Team:Calgary Software/Team

Neven Dimic


I am a second year chemical engineering student, with a specialization in energy and the environment. Although I have not studied biology since high school, I was immediately intrigued when I heard about iGEM. This competition allows us to apply engineering principles to biology. I had an amazing summer contributing to the emerging discipline of synthetic biology, a discipline which will definitely shape the future.

Outside of school, I have many interests. I devote my time to friends and family, sports, volunteering, traveling, movies, music, life...



Taras Karpachevskyy
I'm now in my second year studying mechanical / biomedical engineering. iGEM was a chance for me to do and learn something a little bit different from the ordinary class material, and that was fantastic. I see a lot of potential in synthetic biology, though not in the sense that it's a revolutionary new way of doing everything. I look at it more as a tried and true approach that has proven itself over a very long time, and that will help humans immensely once we learn how to use it properly. From a long-term perspective, with synthetic biology, it won't matter as much whether there is oil to burn or to turn into plastic. As long as the sun is shining and you have dirt under your feet, you'll be able speak the language of nature and create the things you need to live.



Joshua Leung


I am a 2nd year Chemical Engineering student with a Biomedical specialization. Though my major skills academically are involved in chemistry and mathematics, I have an interest in biology. In fact, after my engineering degree, I am considering to go into medicine. As a result, iGEM was of great interest to me as it gave me a good opportunity for me to explore the world of biology and the future of synthetic biology. It is my hope that I can be a part of this emerging technology that will change the world.

My interests outside of school include sports, especially basketball and hockey, books, and video games. Sports is a big thing in my life. Whether it is playing the sport, or watching the sport, I am very competitive and enjoy the thrill of the game. The Calgary Flames are my team all the way! 

Boris Shabash


4th year Bio-Informatics student at the University of Calgary and loving every second of it!

My participation in iGEM is motivated by the fact I see iGEM as the beginning of something much, much bigger. Synthetic biology is going to become the new motivating force for pharmaceutical research, medical practice, biochemical engineering and many more applications we can't even probably imagine.

With the advancements of synthetic biology, systems biology and the bio-informatics world will be a new field with a brand new perspective on the computational science and natural science nexus. As essential as computer aid is in engineering and the medical fields, it will also become a fundamental component in synthetic biology.

I plan to be one of the people at the centre of this computational revolution. The power that new programming paradigms (e.g Genetic Programming and Evolutionary Strategies) can offer to synthetic biology is something that I consider needs to be harnessed at this point, at this day and age, and I'm here to aid in that reframe.

Most of the time I spend outside of writing code and studying I dedicate to latin dancing, martial arts and friends. Exercising your brain is pretty important, but exercising your body is even more important. And social dancing and martial arts are both awesome. 

Kent Thachek


I am a 3rd year bioinformatics student in the Faculty of Medicine, Bachelor of Health Sciences Honors program. My primary interests span from computational algorithms to genome annotation, as well as biochemistry. The application of computer science in biology is a truly astounding study to me. It is my intention to gain a broad range of generic skills, applicable to many different aspects of biology.

My involvement with the University of Calgary iGEM Software Team began this year and I assisted with the analysis, design, and programming in the EvoGEM project. I had background experience in programming and was just introduced to many of the modern heuristic strategies over the summer, namely Evolutionary Strategies and Agent-Based modeling. This project was intuitive and interesting, so I was naturally enthused about aiding in its development. I hope to continue in such endeavors. 

Dr. Christian Jacob
Dr. Jacob received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. In July 1999, Dr. Jacob joined the Department of Computer Science (Faculty of Science) at the University of Calgary. Since August 2003, he also holds a joint appointment with the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Faculty of Medicine), where he is the Director of Bioinformatics in the Bachelor of Health Sciences Program.

Dr. Jacob leads the Evolutionary & Swarm Design (E&SD) research group of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and is currently establishing a Unit for Computational Modeling, Experimental Design & Analysis within the Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Jacob and his research group are investigating how to apply evolutionary, swarm and collective intelligence techniques in various application domains. So far, the E&SD research group has built mathematical models, computer simulations and visualizations of traffic systems, army ants, neuron growth, biomolecular systems, and gene regulatory systems. Some of the projects are described in detail at the ESD website: http://www.swarm-design.org.

Dr. Jacob has written two books on evolutionary computing and natural programming paradigms: Principia Evolvica (dpunkt, Heidelberg, 1997; in German) and Illustrating Evolutionary Computation with Mathematica (Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, 2001).

This is the third year that Dr. Jacob is an iGEM supervisor at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Anders Nygren


I am an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Bioengienering Research & Education and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Calgary. This is the first summer I have been involved in iGEM and I think it is fair to say that I have learned more from the process than anyone has learned from me! I am already looking forward to next year, hoping that we can get more Biomedical Engineering students involved in iGEM at the U of C. The Biomedical Engineering Program here is only a few years old, but we already have a great momentum going with lots of great students.

Outside work? What else would you do around Calgary than spend time in the Rockies hiking, skiing, paddling, cycling, and just enjoying life? 