and students in various fields and contribute to the biotechnology revitalization. In this competition, our team participated in the social contribution track under the name of 'B.I.G.S.' and introduced SynBioBot as a new educational tool to solve the problems caused by the disadvantages of non-face-to-face experimental classes due to COVID-19 and the poor experimental environment in developing countries.

  We presented the result of our achievements from April to July. Through our system, we were able to conduct a biological experiment, 'Cell Culturing' as well as simple chemical experiments, 'Aspirin synthesis'. The idea of education through a robot arm led to a remote experiment showcase with Indonesian team members. The education was done through ZOOM, a virtual conference software. Indonesian members teamed up to discuss the experimental process and instructed the robot step by step to conduct experiments. In this way, based on the showcase, we gave a promise for the vision that our project can contribute to the international community and the possibilities that we can conduct a variety of synthetic biological experiments as well.

  Experts from various fields were highly interested in our project and had enough Q & A sessions, including judges. We’ve received many questions such as "Are the robot's motions pre-populated?”, “What was the biggest problem while interacting with students abroad?”, etc. One of the most impressive questions was this. "It is good to control robot through communication with the assistant, but is this the best way? Is there a more proactive way for students to operate robot?" Rather than entering commands directly into the robot by using Tera Term, it is better to develop a more user-friendly way. So, our team decided to develop a user-friendly GUI software. Also, we proved the benefits of our project by winning the Director of UNITEF's prize.

  Through S.M.A.R.T Competition, we were able to reflect the feedback on the project well. We, therefore, hoped to have the opportunity to exchange knowledge as well as promote international and multidisciplinary cooperation. ICEAS is an international forum for discussing various topics related to appropriate technology. This conference provided a forum to present state-of-the-art technologies and application cases in related fields to respond to global issues such as climate change, COVID-19, cyclical systems, ODA, and ESG. As there are hundreds of masters, doctors, and professors in ICEAS, we focused on cell culturing and lentiviral system experiments of our research and used more professional media such as Abstract and Poster.

  In developing countries, where there is low access to experiments, becoming a scientist is often regarded as a distant event that could only be seen in movies. We wanted to help their dreams become true. Becoming scientists while also increasing their access to synthetic biology. We presented our SynBioBot system in front of many Ph.D./Master/experts at ICEAS conferences and had Q&A sessions. Incidentally, an expert who was interested in our project at the S.M.A.R.T competition asked us for a more detailed description. He listened to how the leading experiment was conducted through the above system and gave advice such as what would be good to supplement. He asked us, "Can SynBioBot proceed with an experiment designed by an individual instead of the original experiment?" We answered, "Only the input experiment can be conducted, and at present, it is difficult for an individual to design and proceed with the experiment." While continuing to ponder the question, we decided to redeem SynBioBot’s software & hardware so that SynBioBot could perform various experiments. Finally, our team won the Best Poster Award in the poster session.

  On the last day of the forum, Professor Shin Kwan-woo, our PI, conducted an Oral presentation on the robot-based education system so that more experts could take the idea seriously. He said that the system, which can change the results of experiments based on the judgment of a robot-controlling student, would allow students to have a general understanding of the experimental process and it would create a new paradigm in science education. Through the ICEAS Society, we were able to confirm that our project is definitely influential to international society and that our exchange of scientific knowledge was successful. During ICEAS, robot conferences were also held, so our team was able to visit and learn the movements of many other six-axis robots.

  Sometimes we discover new things through the opinions of non-experts. One of the methods of Science communication that Eric Jensen and Alexander Gerber argue, Evident-Based Practice, is a way to strengthen the overall part of science communication, such as narrowing the gap between the two, through collaboration between researchers and practitioners. By applying this method to education, we tried a new attempt: collaboration between researchers and students.

  Unlike simple outreach science communication, direct project development-oriented EBPH activities have made it possible for students to acquire that knowledge and use it. Based on this activity, our EBPH team members who have experienced a lot are planning to write a small paper on this activity and even make a poster presentation at their high school.

  Learning cell biology in science subject is challenging for elementary students in Indonesia. Not only it is implicitly taught in the science subject, but it also needs an intangible imagination to understand the cell’s organelles and their function. Therefore, a recreating method to explain the cells the cell’s organelles, and their function is required. In our program, the 5th and 6th of elementary students were explained about cells, organelles, and their function in the first-week class. Thus, they also were taught to observe cells under a light microscope. Moreover, we developed the cells model by creating it from edible materials such as cake, candies, messes, and biscuits; followed by a fun game. While the cognitive ability of the students was evaluated with pre-and post-test. Our method increased the level of understanding of cell biology of the students. However, the standard deviation of student cognitive ability was highly varied in both classes.

If you are curious about our more detailed EBPH and education activities, please check the link below.

  Despite the global bio-boom, the field of synthetic biology is unfamiliar to Korean students. Through collaboration with other igem teams in Korea, we held a ‘Synthetic Biology Debate Competition(SBDC)’. As it is a competition involving a wide spectrum of students from high school to college students, experts from each university team of iGEM gave lectures on what synthetic biology is and how attractive it is. After that, we also had time to introduce what synthetic biology projects each team is working on in iGEM competition. Many students participated in our debate competition with interest, and through this competition, we were able to inform Korean students of what synthetic biology is and what problems can be solved through it. In addition, several meetings were held during the preparation period of SBDC, so that the solidarity between Korean iGEM teams was strengthened. This also resulted in the formation of the Korea Synthetic Biological Abuse Student Association as well. In the future, the non-profit private organization will be officially recognized and will continue to make efforts to promote synthetic biology in Korea.