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2011 survey results

12 Jan 2012

Here are the summarized results of the student surveys. Thanks to everyone who responded with feedback to help us improve BIOMOD.

Question 1: What aspects of BIOMOD did you enjoy and think we should keep the same in future years?

  • well-organized (6)
  • awesome hotel (5)
  • judging criteria in general / nice balance between wiki/video/talk (5)
  • youtube video requirement (3)
  • presentation length (3)
  • projected wall timer (2)
  • good food (2)
  • prize money (2)
  • single-day event (1)
  • after party (1)
  • Autodesk seminar (1)
  • frequent facebook updates (1)
  • light emphasis on ‘execution’ (1)
  • limited focus to biomolecular design (1)
  • open-ended project (1)
  • useful quickguide (1)

Question 2: What are your recommendations for improving BIOMOD?

Social:

  • more time for socializing/networking (5)
  • official party / sponsored event (2)
  • assigned seating at lunch to intersperse teams (1)

Deadlines:

  • earlier wiki freeze (3)
  • longer presentations (2)
  • summer date (2)
  • different date from igem (1)

Scoring:

  • assign less weight to presentation (3)
  • presentations should be scored differently (1)
  • completely revise scoring system (1)
  • teams should get more direct feedback from judges (1)

Score reporting:

  • publish all judging scores (1)
  • publish scores for top 5–10 teams (1)
  • publish scores directly to teams so they can improve (1)

Rules:

  • more detailed guidelines for wiki/video/presentation content (2)
  • more deadlines/checkpoints through the summer (1)
  • require project topic approval (1)
  • have students send identification to verify they are undergraduates (1)
  • limit team size (1)

Jamboree format:

  • add poster session (2)
  • add more tutorials / workshops / lectures by professors (1)
  • top finalists should give encore presentations (1)
  • longer jamboree (1)
  • transportation between hotel and event (1)

Awards:

  • add prize category for scientific impact/relevance (1)
  • add prize category for computational work (1)
  • encourage non-DNA-origami projects via prize categories (1)
  • more award categories (1)
  • popular vote prize (1)

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