Judging

From 2008.igem.org

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[Note: All Awards & Judging Criteria for iGEM 2008 are currently in draft form. The Awards & Judging details will be finalized by 1 June 2008. Please send any comments or suggestions for awards and judging by email to judging@igem.org. For example, if you anticipate that your team will do something amazing or important, but that such a project would not be recognized via any of the mechanisms or awards below, let us know as soon as possible.]

Contents

Medals

iGEM 2008 will award medals. All teams can earn models. There are three levels of medals, from lowest to highest:

  • Bronze Medal
  • Silver Medal
  • Gold Medal

The requirements to earn a Bronze Medal are:

  1. Register the team, have a great summer, and have fun attending the Jamboree.
  2. Create and share a Description of the team's project via the iGEM wiki.
  3. Present a Poster and Talk at the iGEM Jamboree.
  4. Enter information detailing at least one new standard BioBrick Part or Device in the Registry of Parts
    • Entered information for each new part or device should at least include primary nucleic acid sequence, description of function, authorship, any relevant safety notes, and an acknowledgement of sources and references.
    • Teams are expected to design and contribute standard biological parts that conform to the public definition of BioBrick standard biological parts. Non-BioBrick parts will not be recognized by the iGEM judges. However, if during the summer you invent a new and improved standard for defining and assembling BioBrick parts, and you would like to freely share this new standard with the world, then you can declare that you have invented a new standard, contribute parts or devices based on your new standard, and the judges will consider your new parts or devices, taking into account your new proposed technical standard. A written description of the new proposed technical standard must be included in your project Description, and should also be sent to the technical standards mailing list at the BioBricks Foundation for discussion (standards@biobricks.org).
    • Any new Devices that are based on gene expression are expected to conform to the PoPS device boundary standard. See chapter 3 of the book, [http://openwetware.org/wiki/Adventures Adventures in Synthetic Biology], for more information about common signal carriers and PoPS.
  5. Submit DNA for at least one new BioBrick Part or Device to the Registry of Parts.
    • The submitted DNA must be associated with a Part or Device for which you have entered information describing the part or device, and must conform to the BioBrick standards for Parts or Devices (see above).

The requirements to earn a Silver Medal, in addition to the Bronze Medal requirements, are:

  1. Demonstrate that at least one new BioBrick Part or Device of your own design and construction works as expected.
  2. Characterize the operation of at least one new BioBrick Part or Device and enter this information on the Parts or Device page via the Registry of Parts.

The requirements to earn a Gold Medal, in addition to the Silver Medal requirements, are any one OR more of the following:

  1. Characterize or improve an existing BioBrick Part or Device that was distributed via the 2008 iGEM BioBrick Parts collection, and enter this information back on the Registry.
  2. Help another iGEM team by, for example, charactering a part, debugging a construct, or modeling or simulating their system.
  3. Develop and document a new technical standard that supports the (i) design of BioBrick Parts or Devices, or (ii) construction of BioBrick Parts or Devices, or (iii) characterization of BioBrick Parts or Devices, or (iv) analysis, modeling, and simulation of BioBrick Parts or Devices, or (v) sharing BioBrick Parts or Devices, either via physical DNA or as information via the internet.
  4. Outline and detail a new approach to an issue of Human Practice in synthetic biology as it relates to your project, such as safety, security, ethics, or ownership, sharing, and innovation.

Grand Prizes

A small number of iGEM teams (between 3-10 teams) will be selected by the judges as iGEM Finalists. These teams will be selected based on the overall excellence of their entire project, from choice of project, to new Parts and Devices, to the quality of the Project Description, Poster, and Presentation, to the success and impact of the project, to consideration of issues of Human Practice, and so on.

A grand prize, first runner-up, and second runner-up will be selected by all the judges from the pool of iGEM Finalists.

Special Prizes

iGEM 2008 hopes to award the following Special prizes, conditional on the accomplishments presented by the teams. Each prize will be awarded at the discretion of the judges. Below are brief descriptions for each Special prize:

  • Best New BioBrick Part, Natural
    • Most genetically-encoded functions have not yet been converted to BioBrick parts. In fact, most genes in the natural environment have likely not ever been sequenced. Thus, there are *many* opportunities to find new, cool, and important genetically encoded functions, and refine and convert the DNA encoding these functions into BioBrick standard biological parts. For example, in 2007, the Melbourne team engineered [http://parts.mit.edu/registry/index.php/Part:BBa_I750016 BBa_I750016], a tiny protein balloon that can be used to adjust the buoyancy of bacteria. What else is out there?
  • Best New BioBrick Device, Engineered
    • New BioBrick Devices can be made by combining existing BioBrick Parts. For example, Inverters, Amplifier, Smell Generators, Protein Balloon Generators, Senders, Receiver, Actuators, and so on. What cool or important new Devices can you assemble from existing BioBrick Parts?
  • Best Human Practices Advance
  • Best Experimental Measurement
  • Best Model
  • Best Software Tool
  • Best New Standard
  • Best Wiki
  • Best Poster
  • Best Presentation

Area Prizes

Software Tools

Complaints

To file an official complaint regarding iGEM 2008 judging you must send an email to complaints@igem.org. Your email should include your full name, the name of your school and team, and the name and email address of your faculty advisor. Your email must also be copied to your faculty advisor. In your email please clearly state your complaint and what you hope will happen as a result of filing your official complaint. The iGEM judging committee will work to respond to all complaints as quickly as possible. Complaints that are sent to other addresses, or that do not include the requested information will be ignored.



Please see the Judging page to study the detailed requirements for each type of Area or Special prize.

iGEM 2008 also hopes to award the following Area prizes, conditional on the accomplishments presented by the teams:

  • Best Food or Energy Project
  • Best Environment Project
  • Best Health or Medicine Project
  • Best Manufacturing Project
  • Best New Application Area
  • Best Foundational Advance

Please see the Judging page to study the detailed requirements for each type of Area prize.