Team:Missouri Miners/Community

Organization

Becoming a RSO

In Fall 2010, our iGEM team became a recognized student organization (RSO) at Missouri S&T. This was a critical step for our team because we do not have any consistent or stable funding sources outside of our university. Now our team has access to funding from Student Council under a Professional Projects fund. This has allowed us to start purchasing our own equipment and secure our own lab space. This has been a huge jump for our previously struggling team. In addition to funding, being a RSO allows our team access to additional exposure and the ability to host legitimate functions at the university, such as our Synthetic Biology Informational in spring 2011 and the Exploring Synthetic Biology Event this past spring.

Student Design and Experiential Learning Center

Once our team obtained RSO status, we applied to be a part of the Student Design and Experiential Learning Center (SDELC). This is an organization that oversees and provides opportunities and resources to student design teams on campus. Missouri S&T has a highly-valued tradition of outstanding student design teams across multiple engineering disciplines, including Solar Car, Concrete Canoe, Solar House, Human-Powered Vehicle, Miner Baja SAE, Advanced Aero Vehicle Group, Formula SAE Racing Team, Robotics, and Steel Bridge. We intend to increase the diversity of student design teams on campus because we are a diverse organization that brings a unique aspect of design to the university.

Being a part of the SDELC increases the exposure of our team and increases awareness of iGEM and synthetic biology. The SDELC also provides us with many additional resources, such as staffing support and funding opportunities. We became an official SDELC design team January 2012.

Most Improved Organization Award

In Spring 2011, our iGEM team won the Outstanding Student Leaders' Most Improved Organization award. This honor was presented to us by Missouri S&T's Corporate Development Council and Student Council. Our iGEM team was nominated based on the reasons presented below.

In the past iGEM's success had been limited by small membership, lack of funding, poor leadership, and lack of lab training that made it difficult for new members to get involved. However, with the hard work of a few students and the executive board elected in December 2010, iGEM began to flourish. Missouri S&T iGEM had gained status as a recognized student organization and applied to be a student design team (which was approved January 2012). We gained a lab space in Schrenk Hall. Membership increased by about 30% in 2011 alone, and non-officer members had become much more active, whereas before only a couple of officers did most of the work. iGEM had also raised about $1000 from fundraising efforts the spring semester alone, received corporate sponsorship, been approved for funding from S&T's Student Council, and been approved to receive funding from the professional projects fund in the future. The executive board had formed a spring class to teach new iGEM members lab techniques and develop quality research project proposals that were later presented at the 7th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference. Some iGEM members had also applied to do research through the Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Fellows program about public opinion of synthetic biology and how education can affect that opinion. Missouri S&T iGEM had also recruited members studying majors other than biology and chemical engineering. We had scheduled a synthetic biology informational for April 13, set up an ethical discussion about synthetic biology through Speak UP Speak OUT, and spoken to the Rolla High School's Science Olympiad team about synthetic biology.