On May 13, we participated in the “Tag der Wissenschaft”, an exhibition planned by the University of Stuttgart. The aim is to bring future students and visitors closer to the wonders of science through the universityies’ different study programs as well as the local institutes and their research areas. Therefore, we wanted to present our project “DentoZym” and share the goals and progress of our project with the public.
The day started with preparations for our booth and posters. We had planned a variety of different attractions that interested many visitors. We exhibited a model bioreactor and a plush-tooth, which we used to explain the approach of our proposal to destroy the caries-causing biofilms and prevent bacteria from forming a new one. In addition, we exhibited a rotating wheel where participants could win various prizes. One of the prizes were Eppendorf tubes with differently colored epoxy-resin inside, which proved to be very popular with the children.
We even welcomed the director of our university. With him also came a large group of different people from the press, industry and politics. We were excited to be able to show and explain our synthetic biology idea to a number of people and get their feedback. It was an interesting experience as it gave our idea some new perspectives and showed
us how the public received and evaluated our idea.
At the end of the day, we had a successful booth that attracted many visitors. Overall, it was a great experience for our iGEM team. The planning of our booth, the days leading up to the exhibition and the exhibition itself taught us a lot about project management and how to present our ideas and project to people.