BTI/REU Interns
The Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI) offers undergraduates from other institutions the opportunity to conduct plant-oriented research on Cornell’s campus over the summer. We met with these interns to welcome them, discuss their developing research interests, and openly discuss ways in which synthetic biology could play into plant or crop sciences.
PSP Panel
Each year, Cornell invites a small number of incoming freshmen to come to campus early, to begin adjusting to the challenges of university learning by taking summer courses and participating in an enrichment program. Known as the Prefreshman Summer Program (PSP), this program also seeks to expose students to all of the various opportunities that Cornell can offer. Scientific research is no exception; we conducted a lab tour to introduce students to the field of synthetic biology, and research in general. This was followed by a panel discussion to help the students explore their research interests by speaking with current student researchers.
Biology Research Panel
We spoke to a class of students taking the Investigative Biology Laboratory about the role of synthetic biology in their framework of biology knowledge, as well as the directions that synthetic biology research may take.
ENGRG 1050
We have begun a series of presentations to students in introductory engineering seminars (ENGRG 1050) to introduce them to synthetic biology and how projects like ours can encompass all fields of engineering while providing comprehensive solutions to real-world problems.
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